Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

by Vikram Sampath

On 14 August 1941, the United States of America and Britain jointly issued the ‘Atlantic Charter’ as a statement of their war policy. Among other things, Article 3 of this charter declared that ‘they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of Government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them’.87 The statement was obviously welcomed with cheer by Indians across the political spectrum. However, the joy was short-lived as British prime minister Winston Churchill punctured the balloon in his speech in the House of Commons on 9 September 1941. He declared that the Atlantic Charter had no application to India and referred only to European nations under Nazi rule. It did not relate to ‘the development of constitutional government in India, Burma or other parts of the Empire’.88 The ‘progressive evolution of self-governing institutions in the regions and peoples who owe allegiance to the British Crown’89 was to be distinguished from the emancipation of Europe from Nazism, he asserted. Even the advice of the US ambassador to Britain, Guy Winant, to whom he sent an advanced copy of his speech, could not influence Churchill. Winant believed that the denial of the Charter clauses to India ‘would simply intensify charges of Imperialism and leave Great Britain in the position of a “do-nothing policy”’.90 But Churchill was adamant and refused to modify the passage. If the ...