Kaustubh Dudhane’s Reviews > Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924 > Status Update

The symbol of Hindutva is not the cow but the man-lion or Narsimha. The qualities of God permeate into his worshipper. Considering the cow to be divine and worshipping her has rendered the entire Hindu nation docile like the cow. It started eating grass. If we are to now indeed establish our nation on the basis of an animal, let that animal be the lion.

Vinayak's argument was that while one could love their mother tongue and keep its antiquity intact, there was a need for a cultural integrator given India's diversity. Such an integrator would bind all Indians together in a common thread of national identity and unity.

However, Indians were not employed in conflicts involving 'white enemies', such as the Boer Wars, largely due to a racial strategy. It was rather unthinkable that the 'black Indian' should be seen hacking a 'white European' of any nationality, as that would embolden him to do similar things with his colonial masters back home. The horrors of 1857 had simply not left the British Indian government it seemed.

Wearing just a vest, a rough rug over it and a small headscarf, with a small pot and iron platter in one hand, a blanket and mattress tucked under his armpit, Vinayak was a symbol of dignity and grace.

At the moment of its demise in England, because of its association with illiberalism, sedition was reborn in India with colonial occupation as the midwife.

While Gandhi mentions that his 'personal sympathies were all with the Boers', his 'loyalty to the British rule' drove him 'to participation with the British in that war.' 🤬

Allan Octavian Hume (1829-1912) was one such British administrator and policy influencer. As the collector of Etawah, he had seen the horrors of 1857 first-hand. The nightmare of having to paint his skin black and wear a sari and burqa to escape the bloodthirsty revolutionaries looking for British officers in 1857 had a lasting impression on him.