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<ul><li>Netaji <keyword id="100207" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Subhas-Chandra-Bose">Subhas Chandra Bose</keyword> was born 123 years before on this same day. </li><li>He is India’s most famous as well as controversial freedom fighter who founded Azad Hind Fauz. </li><li>He continues to intrigue curious minds after his mysterious disappearance on a cold winter morning. </li></ul>Netaji Subhas Chandra <keyword id="6371315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bose">Bose</keyword> is the creator of the slogan, Jai Hind which has become a popular Indian chant today. And, he was born 123 years before on January 23. He is India’s most famous as well as controversial freedom fighter who founded Azad Hind Fauz. He continues to intrigue curious minds after his mysterious disappearance on a cold winter morning. Kabir Khan’s The Unforgettable Army Azaadi Ke Liye on Amazon Prime Video which will be released on January 24, will pay homage to his heroics. The story will revolve around the formation of Bose’s National Army after British failed to defeat Singapore in World War II. Here’s a look back at his life: Bose had always been a fighter — he quit a lucrative job to liberate India 
 
 
 
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 Bose was born in Cuttack, Odisha on January 23, 1897. He was a brilliant student who went to England to study — where he was also preparing for Indian Civil Services. He got selected in the ICS in 1920, but chose not to work for an alien government. He came back to India at the time when the country was fighting for freedom against the British government. He met Deshbandu Chitranjan Das, the editor of newspaper ‘Forward’, and Bose became the editor later. For Bose, the meaning and purpose of life was very simple: to seek freedom from bondage of every kind. From journalist to congress president 
	
 
 
 
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 Credits: IANS After becoming the editor of Forward, apart from writing against the Raj, he organised a boycott in Calcutta during Prince of Wales’ visit. This landed him in prison. A year later, he criticised Mahatma Gandhi for cancelling the non-co-operation movement after the Chauri Chaura incident. During the incident, Indians set fire to a police station killing many Indians and Britishers alike. Bose kept moving from jail to jail between 1924 and 1938. In 1930, Bose became the mayor of Calcutta even as he was jailed. He was released after he got sick and needed to travel abroad for treatment. That is when he took his call for freedom to other shores. The most controversial political leader of his time 
 
 
 
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 In January 1938, he became the president of the Indian National Congress. And at Tripuri session 1939, he defeated Gandhi’s candidate, Patabi Sitharam Iyer, to win a second term. However, he distanced himself from Congress after the party’s ideology didn’t match his own. He formed the Forward Bloc to carry on his struggle. He started looking for allies outside India — and for that he escaped his house arrest in Calcutta and fled to Europe again. He met a Nazi leader who is known to have promised him assistance to weaken the British in India. Bose believed India could attain freedom if they fought against Britain during World War II. Following his idea, he freed several Indian freedom fighters in Europe to form a Mukti Sena. The Azad Hind Fauj and Bose 
 
 
 
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 The Azad Hind Fauz was formed in 1941 in Berlin and comprised of Indian prisoners of war from Europe and North Africa. In December, Japan marked the beginning of World War II in Asia after it attacked Pearl Harbour. The fall of Singapore during that time shook the foundation of British Raj across the world. Meanwhile, the Indian freedom struggle was at its final round after Gandhi called for the Quit India Movement in 1942. In 1943, Bose became the commanding officer for Azad Hind Fauz — the army which attacked Britishers a year later. His army was able to free several Indian areas including Parel and Tihim from the British. In September 1944, his famous dialogue “Tum mujhe khoon do mein tumhe azadi dunga” (Give me your blood, I’ll give you your freedom) triggered a new wave of patriotism. He established a provisional government of Azad Hind in 1944 with a slogan ‘Chalo Delhi’. Mysterious death and controversy behind it 
 
 
 
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 Amidst all this melee, just a few years before India became independent, Bose vanished. Japanese Domei news agency said Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died on August 18 in a plane crash at the Japanese-controlled Matsuyama military airport in Taihoku (now Taiwan). The incident left many Indians in a state of shock and disbelief. Even after 75 years, the controversy surrounding the death of Bose refuses to die down. A few believe that he did not die during the accident. Other theories say that he spent his last days in Uttar Pradesh while some say he lived abroad. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/delhi-chief-minister-arvind-kejriwal-achievements-ahead-of-delhi-elections-2020/articleshow/73145839.cms">Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal⁠— the man with a knack for Carpe Diem</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/savitribai-phule-19th-century-indian-feminist-didnt-just-educate-women-she-helped-rape-victims-and-pregnant-women/articleshow/73071238.cms">This 19th century Indian feminist didn't just educate women— she helped rape victims and pregnant women</a>

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and the mystery of his death lives even after 75 years

<ul><li>Polls open in states of Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh where the <keyword id="602141" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Armed-Forces-Special-Power-Act">Armed Forces Special Power Act</keyword> (<keyword id="60149" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="AFSPA">AFSPA</keyword>) is still enforced. </li><li>The controversial colonial law allows the governed to deploy armed forces in places that they believe are ‘disturbed areas’.</li><li>Congress has promised to amend AFSPA to address international concerns. </li></ul> The colonial law of Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) is still enforced in four states that will be voting today — Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. The controversial law has often been called into question for its human rights violations. But, the Indian National Congress has promised to amend the law should they come into power. <div type="ExtQuote" text="Amend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 in order to strike a balance between the powers of security forces and the human rights of citizens and to remove immunity for enforced disappearance, sexual violence and torture." auname="Excerpt from Congress Manifesto"></div>

 Earlier this week, AFSPA was withdrawn <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/afspa-withdrawn-partially-from-arunachal-pradesh/articleshow/68687005.cms">partially</a> in the state of Arunachal Pradesh after being in force for 32 years but its still enforced in three districts — Changland, Tirap and Longing. Even Meghalaya was a AFSPA state as recently as last year until it was withdrawn <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/what-is-afspa-and-where-is-it-in-force/article23648102.ece">completely</a>. While <a href="https://swarajyamag.com/politics/why-it-is-necessary-for-afspa-to-continue">supporters</a> of the act cite that AFSPA is just an ‘extraordinary measure’ in the face of ‘extraordinary situations’, critics believe that the act is being <a href="https://amnesty.org.in/news-update/indian-government-must-repeal-afspa/">misused</a> to conduct fake encounters and the sexual exploitation of women. What is AFSPA? AFSPA — enacted by the parliament in 1958 — <a href="http://nagapol.gov.in/PDF/The%20Armed%20Forces%20Special%20Powers%20Act%201958.pdf">gives</a> the central or state government the right to call in the armed forces to help the local authorities in places classified as ‘disturbed areas’. The legal immunity of the act allows security forces to arrest people, search private property, and ban the possession of firearms without warrant is as long as they at least have ‘reasonable suspicion’ that a person is about to commit a cognizable offence. For maintaining public order, AFSPA also allows armed forces to prohibit a gathering of five or more people in an area — even by force. The act itself is from the colonial days and was enacted as a reaction to the Quit India Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942. The arrest of Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, VB Patel and other activists left the movement leaderless and incidents of violence erupted in different parts of the other. Viceroy Linlithgow used the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Ordinance, 1942 to control the riots. In 1947, the one ordinance was split into 4 smaller ordinances to handle violence resulting from the partition efforts — but it was also repealed within the same year. AFSPA was only brought back in 1958 for Assam and Manipur before gradually encompassing the other seven sister states of the north east as well as Jammu and Kashmir. Issues with AFSPA The argument for enacting AFSPA in India was that it is a more efficient way to handle insurgencies. The powers allotted to armed forces allows them to protect the boundaries of the country. And removing strict law from the picture allows the armed forces to carry out orders unhindered, not to mention to morale boost in bringing the rule of law to ‘disturbed areas’. But AFSPA is <a href="https://www.orfonline.org/research/43363-the-road-to-peace-in-kashmir-public-perception-of-the-contentious-afspa-and-psa/">reportedly</a> exploited by people in the armed forces as well. In the name of national security, incidents of fake encounters, sexual exploitation of women and other human rights violations have been brought to light. ‘ Activists like Irom Sharmila who went on a hunger strike for nine years to protest against AFSPA strongly believe that AFSPA overrides dozens of civil rights including the right to freedom of expression and the right to free association. That being said, if a wrong is committed by anyone in the army under AFSPA, they can be prosecuted in a court of law — but the central government needs to sanction an approval. Amnesty International’s <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/PK/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf">report</a> calling for the end of AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir cited 58 case studies where the act was allegedly used in excess by the armed forces. <div type="ExtQuote" text="In responding to demonstrations that started in July 2016, Indian security forces used excessive force that led to unlawful killings and a very high number of injuries. Civil society estimates are that 130 to 145 civilians were killed by security forces between mid-July 2016 and end of March 2018, and 16 to 20 civilians were killed by armed groups in the same period." auname="Amnesty International on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 in Jammu and Kashmir"></div>

 Many even <a href="https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/would-delhi-dither-on-afspa-if-it-had-been-in-force-in-up-bihar-afspa-in-manipur-thangjam-manorama-irom-sharmila">compare</a> the AFSPA to the Rowlatt Act where the British could imprison any citizen on the basis of suspected terrorist activity against British India for up to two years without there necessarily being a trial. <div type="ExtQuote" text="The repeal of this law will not only bring domestic law more in line with international standards, but also send out a powerful message that instead of a military approach the government is committed to respect for the right to life of all people of the country." auname="Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions"></div>

 The Indian Army, the organisation actually being accused of these acts, has barely come out in the open to express its stance on AFSPA. Essentially, the act is a last resort. The army is only called in once the situation is beyond the capabilities of the civil administration, the police and the central armed police forces. Congress’ promise Congress, in its election manifesto, has said that they will bring amendments to AFSPA should they win the general election. They faced heavy backlash from the opposition <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/politics/revoking-afspa-in-jammu-and-kashmir-is-like-sending-our-soldiers-to-gallows-says-pm-modi-2094245.html">saying</a> that this is an ‘anti-national’ approach and that Congress is compromising on India’s national security. 
 <div type="ExtQuote" text="The government must have the power to protect its armed forces. Only then will they have the morale to fight. Revoking AFSPA would be like sending our soldiers to the gallows. I won’t let this happen." auname="Member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the current Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi"></div>

 Even Arun Jaitley, the current minister of finance and corporate affairs who aligns with the BJP, and Palaniappan Chidambaram, former union minister of finance and member of Congress, exchanged some harsh words on Twitter. <a href="https://twitter.com/PChidambaram_IN/status/1113747990714314752"> <div type="twitter" handle="arunjaitley" handlename="Chowkidar Arun Jaitley" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000828197225/f1d53aeab8f0534c7d73b0fbd5651130_normal.png" favoritecount="10332" retweetcount="4132" status="2019 Congress Manifesto is a Charter to Weaken India. After reading Congress Manifesto my worst fears have come tru… https://t.co/3yTGps3MVa" createdat="1554203974000" id="1113038257279918082"></div>

</a> <div type="twitter" handle="PChidambaram_IN" handlename="P. Chidambaram" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/603422412785328128/9Y6OuwJM_normal.jpg" favoritecount="4221" retweetcount="1432" status="Why has Mr @arunjaitley not answered the questions on withdrawal of AFSPA from Tripura (2015), Meghalaya (2018) and… https://t.co/5K4rV1ViIK" createdat="1554373188000" id="1113747990714314752"></div>

 That being said, multiple observations made different committees, like the Justice Santosh Hegde Committee and the J.S. Verma Committee, have found the AFSPA to be arbitrary and have recommended that it should be repealed. The former even explained that rather than create peace in the north east, AFSPA has widened the divide between the people living in the peripheries of India and the mainland.

A brutal military law is among the core election issues in at least 5 Indian states voting today

World’s second largest producer of cotton and silk is also the second largest textile manufacturer. India, the story that is waiting to be told on the world forum will soon turn into the biggest success India has even seen after IT, provided the ‘<keyword id="6354869" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="make-in-India">Make in India</keyword>’ campaign gives it the much needed fillip. 
 
In fact, textile is what connects the modern society to anthropology. Archeologists have found evidences to support the fact that weaving existed during the time of Harappan civilisation. Humankind back then, was adept with weaving, and spinning. Supportive literature has been found in Vedic manuscripts as well. 
 Textile <keyword id="44844" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Trade">trade</keyword> was something ancient India always engaged in, with other countries such as Egypt. The tombs of dead possessed block printed cotton with resist-dyed fabrics that were traced back to Gujarat! At this juncture, two civilisations had engaged in trade with each other since time immemorial. 
 
After the British colonialised India and took over the reins of administration from smaller princely states, the cry for freedom started resonating from all corners of the country. Quit India movement started, which was a crucial step towards ensuring freedom for the country. Gandhiji’s ‘Swadeshi’ movement had a very significant role etched out for textile. 
 From being a mere fabric, <keyword id="10459" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Khadi">Khadi</keyword> turned into the symbol of freedom through this period. Gandhi took the humble charkha and made it a symbol of resistance to British rule in India. 
 
Cut to modern times and consider these facts. This industry is truly an equal opportunity employer. Traditionally, after agriculture, this is the only other sector that has generated huge employment opportunities for people irrespective of the literacy levels since it uses both skilled and unskilled human resources. Over 35 million people are employed in this sector either directly or otherwise. 
 <keyword id="110104" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Textile-industry">Textile industry</keyword>, which thrives on both handloom sector and powerlooms, has been riding way too many horses and has tasted success with each off shoot of its own industry. Whether it is woolen looms, jute or silk, textile industry has home grown experts who have provided the much needed orientation with excellent support system. 
 
In the recent times, the availability of raw material at reasonable costs and availability of labour, along with giant strides in technology involving the progress of textile industry, it has turned into a sector that holds lots of promises. 
 
Major textile companies in the recent times, posted a good growth with increase in net profit and a significant drop in net loss, signaling good times ahead for the sector. 
 
What has helped the textile industry, however, is the fact that neighbouring countries like China and Bangladesh who are significant players in the same sector facing structural challenges to the extent that it has affected their export capabilities. 
 
India’s increasing efficiency in the sector along with 100% FDI allowed in the industry, is helping Indian textile firms consolidate their export positions. With US economy being slightly on the revival mode and India’s aggressive campaigning with Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Make In India’ tagline, textile sector is out to see much better days ahead than in the recent past. 
 
A free trade agreement with Eurpoean Union can seriously turn things around for India that is looking at enhancing its textile potential within and outside the country. 
 
India being the third largest exporter is looking at all possible ways of taking over the space left vacant by China. Tapping new markets, while working in its own space to meet the challenges seem to be the two roads ahead of Indian textile sector which is awaiting government’s booster dose to get its yarns into the looms. 
 
Mega textile shows have been held in new markets such as Japan, Middle East and more are planned to enter spaces in Latin America and Eastern European Countries which are among large economies that can strengthen India’s ‘Make In India’ campaign. 
 
The concept of smart cities that can house multiple expertise, along with organising of skilled and unskilled labour, fair practices and a consolidated legal framework to protect the interest of both workers and employers can surely place textile industry on a growth trajectory like never seen before. 
 
India can then make it for both the world, and for self.

Textile Industry Holds Potential To Lead ‘Make In India’ Campaign

In 1906, in a lodging house for Indian students in Highgate, a pleasant area of north London, a young lawyer called Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi dropped in on a law student called Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who happened to be frying prawns at the time. Savarkar offered Gandhi some of his meal; Gandhi, a vegetarian, refused. Savarkar allegedly retorted that only a fool would attempt to resist the British without being fortified by animal protein.
The meeting is said to have begun hostilities between the two young Indian nationalists; whether or not the story is apocryphal, there were real reasons for antipathy.
The two men had very different approaches to the struggle against Britain. Gandhi, who became leader of the Indian National Congress (INC), was a pacifist with an inclusive attitude towards Muslims and Christians. Savarkar, who would lead the Hindu Mahasabha, was a right-wing majoritarian who spawned the idea of hindutva, or Hindu-ness--the belief that the Hindu identity is inseparable from the Indian identity. Congress eclipsed the Mahasabha and, since history belongs to the victors, the story of India's independence movement became one of non-violence. But the strand of thought that Savarkar represented was more important than is generally recognised, and is enjoying a revival.
A member of the Mahasabha broke away to form the paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or national volunteer organisation, in 1925, modelled, some say, on the British army. A social rather than explicitly political organisation, it presented itself as the world's largest non-governmental group, in which like-minded, khaki-uniformed men could gather for dawn calisthenics. It recruited boys at an impressionable age, as the Jesuits did, the better to inculcate them with discipline and with passion for the cause. One such was the eight-year-old Narendra Modi. The future prime minister attended training sessions with the RSS, was subsequently inducted as a cadet, and in 1985 was assigned by the RSS to its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which he rose to lead.
Mr Modi is India's strongest leader since Indira Gandhi, and its most controversial. The source of controversy is his failure in 2002, when chief minister of Gujarat, to avert a massacre of Muslims, which opponents attribute to a hostility to Muslims born of the ideology that Savarkar spawned. Mr Modi has never apologised for the massacre, though he said last year that he felt regret over them, as he would at seeing a puppy run over in the street. Nor has he made any attempt to distance himself from the RSS.
The RSS, meanwhile, is becoming more overtly political. Mohan Bhagwat, its current leader, is somewhat in the mould of Savarkar, paraphrasing his beliefs and promoting Hindutva. In August this year Mr Bhagwat directly echoed Savarkar by saying all who live in "Hindustan" are in fact Hindus, whatever Muslims, Christians or secular Hindus might say. More striking, the RSS leader has switched the organisation's methods. Now, far from eschewing party politics, the group has become an enthusiastic and effective actor within it. The RSS's millions of members and volunteers (no one knows just how many active ones there really are) played a big role in electing the BJP by a landslide in 2014. At least 19 ministers in government, including Mr Modi, have a background in the RSS. Its leaders are seconded to senior posts in the party too. So the ideas of the man who inspired the RSS matter more than ever before.
<h3>The naked jumper</h3>
The lawyer described by a British official in 1906 as "a small man with an intelligent face and a nervous manner" does not sound like the muscular hero that Indian nationalists crave, but Savarkar clearly had a certain dash. In 1910, while he was in London, he was charged with conspiring to wage war against the king and with providing weapons used to assassinate a Briton in the Indian civil service, sentenced to two life terms--50 years--in jail and sent back to India. While the steamship "Morea" was berthed in Marseille harbour, he slipped away from his guards, leapt, almost naked, into the sea and swam ashore. Unfortunately for the eulogists, he was promptly caught by French police and bundled back to the ship.
His daring did, however, win him fame, and also created legal history. France's government, annoyed that Britain had overseen an arrest on its territory, wanted Savarkar returned. Britain refused so the matter went to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. It ruled his arrest was indeed "irregular", but decided Savarkar might as well stay in India. The case was one of the earliest heard by the tribunal.
Savarkar's next stop was the Andaman Islands--a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal. This palm-fringed tropical paradise served as a penal colony for the British. Cellular Jail in the capital, Port Blair, is now a memorial for freedom campaigners. In a park opposite stands a row of statues of independence heroes. One is of a slender man with a pinched face behind round spectacles. A pen protrudes from his jacket pocket, one hand rests on a part-furled umbrella and the other wags a finger at the sky. You might mistake him for a prissy bank manager, but a plaque identifies him as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The park is named after him.
Ranjit Savarkar, his great-nephew, who runs the Savarkar trust, says that he showed great fortitude in jail. A trained yogi, he overcame thoughts of suicide. Other inmates nicknamed him "Barrister Babu", for his London legal training. Already a published historian and poet, he used Cellular Jail to work on his writing--literally: he wrote on its walls. He spent a decade there before being moved to the mainland in 1921. He was subsequently freed, after pledging to keep out of politics--a promise which the ideology he was developing in jail suggests he did not intend to keep.
A fierce nationalist, he adored Guiseppe Mazzini, who fought for the unification of Italy, writing about him in the hope of inspiring resistance to the British in India. Savarkar believed that India is really composed of, and must only be run by, Hindus. In his 1924 book, "Hindutva", he drew on cultural, philosophical and religious practices of ancient Hinduism, a rich faith that allows immense variety in how it is followed. But he also distinguished the ideology of hindutva--an attempt to unite disparate Hindus in a political project--from the religion. He himself was an atheist, and disapproved of aspects of traditional Hindu belief, dismissing cow worship as superstitious--a stance that would upset many today. He was an early outspoken opponent of caste discrimination. In the 1920s and 1930s others among the emerging Indian political elite opposed "untouchability", the rejection as sub-human of those considered "below caste". But Savarkar went further, saying modern India should drop altogether the idea of dividing people by caste.
His attitude towards Muslims, who made up a quarter of the population before partition, and other non-Hindus was less liberal. He regarded them as alien and separate, in effect not as real Indians. He was fiercely opposed to the formation of Pakistan and what his great-nephew calls the "appeasement" of Muslims. He believed that they, along with the Europeans, had crushed Hindus for a millennium--a sentiment echoed by Mr Modi in an address to parliament after his election this year, when he spoke of ending "1,200 years of slave mentality" in India.
Aside from his view of Muslims, the big difference between Savarkar and the nationalists in the INC lay in their contrasting attitudes to violence. He also wrote one of the first Indian accounts of the uprising in 1857, centred in Delhi. Known as the "Mutiny" to the British, it is referred to by many Indians as the "first war of independence"--echoing the title of Savarkar's book, "The Indian War of Independence". It was a gruesome episode, in which hundreds of thousands were killed, but Savarkar was untroubled by the violence, and seemed to justify the murders of British women and children. His works are steeped in a desire for revenge against those who have humiliated Hindus, and his frustration with the passivity of his co-religionists: "I want all Hindus to get themselves re-animated and re-born into a martial race." In his early years, he circulated manuals on bomb making. He approved of--and probably assisted in--the assassination of colonial administrators. He was suspected, for example, of encouraging a student radical who shot dead Sir Curzon Wyllie, a government official, one summer night on a Kensington street in 1909.
<h3>Rewriting history</h3>

Today, some Indians adulate him. On the day your correspondent called in at Cellular Jail, a party of jovial men in their 80s and 90s, an official "Eminent Committee of Freedom Fighters", was also visiting. Among the last surviving veterans who battled the British in the Quit India movement in the 1940s, they raised gnarled fists to chant "Jai Hind", posed for pictures and praised Savarkar as strong. The local MP called veer (brave) Savarkar a "ferocious, dangerous man who frightened off the British". Rashida Iqbal, the jail's curator, assessed him as "one of the most important freedom fighters". Port Blair's airport, like the park, bears his name. Some 2,000km away, in his native Maharashtra, a street and a park in Mumbai also each carry his name. (In London a blue plaque identifies his former home in Highgate.)
Savarkar's enthusiasm for violence sits uncomfortably with conventional ideas of how India got its independence. India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and then the Congress party (successor to the INC) promoted a pacifist narrative of history, the idea that Gandhi and the likes of B.R. Ambedkar, a social reformer who inspired the Modern Buddhist Movement, triumphed through non-violent resistance. That meant downplaying the bloodshed of 1857, in which atrocities were perpetrated by both sides, and also the roles of Savarkar, Subhas Chandra Bose and Vallabhbhai Patel.
Bose, the Bengali leader of an Indian National Army against the British in the second world war and an ally of Hitler and imperial Japan, led some 40,000 soldiers against the British. (He didn't get far, though the Japanese briefly handed him control of the Andamans.) Patel, the "Iron Man of India", had the Bismarckian task of uniting the country. He oversaw the integration of 562 princely states into India, threatening and using military force. Operation Polo in 1948, a five-day conquest of Hyderabad, a wealthy and Muslim-run state in the south, was bloody indeed. Official estimates, only made public in 2013, suggest the fighting and subsequent Hindu-Muslim clashes there killed between 27,000 and 40,000 people. Some historians claim the real toll might have been five times higher.
The way the story of Indian independence is told is beginning to change. Mr Modi and the BJP are keen to celebrate muscular, nationalist figures. Patel is likely to have a much higher profile in future: in the national budget, in July 2014, the government set aside $32m to erect a statue of him in Gujarat, twice the size of the Statue of Liberty, by 2018. And while Mr Modi frequently invokes Gandhi's name and beliefs, he refers almost as often to Swami Vivekananda, a 19th-century nationalist who revived Hinduism and promoted it abroad. Mr Modi is said to be named after him (the swami was originally called Narendra Nath Datta) and frequently poses before his photograph. Vivekananda's ideas on invigorating Hinduism foreshadowed Savarkar's hindutva project.
Savarkar's profile is lower, but is also rising. Educational comics, hagiographies and patriotic films retell parts of his life story. In 2008 Mr Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, inaugurated a website (savarkar.org) that promotes a man "largely unknown to the masses because of the vicious propaganda against him and misunderstanding around him that has been created over several decades", and in 2012 he launched a Gujarati-language biopic. A previous BJP-led government put Savarkar's portrait in parliament. On his birthday this year, May 28th, the prime minister paid homage to him there. Mr Modi tweeted about Savarkar's "tireless efforts towards the regeneration of our motherland". Ranjit Savarkar's group plans various events to mark the 50th anniversary of Savarkar's death in 1966. (Aged 83, he submitted to what he called atmaarpan--refusing food, water or medicine in order to die. It took 20 days.)
Yet Savarkar remains immensely divisive. He was a fiercely outspoken critic of Gandhi, still India's top national hero: he called Gandhi weak, a "sissy" and far too willing to collaborate with Britain. Gandhian talk of man's common humanity he regarded as utopian to the point of naivety. In articles from the 1920s to the 1940s Savarkar lambasted Gandhi as a "crazy lunatic" who "happens to babble...[about] compassion, forgiveness", yet "notwithstanding his sublime and broad heart, the Mahatma has a very narrow and immature head." Gandhi promoted ahimsa, a Buddhist rejection of violence which Savarkar called "mealy-mouthed". He said Gandhi was a hypocrite for supporting violence by the British against Germany in the first world war. Nor did he cheer Gandhi's prominent backing for the Ottoman Caliphate Movement, designed to win Indian Muslims to oppose British colonial rule.
Over the years, Savarkar was eclipsed by his rival. During the 1920s and 1930s, the INC benefited from its ability to claim plausibly that it spoke for Muslims as well as Hindus, which made it a more credible interlocutor with the colonial authorities. Perhaps more important, it had an impressive organisation and, in Gandhi and later in Nehru, accomplished political leaders.
By the mid 1940s Savarkar and his supporters in the Mahasabha (which he led until his death) had a new gripe against Gandhi. They were enraged at the prospect of Pakistan seceding from India. Gandhi, in their eyes, did nothing to stop that "vivisection". Worse, he seemed to favour Pakistan when it sent forces to violently seize Kashmir, evidence to Savarkar that warlike Muslims were again crushing passive Hindus. When Nehru applied economic sanctions on Pakistan (refusing to pass on its share of central-bank funds from before independence), Gandhi launched a fast in protest and forced him to back down. To Savarkar's followers in the Mahasabha, that constituted national betrayal.
On January 30th 1948 Gandhi was assassinated in Delhi. The killer, Nathuram Godse, was a member of the Mahasabha, edited its newspaper and was an associate of Savarkar's. Godse's explanation of his actions echoed Savarkar: he said he murdered Gandhi for his "false notions of Hindu-Muslim unity" and in fury over the secession of Pakistan. Savarkar was arrested and tried as a plotter in the murder. He denied all and was acquitted. That did not convince everybody. As the leader of the Mahasabha, who had praised the efficacy of violence and railed against Muslims, it was reasonable to suspect he had at least inspired Gandhi's killer. A.G. Noorani, author of a book on Savarkar and Godse, goes further. He draws a parallel to the Kensington murder of Wylie in 1909, saying the elder man had twice pressed others to pull the trigger. "I would definitely call him complicit in the assassination of Gandhi," he concludes. He points, too, to an official commission of inquiry into Gandhi's death, in the late 1960s, which drew on testimony unavailable at the original trial. It found the evidence was "destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group". Following Gandhi's murder the RSS was also banned, for a year. Yet the final reason why Savarkar should remain unacceptable in modern India goes beyond suspicion over Gandhi's murder. It lies in his attitude to his fellow, non-Hindu, Indians. In his own writing he relates joyfully how as a 12-year-old boy he led a gang of schoolmates to stone his village mosque and smash its windows and tiles, in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim riots. Relating how "we vandalised the mosque to our heart's content", he adds that when confronted by Muslim boys, he and his pals wielded knives and sticks and chased them away.
Throughout his writing he sets out Muslims as savage, immoral, sensual and eager to destroy the Hindu way of life. In 1937 he wrote of there being "two antagonistic nations living side by side in India", an idea that relies on using religion as the defining characteristic of any Indian, one utterly against the secular constitution of India. And while he occasionally wrote admiringly of the political and religious fervour of Islam, or rather of Muslim political leaders, he did so to encourage his fellow Hindus to match or exceed it.
In India today the fear of communal clashes--between Hindus and Muslims--should not be overblown. But it is never far away. Especially before elections, parties exploit religious tensions. Those who promote hindutva and echo Savarkar whip up stories of "love jihad", alleging that Muslim men convert large numbers of Hindu women by seducing them. Earlier this month a BJP parliamentarian praised Godse as a "patriot" equal to Gandhi. Members of the increasingly influential RSS feel emboldened. Such majoritarian politics, when a larger religious group sets out to absorb or flatten a minority, is utterly destructive. One need only look at the failure of Pakistan as a reminder of that. Sarvarkar could be a brilliant, eloquent and progressive leader. He could also be extremist, violent and divisive. If his influence grows, India's tolerance and moderation will be at risk.
"Notwithstanding his...broad heart, the Mahatma has a very narrow and immature head," wrote Savarkar
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Savarkar (back row, second left) was arrested and tried as a plotter in Gandhi's murder. He was acquitted
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