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<ul><li>On the occasion of <keyword id="6481694" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gandhi-jayanti" source="Orion">Gandhi Jayanti</keyword>, Indian brands try to reflect on Gandhiji’s values of self-discipline, perseverance and self-sufficiency and pay a tribute to the father of our nation.</li><li>This year, Edtech giant <keyword id="2900267" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="byju" source="Orion">BYJU</keyword>’s campaign applauds four individuals who have personified Gandhi’s ideals and brought about a change in society.</li><li>Recently appointed <keyword id="309498" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="vineet-singh" source="Orion">Vineet Singh</keyword>, Vice President, Brand &amp; Creative StrategyThink &amp; Learn Pvt. Ltd. (BYJU'S) takes us behind the scenes and walks us through the conceptualisation and execution process of the campaign.</li></ul>It is no secret that COVID-19 has had a severe impact on our collective mental health. We are feeling alone, overwhelmed with the spike in cases, and have been living with the constant fear that someone close to us or someone we know might succumb to the virus, for the past 1.5 years. With each passing day, it gets a little difficult to hold onto hope for a better tomorrow. If the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi were alive today, when we are faced with multi-layered crises such as global pandemic, climate crisis, economic recession, to name a few, he would have encouraged Indian citizens to manifest values of self-discipline, perseverance, and self-sufficiency. He would have walked with our urban migrants back to their homes, reminded us to stay united from a distance, used his mighty pen to send the message of resilience, thank doctors and environmental activists for their phenomenal work and lead the country towards the path of empathy and togetherness. On the occasion of <keyword id="791333" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mahatma-Gandhi-Jayanti" source="Orion">Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti</keyword>, EdTech Giant BYJU’s wanted to remind us that while the leader might not be with us today, he has taught us some invaluable lessons. Acted and voiced-over by the veteran actor Padma Shri Manoj Kumar, BYJU’S film applauds four individuals from different walks of life who have personified Gandhi’s ideals and brought about a change in society. The campaign celebrates Jamuna Tuddu, a Padma Shri awardee who has over the years fought the jungle mafia and given a lease of life to 100+ acre of forests; Sapan Patralekh, headmaster of a school in Jharkhand, who ensured that the learning journey for tribal kids did not suffer due to the closure of class rooms post the pandemic. He transformed village walls into colorful open classrooms; Dr Ganesh Rakh, who delivers girl child for free in his hospital; Kameshwar Wagmare, a 14-year-old kid who saved 2 of 3 kids from drowning. He received the Pradhan Mantri, Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2021 for the courageous act. <div type="Youtube" id="gTAd5kwP8ok" title="Bapu Ki Aawaz (Celebrating The Mahatma) | (Ft. Padma Shri Manoj Kumar)" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gTAd5kwP8ok/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Vineet Singh, Vice President, Brand &amp; Creative StrategyThink &amp; Learn Pvt. Ltd. (BYJU'S) took us behind the scenes and walked us through the conceptualisation and execution process of the campaign. He shared, “The thought came from the fact that we really wanted to celebrate Baapu and we wanted to celebrate him with real life stories and how, while the whole world is talking about how humanity is dead, and people are not selfless anymore, we wanted to actually go out and celebrate that Baapu's belief of selflessness is still alive.” In a country of 138 crore people that is home to a lot of different cultures and traditions, and almost all of these cultures believe in celebrating empathy and selflessness, it was challenging for BYJU’s to find just four people who truly embody Gandhiji’s values. Telling us how the in-house team finalised their campaign’s protagonists, Singh said, “We wanted to cover a few facets that currently are troubling us across the country. Look at how the environment is suffering -- it's a conversation that everyone's having across the globe. Padmashree Jamuna Tuddu was an example who exists in our society and has worked towards saving 100 plus acres of forest in her region, but her message travels across the country. Then, we wanted to honor people who are doing something for the girl child. As a country, we are developing and we are getting to a place where men and women are getting equal as the day progresses, but little efforts like what Dr. Ganesh Rakh has done, is making that dream come true. After the pandemic, all schools were shut down in cities, and imagine what happened in remote Tribal Areas. So, we wanted to cover how people went out of their way there to bring alive education and Dr. Sapan was a great story. And finally, just an act of selflessness and bravery -- a 14-year -old kid jumping into the water because he saw two other young boys drowning. So, the reason why we chose these 4 people was because their stories were extremely fascinating, had a huge amount of thought and selflessness associated with it.” Singh recently joined BYJU’s from <keyword id="4052133" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="wework-india" source="Orion">WeWork India</keyword>. In his new role, he is hoping to help BYJU’s become the most loved edtech brand in India. His latest campaign with his team is just a part of many campaigns that would aim to position BYJU’s India’s most loved brand. Sharing his larger vision for the brand, he said, “The objective is to become one of the most loved brands in the country. And that's going to be the objective for this fiscal year, or the next fiscal year or any other fiscal year that we talk about until we get there.” CREDITS: Featured Stories: Dr. Sapan Kumar Patralekh, Dr. Ganesh Rakh, Padma Shri Jamuna Tudu and Kameshwar Waghmare Actor: Padma Shri Manoj Kumar Child Actor: Aashna Vaishnav &amp; Vidhaan Sharma Concept: Hitesh Bhagia (Sr. Director – Brand &amp; Creative Strategy, BYJU’S) Production: Hitesh Theodore Pereira (Principal Director - Media, BYJU’S) Directed By: Sonal Batra Production House: Dora Digs Produced By: Akshay Shah Team Dora Digs: Muskan Singhal, Vikas Malhotra, Suraj Shinde, Prathamesh Kamble, Vipul Mehta, Tushar Haware, Jitendra Kumar, Rohit Tiwari, Dinesh Malvi DOP: Jay Charola Editor: Falgun Busa Screenplay: Geet Sagar Music Director: Anand Bajpai Associate Producer: Sebastian Francis Line Producer: Dilip Sahoo &amp; Team Chief AD: Ayan Poddar &amp; Ardra Swaroop DI: Yash Soni

BYJU’s latest advertisement for Gandhi Jayanti aims to spread positivity and celebrate Indians who embody Gandhiji’s values

October 2nd marks the birthday of none other than <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Top10-Leadership-lessons-From-Mahatma-Gandhi/articleshow/49182612.cms">Mahatma Gandhi</a>, the leader who vision, courage and sacrifice helped India not only achieve freedom but also laid the foundation for whatever the country has been successful in achieving. 
 While, we cannot help but remember Bapu, as the <keyword id="545067" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Father-of-the-Nation">Father of the Nation</keyword> was fondly called on his birthday, his talents weren’t lost on others too. 
 
Infact, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/On-This-Day-In-1939-Einstein-Told-President-Roosevelt-To-Build-A-Nuke-Before-Hitler/articleshow/21560828.cms">Albert Einstein</a> was a great fan of Gandhi! He even wrote him a letter! 
 
 
 
Below is the transcription of the letter that Einstein wrote to Gandhi 
 
Respected Mr. Gandhi 
I use the presence of your friend in our home to send you these lines. You have shown through your works, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who have not discarded the method of violence. We may hope that your example will spread beyond the borders of your country, and will help to establish an international authority, respected by all, that will take decisions and replace war conflicts. 
With sincere admiration, 
Yours 
(Signed, ‘A. Einstein’) 
I hope that I will be able to meet you face to face some day. 
 And, this is what <keyword id="6355532" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mahatma-Gandhi">Mahatma Gandhi</keyword> sent in response: 
 
LONDON, 
October 18, 1931 
DEAR FRIEND, 
I was delighted to have your beautiful letter sent through Sundaram. It is a great consolation to me that the work I am doing finds favour in your sight. I do indeed wish that we could meet face to face and that too in India at my Ashram. 
Yours sincerely, 
 
The admiration doesn’t just end there. Below is a sound clip of Einstein speaking about the Father of the Nation, way back in 1950. 
 
 
 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes, Gandhi Foundation

Listen: Here's what Albert Einstein had to say about Mahatma Gandhi

Politics is India is not boring. It is packed with pompous statements, lots of action and really interesting characters. Recipe for a full-blown Bollywood flick (talk about cliches). But, this year, it is time to move beyond freudian slips, scandalous remarks and attempts to alter history by our politicians. In 2018, some our ministers and lawmakers took it upon themselves to directly challenge science—yes, believe us someone did. Here is a rundown of the six biggest political gaffes of 2018, number 6 is bound to leave you spellbound (sarcasm intended). 1. “Would you take a used sanitary napkin to a friend’s place?” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
 
 <div type="image" title="efaa30db5b7de12ca0eadfc8c0eaa76c" msid="67320975" hostid="261"></div> India’s textile minister, <keyword id="6612" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Smriti-Irani">Smriti Irani</keyword> while expressing her ‘personal’ opinion on Supreme Court’s judgment on allowing the entry of women of all ages into Kerala’s <keyword id="6384180" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="sabarimala">Sabarimala</keyword> temple that bars women of menstruating age to enter the premises, <a href="https://m.telegraphindia.com/india/would-you-take-a-blood-soaked-sanitary-napkin-to-a-friends-house-smriti-irani-on-sabarimala/cid/1672406">asked</a>, ‘Would you like to take a used sanitary napkin, steeped in menstrual blood, and walk into a friend’s home? You would not.’ She later took to twitter to clarify her comment by citing Zoroastrian traditions. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 2. ‘Mohanlal’ Karamchand Gandhi? Errr..not really 
 
	
	
	
	
	
	
 
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 In April 2018, Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> was <a href="http://www.atimes.com/article/modi-getting-reputation-gaffes-historical-errors/">trolled </a>for getting <keyword id="6355532" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="mahatma-gandhi">Mahatma Gandhi</keyword>’s name wrong - not for the first, but the third time. This time it happened while the prime minister was addressing a gathering in Bihar’s Champaran district. PM Modi made a similar slip while addressing a political rally in 2013. Mahatma Gandhi’s full name is — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, however PM Modi accidently addressed him as as “Mohanlal” Karamchand Gandhi. “Why run after politicians for job? Graduates should get cows and milk them”—said one Indian chief minister 
 
	
	
	
	
	
 
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 The controversial Chief Minister of Tripura, Biplab Kumar Deb has now been crowned as the king of gaffes in India. He seems to have been a serial offender and was even reprimanded by his party’s senior leadership for a series of brazen statements. In a bizzare comment, he suggested that graduates in India should not run after ministers and political parties to get a job rather they should get cows and milk it to earn one million in 10 years. ‘Many trips to bar. Oops, abroad’: Opposition leader <keyword id="5268" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rahul-Gandhi">Rahul Gandhi</keyword> 
 
	
	
	
 
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 The president of Indian National Congress Rahul Gandhi was in an embarrassing situation while addressing lawmakers in the Parliament. What he aimed was for a snarky remark against his arch-political rival Prime Minister Modi. However, ended up being the butt of several jokes. D<a href="https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-pradhan-mantri-ji-bar-mai-jate-hain-i-mean-abroad-rahul-gandhi-s-gaffe-leaves-pm-modi-laughing-2639481">uring his speec</a>h in the lower house of the Parliament in July 2018, he made a faux pas by saying “the Prime Minister took many trips to BAR. Reacting to some smirks and giggles - he immediately corrected himself and said “I mean abroad…” He mixed up the Hindi word ‘bahar’, which means outside, to the english word bar - where one generally goes to loosen up and have a good time. While Gandhi promptly clarified the whole situation made several politicians including the prime minister, who burst into laughter. A light Parliamentary moment, indeed! Biplab did it again! Revisiting historical facts about Rabindranath Tagore 
 
	
	
	
	
 
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 Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb— who we earlier dubbed as the ‘king of bloopers’ once said that nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore rejected the Nobel Prize as a mark of protest against the British Empire. In fact, Tagore never declined the award that he received in 1913 for his work ‘Gitanjali.’ He further added, Tagore was awarded with “Biswosrestho” (world’s best) award for Gitanjali. ‘Ducks raise oxygen level in water bodies’ - No prizes for guessing who said that! 
 
	
	
	
	
 
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 In another major gaffe, the Tripura chief minister claimed that ducks can raise oxygen levels when they swim in water bodies. Yes, yes this is a scientific fact, but it still became news because of the bizarre comment. He said, “When ducks swim in water, oxygen level automatically increases in the waterbody. It (oxygen) gets recycled. Fish in the water will get more oxygen. They also benefit from bird droppings. Thus, pisciculture will benefit and fishes will grow faster, that too in a completely organic way,” reported NDTV.

Oops, they did it again: Here are 2018’s most memorable gaffes made by Indian politicians

PM Narendra Modi released the <keyword id="123247" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="commemorative-coins">commemorative coins</keyword> of Rs 150 denomination to celebrate Mahatma Gandhiji’s 150th birthday. The event took place in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on October 2, 2019 when the Prime Minister reached the Sabarmati Riverfront to participate in the proceedings of the Swacch Bharat Divas program. The event at Ahmedabad Dropping in at the Sabarmati Ashram, the holy seat from where the father of the nation launched most of his freedom fight related activities, Narendra Modi wrote in the visitor’s book, "I'm satisfied that on the occasion of #GandhiAt150, we're witnessing the fulfillment of his dream of 'Swachh Bharat'. I feel lucky that on this occasion when India has successfully stopped open defecation." During the occasion, Narendra Modi addressed 10,000 sarpanchs. He declared India ‘open defecation free’. The event also saw announcements about the war against plastic and the success of the Swach Bharat Mission. 
 
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 What are commemorative coins? Commemorative coins are released to mark some special events. These coins sport a distinct design to talk about the occasion on which they are issued. Most of the commemorative coins are treated as collectibles and they are in fact a bountiful treasure for the coin collectors. Some countries issue commemorative coins for regular circulation too. Some other commemorative coins by the Modi government The release of the new commemorative coin falls in line with two other commemorative coins released under the BJP government. In January 2019, Modi released a commemorative coin of Rs 350 denomination marking the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, one of the most prominent leaders of the Sikh community. In yet another important event that took place last year, PM Modi launched a commemorative coin of Rs 100 in honor of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former prime minister. Honoring the Mahatma A few days before the 150th birth anniversary of the Mahatma, the UN (United Nations) released a postal stamp to mark the event. The Indian government conveyed its respect to Gandhiji by releasing the commemorative stamps and coins in Ahmedabad. In a joint venture, India Embassy and LaPoste of France launched a postage stamp with the image of Mahatma Gandhi marking the 150th birthday of India’s legendary leader. 
 
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 Types of commemorative coins There are three different kinds of commemorative coins. The regular issue coins are meant for day to day commercial use and they are issued in the same design for many years. Circulating commemorative coins are also meant for day to day commerce use, but their design will be used only for a limited time. Usually the purpose of these coins is to draw the attention of the world to a particular person or event. Non-circulating legal tender (NCLT) are commemorative coins that are still legal tender and can be used to buy goods and services. However, they are not intended for this regular use. They are actually viewed as souvenirs. Often these coins are made in silver or gold. Commemorative coins are not legal tenders unless notified As per the general understanding, the lower denomination coins are used in general circulation. The higher denomination coins are meant for collection purposes and they usually contain some silver in them. Usually they are found with some coin dealers with marked up prices. As per the law, commemorative coins are not legal tenders unless notified. India’s first commemorative coin The first commemorative coin in India was issued in 1964 with the image of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India to commemorate his birth anniversary. See Also: <a data-type="tilCustomLink">Life Changing Quotes by Mahatama Gandhi</a>

Know everything about Commemorative Coin that PM Modi released on Mahatama Gandhi's 150 birth anniversary

With a dream to uproot social evils from the lives of innocent children, <keyword id="377475" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Kailash-Satyarthi">Kailash Satyarthi</keyword> bid goodbye to his lucrative engineering career to start <keyword id="6372314" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Bachpan-Bachao-Andolan">Bachpan Bachao Andolan</keyword>, a non-profit organisation. And his hardwork paid off, as the renowned child right activist was today honoured with the <keyword id="8954" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Nobel-Peace-Prize">Nobel Peace Prize</keyword> 2014. He shared this prestigious award with Pakistan’s <keyword id="1410347" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Malala-Yousafzai">Malala Yousafzai</keyword>, the woman rights activist who was shot by a <keyword id="16945" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Taliban">Taliban</keyword> fighter in 2012. Let’s take a look at what this man’s aim, worries and future plans are. 
 
Aim: To see children smiling 
 Pursuing his simple dream to see kids across the country smiling, Kailash Satyarthi formed Bachpan Bachao Andolan in 1980, an organisation of like minded people working together to wipe out <keyword id="6385970" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Child-Trafficking">child trafficking</keyword>. He had this belief that it is impossible for just one person to fight social evils existing in the Indian society, and thus he keeps motivating people to come forward and be the part of this great initiative, which aims at bringing smile on the faces of innocent kids. 
Kailash feels strongly for kids who are forced into the worst kinds of abusive work. While describing children’s plight, he once told media that "If they cry for their parents, they are beaten severely, sometimes hanged upside down from trees and even branded or burned with cigarettes.” 
 
Worry: Child trafficking growing at a <keyword id="2552540" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="faster-pace">faster pace</keyword> 
 
Satyarthi is worried about the fact that inter-state trafficking is growing at a faster pace in the country. Kids are trafficked from smaller towns to bigger cities, wherein they work as child labourers. These kids work laboriously throughout the day and in return don’t even get essential meals and money. 
 
Vision: Calls for strong laws on child trafficking 
 
Satyarthi feels that India doesn’t have strong laws on child trafficking. During one of his interviews to leading media house, he had said, “We have a law on immoral trafficking and that is basically for adult trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. Therefore, it is important for the government to form some tough laws to tackle this menace.” 
 
Wish: If <keyword id="6355532" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mahatma-Gandhi">Mahatma Gandhi</keyword> would have received the much-deserved honour 
 
Today, it was a great day for Satyarthi to get worldwide recognition, but the man made a great statement on the stage that must have touched every Indian’s heart. It touched ours’ at least. After receiving the award, he had said, "I am really honoured but if the prize had gone to Mahatma Gandhi before me I would have been more honoured" 
(Image: kailashsatyarthi.net)

Kailash Satyarthi: A Relentless Crusader Of Child Rights

The honourable Supreme Court of India has asked Congress scion <keyword id="5268" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rahul-Gandhi">Rahul Gandhi</keyword> to either express regret for his comments holding the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (<keyword id="42498" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="RSS">RSS</keyword>) responsible for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination or be ready for a trail for defamation. 
 
"RSS people killed Gandhiji and today their people (BJP) talk of him...They opposed Sardar Patel and Gandhiji," Rahul had said while he was addressing a public rally in Thane in March 2014. 
 
"Why did you make a sweeping statement against the RSS branding everyone associated with the organization in the same brush," an SC bench asked Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, when it was hearing a defamation case that has been filed against him based on his remarks. 
 
"You can't make wholesale denunciation of an organization," it added. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Party-must-work-like-Apple-and-not-RSS-Rahul-Gandhi/articleshow/49046082.cms">Party must work like Apple and not RSS: Rahul Gandhi</a> 
 
From Rahul Gandhi's side, the counsel said that he was right in stating as what he said was a historical fact, and can be found in government records, as per <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/RSS-killed-Gandhi-Express-regret-or-face-trial-Supreme-Court-tells-Rahul-Gandhi/articleshow/53279452.cms">TNN</a>. 
 
However, the court has asked <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Rahul-Gandhi-visits-Kolkatas-flyover-collapse-site-to-meet-the-injured/articleshow/51659620.cms">Rahul </a>about the public good in stating it. It added that if <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Achhe-din-only-for-PM-Narendra-Modi-not-the-aam-aadmi-Rahul-Gandhi/articleshow/50296542.cms">Gandhi </a>is not ready to regret for saying this, he should be ready to defend himself in a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Rahul-Gandhi-downplays-notice-on-dual-citizenship-row-says-will-deal-with-it/articleshow/51393887.cms">trial</a>. 
 
Rahul had requested the bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman for a two-week adjournment, which was refused. The bench has scheduled the next hearing on July 27. 
 
<a href="http://quintype-01.imgix.net/thequint/2015-03/9019d401-d2fa-4b04-9005-de3fe54cadd0/rahul-gandhi_new-(1).jpg">Image source</a>

Rahul Gandhi vs RSS: SC asks RaGa to regret or face defamation trial

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
&#xa0;
Savarkar (back row, second left) was arrested and tried as a plotter in Gandhi's murder. He was acquitted
&#xa0;
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Narendra Modi's Mentor Thought Gandhi Was A Sissy

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<ul class="summary-list"><li>The "<keyword id="10602274" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="qanon-shaman">QAnon Shaman</keyword>" now feels that President <keyword id="6354484" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Donald-Trump">Donald Trump</keyword> hoodwinked him, his lawyer said.</li><li>Jacob Chansley is in a Washington, DC, jail and awaiting trial over the US Capitol riot.</li><li>"He has come to grasp that fact that the former president really didn't love him," his lawyer said.</li></ul>Jacob Chansley, the "<keyword id="9152811" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="qanon">QAnon</keyword> Shaman" who became a symbol of the US Capitol riot, now feels that President Donald Trump played him, his lawyer <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-qanon-shaman-jacob-chansley-is-starvingand-having-some-capitol-riot-regrets">told The Daily Beast</a> on Wednesday.Chansley - who carried a spear, wore bull horns, and covered himself in war paint at the January 6 riot - <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/three-men-charged-connection-events-us-capitol">was arrested and charged</a> with civil disorder, obstruction, and disorderly conduct three days later.QAnon is a baseless far-right conspiracy theory <a href="https://www.insider.com/qanon-conspiracy-theory-future-biden-inauguration-trump-2021-1">positing that Trump</a>, while president, was secretly fighting a "deep state" cabal of satanic pedophiles and cannibals. Trump often <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/12/trump-tweeting-qanon-followers-357238">retweeted QAnon figures</a> and in August <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-praises-qanon-conspiracists-because-they-like-me-very-much-2020-8?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">described</a> the conspiracy theory's advocates as "people who love our country."Trump staying in power was a key part of QAnon ideology, and many adherents thought <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/qanon-trump-capitol-attack-belief-precursor-the-storm-2021-1">January 6 would be the date of "The Storm,"</a> in which Trump would cleanse Washington of its elites.After Trump lost reelection, however, Joe Biden was sworn in as president on January 20.Chansley, who is in custody in Washington, DC, while awaiting trial, is now appearing to turn on Trump."He has come to grasp that fact that the former president really didn't love him and that all the bulls--- about Trump's army and all the social-media-driven conspiracy theories led to a lot of the vulnerability," Albert Watkins told The Daily Beast."Has my client gone through a wholesale repudiation on his previous beliefs? No. It's part of an ongoing process. But he has recognized his role and my client has bellied up and realized he needs to do right by his country."<div type="image" title="Capitol riot" height="512" width="1024" msid="80688478" hostid="261"></div>Watkins added that Chansley felt he had fallen for a "propaganda machine."Watkins told The Daily Beast that the president's decision not to accept <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/qanon-shaman-jacob-anthony-chansley-wants-pardon-from-trump-2021-1">a request for a presidential pardon</a> was the final straw but that Chansley's apparent epiphany about Trump had been coming for weeks.Watkins <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/q-shaman-us-capitol-rioter-feels-duped-trump-lawyer-says-2021-1">told the Arizona TV station KSDK on January 21 that Chansley</a> felt "duped" by Trump."He regrets very, very much having not just been duped by the president but by being in a position where he allowed that duping to put him in a position to make decisions he should not have made," Watkins said.On January 28, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/qanon-shaman-jacob-chansley-wants-to-testify-at-trump-impeachment-2021-1">Chansley offered to attend Trump's impeachment trial</a> to testify against the president.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-white-house-transition-team-administration-remotely-workouts-2021-2">Inside the 7-minute virtual workouts the Biden transition team used to stay connected as staffers prepared to demolish Trump's policies</a>As <a href="https://www.insider.com/qanon-shaman-jacob-chansley-wont-eat-jail-organic-food-lawyer-2021-2">Insider's Jacob Shamsian reported</a>, Chansley is refusing to eat in prison because the food is not organic. Watkins said his client had not eaten in a week and had lost 20 pounds in custody as a result.Watkins told the court Wednesday that Chansley's idol was Mahatma Gandhi and that he was a "gentleman" who "catches insects and releases them outside."Chansley, who is from Phoenix, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/q-shaman-us-capitol-rioter-feels-duped-trump-lawyer-says-2021-1">served in the US Navy</a> from 2005 to 2007.

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