The folks who keep harping about Savarkar’s mercy petition don’t know an iota of his life & character. What does one get by staying in Jail & dying? A Matyr’s status or a pg in history book? Savarkar was above that. He didn’t want a page, he wanted to change History 1/n

One doesn’t change history by staying in jail or dying early. One changed history when one can make consistent efforts. Savarkar’s petition was just an attempt at getting physical freedom so that he could go back at rewriting history of his nation. 2/n

He is often labelled a religious bigot but his idea od religion was so inclusive, everyone who loved this land and its tradition was a Hindu by his definition. He said if one considers Bharat as one’s pitra & punya bhoomi, the person was Hindu. 3/n

Not many know that much before Gandhi, he was the one who started non-cooperative movement and burned a Holi of Britain made clothes. Yes Gandhi wasn’t original. The amount of work that Savarkar would have done for upliftment of Dalit is unparalleled. Gandhi doesnt come close 4/n

And he was an atheist himself, much ahead of his time, he didn’t believe in rituals, he believed real dharma was following the right tenets and fighting for it. He was truly a visionary. His ideas about industrialism, technology in those days were way ahead of time 5/n

Every time he escaped British custody, he only prepared to attack them back with more ferocity. Which is why he was deemed the most dangerous prisoner (Yes ranked above not just Gandhi/ Nehru but above other revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh in rank order) because 6/n

Even British knew that he was the factory churning out these revolutionaries. Why are Laden or Baghdadi more dangerous than actual terrorists who attack (its a fallacious example but just to make a point as to who is more dangerous (the revolutionary or one who creates them) 7/n

Imagine the kid, who at a tender age of 13 hears of supreme sacrifice of Chafekar brothers, he is moved and his first thought is who will now carry the mission of saving and freeing our motherland. That’s his thought. He thinks all night & realises 8/n

Why is he expecting others to carry the legacy, if he is moved, he should & that day decides that his life is now for the nation. A kid of 13. Born to simple parents who died when he was young. No brain washing, no environment to nurture the thought but on his own accord 9/n

decides he needs to fight for his nation. He had seen death all around him. He understood, death doesn’t bring anything except martyrdom. He couldn’t afford to die, not till his mission was accomplished. He had to be alive for his motherland & it’s people. 10/n

Big deal if to stay alive & serve his nation he has to shelve his ego & write a mercy petition. The mission was bigger. Why do u think, Krishna even allows dharma and rules of war be broken during Mahabharata?Is ok even with tricks to defeat Kauravas? Wasn’t it dharma yuddh? 11/n

Sometimes the real mission is so big that small rule breaking doesn’t matter. Specially when the enemy is evil & not following the rules. Which other prisoner for 2 lifetime terms in prison? The British knew by the time he will come out, he won’t be able to do much 12/n

But he was a man on mission. He couldn’t stay in jail. His life was not meant to die in jail. He had to work for his motherland. He had to take the fight of Chafekar brothers forward. There was no hope from Gandhi-Nehru. They were hell bent on destroying the nation. 13/n

He had to be alive a& he had to be free to do something. Now tell me. Wouldn’t it be utterly stupid to accept defeat & die in a jail instead of trying to come out to do something? What is more practical ?? This man didn’t care for martyrdom. All he cared was for his nation 14/n

Perhaps he thought history would be kinder & people will see what he was trying to do. Perhaps he didn’t even care for his name in history. But he is an ideology, a thought that still has the potential to change our history. He had seen what is happening today in Bengal then 15/n

He said “Hinduise politics, militarise Hindus” if we want to save ourselves as a & civilisational qstate. Today first part of his slogan is happening. And if we want to save ourselves from Bengal or from Dhruv Raj Tyagi kind of fate, the 2nd part needs to happen too 16/n

He was as egalitarian a man as could be. While Gandhi only coined the term Harijan. It was this man who gave them the right to worship in temple through his efforts. It was him who sat and ate with them & fight with his own Brahmin community to give them their rights. 17/n

His closest aide was Madame Cama (a Parsi lady). Dr. Ambedkar had profound respect and admiration for him. So did many other Congress leaders of that time. You know he asked Indians to join the navy & army in masses during WW-2. Not many know why 18/n

He saw India was soon going to be independent & Indians didn’t have much war skills & weapon knowledge. He knew these skills would come handy. Even Bose acknowledged that it was indeed a visionary idea & these trained soldiers formed good recruit for Azad Hind Fauj 19/n

It was also why the Naval revolt left British in a lurch...hurrying their retreat. His role in setting up of early industries in India is something no one discusses. Savarkar is a whole philosophy in himself. Wish we had had read Savarkar instead of Gandhi during our school 20/n

And last but not the least. See what Jinnah said of Nehru and Gandhi and what he said of Savarkar. Even the enemy (has acknowledged as one) had respect for an opponent for his authenticity and principles & disdain for the ones who used power to their personal ends!