Veer Savarkar has been one of my heroes. One of the most fascinating, multi talented personalities ever. Freedom fighter, nationalist, activist, thinker, writer and sadly a very misunderstood personality too.
Here was some one who braved the wo...
On a map of Maharashtra, Bhagur is one of those numerous dots on the map that you just brush over. A typically sleepy, small town that you find scattered across the dusty, rocky plateau of Khandesh. If you still have some idea about the town, it would be more due to the adjoining Army cantonment at Deolali which is located right in the vicinity. The rather dry, rain fed Darna River, skits the edge of the town. On the face of it, this looks like any typical small town, you find in Maharashtra or Central Indian, homes with red tiled sloping roofs, narrow streets piled with rubbish, dogs and cows having a free movement in the narrow cramped lanes. The kind of town, where everyone knows each other, and where nothing actually happens for most of the time.
The other noticeable aspect of the town, is the Balakwade Gymnasium, an akhara of sorts, for aspiring body builders. Like most other towns in Maharashtra, Bhagur too is fiercely proud of it's connection with the Maratha Empire and Shivaji. And here it is through the Balakwade Gymnasium. Beyond the sounds of men grunting, puffing, as they lift the weights or do the push ups, this Gymnasium, does have a proud history of taking part in the Maratha Wars. Navji Balawkade who took part in the conquest of Sinhgad and Lohgad, Sardar Bhaoji Balakwade, Yesaji Balakwade who took part in the epic battle of Kazi Gadhi, and rescued Nashik from the clutches of the Mughals.
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There would be nothing unremarkable though about the boy born on May 28, 1883. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, better known as Veer Savarkar to many, was born on that auspicious date to Damodarpant Savarkar and Radhabai, the second of four children. Coincidentally the year in which he was born had seen, the passing away of two great icons of nationalism Swami Dayananda Saraswati and Vasudev Balwant Phadke.
Born as Mool Shankar in Gujarat, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, invigorated the sleeping Hindu masses with his clarion call of "Back to the Vedas". Leading a crusade against social evils, he urged Hindus to rediscover the roots of their glorious religion, and rise against the oppressive British rule. He founded the Arya Samaj, which would be a nursery of sorts for many a great freedom fighter like Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh, Swami Shraddhanand from there. Vasudev Balwant Phadke who led the first major armed revolt against the British, passed away in a prison cell in Aden, pining for the freedom of his motherland.
He would combine the fierce, revolutionary zeal of Phadke, with Swami Dayananda's intelligence and exploration of Hinduism, to forge an identity of his own. He was a fierce fighter, and also a brilliant thinker and writer, who would forge a new ideology in Hindutva. Belonging to the Chitpavan Brahmin community, from where had emerged such greats like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Phadke, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, as well as reformers like M.G.Ranade and D.K.Karve. As also the great Peshwas of Pune. It's believed that Parashuram, the sixth avatar of Vishnu, was searching for Brahmins, to do the penance ritual after his slaughter of the Kshatriyas. Finding no Brahmins, he found around fourteen bodies washed up on the sea shore, burnt them, breathed life into them, and bestowed the status of Brahmin on them. The fact that they emerged from the funeral pyre( Chita), and were purified by it( Pavan), made this their community's nomenclature.
