31st May 2023,Mumbai: Controversy surrounds Randeep Hooda’s directorial debut, “Swatantrya Veer Savarkar,” as he claims that the independence warrior and Hindutva ideologue had influenced Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, and Khudiram Bose, the youngest martyr of the freedom struggle.
Chandra Kumar Bose, Netaji’s grandnephew and a sometimes BJP politician, voiced his concern on Twitter, urging Hooda to “preserve the integrity of history” and stated in an interview that his famous grand-uncle drew inspiration from Swami Vivekananda and Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das.
Interestingly, Chandra Kumar Bose presented a segment of Netaji’s address from Jhargram, West Bengal, on May 12, 1940, which remains relevant today. In the speech, Netaji criticized the Hindu Mahasabha for exploiting religion and called on all Hindus to denounce such actions and remove traitors from society.
It Is worth noting that Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, had no significant influence on the lives of these three martyrs. Bhagat Singh, a devoted Marxist who studied the works of Mikhail Bakunin, the father of anarchism, was reading Clara Zetkin’s “Reminiscences of Lenin” on the day of his execution at the age of 23. He referred to his revolutionary group as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army and left behind his manifesto titled “Why I Am an Atheist.”
Furthermore, before his trial for the bombing of the Central Legislative Assembly, Bhagat Singh requested the magistrate to send a telegram he had composed to the Third International, addressed to Lenin, the prominent Bolshevik leader. The telegram expressed support for the global working-class movement and denounced imperialism.
As for Khudiram Bose, he was merely 18 years old when he and his older accomplice, Prafulla Chaki, were executed for the assassination of Douglas Kingsford’s wife and daughter, the intended targets of their bomb. Savarkar had minimal influence on Bose; instead, it was the words of Sri Aurobindo and Sister Nivedita, an English associate of Swami Vivekananda, that left a lasting impact on the young martyr’s receptive mind.
Later, Khudiram Bose joined the revolutionary organization Anushilan Samiti, where he was greatly influenced by Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Sri Aurobindo’s younger brother and the editor of the Bengali weekly “Jugantar.”
Contrary to Ranveer Hooda’s claims, Savarkar played no significant role in the lives of these three freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives in the defense of their nation.
by Kashvi Gala