Vikram Sampath > Quotes

“On 1 August 1939, Savarkar spoke at a public meeting organized at Tilak Smarak Mandir in Poona. In his speech, he talked about the three different schools of thought prevalent in the Congress, led by three different leaders—Gandhi, Subhas Bose and Manabendranath Roy—and how it is different from the school of thought of the Hindu Mahasabha. He said: In today’s Congress, there are three schools of thought . . . Gandhian school of thought has truth and non-violence as its key ideas. But Gandhian non-violence is inimical to Hindutva. Hindu philosophy says violence for violence sake is bad, but violence is permissible to destroy evil and protect the good, and such violence is good conduct. But Gandhian thought makes no such distinction. They believe in non-violence under all conditions. Second school of thought is led by Subhas Bose and the Forward Bloc. His policies and means used are similar to our thought process and we could work together on certain issues, but even they are obsessed with this mirage of Hindu-Muslim unity. The third school of thought is of Manvendranath (sic) Roy and that is not acceptable to us at all. They believe in the policy of active Muslim appeasement. The Hindu Mahasabha has the interests of Hindus in mind always.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“he took a dig at the Congress remembering Hindus and their votes only during elections: Next election when they come to your Hindu doors to beg for votes tell them in all honesty and humility ‘Sirs Congressmen you are Indian Nationalists; but I am a Hindu and this is a Hindu Electorate? Then how can you accept a vote so tainted by communalism? Please go to a truly “Indian Nationalist electorate”, to beg for votes wherever you may find it; and if you find it nowhere in the world today please wait till a pure and simple and truly “Indian electorate”, comes into being!’ Do you think you will find a dozen Congress candidates honest enough to do so? None, none!”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“enemy”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“The sad truth of our glorious land is that our countrymen do not lack in wisdom, courage and intellect; but they do not lack in treachery, cunningness and avarice either. The smell and sight of gold is enough to send all our patriotism down the drain. We were certainly conquered by the external enemy, but more significantly by the enemy within. The misfortune, however, remains that we have not learnt any lessons from history, which they say repeats itself because nobody was listening the first time, and continue to divide ourselves along narrow, petty lines.”
― Vikram Sampath, Splendours of Royal Mysore

“His attention was drawn to Pandit Nehru’s statement regarding the Muslim influx in Assam that migrations are inevitable since nature hates vacuum. Savarkar retorted that Pandit Nehru was neither a philosopher nor a scientist and did not know that nature also abhors poisonous gases!”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“Joshi’s letters revealed how ‘unconditional help’ was being offered to the government to fight the underground workers and Bose’s Indian National Army soldiers, and how the CPI received financial aid from the government and had a secret pact with the League to undermine the Congress activity in several ways.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“N.C. Chatterjee, one of Savarkar’s close colleagues in the Mahasabha, vented his frustration in a letter to Moonje: The entire Hindu population is with Gandhiji and his movement and if anybody wants to oppose it, he will be absolutely finished and hounded out of public life. The unfortunate statement of Veer Savarkar [opposing Quit India] made our position rather difficult in Bengal. It is rather amusing to find that Mr. Jinnah wants the Mussalmans not to join the Congress movement and Mr. Savarkar wants the Hindus not to join the same. Even when the Congress movement has made a great stir and it shows that it has got thousands of adherents.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“While it is nice to describe a beautiful rose in full bloom, it would be incomplete without a description of everything—right from its roots, the stem, the manure and nutrients that have sustained it, the fresh and dried leaves as also the thorns, in order to conceptualize the beauty of that rose in all its dimensions. Likewise, for a human being’s biography, he needs to be presented ‘as is’ and not ‘as should be’—from head to toe, nothing more, nothing less, as transparent and true to reality as one can be. Everything that can be said or unsaid, that is embarrassing or praiseworthy has to be documented without inhibitions and fears.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“The case of the Communists of India was a curious one. The secret correspondences exchanged between P.C. Joshi, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Sir Reginald Maxwell, the home member of the Government of India, make it clear that they ‘acted as stooges and spies of the British Government, and helped them against their own countrymen fighting for freedom’.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“The only lesson required in India at present is to learn how to die and the only way to teach it is by dying ourselves. Therefore I die and glory to my martyrdom. My only prayer to God is: may I be reborn of the same Mother and may I re-die in the same sacred cause till the cause is successful and she stands free for the good of humanity and the glory of God.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“Without beginning or end am I, inviolable am I. Vanquish me? In this world no such enemy is born! Resolutely, as the Upholder of Dharma, Challenging very Death, into the battlefield charge I. A sword cannot slice me nor can fire burn me, Craven Death itself shall flee in fear of me, aye! And yet, O Foolish Foe, By fear of Death you dare to scare me! Pushed into the cage of a ferocious lion Reduce him to a cowering servility, I will! Flung into the blaze of a roaring inferno Reduce it to a gentle halo of brilliance, I will! Bring on your mighty, skilled armed Legion, Your weapons and missiles that deadly fire spill! Ha! Like Lord Shiva consuming the poison Halahal, Gulp down and digest all, I will!”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“On his return to Britain, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Secretary of State for India, Lord George Hamilton. One of his main tasks was the control of high-ranking Indian visitors to Britain and the continent who were suspected of seditious activities. This included native Indian princes such as Gaekwad, the Maharaja of Baroda.79”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“So long as we continue to be so cowardly as to yield to any preposterous demand on the part of the Moslems to keep up the show of unity and so terribly afraid of Moslems’ discontent as to allow even the integrity of our Motherland to get broken up into pieces, is it not more likely that this very financial and economical starvation of these would-be Moslem states may goad them on to encroach once more on our Hindu provinces and instigated by the religious fanaticism, which is so inflammable in the frontier tribes even now and urged on by the ideal of a Pathanistan under the lead of the organized forces of the Ameer, may threaten to invade you if you do not handover to them the remaining parts of the Punjab right up to Delhi to make them financially and economically self-supporting?”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“That the Congress had to stress on the need for Hindu–Muslim unity as a goal in itself showed that this unity was lacking and needed to be achieved (after all they had no Hindu–Christian or Hindu–Parsi unity goals).”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“Accordingly, the Indian National Congress took shape and its first session was held in Bombay on 28 December 1885 with seventy-two delegates in attendance. Hume assumed the charge as general secretary and Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee of Calcutta was elected president. The Congress had no intentions of seeking independence from British rule and instead pledged unswerving loyalty to the Crown.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“Savarkar maintained that while he agreed with the ‘Quit India’ slogan if it implied independence in the truest sense, but he found its interpretation by Gandhi as being ‘wholly inadequate and unsatisfactory”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“It would be no exaggeration to say that had Madhava Rao lived on, India’s history would have unfolded differently, and the East India Company would have had a tougher time subjugating the country.”
― Vikram Sampath, Splendours of Royal Mysore

“Many people in India are demanding independence, so Sir Henry Cotton15 calls them extremists. But in England too there is another political movement that can be called ‘Extremist.’ They recently had a huge meeting in Hyde Park. Large numbers of English women have joined this new movement. They want political rights at par with men (the Suffragette movement). Miss Emmeline Pankhurst spoke at the meeting at Hyde Park. She said, ‘We know that pitiable condition of women in England is a result of our political slavery. We want political freedom and men folk to co-operate with us for achieving it. But if they do not give us that freedom, we are quite capable of snatching it from their hands. If we wish we can bring England to a halt within a day and seize our political freedom.’ Listen fellow countrymen! An Englishwoman is saying this and we call ourselves moderate Indian men!! Never again should any country grind under slavery.16”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“Dharmartha Kama Mokshanam Upadesha Samanvitam Kathayuktam Puravruttam Itihasa Tachakshmate.”
― Vikram Sampath, Bravehearts of Bharat: Vignettes from Indian History

“In history, the deeds of an individual or nation are judged by the character of the motive . . .”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“He attacked the viceroy’s speeches to this effect and quoted the instance of Hitler who when asked to vacate Poland by Chamberlain said that he would do so when Britain decided to vacate India.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“Puravruttam or narratives of the past that are in story form (katha yuktam) and impart upadesha or instruction in the four limbs of humanity’s pursuits—dharma (righteousness), artha (material pursuits), kama (sensual pleasures) and moksha (liberation) is called itihasa (literally translating to ‘It thus happened’).”
― Vikram Sampath, Bravehearts of Bharat: Vignettes from Indian History

“He was one of the founding members and the vice-president of the Indian Home Rule Society of Shyamji and had formed a Paris Indian Society in 1905, along with another revolutionary luminary, Madame Bhikaji Rustom Cama. Three fellowships of Rs 2000 each were offered in the name of Indian heroes—Maharana Rana Pratap of Mewar, Shivaji Maharaj and Mughal Emperor Akbar.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“Lala Har Dayal, Virendranath Chattopadhyay, Senapati Bapat, V.V.S. Aiyar, M.P.T. Acharya, J.C. Mukherjee, Madan Lal Dhingra, Gyanchand Verma, Bhai Parmanand, Sardar Singh Rana and Madame Bhikaji Cama.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“Commenting on the police’s questionable role in the whole case, Tushar Gandhi writes: One of the crucial factors in the success of the murder plot was that the police—who were hampered by Gandhi’s decision not to allow additional security and frisking of his visitors—did not think of placing constables or inspectors from Bombay, Poona or Ahmednagar at Birla House, who would have been able to identify Godse, Apte and Karkare . . . The Congress Government and at least some of the members of the Cabinet were fed up of the interventions of the meddlesome old man. To them, a martyred Mahatma would be easier to live with . . . the way the investigation was carried out, and the lackadaisical approach of the police in trying to protect Gandhi’s life, leads one to believe that the investigation was meant to hide more than it was meant to reveal. The measures taken by the police between 20th and 30th January 1948 were more to ensure the smooth progress of the murderers, than to try and prevent his murder.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“It is this social ethos that Mysore has been able to maintain, even as the rat race rushes on unabated elsewhere. It is a city that has not yet opened its eyes to avarice, urbane sophistication and the materialistic way of life. You cannot help but get transported into the past when you are in Mysore, because history for the average Mysorean is not dead, found in the cold storage of text books giving sleepless nights to many a student, but a more vibrant and enlivening aspect of their daily lives that makes them shoot at least cursory glances at all those forts, palaces, statues of their erstwhile rulers and remind themselves of the legacy they inherit. The kingdom may be long gone, but it still lives among the people, their attitudes, their daily discussions, musings and reminiscences.”
― Vikram Sampath, Splendours of Royal Mysore

“Vinayak proclaimed in both Mitra Mela and Abhinav Bharat that their true caste and religion is humanity and humanity alone.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“He concurred with Gandhi that Ramachandra was the life and soul of India but urged the audience to remember that even he could not establish Rama Rajya (his kingdom) without slaying Ravana who symbolized tyranny, aggression and injustice. If Ramachandra had merely sat on a fast, it was unlikely that his kingdom could have been established.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

“He also declared that P.C. Joshi and a few designated senior politburo members had been ‘in touch with the Army Intelligence and supplied the C.I.D. chiefs with such information as they would require against nationalist workers who were connected with the 1942 struggle or against persons who had come to India on behalf of the Azad Hind Government of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

“Ambedkar’s fears were shared even by British educationalist and member of the Council of India, who had served as the director of the University of London Institute in Paris, Theodore Morrison, whom he quotes as having said way back in 1899: The views held by the Mahomedans (certainly the most aggressive and truculent of the peoples of India) are alone sufficient to prevent the establishment of an independent Indian Government. Were the Afghan to descend from the North upon an autonomous India, the Mahomedans, instead of uniting with the Sikhs and the Hindus to repel him, would be drawn by all the ties of kinship and religion to join his flag.”
― Vikram Sampath, Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966