Savarkar’s India: One People, One Civilisation, One Nation

On Savarkar’s birth anniversary (May 28), we revisit his classic work Hindutva (1923) to explore his idea of Hindu identity. According to Essentials of Hindutva, Hindutva represents a national sentiment connected to India’s long and rich history.

Illustration by The Geostrata

Vivekananda famously said Hindutva is not just another word; it represents the written history of the Hindu people. That idea is even greater than it sounds – Darwin asserts that “much more than forty centuries” of history have shaped the Hindu race.

HINDUTVA VS HINDUISM

He distills awareness of the difference between the two terms. The author says Hindutva is different from just Hinduism, as the former is larger and includes it. Unlike Hinduism, Hindutva is not just about religious teaching, but about the Hindu way of life as a whole. 

Savarkar adds that Hindutva represents “every aspect of the mind and effort of our Hindu community”. In his opinion, people mistakenly using these terms can lead communities to doubt one another.

DEFINING THE HINDU NATION

To Savarkar, Hindutva includes a common nation (Rashtra), a common race (Jati) and a common civilization (Sanskriti). To be a true Hindu for him means to view the land from Indus to the sea as one’s country of origin.

As a result, he claims that the whole of India is becoming a shared home for Hindus. It is just as important to remember that Hindus trace their lineage back to the Vedic Sapta-Sindhu regions and share a Sanskritic background.

He even compresses these ideals into a Sanskrit verse: “A Sindu Sindhu paryanta… sa vai Hinduriti smritah”, meaning one is a Hindu whose Fatherland and Holyland is the whole of India.

Nation (Rashtra): All Hindus share the same sacred soil. In his writing, Savarkar states that every Hindu regards India (Sindhusthan) as both their Fatherland and Motherland. Race (Jati): The Hindu people are counted as one group of blood brothers. Hindus, no matter their castes or beliefs, “share a common blood” and are part of the same race.

Civilisation (Sanskriti):  Hindus share a common cultural legacy. A Sanskrit-based civilisation – language, liturgy, law, literature, arts and festivals – binds them into one heritage.

Hindutva thus unites land, people and culture in one vision of the nation. These essentials create a sacred Fatherland and Holyland for Hindus, summarising Hindutva as shared nationality, kinship and culture

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION

Savarkar believes that Hindutva is rooted in many decades of historical development. Millennia of changes, according to Singh, helped create the united Hindu race. He explains that Hindus of all beliefs and castes are part of one huge family and adds that this is why “I insist on Hindus as a brotherhood with one and the same origin and I declare, we are not only a nation but a Jati.”

Savarkar makes this point deliberately: Communities who value their homeland should realise their significance in the Hindu nation. Anyone raised in another religion but still loves India as their Fatherland and Holyland is “welcome to the Hindu community.” In this way, Hindutva looks at shared heritage and loyalty to the nation, not on strict principles.

HINDUTVA AND UNITY OF NATION

Savarkar considered Hindutva to be the main force for holding India together. He encourages Hindus to overcome both caste and regional differences and enhance all family relationships.

He asks, in bold words, that the “Ancient and noble blood of Hindus” flow between Attock and Cuttack and that all Hindus be linked as one unbreakable unit.

In other words, he believes all Hindu communities – irrespective of where they are from or how rich or poor they are – should recognise themselves as part of a united people. Earlier during his speech, he said that ideologies from abroad, including Asia’s Pan-Islamism, play a huge role and that in the last resort, India’s future depends on the strength of Hinduism.

According to Savarkar, Indian unity will guide its future. He claims that the people who are closest to the soil of Hindustan, the Hindus, are the essential basis for the Indian state. He suggests Hindus work to strengthen their identity so that those most loyal to the country hold the nation together securely.

In other words, he thinks India’s safety and independence rest on a solid Hindu majority. Still, Savarkar’s ideas are meant for Indians of all kinds. While Savarkar proposes a common Indian identity for all, he insists that Hindus must begin by embracing their heritage, symbolised in the sacred geography of Hindustan.

With Amritsar as the ‘lake of nectar’ and Muktasar as the ‘lake of freedom’. He comments, “while a Hindu may lose their class standing by marrying a Hindu, they will still have Hindutva and be part of the nation.”

One of Savarkar’s key ideas in the freedom struggle was that Hindus should regard themselves as one people before anything else. We remember on this anniversary what Dr. Sunil Ambekar believed about Hindutva serving as a national ethos. 

He urged Hindus to unite in loyalty to their Fatherland (Pitribhu) and Holyland (Punyabhu), thus binding the diverse people truly into one nation. In his writing, Hindutva is a sacred pledge – every Hindu is bound by history and heritage to the soil of India.

Savarkar woven the threads of history, culture and identity into a tapestry of one Hindu people.

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BY POSHIKA MUKKU

TEAM GEOSTRATA

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