Monday, June 27, 2011

Abhinav Bharat, Sawarkar's vision and its gradual denigration

Vinayak Damodar Sawarkar, or Veer Sawarkar, formed the "Abhinav Bharat" in 1905 while at Pune's Fergusson College. It drew its name and inspiration from Mazzini's "Young Italy" and also also influenced by Thomas Frost’s Secret Societies of the European Revolution (1776-1876), a book dealing mostly with the Russian nihilists. Sawarkar’s "Abhinav Bharat" believed in revolutionary violence and was, indeed, responsible for the assassination of several British officers. It was disbanded in 1952.
The "new" Abhinav Bharat was formed by a man named Sameer Kulkarni (or, probably by Colonel Prasad Purohit). The details of this "new" Abhinav Bharat's involvement in terrorist activities, specifically in the Malegaon Bomb Blast Case can be read in detail in Christophe Jaffrelot's excellent article.
I only intend to lay before you, readers, the high ideals that the original Abhinav Bharat had. It's oath is a testimony to this. Now many people will take pride in the way of the "revolutonaries" and others will say that their path was destructive and reckless. We, too feel that Mahatma Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement which believed in Ahimsa (or non-violence) was responsible for getting Indians freedom from the Raj, but many would disagree. Nonetheless, revolutionaries like Sawarkar, Bhagat Singh and Bose will always command respect from Indians.
The oath of Abhinav Bharat-
BANDE MATARAM
In the name of God,
In the name of Bharat Mata,
In the name of all the Martyrs that have shed their blood for Bharat Mata,
By the Love, innate in all men and women, that I bear to the land of my birth,
wherein the sacred ashes of my forefathers, and which is the cradle of my
children,
By the tears of Hindi Mothers for their children whom the Foreigner has enslaved, imprisoned, tortured, and killed,
I, …
Convinced that without Absolute Political Independence or Swarajya my country can never rise to the exalted position among the nations of the earth which is Her due,
And Convinced also that that Swarajya can never be attained except by the waging of a bloody and relentless war against the Foreigner,
Solemnly and sincerely Swear that I shall from this moment do everything in
my power to fight for Independence and place the Lotus Crown of Swaraj
on the head of my Mother;
And with this object, I join the Abhinav Bharat, the revolutionary Society of all
Hindusthan, and swear that I shall ever be true and faithful to this my
solemn Oath, and that I shall obey the orders of this body;
If I betray the whole or any part of this solemn Oath, or if I betray this body or
any other body working with a similar object,
May I be doomed to the fate of a perjurer! 

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