Will Satya Savarkar have to apologise to Rahul Gandhi?
Satya Savarkar finds himself in a legal bind over historical claims.
When Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's grandnephew, Satyaki Savarkar, went to court to demand an apology from Rahul Gandhi for the alleged insult to his great-grandfather, the revelations during the cross-examination have created significant trouble for Savarkar's supporters.
On July 7, he claimed that Rahul Gandhi deliberately made false allegations against Savarkar, which hurt his honour and caused mental distress to his family. Although the speech was delivered in England, its impact was felt in Pune and across the country because the video of Rahul Gandhi's speech was uploaded on YouTube and watched nationwide.
His objection is not to being called 'mafiveer' or 'traitor' but to the 'false' allegation by Mr. Gandhi that Savarkar wrote about beating a Muslim man in a book, which he claims is incorrect.
Reading this objection, it seems Satyaki has not properly read Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's writings. If he had read the first volume of 'Savarkar-Samagra' published by Prabhat Prakashan, he would have found this tale of his great-grandfather.
On pages 152-153 of the first volume, he himself wrote about the attack on a mosque in his ancestral village Bhagur and the use of knives, rulers, and pins against Muslim students. It is unclear whether Rahul Gandhi has presented these pages in court, but given how Satyaki has admitted in court to Savarkar's apologies, relations with the Godse family, not considering the cow as a mother, and the Godse brothers being lifelong members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he might have to accept this unpleasant fact in court if these pages come to light.
Before 2014, there was not much discussion about Savarkar, and even the Sangh rarely talked about him outside Shishu Mandirs. Savarkar's relations with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh soured after the death of the first Sarsanghchalak Hedgewar, and his correspondence with Golwalkar was minimal. His displeasure with the Sangh can be understood from his statement - "On the tomb of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), it will be written that an RSS man was born, went to the branch, and died there.”
After coming to power in 2014, in an attempt to erase the stigma of staying out of the freedom struggle, when the search for freedom fighters began, half-hearted freedom fighter Savarkar was dusted off from the Hindu Mahasabha along with Vallabhbhai Patel and Subhas Chandra Bose from the Congress. Naturally, the first discussion was about his apologies, which he wrote to the British government while in Andaman jail.
Initially, claims were made that Savarkar's apologies were propaganda. For example, BJP National Secretary Sunil Deodhar claimed in May 2025 that Savarkar never sought an apology, but Satyaki Savarkar admitted in court that his great-grandfather wrote 10 mercy petitions to the British government. Although the website based on Savarkar's complete writings and life also mentions his apologies, only five mercy petitions were known to the public. Vikram Sampath, who wrote a two-volume biography of Savarkar, also mentioned only five mercy petitions in his book. Now, by revealing the information about ten mercy petitions, Satyaki has created a significant problem for the Sangh and BJP. It will no longer be possible for them to claim that Savarkar never sought an apology.
Similarly, Nathuram Godse's brother and one of the conspirators in Gandhi's assassination, Gopal Godse, said in an interview given to a magazine after being released from jail that he and his brother Nathuram remained lifelong members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He never retracted his claim, but the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh denied it and always said that the Godse brothers had left the Sangh. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee claimed in Parliament that Godse was an opponent of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Satyaki Savarkar also declared this claim false in court, stating that the Godse brothers were always active workers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He stated that Gopal Godse was his maternal grandfather, and his claim was true that all the Godse brothers remained in the Sangh for life.
It is evident that instead of protecting Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's honour in this case, Satyaki is having to accept those facts based on historical evidence that people like us have already presented. For example, in my book 'Savarkar: Kala Pani Aur Uske Baad', I mentioned that Savarkar opposed cow worship and considered the donkey a more useful animal. Satyaki also accepted this in court.
With these facts coming to light, the Sangh and BJP will face continuous difficulties in glorifying Savarkar, which is perhaps why the Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh refused to grant permission to file a similar case against Rahul Gandhi.
