Hindutva

[acharya]

http://www.hindu.com/2004/09/22/stories/...650400.htm

With photo


Godse accompanied Savarkar to Shimoga in 1944

By Pramod Mellegatti


<img src='http://www.hindu.com/2004/09/22/images/2004092205650401.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />


A group photo taken in Shimoga in 1944 when Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (seated fourth from right, second row) came to address the State-level Hindu Mahasabha conference. The late Bhoopalam Chandrashekariah, president of the Hindu Mahasabha State unit, is seated to Savarkar's left.


SHIMOGA, SEPT. 21. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar visited Shimoga in 1944 to address the first-ever State-level Hindu Mahasabha conference held to instil "love" and "pride" among Hindus towards Hindutva. Nathuram Godse accompanied Savarkar.

Savarkar visited Shimoga at the invitation of Bhoopalam Chandrashekariah, the Hindu Mahasabha's State unit president. Shimoga was selected as the venue of the conference because the city was considered to have a favourable disposition to the cause of Hindutva.

However, no details about Savarkar's visit to Shimoga are available except for sketchy information recalled by a few senior citizens associated with the conference.

`A big success'


<b>According to Saraf Srinivasrao, an octogenarian activist of the Hindu Mahasabha, the conference was a big success. He told The Hindu on Tuesday that the conference was attended by over 50,000 people at a time when Shimoga's population was hardly 25,000. "It was a hard task for volunteers to take care of the delegates who had come from all over the State," he said</b>.

He said Savarkar, in his keynote address, stressed the need for Hindus to organise themselves as a formidable force. "But he never made any provocative remarks against any community," Mr. Srinivasrao added.

Srinivas, younger brother of the late Saraf Manjunath Rao who was instrumental in holding the conference, said that apart from the Hindu organisations, several Congress workers participated in the conference, which was held for three days. He said Savarkar stayed at a house that belonged to Bhoopalam's family located on the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road.

Mr. Srinivas said conferences of such magnitude were not held in Shimoga thereafter.

He said a procession in which Savarkar participated, and wrestling competitions, were held as a part of the conference. He added that Nathuram Godse accompanied Savarkar.

Other leaders


The other Hindu Sanghatan leaders to accompany Savarkar included Moonja of Nagpur and Varadaraj Naidu, the then president of the Hindu Mahasabha Madras unit.

"However, except being a bodyguard of Savarkar, Godse had no important role to play at the conference," Mr. Srinivas recalled. It was for this reason that Godse's presence at the conference went unnoticed, he said. The conference motivated the activists of the Hindu Mahasabha to keep their organisation alive by holding the Ganesha festival every year under the banner of the Veer Savarkar Hindu Sanghatan Mahamandali.

<b>The reference to Savarkar's visit to Shimoga assumes significance in the present context as it has come at a time when a book on Swatantrya Veer Savarkar — His Life and Message, written by Chakravarthi Soolibele, is scheduled to be released here on Wednesday</b>.