Abstract

Veer Savarkar’s political actions and writings reflect his uncompromising desire for building India into a strong nation-state. He, of course, cherished this ideal of building India into a nation-state throughout his life. However, the nature of his idea of nation and the ideology of nationalism changed over times. Even while his nationalist philosophy evolves throughout time, one aspect of his nationalist worldview remains constant. Savarkar chose history as an important site for constructing his nationalist ideology. This essay tries to understand the importance of history in his nationalist ideology by close reading some of his key texts. Savarkar emphatically argued that a nation must know its own history, if the nation wanted to have a strong and formidable present and future. However, he sternly cautioned that while knowing its own past was crucial, the nation should not allow the past to determine its present state-of –affairs. Rather, Savarkar believed that the nation must have the capability to use its past for the future advancement of the nation.