Historians erred in not properly projecting contributions of stalwarts like Savarkar: Venkaiah Naidu

Releasing a book titled "Savarkar", Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday regretted that Indian historians have failed to properly project the contributions of stalwarts like Veer Savarkar and their contributions to the country's freedom struggle. He claimed that some historians "cheated some of our minds" by highlighting the negative aspects of Savarkar and others.

New Delhi:Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday regretted that Indian historians have erred in not properly projecting the contributions of stalwarts like Veer Savarkar and their contributions to the country's freedom struggle.

Releasing a book titled 'Savarkar' here, he said, "historians have erred in highlighting the pain, torture, and sufferings underwent by Savarkar".

"The contributions of Savarkar and other such leaders in various parts of the country to the freedom struggle "have not been properly projected" due to which the younger generation is not much aware of people like Subhash Chandra Bose, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, V O Chidambaram Pillai, Subramania Bharati and Kittur Chennamma," he said.

"Some historians 'cheated some of our minds' by highlighting the negative aspects of Savarkar and others," he claimed.

"You may disagree with some of their actions (of freedom fighters) but historians should not try to undermine their contributions," he said.

"Their contributions should be projected in an objective manner in history. Savarkar's role has been 'underappreciated' in the history books," he said.

Naidu further said that Savarkar inspired him when he read his life story during his school days.

"Later I started admiring him," he said, adding that Savarkar was a multi-faceted personality -- freedom fighter, social and political reformer, philosopher, bold son of mother India, visionary and a practical strategist.

Rajya Sabha member and dancer Sonal Mansingh said that India owed much to Savarkar who underwent "most inhuman and unbelievable torture" by Britishers.

Principal Economic Adviser to Finance Ministry Sanjeev Sanyal said Savarkar was a "very interesting character in Indian history" and by projecting his works and contributions nowadays the "feeling of nationalism has been raised once again".

Author Vikram Sampath recalled the difficulties he faced and research he did to get information for writing the book.