Former Union Minister, economist, journalist, and author Arun Shourie has announced the release of his latest book, The New Icon. The book offers a “critical examination” of the life, ideology, and legacy of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the ideological architect of Hindutva and a controversial figure in contemporary Indian politics.
The New Icon:
Savarkar and the Facts by Arun Shourie, India Viking, 2024. Photo: https://www.penguin.co.in/
Shourie, who served as a minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government (1998–2004), was widely regarded as a leading Hindu nationalist intellectual during that period. In The New Icon, the Padma Bhushan awardee scrutinises Savarkar’s legacy by juxtaposing his claims and prescriptions with historical evidence.
Savarkar remains a polarising figure – revered by many on the Hindu right for his vision of a Hindu-majority nation, yet criticised by others for advocating exclusionary politics. Shourie’s critique is likely to ignite intense debates, as it comes from someone known for challenging organised religion and political ideologies, including those of the Hindu right.
Drawing on “over 550 sources,” including contemporary records, intelligence reports, memoirs, and archives, Shourie says the book systematically dismantles Savarkar’s myths, including those about Indian history, the Hindu identity, and Savarkar himself.
“The assertions and claims do not survive scrutiny at all – certainly not the myths Savarkar put out about us, about our history, or, indeed, about himself. As for [Savarkar’s] prescriptions, the book shows that if we adopt them, the Hindutva State will in fact become precisely what he denounced – namely, an ‘Islamic’ State. Our society will be saturated with what he said unites, namely hatred. Revenge, ‘super-cruelty’ to use his word, and the rest will become the norms,” Shourie said in a press statement.
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“And the one instrument by which such a situation can be retrieved – discourse – would have been broken, overwhelmed as it would be with falsehood, deliberately spread in the name of The Great Cause. In a word, Hinduism would have been perverted, and India would have been set on the road to becoming Pakistan.”
Published by Penguin India, the book will be available from 30 January, priced at ₹999.
This article was originally published on South First.
