V. D. Savarkar’s Advocacy for Social Reforms

When we study the social thinkers of modern India, V. D. Savarkar occupies a position that often surprises students. He is widely known as the architect of Hindutva and a fierce nationalist, but he was also one of the most aggressive social reformers of the early twentieth century. Savarkar argued that a society chained by superstition, untouchability, and rigid caste hierarchy could never become strong or modern. His reform agenda rested on a simple but radical idea: every social practice must justify itself before the test of reason and science, and anything that fails this test must be discarded, no matter how ancient or sacred it appears.

Reform built on reason and science 🔗

Savarkar’s approach to social reform stood apart from that of most of his contemporaries. While many reformers tried to change Hindu society by searching for scriptural sanction, Savarkar refused to treat the scriptures as the final authority. He held that reason and science, not religious texts, should be the deciding standard for what society keeps and what it abandons. He was not a religious man, and throughout his life he eschewed ritual practices, drawing instead on the rationalist tradition associated with thinkers like Gopal Ganesh Agarkar and Herbert Spencer.

This rationalism led him to a direct conclusion. Tradition by itself was not a good enough reason to continue any custom. Practices that had outlived their usefulness, in his view, deserved to be dropped. He criticised beliefs in omens, elaborate ritual ceremonies, and the role of priests who, he argued, profited from people’s faith. He wanted individuals to relate to their own beliefs directly, without an intermediary class perpetuating superstition.

Why scientific temper mattered for the nation 🔗

For Savarkar, scientific thinking was not an abstract intellectual hobby. It was a tool for national survival. He believed Hindu society had grown weak after centuries of rigid adherence to outdated customs, and that only a society trained in scientific methods could compete with the modern Western nations. He famously declared that progress would come through science, modern thought, and industrialisation rather than the spinning wheel, a clear jab at the more traditionalist economic vision of Gandhi. He envisioned an India where indigenous science would drive material progress and where key industries would be modernised.

His writings reflected genuine enthusiasm for technology. In essays such as “Machine is a boon to mankind,” he praised modern inventions, describing instruments like the telescope as a human eye magnified a thousand times and the telephone as a vastly amplified human ear. To him, embracing machines and modern industry was the path to ensuring that every Indian had work, food, and a dignified life.

The attack on superstition 🔗

Savarkar’s rationalism had sharp edges, and he was willing to apply it to deeply emotional subjects. A striking example is his position on cow worship. He held that the cow should be protected because it is economically useful, not worshipped as a deity. He argued that a movement for cow protection should rest on clear economic and scientific principles rather than religious superstition. Attributing godly status to an animal, he warned, dulled the nation’s intellect. His logic was consistent: first protect the cow because it serves a real purpose, and worship it later only if one chooses to.

He extended this rationalist demand beyond his own community. When Gandhi suggested that the devastating 1934 Bihar earthquake was divine punishment for the practice of untouchability, Savarkar publicly rejected the claim. As a thinker who relied on logic and evidence, he could not accept a natural disaster being explained as a curse from God. This episode captures his refusal to let supernatural explanations stand in for scientific ones.

The critique of caste and Chaturvarna 🔗

The centrepiece of Savarkar’s social reform was his relentless attack on the caste system. He viewed both the ancient Chaturvarna (the four-fold division of society) and the elaborate caste system that grew out of it as among the primary sources of Hindu weakness. He held that the present-day caste division had arisen from the debris of the old Chaturvarna, creating artificial barriers that prevented Hindus from acting as a single united community.

His objection to caste was both practical and moral. Practically, a divided society could not be strong. Morally, he found untouchability indefensible. He described treating millions of fellow human beings as untouchable, worse than animals, as an insult to humanity itself. For Savarkar, the abolition of untouchability was not a favour to the lower castes but a duty owed by the whole of society to its own conscience.

The seven shackles of Hindu society 🔗

Savarkar gave his caste critique a memorable structure. He argued that Hindu society was bound by seven indigenous shackles, the Sapta Bedya, which he attacked just as fiercely as he attacked British rule. According to his framework, these seven prohibitions covered touch, interdining, intermarriage, occupation, seafaring, Vedic rites, and reconversion. Each one, in his analysis, locked Hindus into permanent division.

Breaking down these shackles became a practical programme. He believed every Hindu had the right to study the Vedas, that a person should be free to choose an occupation based on merit and aptitude rather than birth, and that crossing the seas should not cause loss of caste. The Vice President of India, while marking Savarkar’s contribution, noted that Savarkar condemned these seven swadeshi fetters for dividing society and said the rigid caste system deserved to be thrown into the dustbin of history. Savarkar also wanted Vedic literature to be popularised among everyone rather than restricted to one caste, calling it civilizational knowledge meant for all of humanity.

From words to action in Ratnagiri 🔗

What separates Savarkar from many armchair reformers is that he tried to put his ideas into practice during his internment in Ratnagiri. He did not merely preach against untouchability; he built institutions to demonstrate that a casteless society was possible. The most famous example is the Patit Pavan Mandir, a temple he helped establish that allowed entry to all Hindus including Dalits. He organised inter-caste dining, promoted inter-caste marriage, and worked through the Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha to push for temple entry for all.

He also wrote extensively to spread these ideas, producing works such as the Jatyuchchedak Nibandh (Essays on the abolition of caste) and the Vidnyannishtha Nibandh (essays on scientific temper). His drama Ushaap dealt with untouchability and the duplicity of conservatives. Notably, B. R. Ambedkar acknowledged Savarkar’s efforts, writing that he was glad Savarkar was one of the few leaders to realise that merely removing untouchability was not enough, and that the destruction of Chaturvarna was necessary.

Reform as the foundation of nationhood 🔗

It is important to understand why Savarkar tied social reform so tightly to nationalism. For him, the two were inseparable. He argued that political independence without social reform would be hollow and unstable, once stating that freedom won without social reform would not last even three days. A nation divided by caste and weakened by superstition could not defend itself, modernise its economy, or stand among the powerful nations of the world.

This is the logic that runs through all his reform writing. Abandon superstition so the mind becomes free to think scientifically. Embrace technology so the country can prosper. Destroy caste so that society can act as one. Each reform was, in his eyes, a building block of a strong and competitive nation.

The debates around his reforms 🔗

Savarkar’s reform record is genuinely admired, but it is not free of debate. A common criticism is that his campaign against caste was driven less by sympathy for the oppressed and more by a desire to consolidate Hindus into a single political bloc. Supporters point to a letter he wrote from the Andamans in 1920, before he had committed to Hindu consolidation, expressing his urge to rebel against caste discrimination and untouchability, to argue that his convictions came first.

His positivist influences also draw scrutiny. His admiration for ideas like the “survival of the fittest” and his use of language around race reflected the positivist and social Darwinist currents flowing through Europe at the time, which modern readers may find troubling. Engaging with these tensions is part of studying Savarkar honestly rather than treating him as a one-dimensional figure.

Why this matters for understanding modern Indian thought 🔗

Savarkar’s social reform agenda is significant because it shows how a section of early twentieth-century thinkers tried to hold two goals together: preserving a cultural and national identity while demanding sweeping, science-driven change within it. He did not want Hindus to abandon their identity; he wanted them to purge it of practices he saw as irrational and self-destructive. Whether one agrees with his politics or not, his insistence that customs must answer to reason, and that a divided society cannot be a strong one, remains a powerful framework for thinking about social change.

What do you think? Can a programme of social reform driven primarily by the goal of national strength still deliver genuine social justice for the most marginalised, or does the motive behind the reform change its meaning? And in a society that still debates the role of tradition versus reason, how relevant is Savarkar’s demand that every custom must justify itself scientifically?

References

1. https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/22532/1/Unit-7.pdf
2. https://theprint.in/opinion/savarkar-wanted-to-smash-caste-system-cooked-prawns-and-didnt-worship-the-cow/161016/
3. https://www.technoarete.org/common_abstract/pdf/IJSEM/v7/i10/Ext_38916.pdf
4. https://savarkar.org/en/encyc/2017/5/23/Cow-protection-and-cow-worship.html
5. https://savarkar.org/en/encyc/2017/5/22/Seven-shackles.html
6. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1591803&reg=3&lang=2
7. https://www.impriindia.com/insights/savarkar-advocacy-byond-caste-division/
8. https://arisebharat.com/2016/02/26/swatantryaveer-savarkar-an-outstanding-social-reformer/
9. https://anweshsatpathy.medium.com/navigating-the-contours-of-modernity-through-nationalism-a-study-of-gandhi-and-savarkar-3d36878a9a6e