This incident happened in February 2016, but was not exposed properly by anyone. I tried to do this in Feb 2016, but my refutation was not published. This must be done now, or the dangerous, inflammatory & defamatory lies of the media will go unchallenged.
On 23 Feb 2016, DNA reported:
“A Mumbai-based trust is reprinting a book written by Ganesh Savarkar, one of the five founders of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which claims that Jesus Christ was born a Tamil Hindu.
Christ Parichay, the name of the Marathi book, claims that Jesus was a Vishwakarma Brahmin by birth and Christianity is a cult of Hinduism. The Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak will release the book on February 26, reports Mid-Day.
The book claims that Christianity was a doctrine introduced by Christ was never a different religion. It also says that after surviving crucifixion, Christ was taken to Kashmir in India, where he prayed to Lord Shiva and spent his last phase in the Himalayas.
The book also makes claims such as Palestine Arabic language being a version of Tamil, origin of word Joseph among others.
Ranjit Savarkar of The Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak told the daily, “There is no mala fide intention in reprinting this particular book after 70 years. It is one of the books that my grandfather (Ganesh Savarkar) authored. His books are not available and hence, we have decided to publish them again for the benefit of readers.”
He also said that Ganesh Savarkar did the research before publishing the book in the first place. What he has written is not new and they are aware that people will raise questions.”
This lie was originally spread by Mid-Day, after which it was copied by others like India Today, Zee News etc who added their own salt and paper. See what India Today reported:
“A 1946 book by one of the founders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that claims Jesus Christ was born a Tamil Hindu is being reissued by a Mumbai-based right wing trust.
Written by Ganesh Damodar (Babarao) Savarkar, one of the five people who founded RSS, Christ Parichay claims that Jesus was a Vishwakarma Brahmin by birth”.
Okay, so now are we also going to claim that we gifted Statue of Liberty to United States of America?
The book will be released in Marathi on February 26 by Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak (Savarkar National Memorial).
Here are some of the audacious claims made by the author in his book:
- Ganesh Damodar claims that Christianity is a sect of Hinduism.
- The present day Palestinian and Arab territories were a Hindu land.
- He went on to say that Christ traveled to India and learnt yoga. Who knows Modi might have also learnt it from ‘our very own’ Christ, right?
- Christ’s real name was Keshao Krishna, according to the author. He even had a dark complexion and his mother tongue was Tamil.
- Christ’s sacred thread ceremony (janeyu) was held when he was 12, according to Brahmin tradition. He even wore a sacred thread.
- Apparently, Christianity was never a separate religion and it was a Hindu cult and doctrine introduced by Christ.
- Christ was saved after his crucifixion by people from the Essene’s cult, who practiced Yoga and spiritual science.
- He was given medicinal herbs and plants for his recovery from the ‘deathbed’. Christ also was taken to Kashmir.
- It was in Kashmir that Christ prayed to Lord Shiva and he spent the last days of his life in the Himalayas.
- Damodar claims that Christ’s family dressed in an ‘Indian’ way and had Hindu signs on their bodies.”
The lie was further copied by Business Standard. Zee News also said so.
Now for facts. Crazy myths like the claim that Jesus Christ lived some years of his life in India have been circulated since British times. Perhaps one reason for this was to make Indians feel closer to Jesus Christ, and eventually pave way for their conversion to Christianity. This crazy myth of Jesus Christ having spent few years in India is believed by many even today. What Babarao Savarkar wrote in 1946 was a result of believing such crazy myths. But of course, there was ZERO need to bring in the RSS in it.
The article by DNA revealed colossal ignorance about the RSS, or plain disgusting inflammatory and defamatory lies. Babarao Savarkar was not the co-founder of RSS. RSS did not have 5 co-founders, it had only ONE founder, and he was Dr Hedgewar, who founded RSS in 1925. With this level of journalism, what objectivity can one expect from DNA? It was not a genuine error either. It was a deliberate attempt to provoke Christians against RSS.
After RSS distanced itself from the claim that Babarao Savarkar was its co-founder, Mid-Day continued to stick its defamatory lies. It reported:
“RSS distances itself from Savarkar
The RSS on Tuesday [23 Feb 2016] tried to distance itself from Ganesh Savarkar. Pramod Bapat, Prachar Pramukh, Konkan Region, said, “We wish to clarify that Ganesh Damodar Savarkar wasn’t founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. There was only one RSS founder, Dr Hegdewar. Savarkar was in no way associated with RSS.”
However, several accounts on the RSS, including one by BJP MP MJ Akbar, have chronicled Savarkar’s ties with the organisation. Akbar’s India: A Siege Within says this about the RSS’s origin: “…five friends who started the RSS were Dr BS Moonje, Dr LV Paranjpe, Dr Tholkar, Babarao Savarkar and Dr Hedgewar himself.”
Another book by Ritu Kohli explains Savarkar’s influence on MS Golwalkar. Political Ideas of MS Golwalkar: Hindutva, Nationalism, Secularism says: “In 1938, Golwalkar prepared the first systematic statement to the RSS ideology, “We, and our Nationhood, Defined” a text which he later revealed was an abridgement of an essay on nationalism by Babarao Savarkar.”
Despite the clarification from RSS of Hedgewar being the only founder of RSS, which is basic general knowledge for anyone having any cursory knowledge of RSS, DNA tried to pit Christians against RSS. These lies of DNA resulted in massive damage. Even today, websites of India Today, Zee News, Business Standard, and others like OneIndia etc continue to have that article containing the massively defamatory & inflammatory lie that an ‘RSS founder claimed Jesus was a Tamil Hindu’. This lie has been copied by many other enemies of RSS and of India, too such as Defence.pk
The damage caused by this lie can be seen from the fact that one high-level journalist, editor of a prominent Marathi 24 hour News channel messaged me in February 2016 about this, and asked me who the 5 co-founders of RSS were. To this I replied that RSS had only one founder, and he was Hedgewar. He then gave me the link to this article by DNA and said: “Here it is says that the RSS had 5 co-founders” to which I had to tell him the reality. He was a well-meaning man. Babarao Savarkar indeed wrote nonsense in that book in 1946, but what has RSS got to do with it? Anyone can say anything, how is RSS linked with it? The RSS had nothing to do with re-publication of that book in 2016 either.
But DNA was not satisfied with even its basic false report. It published some comments made on Twitter to ridicule RSS in ANOTHER report, even after RSS clarified that Babarao Savarkar was not its co-founder. It instead tried to stick to the lie that Babarao Savarkar was a co-founder of RSS! It said: “However, several accounts on the RSS, including one by BJP MP MJ Akbar, have chronicled Savarkar’s ties with the organisation. Akbar’s India: A Siege Within says this about the RSS’s origin: “…five friends who started the RSS were Dr BS Moonje, Dr LV Paranjpe, Dr Tholkar, Babarao Savarkar and Dr Hedgewar himself.” Anyone can write anything. It has to be verified by any media, particularly a mainstream newspaper like the DNA, before being believed.
M J Akbar was in the Congress earlier and was its MP from 1989-1991. He was Rajiv Gandhi’s spokesman. His book “India: A Siege Within” was published in 1985, almost two decades before he joined BJP in 2014. A claim written by him in a book does not become the Gospel Truth. It is of course, totally false. DNA also reported that the 2nd RSS chief Golwalkar was influenced by Babarao Savarkar, which is absolutely irrelevant to the claim of Babarao Savarkar being a ‘founder’ of RSS. Just because person ‘X’ of an organization was influenced by person ‘Y’ (assuming so), person ‘Y’ does not become the founder of the organization to which ‘X’ belongs! But the DNA’s intention was to ridicule the RSS and pit Christians against it, throwing facts to the winds. DNA reported some tweets as follows:
Tweet talk
@MrSamratX: Look I don’t know if Jesus Christ was a Tamil Hindu, but there’s no doubt that Shakespeare was Sheikh SP Iyer, Tamil Muslim. In Gulf
@ShirishKunder: Jesus Christ was a Tamil Hindu?! Now Christians will ask for OBC status.
@hankypanty: Jesus Christ was a Tamil Hindu. If anyone but, the RSS had said this – they’d be arrested for blasphemy, sedition, polygamy, jaywalking.
@Newspaperwalli: RSS founder’s book says Jesus was a Tamil Hindu. Now I’m guessing conversion to Christianity is no longer a problem
@rahulroushan: If Jesus was a Tamil Hindu Brahmin, why was he not a B Tech?
@aruna_menon: Jesus Christ was a Tamil Hindu, it’s time to repaint the ‘Last Supper’ with Dosa, Vada & Filter Coffee..
@vandana_s: This is GOLD: Jesus was looking to go to Salem, instead he went to Jerusalem”
At that time, the RSS should have threatened to file a defamation suit, and urged the other media outlets to remove that article from their websites, or as a minimum, correct the claim that Babarao Savarkar was a RSS co-founder and remove any link of RSS with that claim. But it does not seem to have done so. If these news outlets like India Today, Zee News, Business Standard etc have any shame, they will do so now and give an apology to the RSS for falsely alleging that Babarao Savarkar was a co-founder of RSS. We can see how dangerous these presstitutes of the mainstream media are, they can misguide well-meaning innocent people, and promote outrageous lies to serve their agenda.
