RSS chief Bhagwat, Home Minister Amit Shah unveil statue of V.D. Savarkar in Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday (December 12, 2025) unveiled a statue of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar at Beodnabad in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Mr. Bhagwat and Mr. Shah also attended an event at BR Ambedkar Institute of Technology (DBRAIT) in Sri Vijaya Puram where a song on Savarkar was released.

The events took place to mark 116 years of Savarkar’s poem titled ‘Sagara Pran Talmalala’ which translates as “My soul is in torment”.

Savarkar was imprisoned in Port Blair (now known as Sri Vijaya Puram) by the British in 1911.

Speaking at the launch of the statue, Mr. Bhagwat said the Andaman Islands have been the home of two great people — ‘Veer’ Savarkar and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He hailed Savarkar for using the term ‘Hindu Rashtra’ (Hindu nation) for India.

“Savarkar has not just named India as a Hindu nation but also explained the reason for it. He called India as ‘Hindu Rashtra’ as this is the land of the Indus, the land of Pitribhumi (homeland) and the land of Hindus, which is sacred,” Mr. Bhagwat said.

‘Like a galaxy’

He added that all the people who made efforts for the country’s independence between 1857 to 1947, and all those who gave their lives, are “like a galaxy”. “The brightest star in that galaxy is Veer Savarkar,” he said.

Home Minister Shah termed Savarkar as the most vocal proponent of the collective identity that emerges from Indian cultural values, tradition, and history.

“The British always tried to impose the mindset of slavery on Indians. They named the 1857 agitation as revolution, but Savarkar renamed it freedom struggle and advanced Indian spirit. His book written on it was banned even before it was published and this was the first book to meet this fate. He defined the 1857 agitation as India’s first freedom struggle in this book,” Mr. Shah said.

He added that the title of ‘Veer’ (heroic) was not bestowed upon ‘Veer Savarkar’ by any government, but by the people of the country which reflects his acceptance.