The remark came close on the heels of a special module released by the NCERT to mark Partition Horrors Remembrance Day holding Jinnah, the Congress and then Lord Mountbatten responsible for the partition
BENGALURU — In a direct attack on the RSS and the BJP, Congress leader and Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge has claimed that the concept of two nations in India was first articulated by Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
Kharge’s remark came close on the heels of a special module released by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to mark Partition Horrors Remembrance Day holding Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Congress and then Viceroy Lord Mountbatten responsible for India’s Partition.
In a post on X, Karnataka’s Information Technology and Biotechnology Minister said, “The idea of Two Nations was first floated by ‘Veer’ Savarkar and his ‘tukde tukde gang’ endorsed it.”
“In ‘Essentials of Hindutva’ (written in 1922), Savarkar defines Hindutva not by religion, but by homeland, India as both ‘Fatherland and Holyland’,” media reports quoted Kharge as saying on Sunday.
Kharge recalled that at the Hindu Mahasabha’s 19th session in Ahmedabad in 1937, Savarkar had declared, “There are two antagonistic nations living side by side in India. India cannot be assumed today to be a unitarian and homogenous nation. On the contrary, there are two nations in the main: the Hindus and the Moslems, in India.”
The All India Muslim League and Jinnah formally adopted the two-nation theory in 1940, via the Lahore Resolution.
Kharge also cited Savarkar’s 1943 remarks in Nagpur: “I have no quarrel with Mr Jinnah’s two-nation theory. We, Hindus, are a nation by ourselves and it is a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations.”
The idea of Two Nations was first floated by “Veer” Savarkar and endorsed by his “tukde tukde gang”.
— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) August 16, 2025
Chronology samajiye:
In Essentials of Hindutva (written in 1922), Savarkar defines Hindutva not by religion, but by homeland, India as both “Fatherland and Holyland”.
During…
“Strange as it may appear, Mr Savarkar and Mr Jinnah instead of being opposed to each other on the one nation versus two nations issue are in complete agreement about it. Both not only agree, but insist that there are two nations in India — one the Muslim nation and the other Hindu nation. They differ only as regards the terms and conditions on which the two nations must live.” Kharge quoted Babasaheb Ambedkar and questioned whether the BJP accepts this legacy.
NCERT Views
“India’s Partition happened due to wrong ideas. The party of Indian Muslims, the Muslim League, held a conference in Lahore in 1940. Its leader, Muhammad Ali jInnah said that Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, and literatures,” the NCERT module said.
In a section titled “culprits of Partition”, the NCERT module said, “Ultimately, on August 15, 1947, India was divided. But this was not the doing of any one person. There were three elements responsible for the Partition of India: Jinnah, who demanded it; second, the Congress, which accepted it; and third, Mountbatten, who implemented it. But Mountbatten proved to be guilty of a major blunder.”
“He preponed the date for the transfer of power from June 1948 to August 1947. He persuaded everyone to agree to this. Because of this, complete preparations could not be made before the Partition. The demarcation of the Partition boundaries was also done hastily. For that, Sir Cyril Radcliffe was given only five weeks.
In Punjab, even two days after 15 August 1947, millions of people did not know whether they were in India or in Pakistan. Such haste was a great act of carelessness,” it said.
