‘Coin of Blood’: Savarkar’s 'The Indian War of Independence – 1857'

Savarkar’s chief claim from the outset is that the Revolution was the manifestation of deep underlying principles. Indeed this sense of the underlying principles can alone justify such massive loss of life. It is the depth of that ‘root-principle’ that leads not only to the recruitment of hundreds and thousands to its cause, but also explains the extraordinary spread of the violence—from Peshawar to Calcutta. This notion of spatial expansionary logic was crucial to Savarkar. The spatial spread legitimised the principle for it cannot be reduced to mere regional interests. The nation is being created and legitimised as a dynamic space (rather than mere inert geography) in the ‘coin of blood’. The coin of blood had diverse fusing functions—not only spatial, but also between classes and religions too. [This is the third in a three-part series.]