Noting that ancestors of all Indians are the same, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday said that the Muslims who had migrated to Pakistan "have no respect there" and there is a liberal culture in India.
Speaking at the launch of the book 'Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition' the RSS chief said that the person "who belongs to India will always be like that".
The book has been written by Uday Mahurkar and Chirayu Pandit.
"After partition, the Muslims who migrated to Pakistan have no respect there. There is a liberal culture in India. This is our cultural heritage. This culture binds us together. This is the culture of Hinduism. Savarkar had written that how the saffron flag of Hindu raja and green flag of Nawab stood together against the British rule," he said.
Referring to Savarkar, the Sangh chief said "Hindu nationalism" is about unity even as the country has different religious practices.
"Savarkarji had said that the British had understood they can only rule India by creating divisions. So they worked towards increasing radicalism. After returning from Andamans, Savarkarji wrote in his book that Hindu nationalism is about unity despite different religious practices," Bhagwat said.
The Sangh chief said Britishers knew that "they had to divide and rule to survive and loot the nation" and Savarkar experienced this strategy of Britishers in Andaman prisons.
"Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had said that he is the son of Bharat Maa (in Lahore). It is only that his way of worship was Islam. This was the temperament of Bharat. The wave of radicalism was there in India in the past also. In history, where there was Dara Shikoh and Akbar at one side then there was Aurangzeb also who reversed the narrative. The names like Dara Shikoh, Hakim Khan Sur, Hasan Khan Mewati, Ibrahim Khan Gardi, Ashfaqulla Khan, and others should be commemorated," Bhagwat said.
"I recently visited Jammu and Kashmir and got to know that an initiative is being taken there to rename schools on these great revolutionaries who believed in 'Bharat'. It is a welcome move. There might be differences in ways of worship but our ancestors are the same. We cannot change the motherland," he added.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also spoke on the occasion. Union Ministers Parshottam Rupala, Gen VK Singh (retd), SPS Baghel and Arjun Ram Meghwal were also present at the event.
( With inputs from ANI )
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