Perpetrator: Indian National Congress & their supporters

Year: 1948

Number: 8000 Brahmins murdered

Following the assassination of M. K. Gandhi by Nathuram Godse, with Narayan Apte, who were Maharashtrian Brahmins, Brahmin localities of Pune and Satara saw a Hindu Genocide of Maharashtrian Brahmins, orchestrated by Indian National Congress, along with other Brahmin-hating groups. This Brahmin genocide remains, to date, one of the most suppressed atrocities on Brahmin Hindus.

Brahmins were killed, Brahmin women were raped, shops and houses were set on fire, livelihoods destroyed, and many Brahmins forced to flee, to save their lives and future generations.

‘It’s written in “City, countryside and society in Maharashtra states” that in Aundh state alone the barbarity spanned across 300 districts in all thirteen thalukas. Maureen Patterson concluded that destruction was more cataclysmic in Satara, Kohalpur. The properties of Veer Savarkar were also swindled and torched by the perpetrators. Dr. Narayana Rao Savarkar was stoned to death.’ R. Sooraj Kumar

Narayana Rao Savarkar and his family were pelted with stones, as they tried to escape from their residence. He was gravely injured and eventually succumbed to his injuries on 19 Oct, 1949.

Estimates were that 8000 Brahmins were killed, with no record or estimate of how many were forced to flee.

“Angry mobs pillaged, burnt and looted the homes of hundreds of innocent Brahmin families, and many people were killed. All on the baseless assumption that all Brahmins were complicit in the assassination of the Father of the Nation.” Arvind Kolhatkar, eyewitness.

Every aspect of this genocide points to it being a premeditated crime, targeting a religious community, namely, Maharashtrian Brahmins, who were known for being staunch Hindu nationalists. For mobs of hundreds to suddenly attack Brahmins within such a short period of time would require great ingenuity and extraordinary means of communication, technologically not available at that period. These were not “riots” as often labelled, but a planned genocide, because it was spread over the entire geography of Maharashtra, not just one mohalla or city, using arson, which is not lying around in everyone’s backyard every day. The “mobs” attacking Brahmins knew who they were, where they lived, and had the means to attack them.

“My family stands as a proof.

My grandfather was among the richest merchant in Pune and was having 3 cloth stores then which were gutted in selective killing and property burning incidence.

The family was instantaneously reduced to poverty and we had to sell-off all the properties to reduce the trading-credits. The family recovered out of the losses only by late 70’s.” Anand Khatavkar

This is one of the genocides for which little information exists, once again, by design. It is otherwise impossible that a targeted massacre of a religious community is neither known, nor documented anywhere properly, except for first hand accounts of those who suffered, and individuals who documented the massacre at the time of its occurrence. There is every reason to believe that all evidence of this genocide was destroyed, along with images and news clips.

References:

“1948 – Brahmin genocides of Maharashtra — The gruesome episode blotted out of Indian history in the aftermath of untimely assassination of Gandhi.” by R. Sooraj Kumar

Gandhi Assassination Backlash in Satara by Arvind Kolhatkar

Was there a Brahmin massacre (5000+ killed) in India after godse killed Gandhi?

How did Shri Narayan Damodar Savarkar die?

Image:

Pixabay (Public Domain)

PS:

The article was updated on 2 February, 2020, to fix the broken links due to internet miscreants. The original blog article of Sri Sooraj Kumar Bhargav has been removed from Medium (mentioned in the references). An older version of it can still be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20190518090516/https://medium.com/@Sooraj_Kumar/1948-brahmin-genocides-of-maharashtra-a-forgotten-episode-in-indian-history-6739bd5c6c0f As per different accounts, Narayan Rao Savarkar is mentioned as the brother of Veer Savarkar in some places, and his son in some other places. What we do know is that he was related to Veer Savarkar’s family directly. Without deflecting attention away from the main issue at hand — that their family was lynched — we wish to narrate the plight of their family. Hence, we have removed mention of his relation to Savarkar for now. Future updates may update it as appropriate.