Savarkar jostles for space with EMS and AKG in Kerala Governor's calendar

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the Hindu nationalist who firmed up the Hindutva ideology, is not the big surprise of the calendar brought out by the Lok Bhavan of Kerala governor and RSS man Rajendra Arlekar. The calendar celebrates the birthdays of the country's Marxist icons EMS Namboodirippad and AK Gopalan.

Interestingly, the portraits of Savarkar and AKG can be found in Parliament, too. Savarkar's portrait was unveiled by then President APJ Abdul Kalam at the Central Hall of Parliament on February 26, 2003, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. AKG's was unveiled a year later on December 10, 2004, by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the waiting hall of the Parliament. 

In addition to the birthdays of national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ambedkar, and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad,  the Governor's calendar also marks with carefully rendered oil portraits the birthdays or remembrance days of the finest to have emerged from Kerala. 

There are social reformers Sree Narayana Guru, Ayyankali, and Chattambi Swamikal. There are writers OV Vijayan, Thakazhi, Basheer, Madhavikutty and MT Vasudevan Nair. There are poets Kumaranasan, Changampuzha, G Sankara Kurup, Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon, Edappally Raghavan Pillai, Ayyappa Panicker, and ONV Kurup.  There are pioneers, JC Daniel and Varghese Kurien. There are freedom fighters - Mohammed Abdur Rahiman and K P Kesava Menon. And there are also actors Prem Nazir, Jayan, Bharat Gopy, Thilakan, and Oduvil Unnikrishnan.

A unique feature of the calendar is the importance given to India's revolutionary freedom fighters who died young. There is Vasudev Balwant Phadke, Ram Prasad Bismil, Alluri Sitharama Raju, Birsa Munda, Khudiram Bose, and Madanlal Dhingra, all of them executed by the British in their twenties. The martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, and also of Shivram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar, who were executed along with Singh on March 23, 1931, is also marked.

Among these revolutionary names in the Governor's calendar, it were the histories of only some, like Balwant Phadke, a revolutionary inspired by Shivaji, and Birsa Munda, the tribal leader who had rebelled against the Christian missionaries, that the Sangh Parivar had attempted to reinterpret to enrich and fortify its politics. The other names are national icons unconditionally revered.  

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the only BJP leader in the calendar. Images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Jan Sangh leader Deendayal Upadhyaya are there, but only to mark the International Day of Yoga on June 21 and Antyodaya Diwas on September 25.

Congress stalwart K Kamaraj is featured, but not former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, and former Kerala chief ministers K Karunakaran or Oommen Chandy.

Governor Arlekar released the Lok Bhavan Calendar on December 23 by formally handing one to Union Minister Suresh Gopi.