Markandeya Katju, the retired Supreme Court judge, time and again opposes the BJP. He frequently writes opinion editorials chastising the party. In one article, written in The Wire, he criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for not observing law and order. In another, he mourned the vilification of Muslims as a whole–and Tablighi Jamat members in particular–by the “communalists” during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Katju even admitted that he observes Ramzan. Yet, the man subscribes to the idea of ‘Akhand Bharat’ propagated by the BJP.
The concept of ‘Akhand Bharat’ was brought forth by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a right-wing ideologue, in the 1920s. Savarkar, a proponent of Hindutva, promoted the idea in jail before he was released in 1924. By 1937, he was actively propagating the idea of Akhand Bharat in public gatherings. Addressing the Hindu Mahasabha, he said:
We must declare, as an ideal at any rate, that Hindusthan of tomorrow must be one and indivisible not only a united but a unitarian nation, from Kashmir to Rameshwar, from Sindh to Assam.
Savarkar said he wanted Indians to gain freedom from the British. However, after he was arrested for possessing arms, he begged the British to have mercy on him. In jail, he had no interest in supporting the freedom movement. Instead, in his letters, the Hindutva ideologue heaped praises upon the British government. He even agreed to not participate in politics until the government deems it right for him to do so.
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