Bengaluru: Congress leader and Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge, in a direct attack on the RSS and BJP, claimed that the concept of two nations in India was first articulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

His remark came barely days after a special module released by the NCERT to mark Partition Horrors Remembrance Day held Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Congress and then Viceroy Lord Mountbatten responsible for India's partition.

In a post on X, Information Technology and Biotechnology Minister said, "The idea of Two Nations was first floated by ‘Veer' Savarkar and his ‘tukde tukde gang' endorsed it".

"In 'Essentials of Hindutva' (written in 1922), Savarkar defines Hindutva not by religion, but by homeland, India as both ‘Fatherland and Holyland'," he added.

Kharge recalled that at the Hindu Mahasabha's 19th session in Ahmedabad in 1937, Savarkar had declared, "There are two antagonistic nations living side by side in India. India cannot be assumed today to be a unitarian and homogenous nation. On the contrary, there are two nations in the main: the Hindus and the Moslems, in India."

He also cited Savarkar’s 1943 remarks in Nagpur: "I have no quarrel with Mr Jinnah's two-nation theory. We, Hindus, are a nation by ourselves, and it is a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations."

"Strange as it may appear, Mr Savarkar and Mr Jinnah, instead of being opposed to each other, on the one nation versus two nations issue are in complete agreement about it. Both not only agree, but insist that there are two nations in India -- one the Muslim nation and the other Hindu nation. They differ only as regards the terms and conditions on which the two nations must live," he quoted BR Ambedkar and questioned whether the BJP accepts this legacy.

What did the NCERT book say about partition?

"India's Partition happened due to wrong ideas. The party of Indian Muslims, the Muslim League, held a conference in Lahore in 1940. Its leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, said that Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, and literatures," the NCERT module said.

In a section titled "culprits of Partition", the NCERT module said, "Ultimately, on August 15, 1947, India was divided. But this was not the doing of any one person. There were three elements responsible for the Partition of India: Jinnah, who demanded it; second, the Congress, which accepted it; and third, Mountbatten, who implemented it. But Mountbatten proved to be guilty of a major blunder."

"He preponed the date for the transfer of power from June 1948 to August 1947. He persuaded everyone to agree to this. Because of this, complete preparations could not be made before the Partition. The demarcation of the Partition boundaries was also done hastily. For that, Sir Cyril Radcliffe was given only five weeks.