NEW DELHI: Hindus and Muslims share the same ancestors and if this thought process had persisted at the time of the freedom movement, India's partition could have been stopped, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said Tuesday.
He said the Muslims who migrated to Pakistan don't enjoy much respect and prestige there while those who stayed here belong to India irrespective of their methodology of worship.
Bhagwat also called for a harmonious society.
India's age-old culture of Hindutva and Sanatan Dharma is liberal, Bhagwat said, adding, "We inherited this culture and nobody can be differentiated due to their way of worshipping. Our (Hindus' and Muslims') ancestors are one. If this thought process had persisted at the time of the freedom movement, there would have been a way to stop Partition."
Bhagwat made these remarks at the launch of a book on Hindutva icon VD Savarkar.
He said Savarkar was a nationalist and visionary.
Bhagwat said Savarkar's Hindutva was all about a united India where no one is differentiated on the basis of their religion, caste and status and it was based on the idea of country first.
"Several people talked about Hindutva and unity in the Indian society, it was just that Savarkar spoke about it loudly and now, after so many years, it is being felt that had everyone spoken loudly, no division (of the country) would have happened," he added.
"Muslims who migrated to Pakistan after the partition have no prestige in that country, because they belong to India and it cannot be changed. We have the same ancestors, only our methodology of worship is different and we are all proud of our liberal culture of Sanatan Dharma.
That heritage takes us forward, that is why all of us are living here together," Bhagwat said.
He also said whether it is Savarkar's Hindutva or Vivekananda's Hindutva, all are the same as they all talk about the same cultural nationalism where people are not differentiated on the basis of their ideology.
"Why should we differentiate? We are born in the same country, we fought for it. It is just our methodology to worship god that is different. And different ways to worship god has been our tradition," Bhagwat said.
The RSS chief said it would not be inappropriate to call the current era as "Savarkar's era as its an era of nationalists".