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While the Army grapples with the possible involvement of a serving officer in the Malegaon blast, NDTV took a closer look at the ideological beginnings of the Abhinav Bharat -- the hardline Hindu group whose members are under arrest for their role in Malegaon. (Watch)

Pune is a perfect example of new India and its dreams and Ferguson college one of its temples. The leafy campus of the college was once home to Veer Savarkar, the man who first founded Abhinav Bharat as a forum to propagate his brand of Hindu nationalism.

It was while he was a student here that Savarkar came under the influence of a man who propounded a very hardline Hindu militancy.

The man was Damodar Chapakar who assassinated a British police officer in 1897 and he and two of his brothers were hung by the British a year later. Having clutched a Geeta and singing Vande Matram, Damodar went to the gallows.

"It states that violence for the sake of good is actually a duty, so a man like Godse could say Gandhi Vadh; it makes murder almost a religious act," said Prof Suhas Palshekar, Head of Department, Political History, Pune University.

Savarkar wound up Abhinav Bharat in 1952 but his vision had been refined, the path to safeguarding religion was for Hindus to acquire military training.

In a speech around the time he said:

"Let the Hindus therefore come forward now and enter the Army, the Navy and the Air-Force, render the Hindu military-minded, spirited and valorous and secure and stabilise the Hindu strength in Indian Military Forces of all arms."

The legacy of this thinking can be gauged even today.

The Shiv Sena-BJP government in the mid-nineties set up military schools in almost each district of the state like the Rani Laxmi Bai military school for girls in Pune where Col Agashe, a former Gorkha officer is the commandant.

"We teach them nationalism and want them to be nationalists," said Col Srikant Agashe, former Army Officer.

The students here get a modern education, they also get a somewhat narrow view of India and its problems.

It is two military schools, the Bhosala Military School in Nashik and Nagpur that are now being investigated by the Anti Terrorism Squad, places where the ATS believes Abhinav Bharat activists were trained.

It's no coincidence that Pune is also the base for the new revived Abhinav Bharat.

Many point out that while the bulk of Maharashtra's soldiers are Marathas, this militaristic mindset is confined to a small community.

Is the thinking behind an act like the Malegoan blasts a synthesis of both these schools of thought?
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080072269&ch=1...