Azad
A lot of my educated friends from other side of the political spectrum have started dissing a freedom fighter taking cue from their leader Rahul Gandhi. This mindless vilification of a man who spent his life in service of nation makes me furious! This thread is to urge all of you to read about Veer Savarkar. I will begin to highlight the key aspects of his life which people miss in this tirade of abuse and offensive memes which just portrays him as a person who ‘apologized’ to British. And I will come to that as well.
MITRA MELA AKA ABHINAV BHARAT
Even as a 17 year old, Vinayak wanted independence. There was no other way but to wrest it from the hands of British through a revolution. He set up an organisation called Mitra Mela as a front-end organisation of Rashtrabhakta Samuha on 1st January 1900 with the objective to organise and prepare for armed revolution while maintaining a facade of cultural activities. He and his friends would meet every weekend and have a detailed lecture on a political topic followed by an intense discussion. This was to awaken the spirit of freedom among their friends and make them more politically aware.
Shivaji festival was celebrated in Maharashtra in a tepid way. Mitra Mela took up the task in 1900 to celebrate it in a grand fashion. During this occasion, Vinayak delivered a rousing speech. Soon it was followed by Ganpati festival where he coined the slogan “Swatantrya Lakshmi ki Jai!”
Vinayak had always been a voracious reader and during this time he also started writing extensively. He wrote a beautiful poem in praise of the Godavari- Godavikili. A lot of theatre artists reached out to him and requested him to write, which he did. He also studied Kalidas, Milton, Shakespeare and compared Ramayan and Iliad in an essay. One of these was on Nana Fadnavis and why we should celebrate national heroes. This essay was prescribed by Bombay university for matriculation syllabus in the 1940s. As a college student, many of his articles found their way to newspapers of Pune. His heart wrenching poem, “Vidhawanchi Dukhe” talked about the plight of Hindu widows and dealt with cruel customs they had to face. This won him a prize of Rs. 20 and showcases his progressive outlook of social reform especially with respect to women’s rights, which we shall discuss later.
Pune had become the hub of political activity in India. In January 1902, Vinayak enrolled in the prestigious Ferguson college. This is where he polished his organisational skills and fine tuned his writing and oration. In 1903, his poem ‘Jayostute’ created a huge impact among masses. It was later composed by Hridayanath Mageshkar and sung by Lata Mangeshkar and broadcasted on AIR after independence. (Insert Picture)
Vinayak and his fellow revolutionaries were not some misguided fools who wanted to take on a mighty British empire without a plan. He says clearly here what their thought process was. They were like matchsticks in the wind. During his time in Pune, Vinayak came in contact with Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. When British partitioned Bengal in 1905, it was Vinayak’s idea to organise a bonfire of foreign clothes. Tilak ji appreciated the suggestion and asked him to go ahead with the plan.
The plan was executed on Dushara. On the same day, in Nashik, his elder brother Ganesh Savarkar organized a similar bonfire at the Race Course Grounds. This was a moment of solidarity in the national movement where people across the nation were standing with the plight of people in Bengal. Due to leading the movement of burning clothes, Vinayak was expelled from Ferguson college hostel and fined Rs. 10. S. M. Pranjpe organised a meeting in Sarvajanik Sabha where eminent Punekars spoke in favor of Vinayak. Tilak wrote a stinging editorial “These are not our Gurus”.
By now Mitra mela had been renamed ‘Abhinav Bharat’. New India! They started contacting revolutionaries and making a network throughout India. Ganesh met Aurobindo Ghosh and his brother Barindra at Surat in 1907. After that they were in constant contact with revolutionaries from Bengal. Abhinav Bharat was fashioned after revolutionary outfits of Ireland and Russia. They had a cellular structure and all the members were not known to each other. This saved them and their arms cache multiple times from Police.
A secret file was first opened on Savarkar brothers in 1906. Their public meetings were regularly attended by Police detectives and they knew it. However, one mole had gained access to the inner circles. Soon he moved to Bombay to finish his law and stumbled across an announcement for scholarship in the ‘Indian Sociologist’, a newspaper edited by London based Shyam ji Krishna Verma for studying law in London. For him to study there he required two recommendation letters. One was written by Lokmanya himself and the other was given by S.M.Paranjpe. Surprisingly, the dean who expelled him from the hostel also gave him a recommendation letter.
LONDON
In London, a new chapter of his life opened. He started lodging at ‘India House’ created by Shyamji and quickly made it the epicenter of Indian revolutionary activity right inside the enemy’s heart. Benefits of going to London were multiple.
-He would become a barrister.
– A large scale propaganda could be carried out to draw eminent Englishmen towards their side.
– Learning how to manufacture cheap bombs.
– Creating an international network of revolutionaries.
During his time in London, Vinayak came in contact with a lot of great men and women. One of them was Lala Hardayal who joined Abhinav Bharat and took its oath. Both of them were stars of India House. This is the same Lala Hardayal who later founded Ghadr party and galvanized Indians across America and Canada for freedom. One of his other close associates was Virendranath Chattopadhyay. Or as his friends lovingly called him, ‘Chatto’. Chatto was the brother of Nightingale of India, Smt. Sarojini Naidu. It is said that Somerset Maugham fashioned a character of Indian revolutionary after Him.
Then there was Madam Bhikaji Cama. ‘Mother of Indian revolutionaries’, Madam Cama, as per British, “was regarded by Hindus as a reincarnation of some deity, presumably, Kali’. Initially a moderate, she soon was swayed by the revolutionary cause. Other notable people who joined Vinayak were K.V.R. Swami, Niranjan Pal, Hemchandra Das, Bapu Joshi, M.C. Sinha, Harishchandra Krishnarao Koregaonkar, Hotilal Varma, Mirza Abbas, R. M. Khan of Nabha, Abdullah Suhrawardy who was vice-president of the Home Rule Society, and Sikandar Hayat Khan who later became the prime minister of Punjab.
SAVARKAR’S INSPIRATION
Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian who spearheaded Italian revolutionary and unification movement. Several Indian nationalists were influenced by him, including Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, S.M. Paranjpe, Surendranath Banerjea and M. K. Gandhi. Savarkar’s Abhinav Bharat drew inspiration from Mazzini’s organisation ‘Young Italy’. In London he gave a lot of lectures on how Mazzini recruited from Austrian army and other princely states in Italy to liberate his country. He wanted to spread the fire of freedom among Indian soldiers employed in the British army. Savarkar advocated Indians to join British Army for this reason. “The arms borne by Indian soldiers under British command are our arms”, he said. Due to this reason he translated Mazzini’s autobiography and sent it to his brother Ganesh to publish in India. It had a fiery preface drawing the parallels between Italy and India. But it was written so carefully that British could not point a finger at it despite knowing what it intended to do. The first edition got sold like hot cakes, and the second edition was pre-ordered in droves. British authorities were forced to proscribe it.
Extensive searches were conducted in homes and shops to confiscate the copies. Any person found possessing a copy was presumed a revolutionary. Vinayak also learnt Gurmukhi and read extensively. He distilled the thoughts in a series of pamphlets called ‘Khalsa’. These were aimed towards the Sikh soldiers who constituted 20% of British Indian army.
CHANGING THE NARRATIVE OF 1857 WAR
Another momentous achievement of Savarkar in London was to change the narrative of 1857 war of Independence which was considered as a simple mutiny by Britishers and Indians. British narrative was that it was merely a mutiny due to an issue of cartridges. Vinayak destroyed this narrative and explored the entire revolution scientifically. He gained access to India Office library and researched the accounts of war given by British Historians and generals. At the end of his research, Britishers got a whiff of what was up and banned his entry to the library. He sent his trusted friend V. V. S. Aiyar to do the final research and finally the book “Indian war of Independence of 1857” was written. This book explained the genesis of the revolution. How Hindus and Muslims united for one common cause, Swaraj and Swadharm. It explored the roles of Rani Lakshmibai, Tantia Tope, Nana Saheb and Bahadurshah Zafar.
What were the effects of this book? British considered this book so dangerous that they proscribed it even before it got published. The book had to be published in Holland and smuggled back to India. This book served as a source of inspiration to revolutionaries for decades after that. Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev made it a mandatory reading for every member of HSRA. Netaji Subhas got an edition printed for his soldiers in Azad Hind Fauz. So did Rash Behari Bose! In fact, Rash Behari Bose wrote this in an editorial when Savarkar finally attained freedom in 1937.
WORLD SOCIALIST CONGRESS
In 1907, World Socialist Congress was organised in Stuttgart by international labour and socialist parties. Vinayak and his friends decided to use it as a platform to enlist support for their cause. Madam Bhikaji Cama and Sardar Singh Rana were chosen to go as delegates. Vinayak and Hemchandra Kanungo designed the first Indian flag which was unfurled there by Bhikaji Cama. She thundered, “This is the flag of Indian Independence. Behold, it is born!”
BOMB MAKING MANUAL
One major feat that Abhinav Bharat achieved was smuggling a bomb manual from Paris. Vinayak sent Hemchandra Das Kanungo, Mirza Abbas and Senapati Bapat to procure the manual. But it was in Russian. They got it translated, went to Belgium, Holland and then Berlin to get it published. The copies were smuggled to India in boxes with false bottoms. Bapat reached Mumbai on 26th March 1908 and met members from Abhinav Bharat and these copies were distributed in Bombay, Pune, Nashik, Satara, Gwalior, Baroda, Amravati, Nagpur and other places. Hemchandra was an Anushilan Samiti member and took the copies back to Bengal.
Remember the famous Alipore or Maniktala Bomb case where Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki were executed? It was masterminded by Aurobindo Ghosh, his brother Barin Ghosh of Anushilan Samiti using the same Bomb manual. One copy also reached Tilak. Activities originating from India house were reverberating through entire British India!
Scotland Yard tried to insert a lot of spies in India House. Members from Abhinav Bharat did the same. They had their own spies in government offices. Spies like M.P. Tirumala Acharya would supply false information and also get 5 pounds in return. Same strategy was adopted in India as well. Many members joined the postal department and worked for telegraph services to intercept important messages.
PERSONAL LIFE STRUGGLE
1909 was a bad year for Vinayak on personal fronts. He got the news of his 4 year old son passing away. His brother Ganesh Savarkar was arrested and given Life imprisonment in Kaala Paani when Copies of a bomb manual were found in a raid at his home. All their belongings were confiscated. He was paraded on the streets of Nashik in fetters and handcuffs. His wife, Yesu Vahini, was ostracised socially and only Abhinav Bharat Members came forward to help. Madam Cama started sending Rs 30 every month to her from Paris.
MADAN LAL DHINGRA CHAPTER
On the evening of 1st July, 1909, Madan Lal Dhingra assassinated William Curzon Wyllie and shook the British Empire from within. Dhingra’s family immediately publicly disowned him. There were condemnations from all quarters of Indian society, including INC. Gopalkrishna Gokhale, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Surendranath Bannerjea, Raja of Benaras, everybody castigated Madan Lal for his ‘heinous’ crime. There was a public meeting in London on 5th July to condemn Dhingra. Even his brother was present there. At the end of the meet, they decided to unanimously pass a resolution to condemn Dhingra for his act. This is when Vinayak jumped up from the last rows and screamed defiantly, “No! Not unanimously!” This resulted in a fist fight with a English and broken spectacles and nose.
Nobody from his family visited him in jail except Vinayak. Both of them cried like children. After all, Madan Lal was Vinayak’s protege. I am not somebody to use the word ‘epic’ lightly. But Madan Lal Dhingra’s last statement made in Court was of epic proportions. I am attaching it here for all of us to read. Dhingra’s last wishes were to get a mirror so that he made sure he went to the gallows with the same cheerful face and to get his last rites according to Hindu rituals.
Brits buried him in the prison.
BRITISH TARGETS SAVARKAR
It is no coincidence that British hurried up to introduce reform within months. We know them as ‘Morley-Minto reforms’. These events and Vinayak’s close involvement in them meant he was always in the news. These also lead to his entry to Bar being denied. By now India House was shut down and Vinayak was a high profile target for British Empire. On 13th March 1910, he was arrested in London on charges made on him after he had left India. They wanted him to be extradited and tried in Indian courts as it was easier to manipulate them.
Soon, Vinayak was being transferred to India aboard S. S. Morea. He had constables watching his every move. On 8th July 1910, he finally found an opportunity while the ship was docked in Marseilles, France. He jumped from the open porthole and dived into the sea.
He swam about 20 feet and reached the shore and started running trying to find a taxi when Brigadier Pesquie of French Gendarmerie Maritime saw the confusion and joined the constables chasing Vinayak. When he was caught, he requested the Frenchman to arrest him and take him to a magistrate. Pesquie understood little English and handed him back. This is how his last attempt to seek political asylum failed. This created a huge international uproar. French Press took it up as a national scandal.
Jean Longuet, socialist leader and grandson of Karl Marx became his vocal supporter. Indian revolutionaries in France rallied support for Vinayak in France. Every major newspaper in France and Britain covered it and it became the subject of correspondence between French Minister of Justice and English government. This was taken up for arbitration in Hague by the government of France and UK while Vinayak simultaneously faced trial in India. He was too dangerous in the eyes of British authorities to be kept in Indian jails.
SAZA-E-KAALA PAANI IN CELLULAR JAIL
Finally after a farce of two trials, in 1910, Vinayak was awarded two life sentences, i.e., 50 years in Kaala Paani. While a life sentence in the UK meant 14 years, in India it meant 25 years. The Hague decision followed soon after where it was decided that British government did not need to hand over Savarkar to the French.
CELLULAR JAIL LIFE
After being shunted around in jails for a while, he was shipped off to Andamans in June 1910. Let us document this journey with a few details about Cellular jail. Each cell was 13’6’ by 7’8 with a small window 10’ above the floor. Baths were public and had to be completed almost naked with only three pells of water. That too an inmate had to wait for the command of the supervisor to take every pot of water. Then there was Barrie. The jailer who treated the jail as his own kingdom.
Food was strictly measured and more often than not stolen by the warmers. All the inmates got was half boiled rice, without salt, known as Kanji. Barin Ghosh, who was jailed there at the same time, gives the details of their daily food intake as ‘‘Rice—6 oz. [ounces], flour for roti—5 oz., salt—1 dram, oil ¾ dram, and vegetable—8 oz.’ Very often they would get pieces of snakes and centipedes in their food and meted with severe punishment when complained. This led to constant bouts of diarrhea among various inmates.
That takes us to the topic of lavatories. There were no lavatories in any cells. One could only relieve himself thrice in the day. You had to control your bowel and bladder or use a small earthen pot given to you. Even when they were let to use the lavatory, they would be in batches of 10 facing each other. God forbid if you had diarrhea during the night. You had to sleep in the small cell with the floor overflowing with excrement because nobody would come to help. Doctors would be permitted only in extreme circumstances.
PUNISHMENT FOR INMATES IN CELLULAR JAIL
I have not reached the punishment part yet. Standing fetters was the simplest punishment one could get. From 7-11 AM and then 12-5 PM. Many had to relieve themselves in this position and were punished again for this. They were attached to a contraption where a rod would be attached to their legs and tied at their ankle as well as waist. This meant they couldn’t bend their knees. Sometimes this punishment would last for weeks at a stretch.
The worst of all was the kolhu to which Vinayak was assigned just a month after his arrival. It was the worst of punishments that one could think of. You had to replace the bull from the kolhu and keep working till 30 pounds of coconut oil or 10 pounds of mustard oil was extracted. This led to a lot of freedom fighters losing their lives and drove a lot of them to insanity. Indu Bhushan Roy hung himself, Ullaskar Dutt lost his mind. Many would ingest something to get diarrhea or get a wound and deliberately kept it open just to avoid kolhu.
VINAYAK’S JAIL LIFE
In jail, Vinayak was known as Bada Babu No. 7 after his room number. He organised a lot of strikes and agitations for better living conditions and their classification as political prisoners. Savarkar brothers were categorized as ‘D’ (Dangerous) criminals. Despite being in the same jail, they could not meet or see each other. In fact, for a long time, Ganesh did not even know of Vinayak’s presence there as newspapers and any contact with the outside world was not allowed.
Savarkar was always known to be bluntly honest. You can see some of that honesty in his memoirs where he writes that there was more than one occasion where he wanted to end his life in Kaala Paani. He also candidly writes about the petitions that he sent to the government. He returned back to his poetry and philosophy to help calm his mind in these trying times. Inmates in Cellular jail did not have access to pen and paper like political prisoners on the mainland. Savarkar used a nail and itched ‘Kamla’ on the walls of the prison with thorns and Nails! Barry would sadistically whitewash the walls but did not know of his eidetic memory. He was transferred to various cells and he did the same in all of them for the benefit of his fellow prisoners.
MERCY PETITIONS
Before we discuss his ‘mercy’ petitions, let us set the parameters on which these are questioned. Did British accept those petitions? If not, why? Did he do it alone? What was the reason behind it? Why did he use such language? Did he become a British Stooge?
There were a lot of revolutionaries in Kaala Paani we have never heard of. Because there is only one thought process that worked for India’s freedom and only a handful of people tried through non violent ways to get us to that freedom. Some of the freedom fighters lodged there were, Ullaskar Dutt, Waman Rao Joshi, Barin Ghosh, Nand Gopal, Hotilal Verma, Indu Bhushan Roy, Hemchandra Das, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Pulin Das and Nani Gopal. About 100 freedom fighters were in Kaala Paani along with ordinary dacoits, murderers and notorious criminals. These freedom fighters started their strikes in the jail for better living conditions. Nani Gopal, one of the youngest, started a fast unto death. He was on the verge of death when somehow Vinayak whispered to him, “Do not die like this. If you must die, die fighting like a hero. Kill your enemy and then leave the world.”
After the death of Indu Bhushan, Reginald Craddock was sent to Port Blair to conduct an inquiry. He met Barin, Vinayak, Kanjilal, Sarkar and a few others and he suggested they file an official petition which they did. In his petition, Savarkar requested the government to release him the second time.
Then came the first world war which Vinayak had prophesied about when he was in London. He was of the opinion that in this clash of two great powers, India should wrest its independence from British hands. Here’s the copy of this petition where he has requested for release to serve as a volunteer.
While many consider it as a move of cowardice, many feel it was a Shivaji style tactical move where he wrote similar letters to Aurangzeb and Mirza Raja Jai Singh. Was Shivaji not brave? Did he not establish Swarajya fighting bigger enemies? In politics, one has to read between the lines which the British did but unfortunately, our own people don’t. Why then this language? Many people forget that British occupation of India was Christian and they pushed Christianity zealously. To appeal to their christian sentiments. “Prodigal son” is a clear biblical reference. So is “Conscientious conversion”. Vinayak’s idea of a revolutionary to strive for freedom is well catalogued in his pre incarceration speeches and writings too.
Let me now show what British thought of these petitions. They considered Savarkar was trying to use this as an opportunity and rejected his petition. The second screenshot is Reginald Craddock’s personal view ‘Revolutionaries in Europe still swear by him..’ You can also see the prison log to see the number of times Vinayak was punished for revolting against inhumane living conditions. He was given standing fetters for weeks at a stretch. Bhai Parmanand recounted later, “For any nuisance, Barry would hold the Savarkars guilty.”
But while Vinayak was trying to gain freedom to dive back into national politics, what were other contemporary politicians doing? INC openly supported British during this period. Gandhi was in the UK where he organized a medical Corps to help the British soldiers. This beacon of non violence even marched in his home state from village to village enlisting people for the war in 1918. “England’s needs should not be turned into our opportunity…” Nonetheless, moving on.
An interesting tangent. Abhinav Bharat members and other revolutionaries had established contact with the Kaiser of Germany and S.S Emden was sent to Andamans to free the revolutionaries. Rash Bihari Bose tried to coordinate an attack on Andamans but failed.
On 20th March 1920, Vinayak again submitted a petition invoking royal proclamation by the king to give a chance to political prisoners. Barin, Hemchandra, Sachindranath Sanyal and a few others were released. But Savarkar brothers were still considered too dangerous to be released. In fact, Sanyal in his autobiography states that it may be due to the fact that after Savarkar’s arrest, the movement in Maharashtra all but fizzled. He was the stage manager for a lot of troubles including the death of Curzon even from London.
Oh, by the way, this is the same Sachindranath Sanyal who was again arrested for his role in the Kakori conspiracy. Once a freedom fighter, always a freedom fighter. Just because he filed a ‘Mercy’ petition did not change anything..
Savarkar’s Urdu poem “Yahin Paoge” was sung by revolutionaries from Kakori kaand. He composed this poem in port Blair and it showcases mental fortitude of the man.
In 1921, Savarkar brothers were shifted to an Indian jail. This was not done due to his petitions. It was done because British had decided to close cellular jail. While the petitions were released after independence, Vinayak already talked about them in his memoirs and gave his reasons for them. Vinayak was lodged in Ratnagiri and Ganesh in Bijapur and later Sabarmati where their health took further toll. In Sabarmati, the same year, Ganesh was released due to ill health.
RELEASE FROM THE JAIL
Vinayak was released on 6th January 1924 after being arrested first in March 1910 on a few conditions. He would not leave Ratnagiri district. And he would not engage publicly or privately in any political activity. Failure to do so would mean arrest without a warrant again with 25 years of jail term.
It must be noted that Savarkar was a champion of Hindu Muslim unity before going to Kaala Paani but his experience there changed his perspective. It was only after the brutalities, conversions and tortures that he faced in Cellular jail at the hands of Barry’s Pathan, Baluchi and Sindhi lackeys that his thought process changed. It was in Ratnagiri that Savarkar wrote his magnum opus, “Who is a Hindu”. Savarkar’s major work was yet to come. He went to kaala paani as a 28 year old and after his release as a 41 year old he was still constantly under British watch and was placed under house arrest for 14 more years.
During this time a lot of greats of that era went to meet him and seek his opinion including Mahatma and Ambedkar. His work for caste annihilation is always less talked about and I shall talk about it later. The thread is already very long. Let me just say, he was called Veer Savarkar not for nothing! Vande Mataram.
Sources: Vikram Sampath’s Echoes from a forgotten past, VD Savarkar’s My transportation for life, Sachindranath Sanyal’s bandi Jeevan, Barindra Ghosh’s Tale of my Exile, cath Scott clark & Adrian Levy’s Survivors of our hell. Gandhi ji’s complete works, Archives of India and UK.
