Immortalizing Savarkar - An Opinion-Editorial
Written on June 3rd , 2020 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}आर्तरक्षणार्थ घेति शस्त्र देवही करीं / शस्त्र पाप ना स्वयेंचि / शस्त्र पुण्य ना स्वयें / इष्टता अनिष्टताहि त्यास हेतुनेंच ये
To protect the oppressed, even the Gods wield weaponry. A weapon itself has no virtue nor any iniquity. Only its purpose gives it propriety or impropriety.
-Veer Savarkar, an excerpt from Shastrageet (Ode to the weapon)
The above lines from Veer Savarkar aka Vinayak Damodar Savarkar most conveniently express the path he decided to attain Purna Swaraj for his land and people. Veer Savarkar is a forgotten hero who brought the Indian freedom revolution to the doorsteps of the British and waged war right under their nose. But the man who first ignited the fire of nationalism and freedom in the youth of this country sadly remains forgotten by today's youth, his life shrouded in layers of controversy, while often being called a coward and a traitor. His fault? According to historian Janaki Bakhle,
“Given the stunning success of Gandhi, the long hand of the nation has reached back into the entire period of colonial rule and adjudicated a set of Indian nationalists as worthy of study and those on the wrong side of the nation as worthy of condemnation.” [5]
Savarkar paid with his legacy for not following the ‘Mahatma’s’ ideology and idea of struggle. Here’s an attempt to uncover the legacy of the most misunderstood man in the history of Indian freedom struggle.
Savarkar’s life can only be described by dividing it into two eras. The first era is when he led the charge against the British from their very home in London and Europe before being deported to Cellular Jail in 1911. The next era was his life in prison and after being released in 1924. This is the part where he formed and propagated the idea of Hindutva as a uniting force for all of India.
Veer Savarkar’s entire life was inspired by one man alone, Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian nationalist leader who unified Italy under a single country. He was amazed by Mazzini’s vision and actions that it is said:
“No sooner he reached London he began the translation of Mazzini’s writings in Marathi and within a year of his departure from India had it finished to secure a record sale in Marathi literature.”
-Life of Barrister Savarkar (Chitragupta). Pg.76
Due to his admiration of the man, he founded secret societies like ‘Abhinav Bharat’ (similar to Young Italy by Mazzini) and ‘Mitra Mela’ where he spread the ideas of revolutionaries other than Mazzini too like Shivaji, Ramdas, etc to provoke the feeling of nationalism. An important fact to keep in mind here is that when Savarkar was spreading the idea of Swaraj, Mr. Gandhi had not yet set foot in India’s struggle for freedom and was still in South Africa fighting for their rights.
When Savarkar came under British surveillance, he went to Shyamji Krishna Varma, founder of Home Rule Society in London. Savarkar went to London with a vision much larger than the British could comprehend. In one of the secret meetings, he is said to have quoted:
“The youths that go over to Europe to study or stay…. If they could be initiated and trained to revolutionary thought and action, they when coming back would serve as so many centres in the land ……were likely to render matchless services to the cause of Indian Independence.
It was a golden opportunity he said that would take him into the very heart of their opponent’s fortress and show him the sources of their strength and their weakness.”
In London, he was quick to join the political activism being carried out by Shyamji at India House. Soon Savarkar rose in stature among the activists of India House to the extent that Shyamji left him in-charge of India House when he fled to Paris in 1907.
We have all heard the saying, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.’ Savarkar’s activism defied the very soul of this. He was a leader who wielded a pen in one hand and gave out weapons with the other.
Savarkar’s pen spilt out literature that could inspire the youth to take up arms and fight for their land. He would regularly write articles and print out pamphlets. Some of his books were so provoking that the British would go to great lengths to stop their publishing and distribution in India. This included one of his most revolutionary work, ‘The Indian War of Independence of 1857’ where he rechristened the revolution from being a mere ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ to a ‘war against the British’. He elevated Tatiya Tope, Nana Saheb, Rani Lakshmi Bai to the status of freedom fighters from ordinary rebels in the eyes of readers.
Another example of Savarkar’s non-violent methods was his celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Indian Independence War of 1857 in 1907 which was a reaction to British celebration of crushing the Revolution. It is best described by the following lines:
“…Mr. Savarkar had the youth by him. A great and memorable meeting was held at India House, fasts were observed, a vow to undergo a week of self-denial was taken,….students boldly appeared in Oxford and Cambridge and the Inns of court wearing beautifully carved badges of “Honours to the martyrs of 1857” on their breasts….Even in a college, the English professors lost their temper…at the sight of the badge borne by the Indian students “Martyrs? They were murderers! Remove the badge.” Thereupon the Indian students demanded an apology… The political atmosphere in England grew daily more and more electrical. The Indian Government began to feel restless…”
--Pg-80-83, Life of Barrister Savarkar (Chitragupta)
Savarkar founded ‘The Free India Society’ within India House to expand his activities. The meetings were attended by hundreds and were held in the open. Savarkar would narrate the revolutions in Italy, France, America and stressed repeatedly that:
“Peaceful evolution had a meaning and a sense, a peaceful revolution had neither.”
--Life of Barrister Savarkar (Chitragupta)
Soon after taking charge of India House, Savarkar started to think of ways of converting his philosophy into action. And so opened Savarkar’s other hand.
He sent Hemachandra Das along with Senapati Bapat and Mirza Abbas to Paris in search of ‘A Bomb Manual’ used by Russians during that time. He set up a lab inside India House where they would experiment and make these bombs (which were actually Picric Acid bombs). Soon, he dispatched Hemachandra Das and some others to India to spread this knowledge and set up small bomb factories in India.
Savarkar now wanted the activists to take up arms directly. He set his plans in motion to acquire weapons from other nations and get them to India to start the armed revolution.
“Mirza Abbas and Sikandar Hayat Khan organized to smuggle a large cache of arms—twenty automatic Browning pistols purchased from Paris, and thousands of cartridges …. dispatched to India with the India House chef, Chaturbhuj Amin leaving London on 15 February 1909…. reached Bombay on 6 March”.
--Savarkar: Echoes of the Forgotten Past (Vikram Sampath)
Unfortunately, the consignment was caught in India along with Savarkar’s brother Baburao Savarkar by the British when a member of their Society ratted them out. Baburao was sentenced to Kala-Pani for life.
Meanwhile, thousands of cyclostyled copies of the manual were distributed to Abhinav Bharat cells in Bombay, Poona, Nashik, Kolhapur and other places. Hemachandra returned to Calcutta to his comrades and began utilizing the manual for manufacturing bombs across Bengal. Their activity led to the famous Alipore Bomb Case, or the ‘Maniktala Bomb Conspiracy’ when a nineteen-year-old Khudiram Bose threw this bomb on a carriage that was thought to be carrying Calcutta magistrate Douglas Kingsford though Kingsford wasn’t in the carriage. This sent a message to all young revolutionaries to charge. Soon Savarkar’s efforts were triggering bombings across the entirety of British India.
But the final event in Savarkar’s stay in England was a result of the growing unrest among Indian students with the Partition of Bengal. And soon enough, Madan Lal Dhingra, another forgotten martyr, on 1st July 1909 shot Curzon Wyllie in the face in an open meeting. This sent ripples of terror across England because an officer being shot on their soil was an embarrassment for British Intelligence. Savarkar stood by Dhingra till his death, even when his own family and nation disowned him and that started the end of Savarkar in England and his road to Cellular Jail. When India House was searched and closed Savarkar wrote:
“...The India House was closed not before it had done its work of propaganda: for every room where an Indian youth stayed was turned into an Indian House…”
But that wasn’t the end, Savarkar had now revealed India’s freedom struggle for the world to see and let them know the resolve with which Indians were going to end the British Raj. An excerpt from Life of Barrister Savarkar mentions:
“By 1910…. the enemies of England all over the world began to take the Indian revolutionists seriously and opened negotiations with their leaders. Pandit Shamji, Madame Cama and other leaders in Paris, Lala Hardayal in America, Mr Chattopadhyaya in Germany and others yet not to be named out but equally zealous and able workers in Russia, Turkey. South America and other parts of the world… at last in Great German War, India became an international issue and in the famous letter formulated by the Kaiser in reply to the demands of President Wilson the question of complete Political Independence of India was openly and authoritatively broached as one of the indispensable conditions of world peace.”
-- Pg-85-86, Life of Barrister Savarkar (Chitragupta)
Back in India, Savarkar’s writings were being hailed by most of the young blood sprouting across the nation, including one Bhagat Singh. Bhagat Singh’s letters, articles and notes have been found riddled with quotes from Savarkar’s writings. He seemed to be pretty impressed by his book on the 1857 war of independence.
"World-lover is the hero whom we do not hesitate a little to call a fierce insurgent, staunch anarchist - the same heroic Savarkar. Coming in the wave of world-love, he used to stop walking on the grass thinking that the soft grass would be mowed under the feet."
--Bhagat Singh’s article titled ‘Vishwa Prem’
“Sacrifice was adorable only when it was directly or remotely but reasonably felt to be indispensable for success. But the sacrifice that does not ultimately lead to success is suicidal and therefore had no place in the tactics of Maratha warfare”
--Quote from ‘Hindu Pada-Padashahi’ in Bhagat Singh’s jail diary
There was another who was inspired by Savarkar, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. There is evidence that Netaji and Rash Behari Bose printed copies of Savarkar’s “War of Independence of 1857” in Japan.
Despite conducting violent revolutionary activities, Savarkar was not a hot-head. Savarkar was a master of deception and strategy. He would use his intelligence for all actions he took, be it smuggling literature into India or planning to kill the British. For example, when India House first learnt to make bombs, it was the first impulse of revolutionaries to bomb British offices. But it was Savarkar who discouraged this and decided that spreading this knowledge in India will prove more effective in creating chaos for the British. During early days, when all British publishers refused to print Savarkar’s book on the 1857 war of independence, he published it in Holland and smuggled it into India with covers of Dickens' classics.
He was the master-mind leading the foot soldiers into this one-sided war against the British where the Indians had been disarmed. The death of foot-soldiers like Dhingra, Hemachandra Das and many unknown activists was Savarkar’s burden and a curse for leading the charge.
This account is not even close to summing up Savarkar’s life in London or after that, but this is enough to reinstate Savarkar in the same Hall of Valour alongside other revolutionaries like Netaji, Sardar Bhagat Singh, Lal-Bal-Pal and even Gandhi (although that won’t define valour), away from the labels of ‘coward’ and ‘traitor’. This is enough to remind people that this man suffered and sacrificed all comfort and luxury very early in his life to raise the message of Purna Swaraj.
“ At your altar, have I sacrificed my friends /sacrificed the pleasures of youth, myself/ Righteous is your cause and blessed by all gods/ Serving you, I realized the supreme truth
At your altar, I sacrificed my home, wealth and property/ IN this raging fire did I sacrifice my new-born son and wife/ At your altar, did my Elder brother go/ the one who was the embodiment of courage and dignity
At your Altar, did my younger brother go as well;/ Now, it is my turn..../ Even if we were seven brothers in family
All of them would have been sacrificed at your Altar, oh Mother !!! “
--Excerpt from Savarkar’s Poem, माझे मृत्युपत्र (My Final Testament)
SOURCES:
1. Savarkar: Echoes of the Forgotten Past (Vikram Sampath, 2019)
2. Life of Barrister Savarkar (Chitragupta) [http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/life_of_barrister_savarkar_by_chitragupta.pdf ]
3. https://www.livehistoryindia.com/history-daily/2019/08/27/savarkars-work-on-the-revolt-of-1857