«Veer Savarkar »
Indian
nationalism was not a sudden phenomenon. It grew and reached its climax as a
result of many forces operating through a fairly long period. Great men of all
sorts contributed to its steady development through a hundred or more years. It
is wrong for us, who have seen post 1920 activities, to forget or belittle the
services of those who worked and made great sacrifices even before 1920. It is
a matter of satisfaction that Savarkar’s contribution comes up for special
national notice on 24th December 1960, fixed for that purpose.
Savarkar
of Maharashtra and Chidambaram Pillay of the Tamil country had both the unique
honour of being sentenced to two life-periods of imprisonment , the one at
Bombay and the other in Madras during the first decade of this century which
was marked by excitement , repression and suffering in India. Savarkar was a
law student in London when he led a group of Indian revolutionaries there. I
used to get their literature circulated under prohibition. I knew Gandhiji was
their guest sometime and mixed with them on terms of great intimacy when he
visited England, although he stood for non-violence and they did not accept
that doctrine. Savarkar went through a daring bid for escape from British
police-custody when he took off his clothes and soaped himself and got out
through a port-hole in the ship when it was in a French harbour and swam into
French territory. He was arrested there and handed over to the British Police
who pursued him. The French Police did not then realise that he was a political
[escapee] who had escaped and he should not have been handed over. But once he
was again in British custody he was taken away for trial and sentence. I was
one of those who then got excited over this violation of international practice
and wrote to the press about it. Eventually the International Court rejected
the plea made on Savarkar’s behalf by an eminent French Lawyer. France was then
in what was called the “triple alliance” with Britain. He was finally convicted
and given a savage sentence by Justice Chandavakar in Bombay.
I
was deeply impressed by the story of the 1857 army revolt written by Savarkar,
printed and published somewhere in France and prohibited from circulation in
India. I got a copy somehow from France and read it along with a few friends
similarly enthusiastic about Indian freedom. Savarkar was in prison when the
Home Rule movement and later the Khilafat and Non-cooperation movements swept
the country under Gandhiji’s dynamic leadership.
Gandhiji
and the Savarkar group did not hit it off, as Savarkar was still a believer in
the use of force and did not think that non-violent non-cooperation would
succeed. Later Savarkar being too greatly attached to Hindu nationalism drifted
apart altogether from the stand taken by Gandhiji. Long prison-life told on
Savarkar’s health and I am not sure it did not also affect his once sturdy and
broad minded spirit. I myself believe it was unfortunate that Savarkar could
not join us and drifted more and more apart from the main stream of the Indian
movement for liberty. I look back to the great days between 1897 and 1920 when
Tilak and so many others, the cream of Indian manhood and intellect agitated
and suffered for the country’s sake, enriched the spirit of the nation and
prepared it for the final phase when Britain was forced to retire from India.
Savarkar is one of the heroes of India’s struggle against Britain and he will
ever be held in esteem and loved by us all, as an adhiratha in the long battle
for freedom that was waged in India.
C. Rajagopalachari
C. Rajagopalachari
Madras
17-08-60
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