“The Hero is not fed on sweets Daily his own heart he eats”
-Emerson
In 1901 Vinayak passed his entrance examination In spite of his political preoccupations he never neglected his studies nor allowed his comrades to do that. So throughout his educational career he never failed. A large party arranged by the society and attended by several leading men of the city gave him a hearty send off on the eve of his leaving Nashik for Poona. When he meant to enter the Ferguson College, Vinayak significantly observed “we had up till now to confine our activities to the Nashik District alone. But now I have decided to utilize this opportunity of my entering the Ferguson College at Poona to further our cause and to spread our mission throughout Maharashtra. For, there I can find grouped together many of the rising youths who later on would be the leaders of public thought and action. If I could mould their minds and inspire them all with our principles then when they back to their different districts and towns, they would carry with them the torch that would perhaps set all Maharashtra a flame. In the small residency of the Ferguson College I shall be able to sound the heart of Maharashtra at a touch, to mould the province at a stroke. These are my hopes; at least I mean to try my best to accomplish it - whatever the results be.‟
And it is true that whatever the results were, he kept his word: he tried his best. Throughout the four years of his stay in the college residency, Vinayak was ceaselessly circulating his revolutionary tenets in the minds of the youths who gathered there from all parts of Maharashtra. Vinayak ever since his boyhood was a voracious reader. Even in the school he was often styled by his indifferent mates as a book warm. He had studied all Moropant and Vaman and many other Marathi poets. History was his special pursuit. He had already read almost all revolutionary history as well the volumes of the stories of Nations series. His oratorical powers were such that in the trial which later on took place, the Police referring to these days reported “though he could have hardly been 22, he had already developed into an accomplished orator of an enviable rank.‟ His eloquence exercised a wonderful effect on the masses; while when he dealt with some philosophical or literary subjects, the learned and the wise were ever struck by the polished diction, the charming fluency and the soundness and cogency of the argument he had in hand.
No wonder then that this early erudition and oratorical powers exercised an irresistible influence on the minds of his colleagues in the Ferguson college. His fame spread fast: soon became a notable figure in the political gatherings and circles of Poona herself. There was the great Tilak. Then there was the other Maratha patriot who, though less known to fame outside Maharashtra, was yet a great favourite with the young generation of the province and through his masterly writings in the well known Kal—delivered, as if through a veil the message of Freedom and strove to sow seeds of revolutionary thought in those days when others were afraid to refer even to Home Rule propaganda in India. It was Shivram Mahadeo Paranijpe. Savarkar came in contact with both these notable person in the public life of Maharashtra. He conducted a weekly in his college clubs, a manuscript copy of which was published every Sunday. There often appeared articles in this weekly which later on used to be published in the foremost papers in Poona and widely read in Maharashtra. All leading students‟ associations and societies came soon to be dominated by the “Savarkar Camp‟. The college halls began to reverberate with the oratorical flourishes and periods of the youthful speakers. The lectures on Italian revolution: the seven stages of revolutionary evolution: and other subjects delivered by Savarkar would long be remembering of Marathi eloquence and revolutionary literature. While the easy going, pleasure-hunting, fashionable student world was full of tea-parties and matches, this austere brotherhood of a dangerous sect wended their way every Sunday evening towards a small deserted temple of Shiva in a cavity of the hill not from the college quarters, assembled there one by one, would sit long in devising ways and means to spread their propaganda far and wide and as to how they could organize and arm the nation for the War Independence which to their mind seemed to be the only and indispensable passport to political freedom in the present day world. They initiated new converts to their society and administered the vow which bound them one and all to sacrifice in the sacred cause of Indian Independence, their dearest and nearest and if need be to die either sword in hand, or on the gallows, or in the prison cells.
Ominous are the shadows which coming events at times cast forth: some of these Indian youths were in later life actually called upon to face all these terrible tests and it must honestly be admitted that even in the hour of trial some of them flinched not but bore witness to their faith, even as they had avowed to do in letter, and spirit.
These activities of Vinayak naturally alarmed the college authorities. Many of them had formed a very high opinion of his abilities but honestly felt that they were likely to ruin the youth than help him on to a useful career if was allowed to indulge in him revolutionary activities unchecked. Some of them tried to win him over to the Moderate School of politics while others openly expressed their misgivings that the youth was likely to out one of the most dangerous demagogues in India.
But this counsel of teachers had no effect on Vinayak who took his lessons in politics from the lives of Mazzini, Shivaji, Garibaldi and Ramdas. He and his comrades went on their way. They all dressed alike, lived frugally, studied hard, passed their examination regularly, used Swadesi, took manly exercise and discussed nothing but the political questions and how nations in the world shook off their fetters of bondage and how India ought to dare and die till she won. They at times undertook trips to the old castles associated with heroic deeds of their forefathers, not to treat themselves there to tea parties, or idle tramping and revisualising the exploits of their fathers. In one of such trips they visited Sinhgad, immortally associated with Tanaji’s name, and there they restated their faith and standing in reverence to the heroic memory of the dead warrior, reaffirmed their determination and prayed that they might be given strength to die doing their duty by their race and their people and their motherland even as faithfully as Tanaji had done.
Now came the Swadesi - boycott movement of 1905-06. The Savarkar Camp threw itself headlong into it. They carried a lecturing campaign in the city of Poona, Nashik and several others places. When the usual summer vacation came Vinayak used at times to address three to four different platforms on a single day and such was his oratorical power that mass meetings of thousands of people sat spellbound to listen to him. He received invitations from several eminent persons from far near in Maharashtra. In order to impress his countrymen with the necessity of conceiving a deadly dislike for the foreign goods he thought of making a big bonfire if all foreign clothes which offered a never ending excuse for people to shirk and shuffle and defer to buy new ones. The idea seemed so extreme that even Lok. Tilak expressed misgivings as to its practicability. But the Savarkar Camp took it upon themselves to create the necessary enthusiasm in the citizens and addressing a couple of meetings in Poona decided to carry out the scheme. He opened the last meeting with a thrilling address and at the end called upon the people and especially the students to throw off the foreign clothes they still wore, and burn them down along with the lingering love that they all still felt in secret for their smoothness and finery an polish; burn them down as a necessary propitiatory rite for ever having bought them and in the light of that huge conflagration repent and take up the Swadeshi vow.” The appeal was irresistible. Hundreds threw down in the heap, caps, costs, aprons and shirt—whatever vilayati as such they wore. Some one referred to the economical unsoundness of the procedure. Vinayak remind the bonfire would create could not be calculated in annas and pies. “It is not the videshi cloth that we burn, but videshi itself—the treacherous attachment to foreigners and consequent betrayal of our Nation that we mean to burn here.” The huge heap of clothes and other discarded articles was mounted on cars and was taken out in a procession as a sacrificial offering would be. The crowd swelled and swelled till the great leaders Lok. Tilak, not in any way dissatisfied to see his misgiving falsified, came poured out in big maiden and set on fire. The conflagration rose, illuming the audience that ranged round the Holi and stirring speeches were delivered by Tilak and Paranjpe in which the latter taking out a videshi coat from the discarded heap, described how those tiny pockets of that videshi coat had stealthily carried away Indian money and diadems and crowns!” Now let thy treacherous charm, Oh little witch, that hiding thyself in this tiny pocket bled a nation white, be burnt to ashes! Consume, Fire; consume it and along with it all our national sins! The startling news of this first Indian “Holi”, this bonfire of foreign clothing created a stir and lighted up a controversy in the Indian press that raged long and bore its sparks and cinders as far as the Bengalee and the Patrika in Calcutta.
The bitter criticism of the Anglo-Indian papers on this latest phase of the British boycott movement alarmed the college authorities. They determined to dissociate themselves as strongly as possible from the affair to avoid Government displeasure and to save the institution from being dragged unto political troubles. The professors moreover belonged themselves to that economical school of thought which hated boycott as they feared it was prone to create hatred and in politics strongly dissented from Lokmanya Tilak. Naturally the prominent part played by Mr. Savarkar in the boycott movement and especially in the burning down of the foreign cloth, was so furiously resented by them that they determined to make an example of the incident. Accordingly the college authorities ordered that Mr. Savarkar should be fined 10 rupees and be rusticated from the college residencies within twenty-four hours.
The whole nationalist press of Maharashtra was loud in condemnation of this high handed action of the college authorities. Tilak’s Kesari thundered for weeks. The citizens of Nashik deliberately imitated Poona and publicly burnt heaps of foreign clothes. Towns and cities passed resolutions in appreciation of Mr. Savarkar’s public spirit and raised a fund to pay off the college fine. Of course the fund much exceeded the little amount of fine and consequently the excess was paid by Mr. Savarkar to the popular industrial fund—the Paisa Fund—of Mr. Kale Fortunately the Bombay University was wise enough not to take much seriously this controversy and Vinayak was allowed to appear for his final examination—the B.A. Bur as throughout out the year he had been restlessly carrying on the political propaganda and as at the eleventh hour he got rusticated from the college, every one feared he would fail to delighted of those who simply waited for an opportunity to malign the Swadesi and boycott movement as one that encouraged vagabondism in students. But Savarkar applied himself to his studies during the few weeks he could snatch from this political hubbub with such diligence that he came out successful in the B.A. Examination that very year and received public congratulations from the nationalists in Maharashtra. Mr. Savarkar was the first student who had been rusticated from the Government aided educational institutions in India for participating in Swadesi movements. The leading moderate papers of Bombay, The Indu Prakash, referring to the incident admitted the extraordinary gifts of the youth but added. But he had ever been an ill-tongued messenger of extremism. He propounded dangerous doctrines and led the students astray.” Mr. Savarkar graduated in 1905. As soon as he was thus freed from the fetters of a university curriculum he first undertook to organize the different societies that he had established at different centres and were but loosely held together. With this view he arranged for a general secret assembly to which all should send their representatives to ponder over the constitution and the future policy of their association it was a memorial gathering. No less than two hundred representatives from several secret groups in Maharashtra assembled there. The imposing ceremony and songs and the common vow with which the offerings of flowers and the auspicious rice they administered to themselves, all standing in reverence and deliberately uttering word by word as Vinayak dictated it, the exaltation which a dedication to a great ideal naturally invested life with, and thrilling consciousness that all this was to be dared and done in the glorious cause of the Freedom of their Motherland, of striving to react the deeds of Shivaji, Baji, Mazzini and Kosuth elevated the whole scene to holy sacrament. Vinayak in a brilliant speech formulated the future policy of the association and declared that as they in their college days strove to sow the seeds of revolution in all Maharashtra so thenceforth they ought to carry their mission to other sister provinces out of Maharashtra and convert the college and the camp to their views. With this expansive propaganda in view the amalgamated association was named as “Abhinava Bharat” the young— rising India.
Soon after this event Mr. Savarkar went on a lecturing tour. The ballads of Sinhgad and Baji Deshpande which he composed about this time as well as the stirring national and revolutionary songs of a celebrated poet Govind who too, the Government prosecution later on asserted, was a member of the Abhinava Bharat and was an enthusiastic follower of Mr. Savarkar used to be recited by a singing party on such occasions, as these tours and grew so popular throughout Maharashtra that Government soon found it necessary to proscribe them and confiscate all copies of books ever found. Nay, a possession of them was made a ground for a presumption of the possessor’s revolutionary inclination and sympathy. But in spite of it all the ballads yet live. The books were ruthlessly hunted out and destroyed, but the ballads lived and thrived from lip and almost religiously remembered and cherished, can still be heard recited in towns and hamlets amidst admiring circles of the Maratha people.
After he returned from tour Mr. Savarkar meant to take up law course and study in Bombay but just then Pandit Shamji Krishna varma, the founder of the Home Rue Society in London offered some scholarships to encourage Indian youths to travel and stay and study politics in free and foreign lands. Mr. Savarkar decided to apply for one of these scholarships. The strong recommendations of Mr. Tilak and Mr. Paranjpe in favour of Mr. Savarkar easily secured one of those scholarships for him. Mr. Savarkar decided to proceed to England to read law. In this project Mr. Chiplunkar too, the able Karbhari to the Raja of the Jawhar State, who had got his eldest daughter married to Mr. Savarkar came forth to encourage and financially assist his son-in-low.
By this time Mr. Savarkar had already incurred sufficient Government displeasure to come under strict police surveillance. His speeches in his last tour were undoubtedly revolutionary and if the Government still hesitated to lay hand on him it was only for the fear of making him all the more popular on its account. Still one of his speeches at Nashik was so virulent and the general temper of the people had grown so explosive that the question of arresting Savarkar was once seriously discussed. The news reached Mr. Savarkar and he too for a few days was hourly expecting an arrest. But just then the news of his getting the “Shivaji fellowship” founded by Pandit Shamji reached India and the Government thought it better to take no further steps as they expected Savarkar would leave India for England where in all probabilities he would be overawed by the might of Britain and would in the light of greater experience and riper age be forced to revise his political creeds. Moreover the prospects of a Barrister’s paying career were sure, to judge from several other cases, to make him much more worldly wise and unwilling to run mad risks.
Thus the Government and many a wise man thought. But the young enthusiast was thinking otherwise. In his speech at one of the secret sittings of his society he declared that as it became very easy to spread their political tenets in Maharashtra by getting hold of the source of all future political initiation and lead— the intelligent youths of Maharashtra who were destined to control the next generation in that province, at the Ferguson college where the pick of them were found collected and within easy and effective touch, even so this second opportunity if well used, was sure to enable him to come into a close contact with the pick of the young and the rising Indian generation and thus help them to scatter the seeds of Indian revolution far and wide in the land at single stroke. The youths that go over to Europe to study or stay are generally the representatives of either the wealthiest or the most gifted and energetic element in the Indian Nation. If but they could be initiated and trained to revolutionary thought and action, they when coming back would serve as so many centers in the land and from the exalted positions, which they were bound to occupy as barristers and professors and officers in all departments of life 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. Moreover he promised his associates, as the informers reported, that he would try his best to introduce himself to the Russian secret organizations, which then were grown most powerful and with the bomb and the bayonets of spasmodic risings and assassination terrorized the Russian Czarist Government as never before, learn their methods and means.
One more incident that took place about this time is worth noting in the light of all that has been recorded before. There came a Sadhu named Agamya Yogin to Maharashtra and was for a while known to fame as one though a recluse was yet much interested in the political movement and had delivered several speeches in support of the advanced school of political thought. In some of his speeches in Poona he invited the students to organize themselves and promised to reveal a scheme of his own if they could send so me of their trusted leaders to see him. The students of Poona thereupon wired to Mr. Savarkar who in Bombay, to go to Poona. Accordingly he went there and addressing the students in a memorable speech approved of the idea and being himself chosen as the leading member to represent them; interviewed Agamya Guru—the Swami above referred to. After an informal talk for a while the swami made some ordinary and common place remarks on organization and the interview ended. This was all that happened between Mr. Savarkar and the Swami and this incident would have been forgotten as trivial but for its funny sequence. The police seem to have marked it all and reported to their higher officers and they to theirs: till years after wards one day Mr. Savarkar was much amused to read in the Rowlatt report a passage which seriously Swami Agamya Guru. The reader too, we doubt not, would be equally amused to learn of this splendid police discovery after what they have gathered about Mr. Savarkar’s activities even from this summary sketch of his life. It is at times such ill-informed reports and statements that commissions sit solemnly pondering over and generally base their serious conclusions upon.
Even while he was preparing himself for the voyage Mr. Savarkar established a centre of the Abhinava Bharat Secret Society in Bombay, and recruitment several students from the Wilson and Elphinstone and other colleges and Institutions and conducted a weekly named “Vihari.” So attractive and inspired were his writings that the Vihari rise to a sudden prominence in the rank of Marathi papers and was sold out in thousands even though Savarkar’s name was not publicly associated with the paper. When all preparations were completed, Mr. Savarkar sailed for London somewhere in May or June 1906 at the age two or three and twenty. The City of Nashik gave him a public send off. Few men were ever loved more devotedly by their friends and relatives than Mr. Savarkar was. The city of Nashik was full of his followers and friends who looked upon him as a young angel and devotedly prated that he might soon come back to them after some four years or so which were expected to be necessary for the completion of the contemplated legal course in London.
How little they knew that some twenty long and trying and terrible years of captivity and exile, of transportation and worse were yet to intervene between their payers and their fulfilment. The city of Nashik had to pay fearfully in subsequent years for the attachment and loving loyalty it bore to Mr. Savarkar and his principles. But down to this day, the city prides over the fact that the Savarkar pre-eminently belonged to Her and loves to call herself “Savarkar’s Nashik.”