“When he who adores thee has left But the name of his faults and sorrows behind. Oh say! Wilt thou weep when they darken The fame of a life that for thee was resigned!!”
While the indomitable activities of the Abhinava Bharat became so serious as to be a cause of anxiety to the Scotland Yard which had to extend its scope to France and Germany, to cope with the Indian revolutionist propaganda, India too, lay not idle. The Manicktola case, the campaign of assassinations of Police officers and informers carried on in Bengal, the arrest of the Great Tilak and Paranjpe and several other leaders in Maharashtra, the consequent big anti-British riots in Bombay, all and many other factors made the Indian Government wild with anxiety and rage. The spread of the secret literature of the Abhinava Bharat could not be stopped. Lieut. Governors and Governors for example, that of United Provinces, thought it necessary to personally combat the influence, of the pamphlets such as “Oh Martyrs, Grave danger, Choose Oh Indian Princes‟ all of which reported to come from the powerful pen of Mr. Savarkar. Besides this, the Abhinava Bharat conducted fiery papers in Europe, namely, the “Vande Mataram” edited by Madame Cama, the “Talwar,” Mr. Shamji’s independently conducted Indian Sociologist-all these found their way to Indian colleges, hostels and clubs and even down to the regimental lines, in spite of the most vigilant watch, proscription and fury of the Indian Government. To make the matters worse Mr. Savarkar issued from time to time pamphlets highly inflammatory, addressed to the Sikhs printed in the Gurumukhi tongue.
The Punjab and especially the Sikhs were foremost in Mr. Savarkar’s thoughts. He was very particular about winning over the Sikh brotherhood to the national side. There is an interesting anecdote that throws much light on this question. One day Mr. Savarkar was discussing a scheme he had formulated to carry the revolutionist propaganda to the very cottages of Punjab with a prominent Sikh member of the Abhinava Bharat. The Sikh gentleman despondently said, “Do you can. It is so hopeless to get the Sikhs to fight against the English Government. The ma-bap theory and the other equally slavish one of “Namak Khata hai‟ - true to the salt that we eat, is so rampant and bored so deep down into their marrow by Government propaganda that no attempts of yours can make our Sikhs fight with the Government for decades to come.” Mr. Savarkar, his eyes flashing with fiery self confidence and faith exclaimed” But my friend are you not a Sikh? Had you not been brought up in that very theory “of panth and no nation and “ma-bapism”? But just as the slightest awakening roused in you the heroic Hindu blood of your ancestors and made you take up a vow of striving for the Political Freedom of India unto death even so, if but touched and stirred the fire of Govind Singh will blaze up in every drop of our Sikh blood in Punjab. I say let us work out for five years on this scheme and I tell you the Government will find our Sikhs as the most determined enemies they have to face among the Indian people. Somehow or other one of these means is bound to stir them up from their denationalized and treacherous attitude of the present.”
With this end in view Gurumukhi pamphlets by thousands were distributed in the regimental quarters in the Punjab. A grand festival was organized and ceremonious meeting held in London to celebrate the birthday of Guru Gobind Sigh, Lala Lajpatrai, Bipin Chandra Pal and several others prominent Hindus paid glowing tributes to the memory of the Great hero. Savarkar in one of his eloquent speeches hailed him as “the prophet, the warrior, and the poet in one. He had ever cherished a very high opinion of Guru Gobind’s personality and sincerity loved and admired him and the warrior’s brotherhood, he founded as the champions of the Hindu race. The most spirited pamphlets that he wrote specially for that occasion was named khalsa and which in spite of proscription orders found its way to schools and colleges in Punjab and was so warmly welcomed that in several examples it was entirely committed to the memory by men and recited out as one would a poem. In order to acquaint other Hindu sections with the glory and the greatness of the Sikhs in Punjab he wrote a fine book in Marathi on the History of the Sikhs—but unfortunately it was swallowed up by the Governmental “Postal Box” and never could be traced back.
In these and other ways Mr. Savarkar strove to win over the Sikhs to the Nationalist side, confident that before long the Revolutionist would succeed. And in a way his prophesy came out true. For if the attempts of the Abinava Bharat band did not succeed directly in India in the beginning yet later on their organ the “Gadar” in America and the spread of their literature amongst the Sikhs there did at last rouse them. The Canada emigrants‟ agitation added fuel to fire and the Comagatamaru affair exploded the train. Thereafter hundreds of the Sikh emigrants of the Gadar party poured into India with asset purpose of organizing a revolutionary rising in Punjab and the mutiny and the consequent revolts in 1914, followed by the Gadar cases in Lahore and in Burma ended in the execution of several Sikhs and the transportation of a number of them. Since then the Sikh agitation has continued down to this day.
After he left India, the Abhinava Bharat branches of Maharashtra were left under the charges of his chosen and selected friends. Very soon their work assumed such serious proportion that the Government decided to knock them down in time. They were suspected of receiving constant supply of arms, explosive and seditious literature from Mr. Savarkar in London and distributing them throughout the land. Mr. Savarkar’s eldest brother Mr. Ganeshpant was twice arrested in connection with riots in Nashik and Bombay. Nashik had once to be subjected to a military demonstration to cow-down the growing insolence with which the populace greeted Government officers and Europeans. But instead of being cowed down “Swatantrya Laxmi-ki- Jai!” Hail thee Goddess of liberty! Became a popular cry and reverberated from nooks and corners and city squares in defying accents. Tilak’s arrest was followed by serious anti- British riots in Bombay in which many a man trained in Abhinava Bharat School was suspected of being a secret participator. In Gwalior a branch of Abhinava Bharat was prosecuted arms were found with them, and some dozen persons got long terms of sentences for attempting to wage a war against the king. Thus when even the arrest of Messrs. Paranjpye and Tilak could not check popular agitation but only seemed to drive it and directly into the hands of the Revolutionists, the Government decided to arrest the most indefatigable leader of them and have done with it. Ganeshpant was just released from his first rigorous imprisonment of 6 months for leading the Bombay mob. He had published a pamphlet of verses which contained an inflammatory poem that citing cases of those countries which won freedom asked in a recurring refrain “who pray won Independence without going to war—without using forces!”
For publishing this booklet Mr. Ganeshpant Savarkar was arrested under Section 121-A for attempting to wage a war against the king. In the search of his house several revolutionary documents and explosive manuals were found. Mr. Ganeshpant was sentenced to transportation for life. The High Court dismissed an appeal and confirmed the sentence.
The news fell like a thunderbolt on the people. Transportation for life! That terrible word was quite a new innovation in the history of recent Indian political movement. Now politics was no joke: Ganesh was amongst the first half a dozen Indian youth who were called upon to face this terrible ordeal in days when a sentence of a few years imprisonment used to be the highest test of Political martyrdom. Vinayak read the news in the English papers as his private correspondence had long since become tabooed and so often interrupted and destroyed that he could get no regular news directly from his family. The Abhinava Bharat felt it was a blow directly aimed at them: The sentences passed on the Manicktola people were already under the consideration of the inner executive of the society in London. What happened there is still a sealed secret. One thing was noticeable. Mr. Dhingra who till then was a prominent member of the India House brotherhood, ceased to attend the clubs and to every one’s surprise joined a jolly club which being controlled by Anglo- Indian officers like Mr. Curzon Willie and others was much despised by the Indian youths— the angry Revolutionists went even so far as to bring a vote of censure against the apostasy of Mr. Dhingra - it was only Mr. Savarkar’s intervention that made them withdraw the resolution. Mr. Savarkar was ever given to be most lenient and forgiving to his friends even when they differed from him. “Even now if he ceases to be our friend let us thank him still for past services and avoid harsh words as far as possible” was his motto.
In the meanwhile the terrible blow that the Government had dealt at little loving home of the Savarkar’s was reasonably expected by the authorities to cool down Savarkar’s fervour and open his eyes. He was barred from re-entering India. He got stranded in foreign land. The dreadfulness of an exile’s life started him in the face. It was chiefly for his sake that his elder brother fell a victim to Government wrath. At home-to which he was exceptionally attached there was his beloved youngest brother some 17 years of age and his dear young sister-in-law now made to bear the monstrous shock of separation for life from her husband-under this calamity it was but human on the part of the Government to expect that Savarkar would cease to further endanger his family and friends and brilliant worldly prospects by giving up the mad hope of continuing the struggle for the Independence of India. To this expectation Savarkar soon replied. We have before us a letter which he wrote while his heart was bleeding for the calamity that had befallen his sister like sister-in-law to console her. It is couched in a few fine Marathi verses: We give free English rendering of them:
CONSOLATION
Oh my sister! My loving salutations to you, for your love had so tenderly nursed me as to help me forget the early loss of my mother.Thy letter gladdened my heart and made me feel truly blessed. Blessed indeed is this family of ours in as much as it is thus privileged to serve the Lord and administer to His will!
Many a flower is born and blooms and withers away: who has ever numbered or noted them! But behold, the flower that was plucked by that mighty Elephant, the Gajendra, to affect his Deliverance and was offered at the feet of Lord and thus withered away the stands immortalized by bards.
Even so this our motherland - our mother - craving the assistance of the Lord that she be rescued from the crocodile clutches of Bondage enters our garden, plucks a fresh flower the bough and offers it at His feet in worship.
Blessed indeed is this flower-garden, in as much as it is thus privileged to serve the Lord and shed its blossom in His service.
Let the rest of our flowers too be plucked thus, dedicated thus, wither thus! The garden that sheds all its flowers for the garland of the Gods is in blossom forever! Come Oh mother! To it again and gather all its bloom and weave thy garlands for the Great Festival of the Nine Nights.
Once the momentous ninth Night, the Navaratri is over and the ninth garland is woven and dedicated - Kali, the Terrible, will reveal herself and lead Her votaries to Victory.
Sister! Thou hast ever been the fountain of courage - the source of inspiration to me. Thou too art a consecrated and avowed votary to this great and holy mission. This consecration to a great and noble cause calls upon thee to be great and noble thyself.
Behold! On one side stands watching the Past - Souls of sages and saints and heroes of our race gone before: and on the other the Future: generations yet unborn!
May He bestow on us strength, that we may be able to free overselves of this momentous responsibility in such - wise as to evoke from these godly spectators a universal “Well done” “Well done!”
Having thus “consoled‟ his sister-in-law, the indomitable youth threw himself into the whirlwind of revolutionary activities with all the more recklessness for the dreadful blow that the Government had dealt out him. He had regularly gone through all his ceaseless political activity had only recently passed his Final examination entitling him to be called to the Bar. But now Government was determined to crush him and his influence. A case was instituted against him by the Benchers of the Greys Inn. The Indian Political supplied materials for accusation. Mr. Savarkar was put on trial. Ultimately the Benchers, doubtless cowed down a bit by the criticism of the English papers on their conduct of arrogating to themselves the power of a criminal Court, came to the conclusion of calling him to the Bar if but he would give an undertaking to desist from any further seditious activities. Mr. Savarkar replied that it was unnecessary to do so as if he did anything of that sort the Courts of law were able to call him to account. Moreover it was, he said, so difficult in those days to know what sedition meant, as shouting “Vande Mataram‟ was also constructed as sedition by some officers. At last the Benchers decided not to call Mr. Savarkar to the Bar, in spite of his being entitled to it by his passing all other tests: on political grounds alone. Nevertheless they did not either strike off his name from the roll members and gave him to understands that he still a chance of winning back his right of being allowed to practice as an advocate by renouncing or ceasing to take to the revolutionary movement.
In the meanwhile one morning the City of London was taken aback by the startling news that Sir Curzon Willie was assassinated by an Indian youth! The morning editions talked nothing but the news. Excited groups Englishmen could be observed in public squares, stations, trams and trains, discussing what made India to take to these Russian methods. What were the wrongs and grievances she was subjected to? Never, since 1857 had the British votes taken Indian affairs as seriously as on that morning. The evening papers came out with dark insinuations as to the connection of Dhingra, the Indian youth who shot Sir Curzon— the self same Dhingra who had recently joined the jolly club controlled by the Anglo- Indians and filled with loyal Indians—with the Free India Society and India House and ominously—added that it must be remembered that Mr. Savarkar was the responsible leader of both these hot beds of revolutionary politics. The continental papers too caught the flame and for the next week the only prominent news or the latest about which all Europe breathlessly waited every morn and eve was further disclosers about the Indian Revolutionary plot.
But more than the Europeans or the Englishmen themselves some Indians in London felt concerned about this most starting development that Indian political activity underwent. Messrs. Surendranath Banerji, Pal, Bhavnagri and Aga Khan were loud in condemnation of the dastardly deed. A meeting was hurriedly convened where all these shining lights of Indian community were presents. Even Dhingra’s father wired to London to express his feelings of abhorrence and assured the would that he felt ashamed to own Dhingra for his son, Every Indian who shock in his shoes hurried to the meeting to express his loyalty and condemn the dastardly murderer.
But the revolutionists too kept quietly watching it all. They decided to break the meeting if any attempt was made to revile Dhingra’s motive. They too came to the meeting. Englishmen, Anglo-Indians, spies, detectives, all crowded the hall. Speakers after speaker denounced the murder, the man, the motive, the revolutionary rascals and their tenets—the loudest of them being Mr. Pal himself. At last the resolution condemning in strongest terms the murder committed by Dhingra for reason-political, was proposed, seconded but instead of putting it to the votes the President hurriedly declared it unanimously passed. Even while these words “unanimously passed” were on the lip of the President a youthful but determined voice rose no! no! Not unanimously. The President wanted hush and brow best and repeated “unanimously.” “No!‟ the protest rose again. Mr. Bhavnagri, and Aga Khan angrily shouted who is that! Where is he! The Anglo- Indians rushed, the Indian leaders cast wrathful looks to find out the dissentient voice. Where is he! Who is he! What is his name? A hundred angry enquiries rose and in its midst came back the voice “It is me and here am I; my name is Savarkar.”
The whole meeting started to its feet. Some got so excited as to threaten and shout out kick him, pull him down, drive him out. Mr. Bhavnagari being the foremost rowdy in them. The figure that was unperturbably standing amidst this uproar said in a clear juvenile tone, “the resolution cannot be said to have been unanimously passed for I am against it.” All turned towards, the figure and, reported the Manchester Guardian “ discovered a thin, young and rather pale-looking youth standing firmly like one born to lead. It was Savarkar. The very sight of Savarkar made some tremble for consequences. Kick him, down with him! Rose the cry. In the melee a Eurasian rushed forth, and dealt a heavy blow on Mr. Savarkar’s face. His glasses broke and a wound caused near his eye profusely bled. But unmoved, with his face washed red in blood, he raised his right hand and emphatically but all the more calmly repeated “In spite of this all I still vote against the resolution.”
The sight of their bleeding leader exasperated the revolutionists as never before. One of them took out revolver. With an unerring eye, Mr. Savarkar detected it and signed to him to put it back. Another revolutionist rushed forward and with a lathi broke the head of the Eurasian who had assaulted Mr. Savarkar. He too profusely bled and reeled back to his seat. In the meanwhile the Police rushed in, the whole meeting had become a pandemonium of shouts and shricks of panicstricken ladies who raised shrill cries and gentlemen who rushed under their chairs to cover themselves from the imaginary “Bombs” which they fancied the revolutionary had brought there to blow up the whole show. The Police soon removed Mr. Savarkar from the hall and held him custody. At this Mr. Surendranath left the meeting protesting that it was cowardly to assault Mr. Savarkar who was perfectly within his right to have his protesting vote recorded. There was a general rush to the door. The meetings broke up. The revolutionaries carried the day. After holding him for hour or so in custody the police released Mr. Savarkar and expressed their regret for the fact of his being thus assaulted and even offered to take the Eurasian too into custody if Mr. Savarkar wished to do so. But Mr. Savarkar simply smiled and said: he had already got his reward and I think that is enough. The first thing that Mr. Savarkar did as soon as he came out of the Police hands was to pen a letter to the Times in defence of his action in the meeting. He wrote that in as much as Mr. Dhingra was not till then even put on trial and thus it was not at all clear whether he was the right man or if so whether his motive was personal of his senses or otherwise, it would have been an act of usurping the rights of the courts to thus condemn him unheard. Any such act was bound to Prejudice his case. So firstly in the interests of justice itself he meant to oppose the resolution by standing an amendment to it. But instead of allowing him to do so they wanted to carry out the resolution. Well even then the right course for the President was to declare that the resolution had been passed almost unanimously with but one dissentient voice. But instead of doing anything like that the leaders of the meeting began to howl and hiss, got completely panic struck and almost lost their senses. Moreover he failed to understand the reason of this unseemly and cowardly haste with which the Indians rushed to condemn the murder of an Englishman by an Indian when the Englishmen themselves were self composed as not to convene a meeting and condemn Dhingra till he was tried and convicted of the offence by the courts. The letter appeared in the Times and at once became the chief topic in all important political circles in England. Many a daily wrote notes and some appreciated the point raised by Mr. Savarkar. The man who had assaulted Mr. Savarkar and had his head split in consequence, wrote a letter to defend his action and bragged of being proud for having dealt “a genuine British blow” although being a Eurasian was only half British. But a rejoinder soon appeared in the Times which reminded him of the “Straight Indian Lathi” that sent the British blow reeling and bleeding back.
In the meanwhile Dhingra’s trial opened. He had a paper on his person when he shot sir Curzon Willie which declared the reason that made him commit that assassination. But that document the Police refused to publish in spite of his demand to do so. Attempts were made by responsible Englishmen to persuade Dhingra to state that he was not in his senses when he shot and pass off the affair as the mad action of lunatic. But Dhingra refused to put in any defence at all emphatically maintained in a long stirring speech that went round the world press that he assassinated Sir Curzon Willie “to avenge the inhuman sentence passed on Indian youths of death and transportation for life whose only crime was that they took up arms in order to free their motherland.” The document too, that he had on his person and the Police wanted to suppress was also mysteriously and secretly published with a foreword as a “Challenge” to the English Government and distributed broadcast throughout India, America and England. Nevertheless the English papers refused to print it in their columns. Thereupon a dodge was resorted to. An Irish friend of the Indian revolutionist smuggled the “Challenge” in the columns of the Daily News the leading liberal daily, without the knowledge of the editor himself to great chagrin of the Police and the press. The document was read and discussed even in the ministerial circles and only recently reminiscences published about Mr. Loyd George told us that statement as the finest piece in the patriotic literature of the world. Nay, they are said to have compared Dhingra to Roman martyrs. Mr. Hyndman openly wrote in justice that though he condemned his means yet he must admit that the impeachment Dhingra had leveled against the British Government was literature true.
The publishing of the “Challenge” was a mystery which the London Police could scarcely solve. It was thickly rumoured that the writer of that challenge was Savarkar and when the original that was found on Dhingra’s person was suppressed, the Abhinava Bharat got that copy of it which they had in their possession published only humiliate and frustrate the Scotland yard machinations. This rumour along with the fact that Mr. Savarkar had boldly sought for and obtained an interview with Mr. Dhingra, lay him open to serious charges against him of being a party to that dreadful affair. But Dhingra stood firm to the last moment maintaining he did all on his own initiation and in discharge of his duty towards his nation and only prayed to be allowed to be hanged and embrace death in the cause of India Independence. The Judges too got deeply impressed. Ultimately when the sentence of death was passed he thanked the Judges and said. “As a Hindu it is my earnest prayer that I may be born again in Hindustan and die again in her cause, till the cause is successful and she stands free to the glory of God and to the good of man.”
The Indians in England observed a fast on the day of Dhingra’s execution. They gathered round the jail, applied for permission that his dead body be handed over them that they might burn it according to Hindu rites. This request too was not granted and his remains were buried in the jail precincts.
Now a whole troop of detectives and police was let loose on the Indians in London. Almost every second man was marked out and watched. The India House was the special victim. The whole street was dotted by detectives. They would dog the steps of every Indian who passed by and scare him away. But Savarkar and his band continued their work unperturbed. When one of the press representatives asked him if he did not feel annoyed by his ever being shadowed, he smiled and said: “I have no objection to their standing there in the open just in front of my door as they do, if the climate suited them.‟ It was really pitiable to see the poor fellows standing and leading against the short pillar all day long in sun and shower in fog and mist and snow. At last this shadowing and secret annoyance reached such a stage that the Indian youths found it very difficult even to secure lodging. The houses and hostels liked not to be watched as ill-reputed haunts which fate befell them if they harboured Indians. The marked and prominent revolutionists, could not find a lodge, could not enter respectable restaurants; could not find company. Their relative and their parents from home denounced them. Some of them got stranded. They lived in constant fear of arrest. The India House was ultimately stopped as it enabled the Police to watch the centre of the Revolutionists all the more easily and in a group. But, as Mr. Savarkar said, 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.
And indeed the closing of the house did not close the chapter of revolutionary agitation in London. The youths conducted their secret meeting and all other activities in the most dogged and daring fashion every night as usual they stood up and solemnly repeated their political catechism.
“India must be independent: India must be united: India must be republican: India must have one common tongue. India must have one common script: that script was Nagari: that language was Hindi: that republic was that national form of Government in which the sovereign power—whether it be exercised by a monarch or by a President, matters not much— rested ultimately and uncompromisingly in the hands of the Indian people.” Here it may be mentioned in passing that the nations of the leaders of Abhinava Bharat about the future constitution of India were very eloquently stated in a pamphlet headed “Choose Oh Indian Princes,” which too was reputed to come from the pen of Mr. Savarkar and long extract from which appear in “Valentine Chirols‟ works. Savarkar ever said: “before you destroyed you must know what and how you going to construct. He himself was a close student of constitutional and political science and law.
While these events were happening in England the Government in India was carrying on relentless persecution of the circul of Mr. Savarkar’s family and friends. His father-in-law who was a karbhari of the Javar State was dismissed, several other relations prosecuted, made to lose their services, dogged and shadowed at every step, for merely being related or connected with the Savarkars. Not only that when a bomb was thrown at Lord Minto at Ahmedabad, his youngest brother—a boy of some 17 years was held in custody as suspect and was taken from town to town to extract some confession from him. He had already been arrested before in connection with a riot. Now none remained at home but the young sister-in- law of Mr. Savarkar, as his elder brother was transported for life, he was an exile in England and the youngest was held in custody under so serious a charge as an attempt at the assassination of the Viceroy—Lord Minto.
Such harrowing news coming in quick succession from home joined to the breathless activity he was carrying on in England could not but tell seriously on the health of Mr. Savarkar. To make the matters worse, the constant danger of being arrested as well as the annoyance of being shadowed all the hours of day and night which made it impossible for him even to find a room where he could snatch a few hours at undisturbed sleep, strained his sustaining power to the point of a physical collapse. Once after being turned out from two lodge in a day by the owners under pressure of the Police, Mr. Savarkar had just secured a third, late in the evening and tired out was on the point of laying him down on an easy chair—the keeper of that boarding house returned, apologized and informed Mr. Savarkar that he could not board him there any longer as the detectives had already posted themselves of the street corners in and front and as consequently his other boarders were in panic. Late in night once more Mr. Savarkar had to pack up his meagre belongings and leave this house and wander on in search for a new one. At last a German lady accepted him for a boarder. This solitary incident is cited to show what untold for this incident was only one out of hundred humiliation they had to undergo every day. Later on, Mr. Savarkar, weighed down with care, left London for Brighton and stayed there for a few weeks. It was there that sitting by the sea-beach, overborne with homesickness, abandoned and deserted and shunned by all, his soul burst into that pathetic poem Oh Ocean! Take me back to those my native shores!” these moving verses are now on the lips of all Maharashtra.” I long, I pine for those native shores! Take me Oh ocean to those my native shores!”