I
In his utter helplessness and colossal frustration of life Savarkar was striving superhumanly to wring some good out of it. A true ascetic and man of action as he was, he resolved to make the most of life and to make the best of it. Such men of supreme courage and indomitable mil make appearance from age to age. Stone walls do not imprison them, nor do iron bars encage them. Their angelic souls rise above and soar. Their life is real. Earnestness is its breath. The grave is not its goal. Their souls are indestructible. A cruel thread of destiny was weaving and tightening round the neck of Savarkar. Despite the horrible and indescribable agonies, his genius throve in jail.
Ever since his childhood, when he was quite ignorant of what an epic was like, Savarkar had a mind to compose an epic on ‘ Panipat ^ but, being a poet of action, he could not find time for this great work. He seized this opportunity and almost achieved his goal. And this marvellous feat was performed in the dark Andamans where reading and writing was a crime. He had no paper, nor had he pencil. In prison life philosophy is the ultimate refuge of a troubled soul. And we know how all distinguished political prisoners of world fame wrote famous histories, autobiographies, works on philosophy and other kind of great works.
John Bimyan wrote his immortal Pilgrim’s Progress^ Thomas Moor wrote his Utopia, Sir Walter Raleigh, his History of the world, Tilak, his Gita Rahasya, Hitler, his Mein Kampf, and Nehru, his Autobiography and Glimpses of World History. Fortimately all these eminent men were supplied with writing and reading facilities. But Savarkar was the only eminent poli- tical prisoner of world fame who composed some ten thousand and odd lines of poetry of great imagination and of great thought, wrote them on the prison walls with thorns and pebbles, learnt them by heart secretly, and astounded the imagination of the world, giving an ocular proof of how the Vedas have been handed down ever since the childhood of civilization ! Just imagine the unbending tenacity and undying will power of a young man undergoing a sentence for half- a-century, who, while hanging in handcuffs during the punish- ment hours of jail life, recited, revised and learnt by heart his poems. Add to this, his untiring energy and ingenuity in making the wild criminals and devotional colleagues learn some of those poems by heart. After their release they went to Savarkar’s brother, Dr. N. D. Savarkar, and recited them dutifully and faithfully for reproduction.
Savarkar is a term s5monymous with patriotism in the domain of Indian politics and poetry. The parent thought of his poetry is the worship of the Goddess of Freedom. He sings : —
We dedicated to thee our thoughts
Our speech, our eloquence to thee. Oh Mother ! My lyre sang of thee alone and
My pen wrote of thee alone, Oh Mother !
And
For thy sake death is life
Without thee life is death.
And
O Mother, who will dare insult thee in the world
We will give thee bath of his blood.
And
Even so this our Motherland craving the assistance
Of the Lord that she too be rescued from the crocodile
Clutches of Bondage enters our Garden, plucks
A fresh flower from the bough and offers
It at His feet in worship.
And
Deathless is the family that falls to a man,
For the emancipation of its Motherland,
Filling the skies with the fragrance of their sacrifice,
Made in the welfare of Man’s rise.
Abject slavery and crushing foreign yoke are the source of his note. Glorious past is its inspiration. Patriotism is its song, Swaraj its aim and Humanity its goal. His poems and ballads have enchanted and in.spired numerous patriots, and, though suppressed by Government, were secretly circulated from sire to son. No other Bharatiya poet except Valmiki, Vyas and the great poets Chand and Bhushan— the latter pair sang the declining glory of the Rajputs— has sung of glorious victories of the Hindus, Hindu life, history and culture so immensely and epically as Savarkar has done. No other modern Hindu iwet has preached and ])ropagated love for Swaraj and Swadharma so intensely, fervently and stirringly as Savarkar has done. Savarkar represents an admirable combination of the valour of Veer Arjun and the poetic genius of Veda Vyas !
Sri G. T. Madkholkar, an eminent Mahratta literary critic, describes Savarkar as a poet who rivals Kalidas in the use of similes, a poet on the war path bristling with vigour, genius, learning and the lustre of the spear of the Mahratta warriors, who hammered the Mogul throne of Delhi to pieces and the sweetness of all the emotions of the Mahratta saint-poets who have raised this mortal world to the level of the abode of Vishnu. “ It is because of all this,” observes Madkholkar, “ that I make bold to say that Savarkar occupies the first and foremost place in the galaxy of Marathi poets.”
According to Madkholkar, Savarkar is perhaps the only poet who has during the last thirty years made conscious efforts to inflame the urge for independence and the sense of self-respect by holding before the Hindus, who were deprived of their freedom, the grand picture of the ancient glory and the valiant deeds of the past. The reason why all of Savarkar’s literary productions have assumed such a fascinating and sublime quality is that Savarkar has so beautifully and lavishly made use of Vedic, epic and historical ideas in his poetry, plays and other works. Madkholkar concludes : “ In his poems he has strung together so many beautiful and sublime ideas about Hindu life, culture, philosophy, and history that in the poetry of no modern poet of the last hundred years can they ever be found.”
Savarkar’s poetry has an autobiographical note and is subjective par excellence. He is a poet of action, of great personal experience, of lofty imagination, of noble emotions, of great sincerity and of great personality. His poetry bears a unique charm. His is great poetry of rare thrill, epic sweep, sky-high range, and grand metre ! His thoughts breathe, his words burn. Though hurled from the siunmit of a mountain into the limitless ocean, or into the frying-pan, the undying soul of Savarkar, like Pralhad, survives and sings songs of God and Man. Himself a subject of an epic, he has produced an epic. Poet Savarkar belongs to the line of great poets. It is easy and safe for a poetical soul to sing mystic and vague songs of grand eternity, eyeless fraternity and aimless liberty at a time when his own kith and kin are ground under the heels of slavery and poverty. But it is given to a few poets of Savarkar’s nerve and mission to raise the fallen in revolt and to drive a slave country to a fight for freedom. The reward for the former class is some coveted prize. The prize for the latter cast is the rope ! Only the definite, daring and self-experienced poetry can soar in the realm of this inspired class.
There are good poets in Marathi. But in the words of Dr. K. N. Watwe, Ph.D., and Acharya Atre, two foremost authorities on Sanskrit and Marathi Poetry respectively, even a dozen of that class would not together make one Savarkar. The difference between them and Savarkar is the difference between the simile and the metaphor. Some of them have repeated or expressed the thoughts of others, the sensations of others, the emotions of others. Savarkar has expressed his own emotions, his own sensations, his own thoughts. His style may, at some places, lack the ‘ correctitude ’ of strict school-masters and dry professors. In that Deathland he could not prune and polish it ! Yet, in personality, in sincerity, in style, and in prophetic vision, he is superior to them all. In greatness of sweep, in loftiness of imagination, in the gift of prophetic vision, he scarcely yields to the great ones of world poetry. Take, for example, Savarkar’s magnum opus in poetry, the Kamala. His Kamala rivals in delineation and delicacy with Shakespeare’s Miranda or Shakuntala of Kalidas.
Savarkar’s creative imagination is powerful and is ever on its wings. In the twinkling of an eye it perches on the tower of the universe. “ It surveys the royal procession of the Lord of the Universe marching in pomp and splendoxir. The ages are its miles and through the fi-iction of the wheels of His Chariot have sprung dusty .sparks that are shining as stars.
In its pomp and splendour the procession is climbing down the path of Time. Tlie comets are its arrows, the solar system is the row of fireworks going on. Sun.s and Moons are torches and Life if’ its energy ! To Savarkar’s lofty imagination the whole universe is the image of God. Shiva. The limitless sky is its hair and in it are the Moon and the Milky Way 1
Savarkar compares lotuses in water to hali-nude Gopikas bewitched by Krishna, bathing in the Yamuna. To him Kamala, the heroine in liis long Poem, looks as fascinating in a porched sofa as does a simile in the poetry of Kalidas. He describes her beauty in a marvellous simile. To him Kamala looks like the sweet dawn between fading moonlight and blooming of the day. To him at dawn stars look like the frozen drops of dew. He calls the butterfly an agent of the God of Love or Cupid that flies from flower to flower transporting kisses. Flowers are the imprints of kisses taken by the watchman of the nymphs who enter the garden secretly. In his famous Ballad on Sinhagad, the sea, the mother of gems, envies the lot of the eairth because it has sheltered the invaluable jewel Tanaji, who fell fighting on the Kondana Fort.
What great, grand and good poetry ! The wonder of it is that it blossomed in the wild Andamans ! The collection of his poems are aptly named as “ Wild Flowers.” These flowers have not met with world-wide appreciation for want of an agency that would distribute these flowers among the appreciating public of the world at large. Though complete in themselves, “ Kamala,” “ Gomantak,” “ Saptarshi,” “ Vira- hochhvas ” “ Mahasagara ” are parts of the incomplete epic. His other poems, “ Chain,” “ Cell,” “ Chariot festival of Lord Jagannath,” “ Oh Sleep,” and “ On Death Bed ” have a philosophical basis. These poems shed a searchlight on the innermost comer of the heart of Savarkar who loves entire secession from worldly affairs and who is in his heart of hearts an ascetic loving a retired and contemplative life intent on soul-contemplation ! To Savarkar engrossed in such soul- contemplation the very Shanivar Wada, the perennial source of political inspiration, is a heap of stones ! But the world around has not reached that divine stage of viewing things through such an angle! Peoples are crying for food, freedom, and faith. The worldly man comes out and he is Savarkar, the revolutionary realist ! Did the great Shankaracharya study modern science and world and make his reappearance in Bharat Varsha ?
Hence it is cleai- that Savarkar’s outlook on life is that of an ascetic moving in great events. Love of action and not renunciation of action has become the predominant and positive note of his life and literature. His views on the Vedant philosophy are ever to be remembered. He writes from the Andamans to his brother : “ The Americans need Vedanta philosophy and so does England, for they have developed their life to that fulness, richness and manliness — to Kshatriyahood and so stand on the threshold of that Brahminhood, wherein alone the capacity to read and realize such philosophy can co-exist. But India is not. We are at present all Shudras and can’t claim access to the Vedas and Vedanta. . . . We, as a nation, are unfit for these sublime thoughts, for it is well known that Bajirao II was a great Vedantist and that is why, perhaps, he could not see the difference between a kingdom and a pension. Let us study history, political science, science, economy ; live worthily in this world, fulfil the householders’ duties and then the philosophic dawn might come.”
To him life on this earth is like a three petalled flower. One is coloured with pleasure, the second with the colour of pain, the third mixed or colourless. Now the petal of pleasure and then that of pain gets warmed and thus this vain round of recurrence goes on. According to him the true picture of the world is one wherein a tigress with a piece of fle.sh of deer in its mouth is suckling its babe, a picture of pity and cruelty. Savarkar is not a bloodthirsty man. He is guided by the noble precept laid down by Lord Krishna : “ Do unto others as thou wouldst be done by.” He says he was a revolutionary under necessity and not by inherent choice. He sincerely abhors absolute violence. Where is the man who would run the ordeals of fire or would tread the paths of furies with bleeding feet for sheer amusement, he asks. He is a man who always fights for a just and righteous cause, lor the protection of the good and for the destruction of the evil-doers. “ For it was this very principle,” he states, ” that humanity was a higher patriotism that made us so restless when we saw that a part of it should aggrandise and swell like a virulent cancer in such wise as to threaten the life of the human whole, and forced us. for want of any other effective remedy, to take to the surgeon’s knife and feel that severity for the moment would certainly lie mercy in the long run.” He says in his poem, “ On Death Bed ” : “If ever 1 deemed it legitimate to have recourse to the exceptional swift and severe rules of emergency, it w’a.s only because duty led me and my generation into circumstances so abnormal and urgent as to render them indispensable in the interest of righteousness itself.” Duty for the sake of duly ! And he interpreted that duty of man. He says : “ Though the wise men, priests and sooth-sayers speak differently and in diverse accents, yet whatever conduces to the progress of Man, whatever contributes to the greatest good of the human soul and had been approved by the pious and the pure that alone I took to be the Duty of Man.”
Death had no horrors for Savarkar. He said that he had paid the debt of the Motherland by facing the furious fire, getting himself consumed bone by bone and flesh by flesh, that he had paid the debt of God by fighting under ‘His Banner,’ that he had adopted the Abhinava Bharat to continue the line of his family. He realized the kinship with all that breathed in the Universe and at times was so overpowered with a sense of Universal sympathy that his feet would get stuck to the spot lest he should trample to death under his feet some blades of grass, or worms. Often in his pensive mood he held the morsel in his hand, thinking that it contained seeds which were flesh and life striving to grow and enjoy the air they breathed.
If he dies in despair, he says, he will not feel sorry for there is no end to one’s desires and ambitions. If the end of life is shifting to another life according to merits, he is confident that a good place will be reserved for him as he possesses the best testimonials from Lord Krishna himself that he served selflessly for the cause of Man, God and Country. If life is to disintegrate into fragments and atoms, death will be to him a sound sleep in that case ; or let those atoms, he says, forget themselves and let the ‘ I ’ in him disappear into the Universal oneness !
Yet one more point is to be noted about Savarkar, the poet. He has introduced blank verse metre called ‘ Vainayak ’ into Marathi poetry. The Anushtubha metre of the Ramaxja7ia and the Mahahharata fame, Milton’s blank verse metre which poet Madhusudan of Bengal has popularized in Bengal, charmed him exceedingly in his school and Andaman days.
The romanticism in Savarkar’s poetry has been properly bridled by a sense of realism, a love of service and sacrifice, and a goal of universalism. His head is towering up in the Universe, his mind weighing good and bad, and his eyes watchful for the greatest good of Man. Front-rank critics and great ones of Marathi literature from N. C. Kelkar to G. T. Madkholkar, from Daji Nagesh Apte to P. K. Atre, all have paid glowing tributes to his genius and have been fascinated by the flights of Savarkar’s imagination conveying great and good thoughts !
II
In the Andamans Savarkar had ample tune to philosophize his political theories and theorise his political philosophy. His thoughts, reading and experience evolved into a definite ideology. The seeds of his ideology took firm root and sprouted into a tree. The decrease in the population of the Hindus and the consequent danger to Hindusthan by the rise of rival and ahen proselytizing faiths absorbed his mind. In Europe people belong to one religion. There strife is between races for predominance and domination. In India it is a question of rival religions, where kidnapping and conversion are ostensibly done in the name of religion to strengthen a rival faith. The danger Savarkar scented was clear, straight, and tremendous.
Though the British Government had to resort to a policy of non-interference in religious affairs, they were in a way not inclined to curb the proselytizing activities of the Muslims.
Mosques, markets, habitats of Muslim robbers and the prison houses had been free fields for the conversion of the Hindus. Whenever news came to Savarkar about the conversion of a Hindu lad or a prisoner, he was restless and he turned his mind devotedly to the serious threat, outwardly a religious but inwardly a crucial problem o! national importance and existence.
Almost all Indian jails having Hindu prisoners by majority, the authorities naturally would appoint non-Hindus to watch and control the prisoners. Hence Muslims easily rose to the posts of petty officers and havaldars and warders. And those Pathans, to quote the verdict of the Cardew Conomission, ‘ enjoyed a bad pre-eminence as the active agents in the matter of unnatural vices.’ They turned these opportunities to bad account and harassed and forced Hindu convicts to embrace Islam. The revolutioneuries in the Cellular Jail were almost exhausted due to their great efforts in agitation and action in India and sufferings in the Andamans. In those hard, helpless, and hopeless days none of them desired to aggravate their hard lot by opposing the religious fanaticism of the wicked and vile Pathan petty officers. Obviously from fear some of them tried unworthily to cloak their cowardice with a display of great tolerance and broad-mindedness. It mattered little to those progressive men whether that vile and fallen lot of wretched Hindus remained in or went out of their fold and field ! ‘ Let it be so,’ summed up their social, individual and mental psychology. What was worse, some even miserably passed days, giving the Muslim warders high hopes of their self-conversion.
Suffering for a nation’s welfare is a public and personal duty. Savarkar was doing it in jail. Why this additional burden ? But then a report of a conversion of a Hindu or an injustice done to a prisoner would inflame him. Like a lion helpless in a cage, he restlessly fluttered over the insult and injustice done to the racial, national, or religious soul. So with curses on his head, cares in his heart, burden on Ids back and troubles under his feet, he resolved to put a stop to the conversion activities of the Muslims.
With that aim in view he began to shake off the passivity in the Hindus, activise their efforts, change their tone and tendencies, mould them into an organism alive to every injury, and make them masters of their fate and land. To the broad- minded and wiseacres he asked as to why the non-Hindus tried to win over to their fold that base, wicked, corrupt lot of dangerous drunkards and murderers. They said the Muslims were fanatic and with them reason did not weigh. Well, why did these cool and cultured Europeans use the hoe of gold for removing that mud in Indian villages, woods and valleys ? Indeed, to fertilize their lands of influence with the manure ! Savarkar asked his colleagues why those Westerners polluted their holy religion by that vile and worthless lot of humanity ? Why should the Missionaries and Maulavies render service or offer food and shelter as a price for religion and never from a humanitarian angle ? If the ulterior motive of these Missionaries and Maulanas was that their religion and interests should dominate the world, then let the Hindus have the freedom to serve Humanity in their own way. Let the Hindus aim at increasing their numerical strength to fight their struggle for existence and material well-being. Thus went forth his chain of arguments.
Savarkar impressed upon the minds of his colleagues that it was not a fact that a vicious man necessarily gave birth to vicious men. New Australia and Canada had sprung up from such vile and base elements thrown away from their mother countries. He reminded them that the Ramayana, one of the best epics of the world, was given to the world by Valmiki, a man fallen in early life. Losing one man was losing numerous future families and increasing the numerical strength of the rival faiths in India !
Allured by comforts, enticed by passion, baited by vices and dreaded by tortures, a few Hindu prisoners in the Andamans were driven into the fold of Islam. The jail administration did not take these conversions seriously. One day it became known to Savarkar that a Hindu boy was on the verge of conversion. When the superintendent came on his rounds, Savarkar cried out, “ Application, Sir ! ” The Superintendent asked him to see and speak for himself. Savarkar tauntingly asked him whether the Superintendent had ordered the other prisoners also, who caught their letters or trapped the revolutionaries, to mind their own business. Savarkar said angrily that he would n ike a complaint ; let him hear or not. The Superintendent toned down. He then informed the Superintendent about the likely conversion. The Superin- tendent asked him as to why the Hindus did not convert Muslims instead of making complaints against them. Savarkar stated that Hinduism was a non-proselytizing religion. He told the officer that Hinduism was based on the noblest possible principles. To Hindus, he said, religion was not like the colour of the chameleon. He concluded : “ It is their received and noble belief that all the religions of the world are at the bottom one and have the same aim, namely the welfare of humanity. The Hindus never look upon religion as a > of wordly strength and social solidarity. That is in my opimon thair fundamental blunder from the point of view of national strength and solidarity.” The Superintendent understood Savarkar ’s stand well. He asked Savarkar what he expected the authorities to do. Savarkar stated that no prisoner should be converted to any other religion by fraud, force, deception, or enticement without the knowledge and consent of the jail authorities, who on their part should certify the bona fides of every case. He added that all minors should be brought up in their parents’ faith until they were able to judge the things for themselves. The Superintendent agreed. And while departing he rated the Pathan warder who was about to execute the conversion in question.
The boy in question was saved, but the Hindu prisoners would not allow him to sit in their file for meals. He sat beside Savarkar. So they called Savarkar Bhangi Babu. In the end Savarkar persuaded some of them to discard that suicidal attitude and by and by the Shuddhi spirit came to stay. It was a great news all over the Andamans that Savarkar had stopped the conversion of a Hindu. Upon this some convicts, who had come across the creeds and propaganda of the Arya Samaj in India, were organized and with the help of some fearless and bullying prisoners, some prisoners were reconverted to Hinduism, their mother fold. Those Sanatanists who had called Savarkar Bhangi Babu now began to look at the problem from a new angle of vision, knew the value of solidarity and strength and the farsighted aim of Savarkar and supported him. Even a Christian of long standing was reconverted to Hinduism; later on several Muslim attempts were foiled by an eleventh-hour intervention or early precautions. The Muslims complained against Savarkar that he converted even born Muslims to Hinduism. Hindus realised now that Muslims could be converted to Hinduism. Muslim converts and warders reviled Savarkar incessantly, but were silenced by the turbulent Hindu convicts drilled in the art of railing. A new idea caught the imagination of the Hindus. They now learnt that no man lost his faith because he took food, drink and shelter outside his faith. The new-comers began to bear Hindu names, read Hindu scriptures and take meals with their co-religionists. Hindu temples in the colony were opened to them by and by. Formerly at the v’harf of Port Blair the Hindu prisoner- workers sometimes had to starve as they refused to take food from the bags mischievously touched by Muslims. Savarkar showed them their humiliating plight and suicidal foolishness and encouraged them to touch the bags of food first themselves. They did so and the Muslims, knowing the reaction and the double edge of the weapon, stopped the mischievous nonsense !
Despite the danger of personal violence, Barrie’s intrigues and incitement against him and the threats of murder from Barrie’s lackeys, Savarkar could succeed in infusing an organic feeling among the Hindu prisoners and even catching the imagination of Hindus in the Colony. Once a Muslim ruffian incited by Barrie struck a blow on Babarao Savarkar’s head. Babarao bled profusely. Barrie rejoiced at the accident. Savarkar remarked : “ Where dreaded gallows failed to subdue the spirit of the Savarkars, can these goats ever succeed ? ”
Just then the census hour struck and Savarkar persuaded the Arya Samajists and the Sikhs to record their caste and religion as Hindu or at least Hindu, with the words Arya or Sikh in the bracket. Ever since his London days Savarkar was thinking over a national definition of a ‘ Hindu ’ that would embrace all the folds of Hindus — the Sanatanists, the Sikhs, the Brahmos, the Arya Samajists and others. At last he, in a divine moment, composed his famous definition in a melodious couplet. According to it ‘ A Hindu means a person who regards this land of Bharat- Varsha from the Indus to the Seas as his Fatherland as well as his Holyland, that is the cradle land of his religion.’ That definition he developed and brought out in a thesis after his transfer from the Andamans to the Ratnagiri Jail. The chaos and confusion created by nearly fifty current definitions of the word Hindu including the one made by Tilak, which was frankly religious, were brought politically, socially, religiously in order, method, historic perspective and scientific thought. This definition of the word Hindu by Savarkar is held by many as the greatest contribjition to Hindu thought, history and polity.
Savarkar holds that Shuddhi — reconversion — solidifies and strengthens the Hindu Society. He asks the Hindus to shed inferiority complex and the idea of contamination by non- Hindus in respect of food, water, shelter and touch so that there should be less cause for friction and fight between Hindus and Muslims ; because the Muslims being deprived of their throne and sword, the only means that remained for them was rationalism. He is of the opinion that every one should be allowed to propagate the cause and mission of his religion by a rational and peaceful way. He never hated the Muslims because they belonged to a different religion. He abhorred the aggressive, unjust and wild designs of the Moslems and Missionaries. Excepting those points, Savarkar fought for all prisoners alike and the facilities wrested were enjoyed by Muslims too.
When a few years after Savarkar was appointed foreman in charge of the oil-mill work, he never harassed the Muslim prisoners because they were Muslims. He treated them justly and kindly, but warned them not to harass the Hindus, or not to soil the water in the tank by cleansing their feet in it, or not to do purposely less work and bring him into trouble. Muslims began to say ‘ Ram Ram ’ and a tiny Hindu Raj came into being in the Andamans. No mischief, no trouble, no punishment. Merchants, traders, or wealthy men under the guise of merchants went to have a glimpse of the Foreman of the tiny Hindu Kingdom whose capital was the oil-depot. Untouchability had disappeared from the kingdom. Pan-Hindu consciousness was pulsating through Hindu veins. Savarkar had been hammering into the heads of his colleagues and convicts that among the social institu- tions, the greatest curse of India was the caste-system. “ The mighty current of Hindu life,” he said, “ is being threatened to perish in bogs and sands.” He added : “ It is no good saying, ‘ We will reduce it to four caste system first’. That would not and should not be. It must be swept away root and branch.” ^ Many a time he would touchingly remark that the curse of caste-system had deprived India of several great brains. He also strongly disapproved the Andhrasabha movement and similar disintegrating moves. He disliked that every province should desire separation and shod and invoke long life to itself. How could the province live unless the nation lived, he asked. “ They all — Maharashtra, Bengal, Madras — are great and will live long but through her-India ! So let us not say ’ Andramataki ’ but ‘ Bharatmataki Jai ’ of whom Andhra is a limb and let us sing not ‘ Vanga Abhar’, but Hind Abhar ^ he warned.
Years glided by. A sense of oneness and noble patriotism began to throb through the veins of the Andamans. At such a time the death of the great Tilak in 1920 shocked India and its repercussions reached the Cellular Jail. All prisoners observed a day of fast in memory of the Father of Indian imrest The fast was swiftly and silently organised to the surprise of the jail authorities. Tilak’s dramatic disappearance caused the sudden appearance of Gandhiji, a man of boundless capacity and fabulous energy, on the political stage ! Writing on the subversive movements in India, Mr. J. C. Ker, who was a member of the Indian Civil Service from 1901 to 1929, observed : “ The death of Tilak in August 1920 removed liis (Gandhiji’s) strongest rival for the Hindu Leadership, and early in 1921 the campaign of Mr. Gandhi and the Ali Brothers was in full swing.”
1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 32.
^ Ibid., p. 36.
» Political India, edited by Sir John Cuimning, p. 237.
World War I broke out in August 1914 as forecast by Savarkar in his London days. But alas ! He was not free to Utilize the golden opportunity to free his nation. Yet he felt the situation advantageous to India in many respects. “It sent a thrill of delight,” he wrote, in March 1915, from the Celltilar Jail, “ in my heart to hear that the Indian troops were allowed to go to Europe, in their thousands to fight against the best military power in the world and that they had acquainted themselves with such splendour and were covered with military glory. Thank God ! Manliness after all i. not dead yet in the land.” ^ Considering that the needs and difficulties of the British Government were the seeds of and opportunity for Indian progress, Tilak strategically supported the militarisation policy of the Indian Government. But, strangely enough, Gandhiji, the apostle of peace and non-violence, surprised the country when he girded up his loins, trod and toured the country and panted for recruiting unconditionally soldiers for the British Power to give blood- bath to the Germans. Tilak’s step was responsive and statesmanly. Gandhiji ’s step was emotional and devotional and need not surprise the rationalists. The Indian revolutionaries in Europe and America now decided to throw their whole weight into the direction of a revolt. They prepared themselves for an all-out struggle for overthrowing the British rule in India. To that end the revolutionary leaders like Lala Hardayal, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya of the Abhinava Bharat, and Raja Mahendra Pratap were busy discussing plans and spinning negotiations with Germany. With full support of the German War Cabinet they set up an Indian Independence League in Germany under the Chairmanship of Sri Champaka Raman Pillai. Accordingly, world-wide plans were devised to smuggle lakhs of rifles and ammunition through the Muslim countries and Tibet for the revolutionaries of the Ghadr party in the Punjab, to land the revolutionaries of the Ghadr party in Bengal and attack the Eastern Frontiers of India. One of the major plans was to raid Port Blair and pick up their leader Savarkar and other revolutionaries from the Andamans. The Sedition Committee Report tells us that a third steamer was to sail to the Andamans, shipping a cargo of arms at sea and raid Port Blair, pick up anarchists and convicts.’^ Mr. J. C. Ker, referring to the plans of the German Government, states :
- Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 33.
During the war efforts were made by the Germans to use the Indian revolutionaries for their own purposes. Elaborate and world- wide plans were devised to land arms in Bengal for the use of the revolutionaries there, and emissaries proceeded between the leaders in India and German representatives in Batavia and elsewhere to complete the arrcijngcmenis/’ The revolutionary leaders recruited and inspired Indians abroad to fight for the Independence of their Motherland under the banner of Ghadr party initiated by the leaders of the Abhinava Bharat and inspired by Savarkar^s slogans, Savarkar’s book War of Independence of 1857, his pamphlets and his personality. Pictures showing Savarkar at the oil-mill were flashed in Ghadr papers in San Francisco and other American papers. Thus the oil Savarkar pressed out at the oil-mill in the Andamans did not fall into the bucket down below, but outside it and inflamed the fire and wrath of the Ghadr revolutionaries. And so the remark made by Sir J. C. Ker that with his (Savarkar’s) removal, the society in London ceased to be of any great consequence, and on the outbreak of the Great War it was broken up,” ^ is not vrholly true ; for the heads of the Ghadr were the lieutenants of Savarkar. Simply for the sake of safety and strategy the headquarters were shifted to the United States of America.
As pre-planned by the revolutionaries with the German Government, the German war machine began to operate. The German submarine, Emden, moved in the Bay of Bengal raiding British cargo-ships, bombarding some of the places on the Eastern coast of India, striking terror into the hearts of the authorities of the Andamans and causing sleepless nights to the Indian Government. There was a rumour in the Andamans that the Emden was to pick up Savarkar and send him in a German aeroplane to the headquarters of the Ghadr. Savarkar had also discussed this possibility with his colleagues in the Cellular Jail and was fully aw^are of it. But at this juncture he was removed to the tower of the central building of the jail, and was strictly watched. In the meanwhile, in November 1914, the famous Emden was destroyed and the escape of Savarkar could not be effected. The French Government insincerely handed Savarkar to the British Government and the German Government struggled for his rescue !
^ Sedition Committee’s Report, p. 124.
^ Political India, edited by Sir John Gumming, p. 233,
8 Ibid., p. 232.
In their other plans the revolutionaries succeeded considerably. About 8,000 Sikh revolutionaries arrived in India from America, Canada and the Far East in 1915, and the situation in the Punjab became tense and threatening. “ The internal situation began to grow menacing,” writes Lord Hardinge in his memoirs, “ owing to the revolutionaries realising the military weakness consequent on depletion of the Indian troops.” Alarmed by the growing menace, pressure and incursion of the revolutionaries. Lord Handinge, the Governor-General of India, got the Defence of Realms Act passed by the Legislative Assembly. Describing this critical situation, klr. J. C. Ker says :
“ Early in the war a serious situation developed in the Punjab, arising out of the return from America of Sikhs who had been demoralized by the teaching of the Ghadr party. During the first three years of the War some 8,000 Sikhs came back from the United States, Canada, and the Far East. . . . Several risings were attempted, and efforts were made in two or three instances to seduce the Indian regiments. A large number of dacoities and murders were committed in many of the Punjab districts, and efforts were made to raise a rebellion.” ^
1 Political India, edited by Sir John Cumming, p. 234.
The War of Independence of 1857 had been suppressed with the help of the Sikhs. To wash out the odium from the history of 1857 tliis Second War of Independence was started by an overwhelming number of Sikh revolutionaries. They buzzed to imdermine the loyalty of the Indian troops in India and Siam and induce them to take up the cause of freedom. There was trouble with the 10th Baluchis of which the Mashud company shot their officer in Bombay on their way to Mesopotamia. Revolutionary strongholds were discovered at Delhi, Lahore and Meerut. The brilliant Vishnu Ganesh Pingle from Maharashtra was arrested with ten loaded bombs inside the line of the 12th Cavalry at Meerut and was hanged. Conspiracies aimed at robbing the armoury and magazine of certain regiments were discovered at Lahore, Pindi and Ferozepore. In Bengal, too, the revolutionaries were striving their level best to achieve their goal. Writing about this Mr. J, C. Ker observes : “ Money (from Germany) was sent to the conspirators in Calcutta, and the nucleus of a training camp was set up in a remote spot in the jungle. This hiding place was discovered, and in a fight between the police and a party of the Bengalis armed with Mauser pistols, the leader was killed, and the plot collapsed. Another plan organised with the help of the Ghadr party was to enter Burma through Siam, and after gaining over the military police to proceed to the conquest of India.” ^ Armed with extensive powers and with the help of the 6,000 troops from Nepal, the British Government ruthlessly suppressed this heroic rising. There was a holocaust of victims at the altar of freedom. Some five thousand men were put on trial for treason in the Punjab alone. Five hundred revolutionaries were tried by court-martial and executed, eight hundred were sentenced to transportation for life, ten thousand were interned without trial, and a large niunber had to remain underground for years.
Setting aside its previous decision of not transporting the prisoners to the Andamans, the British Government transported about 500 revolutionaries, who had thus taken part, fought and failed in the Second War of Independence, to the Andamans. Prominent among them was Bhai Parmananda, who had already come into contact with Savarkar during the latter’s London days. On their arrival in the Cellular Jail the revolutionary leaders narrated to Savarkar how his writings and the great book on ‘ 1857 ’ and his sacrifice bg d a magic effect in changing them overnight into patriots and warriors ! The new batch of the prisoners was made of farmers, workers and businessmen. It was difficult for the jail authorities to bend them to their will. There were point blank refusals. Nobody would do hard work. For a time the jailer and the Superintendent seemed to lower their voice and the standard of work, and requested them to work as best as they could. There were scuffles and broils over bad words. Words of abuse were returned with blows, and consequently many noble and spirited patriots from this group perished in their helpless fight with the cruel jail authorities in their prime of youth.
1 Political India, edited by Sir John Cununing, p. 233.
During the war period Savarkar made vigorous attempts to effect his release. He made petitions and appeals to the Government of India that he should be released with or without conditions or at least be enlisted in the volvmteer corps. The authorities knew his intention and were not at all willing to do so. To them a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush ! Savarkar asked his younger brother Dr. Savarkar, in his annual letter why the Indian National Congress had not uttered a word of sympathy and fought shy of speaking about the release of political prisoners when responsible leaders like General Botha released all Boer rebels or John Edward Redmond struggled and succeeded in getting all the Irish prisoners released. He wrote to his brother to agitate in the matter and send a public petition so that, if at all the release came at any time, it would be acceptable as a token of the countrymen’s love and remembrance for those who never ceased to love their land of birth and rightly or wrongly fell fighting for her. Thereupon provincial conferences passed resolutions demanding the release of ‘ political prisoners.’ But it was seen that there was some vagueness about the phrase ‘ political prisoner,’ prevail- ing in the Press and the statements of politicians and resolu- tions of the conferences. Savarkar, therefore, asked his brother to note that the term political could be distinguished from ‘ private ’ only by the criterion of the motive of the act and not by the act itself. He said : “ No act is or can be by itself political. For even a rebellion, if that proceeds entirely for my own bread and butter, is not political and ought not to create any sympathy in others.” So he informed his brother that the point should definitely be pressed that “ political prisoners means all those undergoing imprisonment whether convicted or not, whether for individual acts or acts in general, for actions which proceeded from purely and admittedly poHtical motives.” ^
1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 66.
In his petitions to the Viceroy and Mr. E. S. Montagu, Secretary of State for India, Savarkar submitted to them that while they were considering the question of Reforms in India they should release all political prisoners. Grant of reforms and grant of amnesty for all prisoners and exiles in foreign lands should go hand in hand. He said : “ How can there be peace and contentment and trust in a land where a brother is torn av/ay from a brother, where thousands upon thousands are rotting in cage cells and stand exiled and in jails, and where every other family has a brother or a son, a father or a friend, or a lover snatched away from its bosom and kept pining away his life in the parched and thirsty Saharas of Separation ! ” And if progress is made easy, he asks : “ Where is the man who would run the ordeals of iire or would tread the paths of furies with bleeding feet for sheer amusement ! ” He continued : “ That is rare and rarer it is to find a true patriot and humanitarian who would indulge in reckless and bloody and necessarily outrageous revolutions — if but and even when, a safer, nobler, more certainly moral because entirely effective and employing least resistance — if but such a Path, the Path of constitutional progress be open and accessible to him ? ” He added : “ It is a mockery to talk of constitutional agitation when there is no constitution at all, but it is worse than a mockery, a crime, to talk of revolu- tions as if it were a work of rose water even when there is as elastic and progressive a constitution as, say, there is in England or in America.” ^
Needless to say, this petition was indirectly and obviously a pressure on the Government and a support on behalf of the revolutionary party to the national forces that were demanding responsible Governn-jent in India. Indian Govern- ment wanted to know the views of the revolutionary party on the proposed Reforms and so its accredited leader, Savarkar, was asked by the authorities to offer his views on the drafts of the Montagu-Chelniisford Reforms. Even in the published Draft of Mr. E. S. Montagu’s scheme was expressed the hope that the revolutionists would now find something to be done constitutionally for the realization of their hopes and aspirations and would change their minds and return to useful paths of activity.^ The blood of martyrs never drops in vain. They die so that humanity may prosper !
1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 72.
Savarkar gives in his letter dated July 6, 1920, a brief summary of his new petition to the Indian Government and depicts his ideal of Human Government or World Common- wealth Viewed from the angle of truth, sympathy, justice, impartiality and looking to the times, this letter will reveal why Guy A. /Jdred of Britain claims for Savarkar a place in the line of prophets and humanists of the world. Those who boast of their broad-niindedness and large sympathies and dream of world I’^ederation should pause for a while to read the following passage from Savarkar and compare it with their present ideal, for Savarkar declared his ideal when they were, speaking politically, in their swaddling clothes. Savarkar observes in 1920 :
** We believe in a universal state embracing all mankind and wherein all men and women would be citizens working for and enjoying equally the fruits of this earth and this sun, this land and this light, which constitute the real Motherland and Fatherland of Man. All other divisions and distinctions are artificial though indispensable. Believing thus thiit the ideal of all political Science and Art is or ought to be a Human State in which all nations merge their political selves for their own fulfilment even as the cells in an organism, organisms in families and tribes, and tribes in nation states have done, and believing therefore the humanity is higher patriotism and therefore any Empire or Commonwealth that succeeds in welding numbers of conflicting races and nations in one harmonious, if not homogeneous whole in such wise as to render each of them better fitted to realize, enrich and enjoy life in all its noble aspects in a distinct step to the realization of that ideal. I can consciously co-operate with any attempt to found a Commonwealth which would be neither British nor Indian but which may, till a better name be devised, be styled as an Aryan Commonwealth.” He concludes : With this end in view I ever worked in the past. With this end in view I am willing to work now. And therefore I rejoiced to hear that the Government have changed their angle of vision and meant to make it possible for India to advance constitutionally on the path to Freedom and strength and fulness of life. 1 am sure that many a revolutionist would like me cry halt under such circumstances and try to meet England under an honourable truce, even in a half-way house as the reformed Council Halls promised to be, and work there before a further march on to progress be sounded.” ^
1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans^ p. 71.
1 Savarkar, An Echo irom Andamans, pp. 88-89.