1
The World War I terminated in 1918 and soon after a systematic and persistent propaganda was carried on through- out the country for the release of all political prisoners. People, popular leaders and the Press voiced their demand for the release of political prisoners through petitions, meet- ings, Conferences, Congress Sessions and in Coimcils. The National Union of Bombay, Sri Anantrao Gadre, Senapati Bapat and Sri Shivrampant Paranjpe took a leading part in collecting signatures of the people on the petition and the great petition was forwarded to Mr. Montagu, the Secretary of State for India. The Secretary of State for India rejected it. The Amritsar Congress demanded the release of all political prisoners by a special resolution. The District Home Rule Leagues from Maharashtra, too, wired to the Viceroy demanding the release of the Savarkar brothers. The royal proclamation in connection with the royal clemency to political prisoners issued on December 24, 1919, stated in clear terms ; “ I therefore direct my Viceroy to exercise in My name and on My behalf My Royal clemency to political prisoners in the fullest measure which, in his judgment, is compatible with public safety. I desire to extend it on this condition to persons who, for offences against the State or imder any special or emergency legislation are suffering imprisonment or restriction upon their liberty.”
According to this proclamation all provincial Governments opened the gates of their prisons. Many political and ordinary prisoners were set free from provincial jails and the Cellular Jail too. Even those who had come after Savarkar or were his co-prisoners were released, but the Government of India held Savarkar’s release incompatible with public safety. In his case all rules were literally and strictly, and many a time xinjustly, enforced. Ordinary prisoners were allowed to settle
142 SAVARKAR AKD HIS TIMES
on the Island after five years’ imprisonment, but the Savarkar brothers were singled out as an exception to this rule even after ten years. All hard-skinned convicts were given light work, but the soft-skinned Savarkars were given the hardest possible work from the beginning. After eight long years Government permitted Dr. N. D. Savarkar to see his brothers in the Cellular Jail. Savarkar’s wif^ and Dr. Savarkar saw him in the last week of May 1919. The Savarkar brothers were startled to find the absence of Srimati Yashodabai, wife of Babarao Savarkar. The struggling flame of her noble life had flickered away just two months ago ! And Yashoda Vahini was to Savarkar his earliest friend, his sister, liis mother and his comrade — all in one, all at once. She really died as dies a satee ! Deserted by all relatives, cursed as the wife of a convict by unpatriotic persons, separated from her husband, crushed by overwhelming grief, she perished in her unconscious state with the only thought of the Darshan of her husband. Another lady, Savarkar ever remembered with grateful tributes, was Madame Cama who had been a second mother to his younger brother and stood so nobly and so faithfully by them in the darkest hour of their life. “ At the touch of one such faithful, noble, unshaken, loving hand,” wrote Savarkar, “ one’s heart recovers its belief in Humanity — belief rudely shaken by the disappearance of the closest and by the treachery of the truest and by the indifference of the dearest.” The above-cited interview terminated in an hour in the presence of the jail authorities, Savarkar being given some time to speak to his wife separately.
As regards other facilities, Savarkar was given the work of a clerk and afterwards was allowed to work as the foreman of the oil-depot and department in the latter part of 1920. The authorities even allowed him to enjoy at times the moonlit nights and starlit dawn which he loved so immensely, in the jail yard with his brother Ganeshpant alias Babarao ! Barrie, who expected to see the bones of Savarkar in the Andamans, had gone away to lay his bones in safety as he feared that any one of Savarkar’s followers might blow up his head in India !
At last the heavy brunt Savarkar bore all along for his co-sufferers, the rigorous work, imhealthy food, crushing
OVTOFHXSGRAVS 143
anxieties, sapping climate, and the monotonous dreary and insipid life told upon his nerves. He reached the lowest point of vitality and was reduced to a skeleton. Chronic dysentery and diverse other ailments thoroughly invalidated him. He was, at last, taken to the jail hospital for treatment where tuberculosis of the lungs was suspected. Till the appearance of such a crisis in his health, for months he was sinking for want of medical help and hospital diet. For want of milk he wetted his rice with simple water. Half-boiled, half-cooked food he no longer could digest, His brother, Babarao, who was allowed at this stage to cook for himself, sent him ‘ Dal ’ secretly. But the malady was developing into a dangerous form. Later, however, in the hospital he was given milk when he could not digest it ! His diet dwindled to a sip of milk. His body burnt with constant fever. He grew deli- rious, often fell into dead faints and was troubled with hallucinations. Forlorn, forsaken though not forgotten, he was rotting, w’ithering and pining awa3’ in a lonely corner of the hospital, banned and barred from his near and dear ones and surrounded by unsympathetic elements. Now death began to hover over his head.
Yet with a peaceful mind and composed feelings of a true yogin Savarkar invoked death. He was content with liis achievements in life. He had seen the world, done his duty and acted in great events heroically. If the end of life was the passage to another world-heaven, then he was sure of a reserved place there as he had testimonials from Lord Krishna for having done his duty for duty’s sake and if the end of life was to dissolve the composition of all elements, he was prepared to immerse them in the Universal oneness ! Wordsworths and Tennysons and Tagores would sing the glory of these self-experienced true feelings ! Such is the grandeur, loftiness and piousness of these thoughts !
The jail life of any other Indian leader pales into insigni- ficance before this horrible tale of Savarkar’s life in the Cellular Jail. Lokmanya Tilak suffered most, but was at least enlivened by the availability of writing material, help of a cook and a special little house. Not to speak of those who were speechless and peaceless even in ‘ A ’ class rich rooms ! And yet imbending, upright, and exemplary, Savarkar faced
144 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES
jail life with great fortitude. He agitated but within the four corners of the law; he acted resolutely, but skilfully, and reformed the jail life. At times he had to face mistmder- standing among his colleagues. But he persuaded them to realize the facts. Never did he speak ill of his colleagues, not even of Barrie who inhumanly troubled him. All political prisoners had respect for Savarkar. The convicts regarded him as God. His spirit, soul and energy were of a deathless stamp. Almost all the political prisoners from the Andamans with rare exceptions bade good-bye to political life after- wards. Bhai Parmananda and Sri Ashutosh Lahiri who respectively spent four and seven years in the Cellular Jail were the shining exceptions ! The permanent effect of this jail life was seen later in Savarkar’s health, lonely deport- ment, and his aloofness from the society.
During the two years 1920 and 1921 the release of political prisoners was still more persistently demanded by Indian leaders and Indian Press. Sri Vithalbhai Patel raised the question in the Central Assembly. Sri Dadasahib Khaparde, while supporting Patel, referred to the cases of the Savarkar brothers in 1920. Tilak wrote a letter to Mr. Montagu urging the release of Savarkar. In May 1920 even Gandhiji, stating that the ‘ cult of violence had, at the present moment, no following in India,’ wrote in his Young India in favour of the release of the Savarkar brothers. Bhai Parmananda, after his release, saw Colonel Wedgewood then travelling in India and the Labour leader, on his return home, took up the cudgels on tlieir behalf and expressed the terrible conditions in the Andamans through the British Press in January and February 1921. The Rev. C. F. Andrews, too, took up the cause and wrote a series of articles demanding the release of the prisoners of the Andamans. Savarkar’s letters from the Andamans were printed and published in all provincial organs and given wide publicity. People and leaders were moved to read the letters. Meantime Dr. Savarkar paid a second visit to see his brother’s health in the year 1920.
At this juncture the Cardew Committee that had been to the Andamans for surveying the conditions in jail submitted its report to the Government of India and consequently Government decided to close the Andamans settlement.
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Savarkar propagated even at the risk of creating temporary misunderstanding that the colony should be fully developed and hence prisoners should not express their willingness to go and rot in Indian jails, rather they should develop and bring the colony to prosperity.
In 1920 Gandhiji started his non-violent non-co-operation movement in India. Swaraj was to be won within a year. Savarkar attacked the queer definitions of non-violence and truth and emphasized that the Khilafat would prove an ‘ affai ’ — a calamity.^ Under the influence of this movement some underground revolutionary leaders were inveigled into appearing before the police and the result was that more revolutionary leaders were exiled into the Andamans. Savarkar told his colleagues that the end of politics was neither co-operation nor non-co-operation. It always hinged on responsive co-operation ; the goal of humanity was mutual co-operation, he added.^
In March 1921 the Hon. Sri K. V. Rangaswamy Iyengar, Member of the Council of State, moved a resolution in the House that the Savarkar brothers be released. But it was of no avail. Sri Iyengar said that he was ready to stand security for Savarkar to assure Government of his good intentions and honest motives. In the previous month the ‘ D ’ ticket was removed from Savarkar’s chest.
At last came the day of Savarkar’s return to his beloved Motherland. The unexpected happened. There was a stir among the prisoners and the people aU over the island. Savarkar was overwhelmed with feelings at the thought of leaving those poor and patriotic hearts. Some of them stealthily or with the connivance of the guards garlanded him ! Before bidding good-bye to the anxious and devotional faces, Savarkar gave the sacred oath to the chosen few : —
One God, one country, one goal,
One race, one life, one language.
And Oh ! Look here he crossed out the ferocious gates of the Andamans amidst the indistinct greetings from his co- suflerers ! London could not captivate him, Morea could not
Savarkar, Mazi Janmathep, p. 496.
•■‘Ibid.
10
146 SAVARKAS AND HIS TIMES
carry Kim and the Andamans could not suppress him. The Mother must feed him. What a ray of hope, a sigh of relief, and a flash of emotion must have overcome the brothers ! The Savarkar brothers were brought in the steamer s.s. MAHARAJAH, the Same steamer that had carried them to the Deathland, and here Savarkar started on his voyage back to India with his elder brother ! On board the ship a European Officer presented Savarkar his favourite book, Thomas A Kempis’ Imitation of Christ. On the fourth day they caught sight of India ! Savarkar exclaimed, “ Behold Baba, the feet of Mother Bharat washed by the blue waters of the ocean.” So saying they reverentially bowed their heads and shouted, “ Hail Thee Goddess of Liberty ! Bande Mataram ! ” The same unflinching love for Mother India even after such a great ordeal !
II
On their arrival the Savarkars were taken to the Alipore Jail. Savarkar was already a name to conjure with. A Chinese youth rotting in that Jail asked him whether any bullet could harm him, for he had heard many romantic stories about Savarkar. Savarkar replied that a bullet must pierce him ! One policeman asked Savarkar how many days he had swum in the ocean ! “ Not more than ten minutes,”
said Savarkar. Those artless simple believing souls got angry with Savarkar for belittling his own story ! Savarkar belongs to the line of rationalists and not to that of mystics and hence he never made capital of his matchless exploits.
No sooner did they arrive in the Alipore jail than the Savarkars were hit below the belt by the Capital, an Anglo- Indian journal of Calcutta. ‘ Ditchar,’ writing in the Capital, alleged that the Savarkar brothers had conspired with the Germans. Messrs. Manilal and Kher, Solicitors of Bombay, acting on behalf of the Savarkar brothers, extracted an unconditional apology from ‘ Ditchar ’ and the Capital.
From Alipore the brothers were separated, Babarao being taken to Bijapur Jail from which he was released after a serious crisis in his health in 1922. Savarkar was taken to the Ratnagiri jail via Bombay. There the same rotation and
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repetition of the rigours awaited him. What facilities he had secured in the Andamans were now lost. The monotony and insipid life once again drove him to throw away life, but he bridled his feelings and regained his balance at nightfall.
In the Ratnagiri Jail Savarkar came into contact with Khilafat prisoners and Gandhian truth-seekers. Though brought secretly, they persisted in reading the papers openly as devotees of Truth, and secured eatables through secret illegal sources and ate them stealtliily. Their perverted brains did not mind, they said, if all Hindus became Moslems but they wanted Swaraj which was now a fact in sight attainable in a few months’ time. The Kliilafat Pathans in the Ratnagiri Jail rioted and the Hindu prisoners were saved as they were forewarned by Savarkar. It was in the Ratnagiri Jail that Savarkar’s immortal work Hinduiva was written and sent out secretly and was published under the pen name ‘ Mahratta The whole movement for Hindu Nation and Hindu polity is based on this book of Savai’kar. Indeed, this book will bear out the truth that if there be any political leader in India who stands on a firm, far-reaching, profoimd, clear-cut, well-defined and momentous political philosophy, it is Savarkar alone. Some of his contemporaries looked to the mystic fads of their inner voices and others acted as messengers of Russian imperialism. The last chapters of this book are typically Savarkarian in grandeur, profundity, and eloquence. The poetical genius that produced the epic poetry shines through the pages of the book with eloquent reason and looks for a gleaming future ! This was the need of the hour, the prescription of an expert doctor ! Reading the signs of the times, Savarkar timely pointed out the ulcer that was growing and vitiating the health of Hindusthan. The book inspired the saintly soul of Swami Shraddhananda and he exclaimed : “ It must have been one of those Vedic dawns indeed which inspired our seers with new truths, that revealed to the author of Hindutva this ‘ Mantra ’, this definition of Hindutva ! ”
Moved by the great aim, lofty vision and inspired exposition of the book, Sri Vijayaraghavachari, an eminent leader of light and learning, remarked, “ Especially the last chapter is inimitably eloquent and patriotic. I am afraid I am unable to find suitable words to describe my ideas regarding the book, especially the last chapter.” Sri N. C. Kelkar opined that Savarkar’s thesis on Hindutva unfolded a new scientific analysis of Hindutva unseen hithertofore ! Later on this book became the Bible of a great movement. Savarkar’s poems and parts of his unfinished epic also appeared one by one. One of them is ‘ Gomantak.’ This is a canto describing the eighteenth century horrors in Goa. In these poems Savarkar stirs the reader to the core. The reader shudders. The poems enrage him and his face darkens with shame. The poet narrates to the reader how under the guise of love and Humanity the Portuguese in India perpetrated the vilest misdeeds which were a black tyranny and a disgrace to Humanity !
Shortly afterwards followed the transfer of Savarkar to the Yeravada Jail. There he devoted himself to the spread of literacy and to the development of the jail library, and propagated his views on the current political questions among the Gandhian prisoners. Gandhiji was then imprisoned for sedition in the Yeravada Jail. Savarkar narrated the stories of the lives of revolutionaries to the prisoners, whose knowledge of historic events was as hollow as their caps ! He described their thi’illing deeds, great sacrifices and selfless services to which, he said, at least their countrymen should be grateful, humanely if not patriotically ! But they were struggling to secure special classes for themselves in prison. Why should they try to understand the sufferings, sacrifices and service of those dauntless revolutionary souls ? He was also watchful in the prison about the conversion of Hindus. He had performed one shuddhi in the Ratnagiri jail and here he converted one Christian officer and his bride to the Hindu fold.
The year 1922 passed by. In 1923 at the third Ratnagiri District Political Conference, Savarkar’s xmconditional release was again demanded by a special resolution. The Savarkar Release Committee led by Sri Jamnadasji Mehta agitated and published one pamphlet ‘ Why Savarkar should be released ’. A meeting was held in the Marwadi Vidyalaya, Bombay, and a strong demand was made for Savarkar’s release. Sri Vithalbhai Patel was in the chair. In 1923 the Indian
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National Congress at its Cocanada Session at last passed a resolutior, which was moved from the chair, demanding the release of Savarkar. Now helpful winds began to blow in his direction. His Excellency Sir George Llyod, the Governor of Bombay, came with his Councillors to interview Savarkar. Lt.-Col. J. H. Murray, I.M.S., who was the Jail Superintendent in the Cellular Jail, was now at Yeravada as the Jail Superintendent. The conditions of release were prepared in the light of the discussions held between Savarkar and H.E. the Governor and his Councillors. After substituting a few words, Savarkar accepted the conditions, signed the terms and was released conditionally on January 6, 1924, from the Yeravada Jail. The terms read : —
(1) that Savarkar shall reside in the Ratnagiri District and shall not go beyond the limits of that District without the permission of Government or in case of emergency of the District Magistrate ;
(2) that he will not engage publicly or privately in any manner of political activities without the consent of Government for a period of five years such restrictions being renewable at the discretion of Government at the expiry of the said term.
The release of Savarkar was hailed with great satisfaction all over India. Savarkar was taken away by Dr. Bhat to the City of Poona where Savarkar saw Sri N. C. Kelkar. Shivrampant Paranjpe, with his changed outlook, appeared before Savarkar as a distortion of the great revolutionary apostle ! Paranjpe talked to Savarkar about his proposed new daily, Nava Kal. Savarkar abruptly remarked with a pun that he knew only the old Kal !
But all was not yet well. The dark night of imperialism was still reigning. The owl, popularly known as the old dame of Bori Bunder, ominously hooted in its current topics, “ At Ratnagiri he will have predecessor of a very diflferent stamp. After the third Burmese War, King Thiba was exiled to Ratnagiri and it was there that he died.” What more humane and beneficial note can an owl hoot ?
The political situation in India was getting complicated since 1915. Sri S. P. Sinha, afterwards Lord Sinha, was the
150 SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES
last Moderate to preside over the Congress. He spoke in favour of gradual evolution and cautious progress, and his address proved to be the swan-song of the Moderates as Congressmen ! The Liberals were the Moderates who had seceded from the Congress. Their big Gokhale and Mehta had passed away. The Left Wing was coming to the front. Mrs. Annie Besant’s Home Rule League and Tilak’s grand entry into the Lucknow Congress hastened the fall of the Liberals. On the eve of the Lucknow Session the .shrewd elements in the Muslim League adopted the Congress ideal of self-government for India within the Empire. For winning support of the Muslim League to the Congress, the Congress made a pact with the Muslim League, conceding them separate representation and communal electorates. The Lucknow Pact, after Tilak’s death, unfortunately proved to be a rift in the lute ! The pact reduced the political problem to a simple equation. If the Muslim League represented the Indian Moslems, whom did the Congress represent ? The answer was all those Indians minus the Muslims. The Moderates and Moonje opposed this pact from the beginning ! The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were declared on August 20, 1917, and were publi.shed in 1918. The Congress declared the reforms as disappointing and unsatisfactory. The Moderates pronounced this scheme a substantial instalment of responsible Government to be welcomed and improved upon.
Although Mr. Montagu, the Secretary of State for India, was of the opinion that the “ separate representation and communal electorates were opposed to the teaching of history ”, and “ fatal to the democratization of institutions and caused disunion between the Hindus and the Moham- medans he yielded to the Muslim demand as he feared a Moslem rising if he did not do so. Montagu confirmed the policy of Morley and Minto and the Lucknow Pact. Gokhale’s testament also held this view and his skeleton plan recognised the need for separate and direct representation of Moham- medans and other non-majority communities ! ^
1 E. S. Montagu, An Indian Diary, p. 100.
“H.H. the Aga Khan, India in Transition, p. 44,
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Meanwhile, the Rowlatt Act was passed in 1919 and the Government of India took power to arrest and imprison any individual without trial. Tilak was then in London in con- nection with the Chiiol case. Martial law reigned in the Pimjab and roused general indignation. Then came the tragedy of Jallianwalla Baug and the inaugxu’ation of Gandhiji’s non-co-operation movement in collaboration with the Khilafat Movement which was entirely religious, essen- tially fanatical and historically regressive. At this critical juncture Tilak passed away ! The fiasco and futility of Gandhiji’s non-co-operation and the collapse of the Khilafat movement turned Sri C. R. Das and Pandit Motilal Nehru to the Assembly with a view to giving organized opposition to the Government. Kelkar, Jayakar and Moonje who were sceptical of Gandhiji’s political tactics and who were awakened by the Moplas’ atrocities and outrages on Hindu women, men and children in Malabar made common cause with this part 5 ^ The Liberals in the new Assembly carried a motion declaring that they wanted a revision or re- examination of the reformed constitution at an earlier date than 1929. Hence they were also not liked by Government and their wisdom with moderation was disliked by the masses who were awakened to political consciou.snes.s by Tilak and Das. The strange, enigmatic, and conquering politician in Gandhiji was about to retire into oblivion for the next five years. Although it was a fact that Gandhiji’s meteoric rise was due to his unparalleled gift for organization, the self-centred multi-millionaires and mill-magnates were not less responsible for it. In the words of B. C. Pal : “ Mr. Gandhi has not been helped to his unique influence in the country by merely the medieval Indian mind, but also by the more practical support that has come to him from the multi-millionaires and the mill- masters of his own province who have not been slow to recognize in him a very efficient instrument for advancing their own economic and financial interests. They have exploited him as he himself has, perhaps unconsciously, exploited them. In the coming Gandhi Raj, if the Gandhi movement succeeds, we shall have no democracy, but an,
152 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
autocracy of the oriental type dominated by priestly influences and worked especially for the benefit of profiteering banias.” ^ Did we realize this in 1950 ?
The Liberals were routed in the election of 1923. They lacked an organized party. The vociferous Das and Nehru occupied their places. Savarkar was willing to work the reforms. He always held that the movement for freedom should be launched from within and without !
J Quoted in The Problem of Minorities by K. B. Krishna, p. 167.
The Savarkar Brothers