In spite of his heroic work in the direction of social and mental revolution thi^oughout the period of internment at Ratnagiri, Savarkar was trying his utmost to break his shackles. Gnveriimeni wt c trying their way to prolong the period of his internment oi some plea or other. It is said that climate influences characteis Inhabitants as they were of a region where fire is a luxury, the Britishers took great care of fire wherever it burnt in their Indian Empire. They watched the fire-places in India with special care. Whenever any fire broke out in any part of India, Savarkar ’s residence was shadowed. Surprise * raids were a common feature for Savarkar’s residence. Once the Superintendent of Police surrounded Savarkar’s residence at dawn, and showed Savarkar the order under which he was directed to search Savarkar’s residence for copies of the proscribed book, The Indian War of Independence of 1857. Savarkar came out of the house with his family and said to the officer with a smile : “ Yes, we have come out. You can go in and search the house. But remember that I have struggled with Scotland Yard for four years and outwitted them.” Yet the police had not come to Savarkar’s residence without reason. Sardar Bhagat Singh had printed two thousand copies of that famous book of Savarkar to raise funds for his revolutionary society and had respectfully sent the first two copies of the book to Savarkar.
On another occasion Savarkar was almost perplexed. The C.I.D. and police officers surprised him. But gifted with a marvellous presence of mind, he waited till the search was over and at last when the time for the report came, he handed over to the officer the very writing pad which contained an article ready for the press. The police officer used it without peeping inside while Savarkar held a crumbled piece of paper containing a poem on Sardar Bhagat Singh.
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194 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
To supplement his heroic efforts and express his views unobserved on current politics, Savarkar then patronised a weekly named Shraddhananda edited by his brother, Dr, N, D. Savarkar, in Bombay. It published several inspiring articles by Savarkar. Though the articles did not appear in the name of Savarkar, Maharashtra could feel the inspiring touch and tone ; and in a short time this weekly attained enormous popularity and had a wide circulation. Gandhiji had just then begun to come out of his virtual retirement. The Madras Session of the Indian National Congress passed a resolution demanding absolute political independence. Gandhiji dubbed it childish. Savarkar showed his great jubilation thi-ough the weekly, and bitterly criticised the attitude of Gandhiji towards that resolution.
Condolence meetings in memory of Swami Shraddhananda, who was cruelly inurdered by a fanatic Muslim, in memory of Deshbandhu Das and Lala Lajpat Rai, were addressed by Savarkar before sighing multitudes at Ratnagiri.
At this juncture there was a move to elect Savarkar as President of the Hindu Mahasabha at its Jubbulpore Session in 1927, but it was not successful. Referring to this proposal, Sri N. C. Kelkar who presided over the Session, began his Presidential Address with these words : The Reception
Committee, I learn, had adverted to the possibility of getting Mr. Vinayakrao Savarkeir to preside over this Conference, and I share their regret and disappointment in the failure of their object.” ^ During these days a prominent Congressman of Maharashtra suggested Savarkar’s name for the president- ship of the Indian National Congress and wrote that in the event of Savarkar’s absence, his Address should be read out by installing a portrait of Savarkar in the presidential chair. Not only this, it was even suggested that Savarkar should represent the Congress at the Round Table Conference.^
The Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha was the first organized Hindu Body which came forward to back up Dr. Moonje in his acceptance of the invitation to the Round Table Conference and in January 1931 passed a resolution “ expressing apprecia- tion of the ability and courage with which Moonje and Jayakai*
- N. C. Kelkar, Speeches and Writings, p. 301,
2 Quoted in the Pratihha, dated 15-1-1936.
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had defended the Hindu cause, which it was declared, was identical with the cause of India as a whole against the anti-national encroachments of the Moslems.” The resolution further threw a challenge to the Moslems to accept an arbitration by the League of Nations. It added that the rejection of the arbitration offer by the Muslims exposed the unjust nature of their claims.
In 1934 Savarkar was arrested again and detained for two weeks in connection v/ith -bots fired at some military officer in Bombay by Sri Wau.anrao Chavan, a Sanghatanist firebrand from Ratnagir . Jovcrmnent, however, could establish nothing and Savarkar was released on the 15th day.
Government went on extending the period of Savarkar’s internment from time to time — 1929 to 1937 — as they considered him a danger to the peace of India. In the last week of October 1930, the Bombay Government instructed Mr. D. Simington, District Magistrate of Ratnagiri, to give his opinion as to whether, having regard to Savarkar’s antecedents and to the then political situation, he considered that the restrictions imposed on Savarkar should be either wholly or partly withdrawn without danger.
The District Magistrate, Mr. D. Simington, is reported to have opined that in the then state of politics Savarkar should not be released. He ako reported to Government that Savarkar had devoted himself to the removal of untouchabilitj' and had achieved a certain measure of success, and added that he had successfully admitted the untouchables to the new Patit Pavan Temple. It was a bad recommendation, but a gentleman’s appreciation of Savarkar’s social work. Are there any impartial souk now in power who are frank enough to admit what the Englkhman wrote secretly ? In 1934 Mr. R. M. Maxwell, Secretary to the Government of Bombay, declined Savarkar’s request for permission to go to Bombay to attend the Bombay City and Suburbs Hindu Sabha Conference which was held in Bombay on the 23rd and 24th of January 1934. But whenever he was allowed to go out of Ratnagiri City or Dktrict, secret wires clicked in code words from Ratnagiri to all important police headquarters of Bombay, Poona, and other cities. And every Dktrict Magistrate in the province tried his utmost to avoid Savarkar’s
196 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
presence in his District by complaining to the Home Department that his presence in the District would tremendously increase the work of the police and other departments. * *
Years rolled on and at long last the day of release arrived. After fighting the Provincial elections under the new Act of 1935 and almost unchallenged by any major political opposition for the Hindu seats, the Congressmen were hatching the eggs of ministership under the wings of Gandhiji ! Govei’nment were eager to have interim ministries in the provinces with a view to pressing the Congress to accept office. In the interim period of the deadlock Khan Bahadur Dhanjishaw Cooper, with the support of Sri Jamnadas M. Mehta, a representative of the Tilakite Democratic Swaraj Party, e.vpressed his willingness to form an interim Ministry in the Province on one condition. Mehta had been a champion of the campaign for Savarkar’s release for a number of years in the past. He made Savarkar’s release a condition precedent to accepting the office. H.E. Lord Brabourne, the then Governor of Bombay, showed his willingness to release Savarkar subject to good behaviour. Mehta’s repartee at once resolved the bracket of the condition ! Mehta said that the Governor himself and even the speaker himself were free citizens subject to good behaviour, in fact any citizen in any country was so. Then the Governor’s telephone murmured between London and Bombay, between Bombay and Simla and to the great relief of Hindusthan, Savarkar was at very long last released unconditionally on the 10th of May 1937, the 10th of May, the red letter day in the Indian history on which the first War of Independence started.
To have released one of the greatest political prisoners of the world, to have set free the greatest revolutionary leader of India and the noblest son of Mother India was no common achieventent for Sri Jamnadas.
Several functions were held in Ratnagiri in honour of Savarkar’s release. At one of these functions Sri M. D. Joshi, a prominent Congressman expressed his view that Savarkar was also one of the doctors of the nation and would prescribe for the ills of the nation. Whatever party Savarkar might join, he would add to the freedom movement and welfare of
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the country, added the speaker. A purse was presented to Savarkar by the citizens of Ratnagiri. In hi.’- parting speech Savarkar was moved with the memory of the social movements in Ratnagiri. He said he was very sorry that due to his mission there were divisions, heart-breakings and scuffles among families and friends. Savarkar continued that he had done it all in the best interest of the Country, God and Man.
As for the future, Savarkar said that the goal of independence w^as to be attained by resistance, alliance and pressure; that the ba.sic <’;il]ine of that independence should be a ‘ one man one vote ’ d -*mocracy and that he would strive for and achieve that goal not by sacrificing the just rights of the Hindus. Whatever happened, he said, he would never desert the cause of the Hindus. He would die as a Hindu rather than prosper as an anti-Hindu soul, concluded Savarkar. After his release Savarkar unfurled the tri-colour flag reminiscent of the Abhinava Bharat emblem at the Ratnagiri District Political Conference held under the presidentship of Mr. K. F. Nariman. Political life and fight to begin after a lapse and lull of full twenty-seven years !
But the India of those days was dominated by Gandhiji who had literally thrown away into the waste paper ba.sket the appeal for Savarkar’s release. When approached for his support and signature to the appeal, Gandhiji said he did not know who that Savarkar was, and asked whether he was the same Savarkar who wrote The Indian War of Indepi 7idence of 1857, and subsequently explained to the public that he thought it derogatory to approach the British Government for the release of Savarkar. Nehru went one step further. He was reported to have torn non- violently the ‘ Release Savarkar ’ memorandum to pieces. And all this happened before Savarkar had joined the Hindu Mahasabha as a political party in opposition to the Congress. Coming events cast their shadows before ! Let history record this fact which is stranger than fiction !