With the shots fired by Nathuram Vinayak Godse disappeared one of the greatest political figures from the stage of world politics. The act was committed in broad daylight, in a public place, in the sight of a multitude by a man dressed in khaki bush jacket and blue trousers. The newspapers described him as a batchelor of thirty-seven with medium height, fair skin, square jaws, a resolute and sober face, serious flickering eyes, a high forehead, close-cropped hair, all giving the appearance of a man of serious purpose.
The news of the assassination of Gandhi ji spread like wild fire. It was indeed tragic, tearing and terrific. A wave of shock and grief passed over the whole country like an earth- quake. Shops were slammed in, flags lowered, cinema shows cancelled. Vivisected and broken-hearted Mother India shed piteous tears for her great son, as does a mother for her son despite her own malady.
Depressed looked the vrhole world for a while. With wide mouth it paid its fitting tributes to the memory of the great man. The Indian minorities were distressed. The Muslims said they were orphaned. The Anglo-Indians bemoaned the loss as never before. The Bohra head priest grieved, and the Afghan Sai’dars were moved.
The reaction of this terrific act on the Hindu Mahasabha and the R.S.S. was too severe and drastic. In his early youth Godse was a worker of the R.S.S. and later, he was a prominent member of the All-India Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha. He was a well-known journalist in Maharashtra and the editor of a Marathi Daily, the Agrani , — the Leader — changed to a new name, the Hindu Rashtra at a later stage. Better known as Pandit Nathuram Godse, this editor was a staunch Savarkarite, and was fairly known as the vanguard and lieutenant of Savarkar. But when the vivisection of Mother India was declared as a settled fact, in his extreme love for the Hindu Nation, Nathuram Godse
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repudiated even the saner leadership of Savarkar. Naturally, the attention of the hooligans was riveted upon men and institu- tions of his erstwhile association in Maharashtra. Furious crowds pulled down and burnt Hindu Sabha flags, destroyed Local and District Hindu Sabha offices, burnt printing houses and studios belonging to the Hindu Sabha leaders, attacked persons of Hindu Sabha persuasion and particularly persons from the clan of Godse ; shops and houses of the Hindu Sanghatanists were in flames and at some places even personal and party enmity under ihis plea or that pretext Was vented on men, women and chiidren. And all this in the name of Gandhiji whom they worshipped as the embodiment of peace, mercy, truth and non-violence !
Men of lesser mettle promptly declared their disassociation from the Hindu Mahasabha. Some office-bearers of Local or District Hindu Sabhas resigned and severed their connections with the Hindu Mahasabha. A dusk to dawn curfew was enforced in Poona, the city from which Nathuram Godse hailed. Wrath was on its round, malice on its wings, and political revenge on its prowl. In the Deccan States the long- awaiting disgruntled souls of some non-Brahmins saw their opportunity, and they poured out the vials of their vengeance in the name of Gandhiji on Brahmins in particular and the Hindu Sanghatanists in general, who happened to be sympathizers, workers or leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha. There was trouble and tension in a few cities between the Hindu Sabhaites and the R.S.S. on one side and the violent crowds of Gandhian persuasion on the other ; but the havoc wrought by the assaults committed by interested or incited gangs especially in the States of Kolhapur, Sangli and Miraj was terrific, unprecedented and unparalleled. There was hardly any bloodshed or burning incident in other Provinces, but the massacre of a whole family consisting of an old man, his son and his grandson for the fault of bearing the same surname as Godse and the atrocities, arson and looting committed in the name of Gandhiji in Maharashtra were so dastardly and ghastly that these dark deeds of the so-called followers of Gandhiji would put the inhuman crimes committed by the furious followers of Robespierre into the shade. Had it not been for the stern and efficient handling of 24
370 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
the situation by Sri Morarji Desai, the Home Minister, Government of Bombay, the rioters and looters would have turned Maharashtra into a veritable graveyard.
And what about the first and foremost Hindu Sabhaite, Savarkar ? On the morning of Saturday, January 31, 1948, at about 10, fury was let loose in many parts of the city of Bombay, which destroyed Hindu Sabha offices, burnt their property, attacked the residences of the Hindu Sabha leaders and workers, and stormed and attacked the house of Savarkar known as Savarkar Sadan. The ringleaders of this furious mob of about 500 strong broke into Savarkar’s house through a door on the rear side. They swept down into the compart- ments on the ground floor occupied by Bhide Guruji, a former Secretary to Savarkar, a Hindu Sabha leader of note, and editor of an English Weekly, the Free Hindusthan. This was the left-hand side block on the ground floor of the one-storeyed house of Savarkar. Savarkar was in his bedroom on the first floor. He knew what the mob meant towards him. In his youth, he had faced such wild drunken mobs in London streets when he was agitating for Indian Independence. The ring- leaders of the mob were running amuck on the ground floor. But the presence of mind of a Savarkarite, who was present at the moment, hoodwinked them and in the meantime the police arrived on the scene and a bloody scene was averted.
But what was the state on the first floor during this hour of attack ? It is characteristic of Savarkar that he keeps quiet, cool and collected in times of grave dangers. His courage rises with difficulties. Armed with courage and available legitimate weapons in his hands, Savarkar stood in his bed- room, his wife standing by his side. He asked his son Vishwas to seek safety somewhere while he defended the house. But true to his blood the young boy refused to run away from the scene and save his life. This was the time for Vishwas to show his mettle. In front of his father, on the threshold of the bedroom stood the young boy prepared to face the mob, determined to protect his father and to die in the action if necessary. Had Savarkar’s bodyguard Appa Kassar been present on the scene, crimson would have been the compound of Savarkar’s house. But he was already arrested along with Gajananrao Damle, personal secretary to Savarkar, in the
RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER 371
early hours of Saturday, eight hours after the assassination of Gandhiji.
Defeated in its bloodthirsty designs, the mob set upon the residence of Dr. Narayanrao Savarkar in the same locality. Dr. Savarkar was stoned till he fell down in a pool of blood. He suffered severe head injuries and was admitted to hospital, and his family was removed to a distant place.
Nathuram Godse’s lieutenantship was bound to recoil upon Savarkar. A thorough search was made of Savarkar’s house on January 31. Savarkai kept himself in his bedroom and the police minutely seari he<{ his residence. A police officer asked Savarkar to accompany him to a place of safety. Savarkar flatly refused to do so and told the officer that his person would carry unrest and agitation wherever he went. He told the police officer that he would not move an inch, and added that two armed guards were enough to scare away the mob ; but if the pohce did not want to do so, then, said he, he was ready to lay down his life for his principles. Savarkar also issued a statement on January 31, in which he said that the news of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi was too shocking and sudden and he appealed to the people to stand by the Central Government of Free India and maintain order in the country.
From February 1 to February 5 throughout the country there was a general round-up of the Hindu Sabha leaders and workers. The R.S.S. was outlawed and its leaders and workers were also arrested. Even Sri R. K. Tatnis, the famous editor of the well-known Marathi Weekly, the Vividhavritta, Sri Jamnadas Mehta and Sri K. N. Dharap were put behind the bars though they had no active connection with the Hindu Mahasabha or the R.S.S. But Tatnis and Mehta had fearlessly opposed Gandhiji and the Congress on the question of Pakistan, and Dharap was a legal celebrity of Mahasabha persuasion. All the three were, however, set at liberty by the High Court of Bombay on Habeas Corpus apphcations on their behalf. Excepting L. B. Bhopatkar, President of the All- India Hindu Mahasabha, Sri G. V. Ketkar, Editor Kesari and Mahratta, Poona, and Sri R. N. Mandlik, President of the Maharashtra Provincial Hindu Sabha and Member of the Bombay Legislative Council, all prominent Maiharashtrian
S^VAaKAR AND HIS TIMES
372
Badu SsJoSaa kadeis were put in jail. The total number of pwsons attested in this general round-up in aU the Provinces and the States was said to have exceeded 25 , 000 . Such a huge round-up for a single act was never witnessed in India at any other time in her history !
On the night of February 4, the police officers got Savarkar medically examined. The doctor declared that Savarkar was keeping dt, though Savarkar had been suffering throughout the previous year from low fever and heart-ailment, and was even at that time running temperature. A few hours after this, in the early hours of February 5, came a police van to Savarkar Sadan. Savarkar was told that he was placed under arrest under the Bombay Public Security Measures Act. He nodded assent and said that before entering the van he desired to go to the lavatory. The officers hesitated. Savarkar smiled and said ; “ Do not be afraid. I am now an old man and
you should not fear a repetition of Marseilles, nor is there any occasion for it.” The officer inspected the W.C. after Savarkar came out of it, but could find nothing.
All sensible persons condemned the act of assassination. And a few hours before his arrest, Savarkar too had issued another statement endorsing the joint statement of Bhopatkar and some other Members of the Working Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha regarding ‘ the gruesome assassination of Mahatma Gandhi ’ and said, “ I, too, as one of the Vice-Presidents of the Hindu Mahasabha subscribe to their feeling and condemn unequivocally such fatricidal crimes whether they are perpetrated by the individual frenzy or mob fury.” Savarkar concluded his statement with a warning : “ Let every
patriotic citizen set to his heart the stem warning which History utters that a successful national revolution and a newly-bom national State can have no worse enemy than a fatricidal civil war, especially so when it is encompassed from outside by alien hostility.”
Savarkar was lodged in the Arthur Road Jail, Bombay. Now some of the local Congress-minded papers assumed the role of justice, usurped the rights of the Court and wickedly enough described Savarkar as the brain behind the murder of Gandhiji. Some openly flashed the news that Damle and Kasar had a hand in the plot. And all this when the whole
RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER
373
affair as to how far Savarkar was the brain, Apie the brawn,
and Godse the heart and hand was being investigated by the
police.
Tlie police officers led a blitz in a group on Savarkar, their combined wily and wild genius being at grips with the genius of Savarkar. Savarkar was calm and collected. XAke IDe V aVera, the country for the independence of which, he had striven and sacrificed his life for fifty long years, threw ham into \aiV after the birth of a Free State. Savarkar was naturally over- whelmed with these feelings He declined to avail himself of the facility of home food. No interview with him was allowed to his wife or his only son till March 23, and nothing was heard or known about him by the public except the volcano of obloquy let loose by hostile journals of Congress persuasion.
One man with intrepid courage and devotional vigilance devoted himself to the defence of Savarkar amidst the all- round erupting volcano. That man was Sri S. V. Deodhar, a local advocate of Bombay. He interviewed Savarkar on February 6 and took his instructions. For a long time Savarkar was not charged with any speciftc offence. But on March 11, 1948, Savarkar was again placed under arrest in the Arthur Road Jail by the Delhi Police under a warrant from the Delhi Presidency Magistrate on a charge of being one of the conspirators in the a.ssassination of Gandhiji. When Savarkar was produced before the Chief Presidency Magistrate, Bombay, for a further remand, the daring advocate moved an application for bail, but it was refused. Deodhar, however, secured permission for Savarkar’s wife and son to interview him, and accordingly they saw him in jail for the first time on March 24. It was through the efforts of Deodhar that Savarkar could execute a general power of attorney in favour of his son, thus facilitating the arrangement of funds for his household affairs and for his defence. Savarkar was now in full control of every nerve. On May 18 he made an important affidavit before the Chief Presidency Magistrate, Bombay, regarding a group photograph that was taken by the police with Savarkar in the centre and Godse and Apte on either side together with the other alleged conspirators who had been arrested on different dates in the first half of February and brought to Bombay for investigation purposes.
374 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
By now tho Icsdcr and famous advocate in Bhopatkar was on the move with all his legal acumen and with all his moral courage. Sri Mandlik also was bringing the issue of Savarkar^s arrest to the forefront. At the time of the passing of the Budget, Mandlik severely criticized the Bombay Government in the Bombay Legislative Council for denying Savarkar even the freedom of interview with his family and legal counsels. On April 3 Mandlik asked the Home Minister, Sri Morarji Desai, as to why the confiscated property of the Savarkars was not returned to Savarkar in appreciation of his past services in the cause of Indian Independence, as was done in the case of other patriotic sufferers of Congress persuasion of even recent period. The Home Minister replied that the Govern- ment did not propose to return the property to Savarkar and on a supplementary question, he added sarcastically, though Savarkar’s case was now sub jiidice, that Savarkar’s present disservice was more than his past service. Upon this Mandlik sprang up and asked the Home Minister to define Savarkar’s ‘ present ’ disservice to which the Home Minister had referred ; but there was no reply. Savarkar’s must be a rare case, a case of one of the greatest patriots under the sun wherein the property confiscated for his struggle for national freedom was not returned to the patriot even after the nation had become free. Men of lesser patriotism and later-day struggle were given back their confiscated properties by the Congress Ministries ; but it seemed as if the Congressmen in the Ministry, who were themselves not politically born nor were the makers of their Ministries out of their swaddling clothes when Savarkar stamped the pages of world history with the cry of Indian Independence, were not even desirous of doing Savarkar bare justice, let alone honouring the greatest patriot of our day.
II
In the meantime, news appeared in the Times of India, Bombay, that Government were weighing the evidence regarding Savarkar’s complicity in the plot. After three months and a half, the preliminaries were completed. And at last, for want of proper legal opinion, the Government of
RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTF. R 375
India were led to rope in Savarkar, one of the greatest political figures for all times, with the other alleged conspirators. A notification in the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated May 15, 1948, declared the names of the nine accused among whom flashed the name of Savarkar as the eighth accused. The notification also announced that Sri Atma Charan, I.C.S. was appointed a Special Judge to try the case in the historic Red Fort at Delhi. The trial was expected to begin towards the end of May 1948.
The tide of mob violence almost ebbed in April 1948. But the atmosphere was still full of dread. The Public Security Measures Act held its sway all over the Province. The defence of Savarkar was the uppermost thought for his family and the Mahasabha leaders of Maharashtra. The nerve of the Hindu Mahasabha leaders in Maharashtra did not give way. History has witnessed that in a great crisis, Maharashtrian leadership keeps its nerve and mind. So was it proved during the historic days of Rajarara and post-Panipat period. Bhopatkar, Ketkar and Mandlik rose to keep up the traditional spirit. Sri Jamnadas Mehta, who had played an important role in effecting Savarkar ’s release in 1937, rose to the occasion and played a very effective role in this trial also ! The part Sri Gajananrao Ketkar played with his colleagues in .solving the deadlock regarding Savarkar’s defence was as skilful and courageous as it was spirited and masterly. It was through his qualities of head and heart that the issue of the Defence Fund was brought to the forefront so that the Defence Fund was volunteered even by farmers, villagers and students in instalments of rupee one or two amounting to a lakh in the end. Hindu Sanghatanists in Bengal, Punjab, Madras and other Provinces, too, at a later stage joined the Defence Com- mittee in collecting the Defence Fund as a token of moral support.
Just before the commencement of the trial, all the accused, who were then in Bombay, were taken to Delhi on May 24. Savarkar was alone taken to Delhi the next day by air, accompanied by two medical experts and oxygen tubes. All the accused were lodged in a specially selected part of the Red Fort and it was declared to be a prison. It was also declared that the Court would hold its sittings in a hall in the
376 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
upper storey of a building in the Red Fort, the famous Fort where the Moguls held trials and where recently the I.N.A. leaders were tried. The Court was well furnished and arrangements for accommodation of the Court visitors and for the accused were .specially made. The Court room was fitted with microphones for making the proceedings audible. Admission to the court was regulated by pa.s.ses available on production of a certificate of fitness from a Magistrate or a Gazetted Officer. Passes were valid for one daj’ only and visitors and even counsels were liable to be searched at the gate. The Court and its surroundings wei’e guarded by police and military force.
The trial opened at 10 a.m. on May 27, 1948, the day on which Savarkar completed his fateful sixty-fifth year ! Sri C. K. Daphtary, Advocate-General, Bombay, led the prosecution and was assisted by four other counsels. Sri L. B. Bhopatkar, President of the All-India Hindu Mahasabha, an eminent author of many Law Books and a legal celebrity, led the Defence and represented Savarkar, accused No. 8. The principal accused, Nathuram Vinayak Godse, was represented by Sri V. V. Oak, Bar-at-law, Bombay ; Narayan D. Apte was represented by K. H. Mengle ; Vishnu R. Karkare by N. D. Dange, Bombay ; Madanlal K. Pahwa by B. B. Banerji, Delhi, Shankar Kistaya by H. R. Metha (Government) ; Gopal Godse by M. B. Maniar and Dr. Parchiure by P. L. Inamdar, Gwalior. Sri G. K. Dua and Sri M. B. Maniar helped Dange and Inamdar and Sri Jamnadas Mehta, Lala Ganpat Rai, Delhi, Sri K. L. Bhopatkar, Poona, Sri J. P. Mitter, Calcutta, and Sri N. P. Aiyar, Madras, assisted Bhopatkar during the trial in the defence of Savarkar, and at the time of arguments Sri P. R. Das, brother of Deshbandhu Das, and a retired High Court Judge, Patna, argued the case for Savarkar. The President of the Hindu Mahasabha was defending its former President Savarkar. Bhopatkar was then seventy and had to forego a lucrative practice at the Poona Bar for months. Political reactions to his brave defence of Savarkar were not without strain. A lesser man would have gone down in standing for such a daring defence which was nothing less than an opposition and resistance to a powerful unfavourable current then in its meridian in the country.
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Out of the twelve persons cited in the charge sheet, the first nine were produced on the first day, the remaining three, Gangadhar Dandvate, Gangadhar Jadhav and Suryadeo Sharnia were stated to have absconded. When the trial opened, Savarkar looked sober, self-collected, but pale and physically pulled down ; Godse, the central figure, wore a scowl ; Apte, Karkare, Mandanlal, Badge, Gopal Godse, Kistaya and Dr. Parchure were in good spirits and freely talked with each other in il •, dock. On the first day the Court acceded to the Chief Defer;’,e Counsel’s request for a chair to be provided for Savarkar in the dock. Then deciding a legal point raised by Bhopatkar, the judge said that the trial would be treated as if the accused had already been committed to Sessions. The Court met again on June 3 to consider the timings of the sittings, the language of the proceedings, etc., and adjourned to June 22, 1948.
In the meanwhile, the Bombay Public Security Measures Act was made applicable by the Central Government to the Province of Delhi on June 2, 1948, under the provisions of the Delhi Laws Act of 1912 and came into force with effect from June 13, 1947. It was declared on June 14, 1948, that the Special Court at Delhi constituted under sections 10 and 11 of the Bombay Public Security Measures Act as extended to the Province of Delhi was empowered to tender pardon to an accused under a special ordinance XIV of 1948. Accordingly Digambar Badge was tendered the King’s pardon on June 21, and Badge turned approver in the case.
On June 22 the trial resumed hearing in the Red Fort. The Chief Prosecution Counsel, Sri Daphtary, in his opening speech charged all the eight accused in the dock with conspiracy, murder and offences under the Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act. The story of the prosecution was that Nathuram Godse was the tool, Apte the brain and Savarkar was the Guru and guide behind the murder of Gandhiji. The prosecution stated that Savarkar was a very well-known name, a leader of a particular line of thought and President for a considerable period of the Hindu Mahasabha. The prosecution further said that his books were numerous and vigorous and were the text books for persons of certain views and thought and some of those books were published
378 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES
by Nathuram Godse and Apte. The Prosecution Chief added : “ It has been well known that he has been no lover, to put it mildly, of either non-violence or of any policy of favouring the Muslim Party.” The Chief of the Prosecution concluded : “ Evidence is sufficient to prove not only that he had knowledge of what was going to be done, but that it could not have been done except with his complicity.”
After the charges were read out and explained to the accused, all the accused pleaded ‘ not guilty ’ and claimed to be tried.
The recording of the prosecution evidence began on June 24, and continued till November 6. During the course of his deposition the approver Badge told the court that he had accompanied Apte and Godse to Savarkar Sadan, Bombay, on 14 January 1948, that Godse and Apte went inside with a bag containing the stuff leaving him outside the compound, and returned 5-10 minutes later with the bag containing the stuff. The approver further said in his evidence that on January 15, 1948, Apte asked him in the compound of Dixitji Maharaj, Bombay, whether he was prepared to accompany him (Apte) to Delhi and told the approver that Tatyarao (Savarkar) had decided that Gandhiji, Nehru and Suhrawardy should be finished and had entrusted that work to them. The approver also told the Court that on a suggestion from Nathuram Godse, Godse, Apte and Badge had been to Savarkar Sadan on January 17, 1948, to take the last Darshun of Savarkar and while be was sitting in the room on the ground floor of the house, he heard Savarkar saying to Godse and Apte who were coming downstairs, “ Be successful and come.” On their way back, Apte told the approver, so went the story of the approver, that (Tatyarao) Savarkar had predicted that Gandhiji’s hundred years were over and that there was no doubt that their work would be successfully finished. The approver said that he accompanied Apte and Godse to Delhi because Apte told him that it was Savarkar’s command. It seemed this was all the prosecution evidence against Savarkar. Badge was subjected to a gruelling cross- examination by Sri L. B. Bhopatkar when the approver said that he regarded Savarkar not only as the leader of the Hindus, but also God incarnate (Devata). He also said that
RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER 379
Savarkar’s birthday was celebrated every year as Jayanti Day like Shiva Jayanti and Krishna Jayanti and that he had seen Savarkar only once in 1943. Badge admitted that Bhide Guruji and Gajananrao Damle also resided on the ground floor of Savarkar Sadan.
Out of the few other prosecution witnesses produced to prove Savarkar’s complicity m the plot, Miss Shantabai B. Modak, Maharashtrian ire.ss, who had given a lift to Nathuram Godse and Nara n Apte and dropped them near by Savarkar Sadan, on January 14, admitted when cross- examined by Sri Oak that she did not see Apte and Godse entering the compound of Savarkar Sadan. The story of another prosecution witness. Prof. J. C. Jain, Bombay, was that Madanlal Pahwa, who met the professor before the assassination of Gandhiji, had told the Professor that Savarkar had patted him on the back for his work in the Refugee Camp and said ‘ carry on ’. The Home Minister of Bombay, Sri Morarji Desai, and one Angad Singh told the story as related to them by Prof. Jain. As far as Savarkar was concerned, there was no evidence against him except the alleged uncorroborated talk of this Madanlal with Savarkar in all these three depositions. The taxi-driver said in his evidence that he had taken Godse, Apte, Badge and Kistaya to Shivaji Park, Dadar, but he did not know the name of the owner of the house into which Godse, Apte and Badge went. The story of the trunk-phone call from the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan, New Delhi, to Savarkar Sadan, Bombay, was also narrated by prosecution witnesses. But the call was not meant for the inmates of Savarkar Sadan and so that point was also a failure.
Ill
After the examination and cross-examination of 149 prosecu- tion witnesses in all, the statements of the accused were heard. On November 8 Nathuram Godse submitted his state- ment in which he frankly admitted that he fired three shots at Gandhiji whom he considered to be the father of Pakistan. Godse and Apte both denied that they had either seen Savarkar or entered the compound of his house as alleged by
380 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
the prosecution. Immediately, on the next day, Godse’s 92-page statement was banned by the Central Government. Madanlal denied having seen Savarkar at all as alleged by the prosecution. Kistaya also stated that it was true that Nathuram Godse, Apte and Badge had been to a certain house in Shivaji Park locality, but he added that he did not know to whom the house belonged, nor was it true what the approver told that he (Kistaya) accompanied them to that house ; as in fact he did not alight from the car when Badge and others got down and went somewhere in the locality.
On November 20 Savarkar read his 52-page statement in which he said he did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged, nor had he any reason to do so. He solemnly asserted that he was never a party to any agreement or conspiracy as alleged by the prosecution, nor had he any knowledge of any such criminal design.
Savarkar proceeded : “ Badge, the approver, alleges that
I (Savarkar) had decided that Gandhiji, Nehru and Suhrawardy .should be finished. Apte and Godse both deny that they ever told it to Badge and they were never told by me any such things as alleged. There is absolutely no evidence to corroborate Badge’s allegation. The first allega- tion of Badge is thus not only a hearsay, but an uncorrobo- rated hearsay.”
Savarkar added that as regards the second sentence which Badge said he had personally heard him (Savarkar) saying to Apte and Godse, “ be successful and come back,” it was only an inference that it might have been in connection with the conspiracy. Moreover, Apte and Godse, continued Savarkar, both asserted that the story of the visit of the three to his house and the allegation of his having uttered that sentence was but a fabrication and totally false. “ Taking for granted,” stated Savarkar, “ that Badge himself is telling the truth when he says Apte told him that sentence, the question still remains whether what Apte told Badge was true or false. There was no evidence to show that I had ever told Apte to finish Gandhiji, Nehru and Suhrawardy. Apte might have invented this wicked lie to exploit my moral influence on Hindu Sanghatanists for his own purpose.” Savarkar further
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said that he had never predicted that Gandhiji’s hundred years were over, to Apte or to anyone else.
Detailing his personal life and political line of thought since 1908, he narrated his association with Gandhiji since 1908 and he read pertinent extracts from his public statements issued from time to time on the arrest of Gandliiji and Nehru, regarding the murderous attack on Jinnah and pertaining to the sad death of Mrs. Kasturba Gandhi. He also briefly outlined the object of the Hindu Mahasabha of which he was President successively for seven years.
He then referred to the fateful events in 1947 and said : “ I
had been foremost in leading the movement against the vivi*- section of India. But in the year 1947 our Motherland was at last divided. However, although Pakistan came into existence yet to counterbalance that loss, by far the larger part of Hindusthan succeeded in achieving its freedom from foreign domination.” And when Savarkar came to the point of the vivisection of his Motherland, tears rolled down his cheeks and his voice was choked as he finished the sentence : “The fight for political independence in which as a soldier I too had fought, suffered and sacrificed for the last fifty years in no measure less than any other patriotic leader in my generation, was at last won and a free and independent State was born. I felt myself blessed to have survived to see my country free.” He wiped his tears with his handkerchief and continued to read his statement in a low voice. The news- papers flashed the moving atmosphere of the court in these words : “ Every one in the court seemed to share the emotions that overwhelmed the Hindu Sabha leader. The whole court was in pin-drop silence.”
Savarkar then defined his attitude towards the Central Government. He observed : “ No doubt a part of the Mission remained unaccomplished, but we had not renounced our ambition to restore once more the integrity of our Motherland from the Indus to the Seas. For the realization of this ambition too it was imperative to consolidate that which we had already won. With this end in view I tried to impress on the public mind that first of all the Central Government must be rendered strong whatever party may happen to lead it. Any change in that lead however desirahle^ should be
382 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
effected by constitutional means alone, for any act of violence or civil strife inside our camp was bound to endanger the state. Revolutionary mentality, which was inevitable and justifiable while we were struggling against an alien and armed oppression, must be instantly changed into a constitu- tional one if we wanted to save our State from dangerous party-strifes and civil wars. With this motto I wished that the two leading organizations, the Congress and the Maha- sabha, which were in fact coming very close to each other, should form a common front and strengthen the hands of the Central Government of our State. To that end I accepted the new National Flag. Though ill, I went to preside over the All-Party Hindu Conference at Delhi and attended the Mahasabha Working Committee. The majority of the veteran leaders of the Mahasabha as well as some foremost Congressite leaders had also been striving to form such a common front in co-operation with me. The Mahasabha Working Committee passed a resolution to back up the Central Government. Dr, S. P. Mookerji, the Mahasabha leader, was already included in the Central Ministry and the step was appreciated by all of us.”
As regcirds the deposition of other witnesses in reference to him, Savarkar said that he did not know Madanlal, neither had he met him, nor had he any conversation with him at any time whatsoever, and since the evidence of Professor Jain, Angad Singh and Sri Morarji Desai was hearsay testimony, he pleaded that it should be excluded entirely from considera- tion. He pointed out that Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were men of independent nature as was revealed by the approver and they were not to be led by the nose. He also respectfully stated before the court : “ Does it not often
happen that some of the followers who actually try to exploit the moral influence of the leaders to further their activities which the leader had never sanctioned ? In 1942, in the ‘ Quit India Movement ’ some leading workers, who had been close associates of Gandhiji as Congressmen and respected him, resorted to underground violence. I am not concerned here with the question whether such an underground move- ment against a foreign domination was or was not justifled. It is enough to say that Mahatma Gandhi condemned all
383
red fort ordeal and after
underground violence. But masses resorted under the lead of those workers to arson, sabotage and bloodshed, shouting all the while ‘ Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai ^ But even the British Government did not put Gandhiji in the dock for their crime simply because the masses respected him and were doing those very criminal acts and shouting ‘ Gandhiji ki Jai ’ and there- fore they must have had consulted him/’
In the end, Savarkar pleaded that since not a word had been found to incriminate him in the 10,000 letters which the prose- cution had seized from his liouse and since Badge’s allegations were uncorroborated hearsay and uncorroborated inference, he prayed the judge to acquit him without the least blemish on his character and order him to be released forthwith.
The accused were then asked whether they meant to adduce evidence in defence. All of them declined to adduce evidence in rebuttal of the prosecution evidence or in support of the statements made by them.
After the statements of the eight accused were recorded, the counsels’ arguments were heard from December 1 to Decem- ber 30, 1948. Nathuram Godse argued his case himself for about three days and laid stress on the point that it was a cold-blooded act of his own and was committed not in con- sultation or in conspiracy with anybody else and as he had shown no mercy to the man whom he had killed, he concluded, he did not want the court to show any mercy to himself. Sri Mengle argued the case on behalf of Apte, Dange for Karkare, B. Banerji for Madanlal, Mehta for Kistaya and Inamdar for Gopal Godse and Dr. Parchure. Sri P. R. Das, a retired High Court Judge from Patna and brother of Deshbandhu C. R. Das, volunteered his services for the defence of Savarkar and argued the case in a powerful and masterful manner for Savarkar in particular and as regards the point of conspiracy in general. Sure of ultimate success. Das con- cluded that he did not doubt as to what would be the decision of the court regarding his client. He emphasized that he ex- pected a clean acquittal for Savarkar without blemish on his character. It was a tribute to the broad-mindedness of Sri L. B. Bhopatkar, the Chief Defence Counsel, that although in no way unequal to the occasion in his legal acumen, he made sure of the acquittal of Savarkar, the only object of his
384 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
heart and pride by adding strength and influence to the defence of Savarkar through his masterly and thorough cross- examination of the prosecution witnesses and then by putting forth the arguments through the legal genius of Sri P. R. Das.
At last after eighty-four sittings spread over seven long months, the day of judgment dawned on February 10, 1949. Exactly at 11 a.m. the Special Judge, Sri Atma Charan, com- menced to deliver his judgment. . In the course of the judg- ment, Sri Atma Charan said : “ Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
in his statement says that he had no hand in the conspiracy, if any, and had no control whatsoever over Nathuram Godse and Narayan D. Apte. It has been mentioned above that the prosecution case against Vinayak D. Savarkar rests on the evidence of the approver and approver alone. It has further been mentioned earlier that it would be unsafe to base any conclusion on the evidence of the approver as against Vinayak D. Savarkar. There is thus no reason to suppose that Vinayak Damodar had any hand in what took place at Delhi on 20-1-1948 and 30-1-1948.”
The learned judge concluded : “ Vinayak D. Savarkar : He is found not guilty of the offences as specified in the charge, and is acquitted thereunder. He is in custody and be released forthwith unless required otherwise.”
Nathuram Godse was sentenced to death for his deliberate and calculated act. Narayan D. Apte was also sentenced to death as the real brain behind the murder, and the other five accused, Vishnu Karkare, Madanlal Pahwa, Gopal V. Godse, Shankar Kistaya and Dr. Dattatraya Parchure, who were found guilty of conspiracy and abetment, were sen- tenced each to transportation for life. As soon as the judge rose to depart, all the prisoners fell at the feet of Savarkar in the dock and raised shouts of ‘ Akhand Hindusthan Amar Rahe ; Hindu-Hindi Hindusthan, Kabi Na Honga Pakistan It may be mentioned here that later, on June 21, 1949, Shankar Kistaya and Dr. Parchure were both acquitted by the Pun- jab High Coxart in an appeal as it was believed that Kistaya did no more than carry out his master’s orders and the con- fession of Dr. Parchure on which his conviction was based, was found to be unreliable and vmsatisfactory by the Appeal Court. The appeal of Godse, who again argued his own case
red fort ordeal and after 385
on the point of conspiracy and the appeals of Apte, Madanlal and Gopal Godse, were not granted and eventually Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte died unrepentantly on the gallows on the morning of November 15, 1949, in the Ambala Prison vivtb the BKogauat Gita in their hands.
Savarkar did not enjoy the trial as he had enjoyed the Nasik Trial thirty years ago. At the fag end of his life he was put into a fiery ordeal. So he had to control every nerve, every muscle and every drop of his blood with his uncommon will power to outlive the obloquy and the ordeal. Like a yogin, he wrote his plain letters to his son asking him to be self-supporting and consoling his wife that after the greatest catastrophe they had passed nearly twenty-five years in happiness. He himself had to suffer unparalleled mental tor- ments and agonies and he felt all the while a year and a week the ingratitude on the part of his countrymen, who aimed at damning him in the eyes of the world. That was a burn- ing ordeal. It was therefore quite natural for such a man of great will power and the burning emblem of sacrifice that not a muscle on his face moved as he heard the decision of the Court in the Red Fort.
Savarkar’s acquittal was a thunderbolt to his ill-wishers. What a shame ! To Savarkarites and Hindu Sanghatanists all over India, his release therefore was an occasion for great rejoicings. Telegrams and letters of congratulations were showered on him from all parts of India and from abroad. Almost all Maharashtrian leading newspapers gave a sigh of relief at the acquittal of Savarkar. So did the Hindu Sanghatanists and other unbiased straightforward newspapers all over India.
But no sooner was the acquittal of Savarkar pronounced, than he was served with a notice under an order of the Delhi Magistrate prohibiting him from leaving the Red Fort area. It was a keen disappointment for the vast crowds that had gathered outside the Red Fort to give an ovation to , Savarkar whom they wanted to take out in a procession. A few hours later, by another order under the Punjab Public Security Measures Act, Savarkar was externed and was pro- hibited from entering the Delhi area for a period of three months and was escorted under police protection to his house
2S
386 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
at Shivaji Park, Bombay. The train carjying him reached Dadar, Bombay, at about 10-30 a.m. on February 12, 1919. The news of his departure from Delhi was kept a secret. Yet hundreds of Hindu Sanghatanist workers and leaders greeted Savarkar at the station. Savarkar was put by the police officer, who escorted him from Delhi, in a motor car waiting outside the station, and was driven to Savarkar Sadan. At his house his wife and some ladies waved auspicious lighted wicks around his face in the traditional Hindu fashion and thus ended the Red Fort ordeal !
IV
After taking rest for about a month at Bombay, Savarkar went to Bangalore for a few days for a change. On his way back, he heard the news about the accident to the aeroplane in which Sardar Patel was travelling and about his miracu- lous escape in the neighbourhood of Jaipur. On reaching Bombay, Savarkar immediately congratulated Sardar Patel on his safety and said in the course of the congratulatory telegram that “ the Sardar ’s life constituted a national asset and his grasp of the realities and his firm hold on the helm had steered the ship of the newly-born Bharatiya State clear of many a rock and shoal.” On May 28 Savarkar’s birthday was celebrated as usual by ail the District and Provincial Hindu Sabhas all over India and some public meetings passed resolutions demanding that Government should insti- tute an inquiry into the causes that led to the prosecution of Savarkar without the least clear evidence against him. Savarkar, however, wanted the fire of acrimony enkindled by his prosecution to be extinguished and so he communi- cated to the Bombay Government his desire that a curtain be dropped on the whole affair.
Towards the end of May 1949, the Constituent Assembly passed one important article abolishing the separate electo- rates, reservations and weightages which were based on the invidious racial and religious discriminations. Upon this Savarkar, who was the first nationalist leader to demand this very thing years ago, sent a telegram to Sardar Patel con- gratulating him for having thus vindicated ‘ the genuine
hed fort ordeal and after 387
national clvaracter ol our Bharatiya State ’ and hoped ‘ that the adtniiustration would boldly carry it into effect in letter and in spirit.’ Thanking Savarkar in return, Sardar Patel said in his reply of June 2, that ‘ Government was already doing and would continue to do its best to act accordin^y.’
In the middle of July 1949, Savarkar sent a telegram to Sri M. S. Golwalkar, Chief of the R.S.S., extending his felici- tations on the withdrawal of the ban on the R.S.S. and on the release of the R.S.S. leader himself.
The Constituent Assembly had by now far advanced in the framing of the constitution and now the question of the appellation of the country, the choice of the script and the Lingua Franca were being hotly discussed in the Assembly and outside. Savarkar wired to the President of the Consti- tuent Assembly his views on the subject. He said : “ I am voicing the sense and sentiment of millions of our country- men when I beseech the Constituent Assembly to adopt Bharat, as the name of our nation, Hindi as the national lan- guage and Nagari as the national script.” All the three were subsequently incorporated into the Constitution by the Consti- tuent Assembly for the Bharatiya Republic.
Just then Master Tara Singh, who was interned since some months, was released. Savarkar offered him felicitations on his release as he considered that “ Master Tara Singh was one of the few leaders who kept up the heroic spirit of our people of the Punjab in the dark days of the partition and saved the East Punjab at any rate for us.”
In the same month Savarkar’s younger brother Dr. Narayanrao Savarkar, passed away at the age of 61 on October 19, after remaining in an unconscious state for a fortnight from an attack of paralysis. His illness and mental agony dated back to January 1948 when he was murderously attacked by a riotous mob of goondas inunediately after the assassination of Gandhiji and from which he never recovered completely afterwards. Next to none in national service, patriotic sacri- fice, courage and intelligence, this silver-tongued orator of Maharashtra, who had been during the British regime a symbol of sedition, sacrifice, revolt and terror while his brothers were rotting in the Andamans, died with an uncomproifiising opposition to the anti-Hindu and un-Hindu forces. It was a
38ft SAVARKAH ANO HIS TIMES
cruel misfortune that Savarkar should witness the last of his brothers consumed by fire.
In the meanwhile, the scattered forces of the Hindu Sabhaites were preparing to hold the annual Session of the Hindu Mahasabha at Calcutta. After a pressing and fervent request from the veteran revolutionary leader, Sri Upendra- nath Banerjee, who was a co-sufferer with Savarkar in the Andamans and was a Congressman for a long time, and had turned a Hindu Sabhaite after the Hindu Bengal had reaped the fruits of partition, and ardent appeals from Sri Ashutosh Lahiri, Savarkar decided to go to Calcutta, and started on December 21, 1949, to attend the annual Session of the Hindu Mahasabha. Almost throughout the journey, Savarkar had to make brief speeches at several stations to respond to the greetings of the crowds that awaited his arrival. In Calcutta Savarkar was taken out in a huge procession along with Dr. Khare, the President-elect, and Sri L. B. Bhopatkar, the retiring President. Thousands of people participated in the procession. In the Session, too, all attention was centred on Savarkar. His acquittal in the Red Fort Trial had now added colour and a further romance to his already romantic life. Hindu Sanghatanists from all parts of the country gathered in thousands at Calcutta to declare to the whole world that their saviour had at last come back to guide them.
When Savarkar entered the Pandal, the huge congregation stood up as if electrified with his darshan. It became hilarious while shouting ‘ Veer Savarkar ki Jai ’ when Savarkar stood before the mike with his palms characteristically resting on the handle of his umbrella and wearing his brimless black round cap. In his ninety-minute inaugural address to the Session, Savarkar stressed first the point that the Indepen- dence of India was a victory and not a political gift from the British. He asserted that the independence was not accom- plished by. the Congress alone, or the revolutionaries alone ; it was, he said, the sxunmation of the struggle, sacrifice and sufferings of thousands of patriots from 1857 to 1947 inside and outside India. He ai&med that India was after all now a Hindu State established under a Hindu Flag with the Dharma-Chakra of the Hindu Race as its State Symbol. He then stressed the need for continuing the Hindu Mahasabha
“ge P*‘ocession taken out in Calcutta in E>ecember 1P49 in honour of Veer Savarki***
£>r. IChare and Sri Bhopatkar
Savarkar with his wife, daughter and son
RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER 369
and exhorted the Hindu youths to join the Indian army, navy and air forces in thousands. He also pleaded for the adopUon of constitutional and democratic legal means for the fulfilment of their objectives and appealed to the Hindus not to take the law into their own hands. He suggested that there should be a policy of tit for tat in our dealings with Pakistan and de- clared : “It is the duty of our people to consolidate our posi- tion first, and if we are true to our Mother and Soul, by ten years’ time we can restore the territories that have been torn away.”
The President, Dr. Khare, proclaimed in his usual fearless- ness the re-entry of the Hindu Mahasabha into the field of politics with the ideology of a cultural State and the Hindu Rashtra as its guiding stars and affirmed that “ but for the pressure increasingly applied by the Hindu Mahasabha, the Congress could not have abandoned separate electorates or adopted Hindi with Devanagari script as the Rashtra Bhasha.”
On January 26, 1950, was inaugurated the Sovereign Demo- cratic Bharatiya Republic imder the Presidentship of Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Savarkar issued a statement to the nation on this occasion to commemorate the emancipation of our Motherland from the British bondage. He also congratulated Dr. Rajendra Prasad on his becoming the first President of the Republic. In his congratulatory telegram, he ‘ placed his services entirely at the disposal of the Republic in any national undertaking and hoped that the foremost task of creating the strongest possible Bharatiya army, navy and air forces to defend our new-born Republic would receive his immediate attention.’ Savarkar ended his congratulatory message with the words ‘ Long live Akhand Bharat.*
In March 1950, the East Bengal burst into a conflagration. The Noakhali tragedies were ruthlessly repeated. As fore- told by Savarkar, the birth of Pakistan endangered the peace and prosperity of Hindusthan, led the Indians to agony, misery and sufferings, and Pakistan ‘ sought every opportu- nity for expansion.* Moved by these tragedies in the £!ast Bengal, even leaders like Sri Jai Prakash Narayan suggested that our forces should be sent to the disturbed areas if nothing else could stop the carnage. The general opinion in the press and the platform seemed to favour the adoption of some such drastic step. At this juncture, it was declared that
25
390 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
Savarkar was going to attend the East Punjab Hindu Confer- ence at Rohatak in the second week of April. Savarkar was to break his journey at Delhi where the people had planned to accord him an imposing reception.
About this time Pandit Nehru in good faith thought it fit to try his method of negotiations to solve the Bengal problem and invited Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan, the Premier of Pakistan, to Delhi for a parley. The Premier of Pakistan at Karachi in his speech before his Parliament levelled an attack against the Hindu Mahasabha and attributed the East Bengal trage- dies to its propaganda and to a Calcutta speech of Sardar Patel in February 1950. And as if to create a calm and quiet atmosphere for his delicate negotiations with the Pakistani Premier, Savarkar who was out of active politics and who had placed his services at the disposal of the Bharatiya Re- public, was arrested at Bombay in the early morning of April 4, 1950, under the Preventive Detention Act, hundreds of miles away from Delhi where the delicate negotiations were being spun and was put into the Belgaum District Jail. Sri L. B. Bhopatkar, Sri G. V. Ketkar, Sri Mamarao Date, Sri K. B. Limaye, Sri G. M. Nalavade, and others were also thrown into prison. This action on the part of the Govermnent was re- sented and condemned by almost the entire press, political leaders, and freedom-loving organizations like the Civil Liberties Union of Bombay. Condemning this action, the Free Press Journal, which had never shown even an iota of sympathy with the Hindu Mahasabha, observed : “ The
offensive against the Hindu Mahasabha and the R.S.S. leaders and workers has only one implication. That is, that, Premier Nehru has elected to appease Pakistan and imperil the integ- rity and the independence of India. The offensive against the Hindu Mahasabha and the R.S.S. has a two-fold purpose ; one is to divert India’s attention from the policy of appeasement ; the other is to create a panic that there is a Hindu conspiracy to rally the progressive elements in support of the policy of appeasement of Pakistan.” ^ And all this took place in a democratic India where the fundamental rights of the freedom of speech and of association are guaranteed by the Constitu- tion itself ! How long is Free India going to be deprived of Savarkar’s nation-building co-operation and powers ?
1 The Free Press Journal, dated 5-4-1950.