Swatantryaveer Savarkar – A Born Leader

HJS salutes Maha patriot Veer Savarkar on His Memorial Day!

(on 28th Feb according to tithi)

 Savarkar could be called a born rebel. He organized a gang of kids, Vanarsena (Monkey Brigade) when he was just eleven. A fearless individual, he wanted everybody around him to become physically strong and be able to face any disasters – natural or man-made. He conducted long tours, hiking, swimming and mountaineering around Nasik, his birthplace in Maharashtra. During his high school days, he used to put up plays on nationalistic themes. He started writing poems, essays, plays, etc. to inspire people, which he had developed with a passion. Later he went to Pune for his college education and founded the “Abhinav Bharat Society”. As a serious student of nationalism he found a bigger platform now; with growing youngsters, he bloomed as a leader as well. All political activities were banned by the ruling British then and he had to undertake all transactions, communications in secret and was expelled from hostel and at one point from the college as well. But since he managed to get the prestigious ‘Shivaji scholarship’ (named after Shivaji) to study law at London, the college authorities had to make way for his scholastic journey!

Oh Motherland, Sacrifice for you is like life!
Living without you is death!!
– Veer Savarkar, the ideal form of Warrior energy

Veer Savarkar – A legend

·      The first political leader to daringly set ‘Absolute Political Independence’ as Bharat’s goal.

·      The first Bharatiya political leader to courageously conduct a bonfire of foreign-made clothes.

·      The first Bharatiya to organise a revolutionary movement for Bharat’s Independence at an international level.

·      The first graduate, whose degree was withdrawn by an Bharatiya University for striving for Bharat’s Independence.

·      The first political prisoner in the world who was sentenced to life-imprisonment twice, a sentence unparalleled in the history of the British Empire.

Many brave freedom fighters and revolutionaries have sacrificed their life for the freedom of India. Amongst them, Swatantryaveer Savarkar’s name will top the list. He has many accomplishments to his credit. The most memorable among them is his heroic jump into the sea off a ship called ‘Moria’, to escape the British colonial Authorities, to go to Marseilles. This jump became well-known in the whole world. This feat completed a century on 8th July 2010. The French Government has paid a tribute to this brave act by granting permission for the construction of Veer Savarkar’s memorial in France; but our Indian Government has been delaying the matter for the past 11 years. A doubt, therefore, arises in the mind that we might be deprived of a historic memorial owing to the appalling apathy of the Indian Government. It is the duty of all of us nationalistic citizens of this country to see this memorial through to completion.

Shame on Bharat’s Selfish political parties
who have forgotten the sacrifice of Veer Savarkar !

Let us pay obeisance at the feet of the patriotic Savarkar brothers who had to go through so much of anguish and sacrifice fighting for the freedom of their motherland! People therefore, should not be ungrateful like all our political parties but should always remember these great revolutionaries !

Remembering Veer Savarkar

In the history of struggle for Indian independence, V.D. Savarkar’s place is unique. He had a firm belief that only a strong, armed revolt by Indians would liberate India from the British. An extraordinary Hindu scholar (he is one who coined Indian words for the telephone, photography, the parliament, among others), a recklessly brave revolutionary (he tried to swim the sea waters and escape when captured by the enemy) and a fiercely patriotic leader, he uncovered the truth about the Sepoy Mutiny.

At London, Savarkar undertook the task, his mission in life, to create awareness regarding the first Armed National Revolt in India in 1857. Through friends, he could get access to all the much-needed first hand information regarding the men of this earlier countrywide effort. It was a sincere one on the part of the leaders, princes, soldiers and commoners to drive away the British, (though grossly misrepresented by British historians.) It was the first national effort towards getting political independence and he rightly called his book “The Indian War of Independence 1857”.

Fierce Nationalist

While in London, Savarkar organized festivals like Rakshabandhan and Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti and tried to create awareness among Indian students.The slogan Savarkar coined for Indian festivals became a unifying factor.

“One Country. One God
One Caste, One Mind
Brothers all of us
Without Difference
Without Doubt”

It was during this period that Savarkar helped design the first Indian National Flag, which
Madam Bhikaji Cama unfurled at the World Socialist Conference at Stuttgart, Germany. The Scotland Yard Police’s noose was tightening around Savarkar. Revolutionary activities in London, Mumbai, Pune, Nasik were traced to his provocation ! His speeches and articles smelt of sedition; his friends were traced as those learning about the preparation of bombs and transporting arms (pistols) illegally. Finally he was arrested and ordered to be sent back to India. In India, punishments were very harsh, tortuous and the greatest crime of the land was that of incitement to rebellion which could easily send one to the gallows. He was sent on a ship “Morena” which was to halt briefly at Marseilles. (1910)

Swimming the Ocean : Savarkar and his friends then attempted a brave escape which has since become legendary. Savarakar was to jump from a sailing ship, swim the sea waters and his friends were supposed to pick him up and lead him to freedom. Savarkar was under strict watch. There was no way out. With a constable waiting outside, he entered the toilet, broke the window, wriggled out somehow, and jumped into the ocean to swim his way to the Marseilles port. Alas! The rescue party was late by a few minutes and the French Police on guard returned the prisoner to the British cops, now chained and under stricter watch.

After a formal trial, Savarkar was charged with serious offences of illegal transportation of weapons, provocative speeches and sedition and was sentenced to 50 years’ of jail and deported to the Blackwaters (kalapani) at Andaman’s cellular jail. Conditions in jail were inhuman with prisoners having to do the back-breaking job of stone breaking, rope making, and milling. Prisoners had to grind the copra in the mill, while being tied like oxen. Each had to extract 30 pounds of oil everyday. Some died of sheer exhaustion and the inhuman treatment of beating and whipping. The bad food, unsanitary conditions, a stone bed and cold weather in winter would take their toll.

Talented Mr. Savarkar : Since political prisoners were treated like hardened criminals, they had no access to “luxuries” like a pen and paper. The poet in Savarkar was restless and uneasy. Finally he found a nail and wrote (etched) his epic “Kamala” consisting of thousands of lines on the plastered mud wall of his cell, in the darkness. A Hindi journalist friend who was taught Marathi by Savarkar came to his cell when Savarkar was removed all of a sudden and sent to another remote cell. The friend learnt the entire poem by heart and later when he was released, put it on paper and sent it to Savarkar’s relatives.

After spending 16 years in the Andamans, Savarkar was transferred to a Ratnagiri jail and then kept under house arrest. He was reunited with his wife. (He had married before leaving for England and it was a long separation). A daughter and later a son were born.

Books, poems, and articles came out. But now he was known for his book on 1857 (The Indian War of Independence) throughout the world. Savarkar stood by what he wrote till the last and never compromised with “adjustments,” “reforms” and peaceful solutions which according to him meant nothing ! He earnestly believed that Indian Independence was a reality not because of a few individuals, leaders or sections of society but that it was possible because of the participation of the common Indian citizen who prayed to his ‘family deity’ everyday. However, he said, the youngsters who went to gallows to see their motherland free, were the greatest “Veeradhiveers”.

Legacy

Savarkar passed away in 1966, after being looped into the controversy regarding the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse. The Hindu Mahasabha, an institution that Savarkar had helped grow, had opposed the creation of Pakistan, and took exception to Gandhi’s continued Muslim appeasement stances. Nathuram Godse, a volunteer of the Hindu Mahasabha, assassinated Gandhi in 1948 and upheld his actions until his hanging.

Savarkar is revered in India today as the “Brave Savarkar” (Veer Savarkar).

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