In March 1901, Savarkar was married to Yamunabai, daughter of Ramchandra Triambak Chiplunkar, who agreed to help in the matter of Savarkar's university education. After his matriculation examination, Savarkar enrolled in the Fergusson College in Poona in 1902. Savarkar very soon dominated the Fergusson College campus life. He, along with a group of students began dressing alike like Nationalists and started using Swadeshi goods only. He renamed the 'Mitra Mela' as 'ABHINAV BHARAT' in 1904 and declared that 'India must be independent; India must be united; India must be a republic; India must have a common language and common script.' This secret organisation started growing in leaps and bounds and turned into a Revolutionary Party.
In 1905, a huge Dussehra bonfire of foreign goods was lit in Poona by Savarkar and his friends to express their violent resentment toward the partition of Bengal. Savarkar organised in Pune a mammoth procession at the close of which he made a big bonfire of foreign clothes. Lokmanya Tilak (1856-1920) also participated in the rally. For organising the nation's first bonfire of foreign clothes, Savarkar was fined Rs 10 and expelled from the College Hostel by his principal. Savarkar left for London to study Law in June 1906 on receiving a scholarship.
Savarkar stayed at the India House in London, which was established by Pandit Shyamaji Krishnavarma (1857-1930), a patriot, scholar and social reformer. Shyamaji Krishnavarma started a journal Indian Sociologist, for the propagation of the ideals of freedom and revolution. He was the man who had announced liberal scholarships for Indian students desiring to study in Europe. Savarkar was able to go to England only with the help of Shyamaji's scholarship.
Interestingly it was Lokmanya Tilak who had recommended his scholarship to Shyamaji. In London, Savarkar founded the Free India Society which held weekly meetings and celebrated Indian festivals and anniversaries of important figures and days in the Indian struggle for freedom. On 10 May, 1907, scuffles broke out between Indians and Britishers at the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the 1857 martyrs of the First War of Indian Independence (described by British Historians as the Indian Mutiny) organised by the Free India Society.
In 1908, Savarkar completed his historic and immortal work 'THE HISTORY OF THE WAR OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE.' This book was originally written in Marathi and later translated into English by the well-known revolutionary of Tamilnadu, V V S Iyer (1881-1925) who was also staying along with Savarkar in India House at that time. This book was proscribed by the British government for being 'revolutionary, explosive and seditious' even before it was published. This book was later published in France and Germany and it played a very significant role in inspiring great revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh (1907-1931) and Subash Chandra Bose (1897-1945).
In 1909, Madanlal Dhingra, follower of Savarkar, shot Sir Wyllie of the India Office after failing in his attempt on the life of the then Indian Viceroy, Lord Curzon, for the atrocities committed on Nationalist Indians in India. Madanlal Dhingra was imprisoned and a meeting of Indians in London took place at which it was proposed to unanimously condemn Madanlal Dhingra's action. At that meeting Savarkar angrily shouted, 'No, not unanimously!' The meeting became unruly, Savarkar's spectacles broke and blood ran down his face. The meeting was broken up with the prominent Indian Nationalist leader Surendranath Banerjea (1848-1925) leaving in protest of the physical attack on Savarkar. That very night Savarkar wrote to the London Times to clarify the reasons for his action. Savarkar wrote: 'The meeting had no right to condemn Madanlal Dhingra like a Law Court.'
What is interesting to note is that at that time simultaneously in India, Savarkar's elder brother Babarao led an armed movement against the Minto-Morley reforms. Babarao was sentenced to transportation for life to the Andamans jail. In protest, a youth called Kanhere shot dead the British Collector of Nasik, A M T Jackson. Savarkar was implicated in the murder of Jackson because of his contacts with the India House. Savarkar soon moved to Madame Cama's residence in Paris. A warrant was issued and Savarkar was arrested on 13 March, 1910. In one of his last letters to a close friend before his arrest, Savarkar conveyed the plan of his intended attempt to escape from the custody at Marseilles. His friend was expected to be waiting there with a car.
The escape attempt at Marseilles failed since the car arrived too late. When he was being taken to India as a prisoner in the P & O Liner SS Morea, Veer Savarkar made a daring attempt to escape by jumping into the sea at Marseilles Port. Though he swan across to the pier, he was arrested by the French Police and handed over to the Scotland Yard Officer. Savarkar was tried and found guilty on the counts of 'waging war by instigation using printed matter, and providing arms... (and) for abetting the murder of Mr. Jackson. Savarkar was awarded 25 years imprisonment on the former charge and 25 years for the latter. A sum total of 50 years imprisonment which he was to serve at the Andamans prison. Veer Savarkar was only 27 years old at the time of his sentencing!
Savarkar arrived at the Andamans prison on 4 July, 1911. Life for the prisoners was very harsh. Savarkar's day began at 5 a.m. chopping trees with a heavy wooden mallet and then he would be yoked to the oil mill. If prisoners talked or broke the queue at mealtime, their 'once a year letter writing privilege' was revoked. Savarkar withdrew within himself, quietly and mechanically doing the tasks presented to him. He was successful in getting permission to start a jail library. With great effort and patience he taught the illiterate convicts to read and write. On 2 May, 1921, the Savarkar brothers were brought back to India on the SS Maharaja.
Savarkar remained imprisoned in Ratnagiri Jail and then in Yeravada Jail until 6 January, 1924 when he was freed under the condition that he would not leave Ratnagiri district and abstain from political activity for the next five years. While in Ratnagiri Jail, Savarkar wrote 'Hindutva' which was smuggled out and published under the pen-name 'Maharatta.' On his release, Savarkar founded the Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha on 23 January, 1924 which aimed to preserve India's ancient culture and work for social welfare. He appealed for a wider use of Hindi as the mother tongue and suggested reforms to the Devanagiri script to facilitate printing.
While in Ratnagiri, he wrote the 'Hindu Padpadashashi' and 'My Transportation for Life' and a collection of poems, plays and novels. At the end of his five- year confinement in Ratnagiri, Savarkar joined Tilak's Swaraj Party and founded the Hindu Mahasabha as a separate political party. He warned of the Muslim League's designs of partitioning the nation. In 1937, Savarkar was elected President of the Hindu Mahasabha. He toured the nation widely and delivered the simple message to the effect that followers of Vedism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism were all Hindus.
Savarkar agreed to join hands with the Congress in support of Gandhiji's Quit India Movement in 1942 as long as the Congress did not compromise the unity of the nation to the Muslim League. 'The Quit India Movement must not end in a Split India Movement!' he thundered on a BBC broadcast of his speech. On 15 August, 1947, Savarkar proudly unfurled the national flag along with the saffron flag of the Hindu Mahasabha.
The government of India deliberately implicated him in the case relating to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. He was honourably acquitted by the Court on 10 February, 1949. He passed away on 27 February, 1966.
M C Chagla, the then Union Education Minister paid this tribute to him: 'Savarkar was a great patriot and an illustrious son of India. He was always of the view that anyone living in this country who loved and drew inspiration from the great heritage of India and was loyal to India was a Hindu. Revolutionaries like Savarkar created an atmosphere which made it possible for Mahatma Gandhi to succeed. It would be unpatriotic if the people of India fail to give Savarkar a prominent place in the history of India.'
(Concluded)
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