Being Savarkar: Making of the Revolutionary - इतिहास शोध संस्थान, नेरी

Being Savarkar: Making of the Revolutionary

Kanwar Chanderdeep Singh

(वर्ष 13, अंक 1-2) चैत्र-आषाढ़ मास कलियुगाब्द 5122 अप्रैल-जुलाई 2020

Abstract

The history of Revolutionary struggle in Bharat since the last decades of 19th century has been multidimensional encompassing different facets of the revolutionaries at different times and spaces. VD Savarkar was one such personalities who embraced the best of Indian ethos and happily wedded them with the western modes for driving home the revolution. Savarkar was not merely a revolutionary, though, this paper primarily focuses on the revolutionary aspect of Savarkar and his life, He was a philosopher, a master strategist, an author and poet, a reformer and an internationalist. All these traits within the broader paradigms of Bharatiya freedom struggle makes Savarkar a misunderstood (or deliberately so) giant whose ideational relevance go beyond the limitations of time and space. This paper attempts to put forth the life of Savarkar and Savarkarian worldview of revolution in the light of the endeavours of the nascently organized anticolonial movements.

Keywords : Anticolonial struggle, Bharatiya, British, revolutionary, Savarkar,

Introduction and problematization

Major problem with the writing of revolutionary history in Bharat has been looking at it through the western Marxist prism. The revolutionary ideas of Marx and his ilk were uncritically accepted and considered as a template for comprehending any revolutionary movement. Those struggles for revolution which seldom fit in the Marxist paradigms were not considered worthy of being referred to as revolutions and the patriots as revolutionaries in true sense of the term. The other issue that arises in the study of revolutionary contribution to the freedom movement is its division between secular and communal. Anything and everything taking cues or inspirations from the sanatana cultural ethos of the country is grossly ascribed as communal and extending it to fundamentalist or reactionary connotations.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the doyen of revolutionary nationalism in Bharat suffered from similar ignominy not only during his lifetime but more half a century after his death. Savarkar was no exception when it comes to the dehumanization of Hindu nationalist revolutionaries, a process that began with the colonial construction of the earlier revolutionaries. It continued even after the decolonization of the country albeit, with similar, if not in degree but in intentions, colonized mindsets. It is one of the primary factors which never let Savarkar go out of contention, both by its appropriators and his detractors. This essay attempts to trace one of the most talked about facets of the life and times of Savarkar which not only catapulted him to stature of being regarded as the intellectual father of the Bhartiya revolutionary movement but also in due course shaped the philosophy of Hindutva. It is the revolutionary dimension of Savarkar which endeared him to revolutionaries of that time not only in Bharat but elsewhere too and earned him the cult status in first decade of 20th century.

Making of the revolutionary

Savarkar had many facets of his personality. Not only he was a revolutionary par excellence and a moving light of the revolutionary struggle in the earliest part of 20th century but great writer, author, poet, orator and not the least, a social reformer who all through his life displayed a remarkable aversion for caste discrimination practised the caste Hindus. It is scholarly not justifiable to squeeze the Savarkar-ian thoughts on the different aspects of the national life in a limited word essay, therefore the primary focus would remain on the revolutionary life, thoughts and contribution of Savarkar.

The familial background of Savarkar presents an interesting picture because he owned and carried a proud legacy of Chitpavan Brahmins of Konkan region, the proud Marathas who served as the last bastion of Bharatiya and Hindu resistance against the colonial incursions. Since his birth in 1883, he grew up surrounded in the environment which continued to bask in the glory Konkanasthas cultural and intellectual supremacy, not to say the warrior like attributes inherited from the Peshwas. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Ganesh Agarkar, Vishnu Hari Chiplunkar, Bal Gangadhar Tilak were the notable predecessors of Savarkar from the same community and all inherited the legacy of forbearers in varying capacities and in varying temperaments. Savarkar was no different except for the fact that he chooses to rejuvenate and redirect the infantile revolutionary aspiration to set free the beleaguered nation. However, the Brahmanical background of Savarkar didn’t deter him to forge companionship with the boys of lower communities of the area which prospectively shaped the worldview of Savarkar. If not in theory than at least in practical spirit, Savarkar wanted the annihilation of the caste’s discriminatory structure. The childhood mooring of little Savarkar ultimately churned out the revolutionary and reformer Savarkar whose later trait became predominant after the ebb in his revolutionary politics.

The Secret Societies of European Revolution, 1776-1876, a seminal book written by Thomas Frost (1876) purportedly influenced the thinking of Savarkar who later embarked on the path of unleashing such a revolutionary struggle based on the organization of secret societies of European ilk for freeing the motherland. Thus emerged a small band of youngsters organizing themselves into an organization called Rashtra Bhakta Samuha in 1899 whose more popular offshoot was Mitra Mela. There were several branches of Mitra Mela all over the Bombay presidency with its headquarters at Nasik. The unambiguous aim of Mitra Melas was to uproot the British yoke with armed rebellion. The conjoined effort of these small times, big aimed, revolutionary associations was Abhinav Bharat society or Young India Society. This was the logical corollary of the revolutionary seeds spread by the Melas operating in the fertile Marathi socio-political soil whose modern harbinger was Vasudev Balwant Phadke (1845-1843). After being set up firm footing, the Abhinav Bharat of Maharashtra region established its linkages with the Anushilan Samiti of Bengal. It demystified and debunked the popular perception that during the early period of armed revolution, the revolutionaries operating in different parts of the nation operated in isolation of each other (Sampath, 2019). Not only with Bengal, the supposedly calm south of Godavari also coordinated with the revolutionaries of Bombay Presidency, especially those who operated from Tirunelvelli and Madras (Sampath).

Vinayak Savarkar was a rare revolutionary who craftily deployed history as well as literature as the weapons for unleashing the revolution. The revolutionary propaganda done in the form of speeches and writings is perhaps unparalleled in the history of revolutionary nationalism of Bharat. His British sojourn and his concretizing of views regarding the centrality of revolution by violent means to bring about independence furthered his resolve as he came across varied facets of revolutionary currents in the West ( earlier in Italy and then in Ireland and Russia). Along with the establishment of the London branch of Abhinav Bharat Society, he also became an ardent attendee of Free India Society (Paris Indian Society) set up by Madame Bhikaji Cama (Yadav, 1992). His reading and writing prowess got an imminent fillip when he laid his hands on the sources of India Office Library as a law student. The outcome was Mazzini Charitra, a Marathi translation of Mazzini’s biography in 1908 and eventually the much celebrated, Indian War of Independence 1857, a magnum opus banned before its publication. The chequered story of its publication before its eventual publication in Holland after much ditching of the Scotland Yard amply display the stature that Savarkar had garnered all these years in the West along with the inflammability potential of his thoughts and writings. The book was published under the pseudonym, ‘An Indian nationalist’ for obvious reasons. It remained proscribed till 1946 when the ban was eventually lifted by the provincial government of Indian national Congress at Bombay. The book found its way in the hands and minds of several young Indians who paid exorbitant prices for its purchase. It had become the norm for the revolutionary nationalists of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) to read the book before gaining entry into the revolutionary circles and Bhagat Singh was believed to have published its English translation (Phadke, 1984: 109,118).

The fast paced dynamics of underground revolutionary movement in England resulted in the assassination of Curzon Wyllie, an aid-de-camp to the secretary of state for Bharat, by a young student believed to be under the influence of Savarkar-ian thoughts. He was Madan Lal Dhingra from Punjab. Not only carrying out the assassinations, the Abhinav Bharat Society operating in London produced and smuggled bomb manuals and pistols for the consumption of revolutionaries back home. All such developments alarmed the British authorities who swung into action leading first to the arrest of Babarao Savarkar in Bharat and Vinayak Savarkar in London. The India House was shut and its activities wound up. Shyam ji Krishna Verma, the moving spirit behind the revolutionary enthusiasm in the west and the founder of India House had to wind up the operations in London and moved to Paris. Savarkar too was held guilty of delivering subversive speeches and the process to prosecute him that began in London, ended up in Bharat. The preemptive plot to escape arrest and then actually escaping from India bound British ship at Marseilles port in France (July, 1910), only to be caught again, speak volumes about the indomitable spirit that Savarkar represented. Historically too, the escape of Savarkar in France and his question of seeking asylum on political grounds culminated into an international news as the case went to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at Hague. The case made the headlines under the name Arrest and Return of Savarkar (France/Great Britain). Besides other observations, the court importantly observed that there had been an irregularity committed in the arrest of Savarkar (pca-cpa.org/cases).

On his arrival back home, Savarkar was tried, lodged first to the Yervada central jail in Pune and as a consequence of his complicity in the Nasik conspiracy case and waging a war against the king emperor ( Joglekar, 2006), he transported to the Andaman Islands to be incarcerated in the notorious Cellular Jail. These developments suddenly catapulted Savarkar to the status of a cult hero, not only Bharat but in Europe as well wherein Italy, the Republican Party and the Italian Parliament itself demanded the release of Savarkar. In August 1910, a Savarkar Release Committee was set up in England to made diplomatic efforts for his release (Mukhopadhyay, 2019). He became hero of folklore and a living inspiration for several young patriots of the country.

Savarkar was the exceptional avant-garde nationalist who employed historical writings as a device for revolution besides using other forms of poetry and prose to influence. He emphasized primarily on the pertinence of history in inculcating self pride and spirit of sacrifice among the patriots. Although, he visibly displayed his atheist cum agnostic outlook as far as institutionalized religion is concerned but he ardently believed that it was Hinduism in cultural and civilizational sense which truly guides and leads the revolution. It was demonstrated when his twin life imprisonments were announced, he in a lighter vein said to the judge that at least the British have started believing in the Hindu belief of reincarnation. The cultural aspect of nationalism is thus implicit in the revolutionary nationalism of Savarkar. His whole revolutionary life amply demonstrates this at several junctures. The idea of cultural nationalism and its ultimate concretization in the Cellular Jail gradually shaped Savarkar. He was metamorphosed from a revolutionary nationalist with immense intellectual propensity to back it to the fierce ideologue of Hindu cultural nationalism with its eventual codification in the form of Hindutva.

Even during the writing of the Indian War of Independence 1857, the Hindu cultural and political underpinnings were present. A diligent reading of the text proves that the freedom struggle, according to Savarkar, had to be Hindu in spirit. However it was only after 1921 he harked on the onerous task of the codification of the principles of Hindutva and what constitutes a Hindu. But that doesn’t construe that Savarkar was a communal in the present pejorative sense as he considered both Hindu and Muslims as essential elements in action for swadharma and swaraj.

Case of ‘clemency’ petitions

There has been great hullabaloo regarding the petitions submitted by Savarkar to the British authorities during the former’s captivity in the Cellular Jail. This has been used especially by the opponents of the idea of Hindutva as well as by those who view the freedom struggle in a singular monochromatic way dominated by the Indian National Congress and headed by Gandhi. Therefore, past political opponents of the Congress’s policies in general and Gandhian in particular, and their ways and means to lead the national movement, were often portrayed in a negative light. This in way is akin to the writing of history in a particular way (read Marxist) and anyone not subscribing to that methodology would be termed as communalist and nationalist or at least person lacking in historical sense. Simply put, a no good historian. Similarly, in mainstream political struggle for freedom any ideology alternative to the Congress’s would seldom be accepted as mainstream. All efforts would then be made to either push that viewpoint to the periphery or at least isolate the person and his idea so as to make the both redundant. This happened to Subhash Chandra Bose in late 1930s when his increasing clout within the Congress discomforted many others including Gandhi. Savarkar therefore was no exception. As a proponent of Hindutva and ideological father of the RSS’s worldview of cultural nationalism, he was often been criticized for his so called mercy petitions by the detractors of the Sangh Parivar. A careful reading of such petitions and Savarkar’s own take on his changed strategy however clears the picture.

In 1911, Vinayak D. Savarkar applied to the Bombay government for certain concessions in connection with his sentences. By Government letter No. 2022, dated 4th April 1911, his Application was rejected and he was informed that the question of remitting the second sentence of transportation for life would be considered in due course on the expiry of the first sentence of transportation for life (Palande, 1958: 467). This was the first instance for some considerations and was not mercy petition. He submitted the various clemency petitions in August 1911, November 1913, 1917 and March 1920. His all petitions were rejected barring the last one which was rejected but his brother Ganesh Savarkar was released. The reason supplied for not releasing Vinayak Savarkar was to keep him as hostage for his brother Ganesh so that he could not embark back on the path of revolution which could then jeopardize the release of his brother.

It is important to see the petitions in an appropriate historical context and a part of larger stratagem. In his, My transportation for Life, Savarkar wrote that whatever good he could had done in the Andamans or whatever awakening he might had brought about among its people would had been nothing in comparison with what he could had done in India as a free man (p. 301). The so called mercy petitions of Savarkar were simple legal remedies that were available to any prisoner of any hue who were well within their rights to avail them. He was trained lawyer himself and knew various legal loopholes to escape the sentence and therefore used whatever the given circumstances permitted him to do. Therefore rotting in the colonial prison would have earned him nothing worthwhile in comparison to the larger work that he could perhaps have done while remaining out of jail. Simultaneously, he didn’t want that his petitions to be treated as some sort of treachery to the national cause, a charge he abhorred and construed it as an immoral act.

Further, Savarkar was not claiming freedom for himself only but a general amnesty for all other prisoners in his submissions of 1914 and 1917. Moreover, the tone and tenor of his petitions, if read between the lines, demonstrates his dexterity as a lawyer to avail the legal remedies, which is not total submission but a wise bargain from a slippery precarious ground. He was fully aware of the fact that the colonial government won’t release him until he promises a full breakaway from the revolutionary political activities. He alluded to revolutionary numbness in Maharashtra for his release when he said “.. so as the political situation in Maharashtra has singularly been free from any outrageous disturbances for so many years in the past…” and therefore “… beg to submit that our release should not be made conditional on the behaviour of those released or of anybody else; for this, it would be preposterous to deny us the clemency and punish us for the fault of someone else” (Palande, 476). The bargaining tone is discernible. Most of the prisoners from Andaman used to sign such terms of their release which explicitly forbid them from taking part in any kind of revolutionary and political activity and if they were found guilty of treason again then they would be send back to the Andaman for serving the remainder of their sentences (Savarkar, 254). Savarkar adequately explains in his autobiography as well as in his Letters from Andaman, the impetus behind the petitions.

His revolutionary life and especially the term he served in jail at Andamans acquainted him with the malaise of Muslim fundamentalism where the Muslim inmates with the help of Muslim jail warders were involved in conversion of Hindu prisoners under duress. He invoked shuddhi to counter this menace thrust upon the Hindu inmates by the Pathan, Baluchi and Sindhi Muslim warders and prisoners with connivance of the British jailer David Barry (Purandare, 2019). The timorous silence and lack of unity among the Hindus coupled with their orthodoxy and ritualistic notions of purity and pollution was what perturbed Savarkar who answered this in his own way. He pushed for shuddhi to re-convert the proselytized Hindus and also started blowing conch shell (Shankh) to counter the Islamic aazan. As result the jail authorities disallowed both the practices, a win of sorts for Savarkar-ian remedies for the ailments of Hindu society. Similar situations he witnessed in the Ratnagiri jail in 1921 too which ultimately prompted him to write the Essentials of Hindutva.

Conclusion

The active revolutionary history of freedom struggle of the Bhartiya nation begins with Savarkar if not ends with him. But his persona was not limited to the making of revolution only as was the case with Mazzini, his revolutionary mentor. There was much more to him just besides being a revolutionary nationalist who never wielded a gun and never fired a gunshot. His work encompassed diverse genres of human activity viz. a social reformer, a cultural cum political ideologue, shuddhi campaigner, a master strategist, linguistic and script reformer, a literary giant, an economic thinker, an internationalist, all emanating from the basic fountainhead of his being a revolutionary rationalist. His modern critics from the different political spectrum conveniently ignore the different facets of his life mainly use his petitions to vilify him long after his demise without delving deeper into the fast paced dynamics of revolutionary history. But then it was not their intention. The critics even went to the extent of unjustifiably questioning the use of soubriquet ‘Veer’ with his name which again exhibits their deliberate ignorance of historical facts.

To sum up, the history of revolutionary movement in Bharat had different strains and these strains had different flag bearers. Veer Savarkar and Sri Aurobindo could be construed as the Mazzinis of the freedom struggle while Rash Bihari Bose and Subhash Chandra Bose were resembled more like Garibaldi, if one were to draw similarity with the Italian national movement for unification (Sampath). Savarkar was the revolutionary poet of his own kind, who in the prisons when deprived of paper and pen, wrote poems and paeans with nails, pebbles and thorns and still his spirit remained indomitable. This was besides the immensity of hardships and inhuman treatment that he had to face while living in solitary confinement. Savarkar’s strategy, all along his revolutionary career and later down in life as a social reformer and a political ideologue, remained premised on principle of utilitarianism i.e. maximum good of maximum number of people. Being a nationalist par excellence, his nationalism was not mindless hyper nationalism or jingoism but a well intended political, cultural and territorial doctrine based on self respect and pride in the geographical cum civilizational heritage of Bharat. He was against the feeling of complete lack of nationalism in an individual too. The revolutionary Savarkar was the template on which all other dimensions of Savarkar’s philosophy ultimately fructified.

Post Script

JAIL HISTORY TICKET OF V D. SAVARKAR
(FROM H. D. SPECIAL VOLUME NO. 60 (D) F, PAGE 27.)
History Ticket.
Convict No. 32778 No. of Corridor—Top.
Class 3 C.
No. of Block 2.
Date. Entry.
30th August 1911 6 months solitary confinement until further orders.
14th August 1911 Letter from Secretary to Government Educational Department to the effect that the Degree of B.A., conferred on him has been cancelled.
30th August 1911 Petition for clemency.
3rd September 1911. Petition rejected.
15th January 1912 Removed from Solitary Confinement.
11th June 1912 One month’s separate confinement for writing letters to others without sanction.
11th July 1912 Removed from separate confinement.
10th September 1912. Seven days standing handcuffs for having in possession a letter written to another convict.
29th October 1912 Petitioner to be released from Cellular Jail because he has been in 16 months and that his conduct has been better.
4th November 1912. Petition rejected.
23rd November 1912 One month’s separate confinement for being in possession of a note written by another convict.
18th December 1912 Informed of his brother’s address: 98, Premchand Burat Street, Bow Bazar, Calcutta.
23rd December 1912 Removed from separate confinement.
30th December 1912 Refused to eat his food all day.
1st January 1913 Do.
2nd January 1913 Ate his food this morning.
14th November 1913 Permitted by the Hon. Member of Home Department to write a petition: Petition made and sent to Medical Superintendent.
16th December 1913 Absolutely refusing to work.
17th December 1913 One month’s separate confinement without work or books.
17th January 1914 Removed from S. C, Rope making.
8th June 1914 Absolutely refusing to work. Seven days standing handcuffs imposed.
15th June 1914 Completed S. H, cuffs.16th June 1914 Absolutely refusing to work. Four months chain gang imposed.
18th June 1914 Absolutely refusing to work. Ten days cross bar fetters imposed.
19th June 1914 Asks for work put in rope making.
29th June 1914 Removed fetters.
16th July 1914 Convalescent gang.
10th September 1914 Asks to make out a petition to C.—C. granted.
14th September 1914 Petition forwarded through Medical Superintendent.
16th October 1914 Chain gang fetters removed.
1st December 1914 Government rejected prisoner’s proposals in the petition.
18th May 1915 Convalescent gang (Discharged on 11th June 1916 on admission to hospital).
5th July 1916 Brother’s address: N. D. Savarkar, Goregaonkar’s 1st Chawl, ground floor, Girgaum, Bombay.
28th October 1916 Promoted to 2nd class with effect from 2nd November 1916.
2nd October 1917 May write a petition to Government of India.
1st February 1918 Informed that Secretary has placed his petition (in which he prays that a general amnesty be given to all political prisoners) with the Government of India.
1st January 1919 To continue as a hospital patient for purposes of diet and treatment.
30th May 1919 Interview with wife and brother Dr. Savarkar one hour.
31st May 1919 Interview with wife and brother Dr. Savarkar 1¼ hours.
24th January 1920 Petition to Jails Committee.
6th April 1920 Petition to Government of India forwarded to C. C. for disposal, forwarded to Government of India.
14th July 1920 May do some clerical work in his Varandah.
19th August 1920 Reply received from Government of India “The Viceroy is not prepared at present to extend to him the benefit of amnesty.”
28th September 1920 Savarkar desires either to be made a foreman or to be given definite clerical work. The former is at present not possible. The latter should be granted as far as possible.
4th November 1920. Appointed a foreman on probation in charge of oil godown.
10th February 1921 Recommended to be made pucca.
2nd May 1921 Embarked on s.s. Maharaja for transfer to join Bombay Presidency.

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Associate Professor, History,

Central University of Himachal Pradesh