Itihaas How the British Broke Savarkar
April 29, 2002
V.D.Savarkar is a hero of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. Their coming to power has seen a Postage Stamp issued to make his visage familiar to his countrymen. There is also a film about his life and his exploits. All this was not done earlier as the Indian National Congress who ruled India for a long while after independence did not share the RSS view on him. Savarkar, like Mohammad Ali Jinnah did not approve of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and opposed him and what he stood for.
When Gandhi was assassinated on 30th January 1948 it was alleged that Savarkar was not only involved but the mastermind behind the plot. The assassin Nathuram Vinayak Godse was alleged to be a close associate, an acolyte of Savarkar.
It is well known that Savarkar was a freedom fighter until he was sent to the Penal Settlement on the Andamans in June 1911. What is not so well known is the brutal treatment to which he was subjected. His letter dated 14th November 1913 addressed to the Home Member of the Government of India should be of interest to readers
Savarkar states
When I came here in 1911 June I was along with the rest of the convicts of my party taken to the office of the Chief Commissioner. There I was classified as D meaning dangerous prisoner; the rest of the prisoners were not classified D. Then I had to pass full six months in solitary confinement. The other convicts had not (to pass six months in solitary confinement)
During this time I was put on coir pounding though my hands were bleeding. Then I was put on the oil mill- the hardest labour in jail.
Although my conduct during all this time was exceptionally good still at the end of six months I was not sent out of jail (to live in the Penal Settlement); though the other convicts who came with me were (so enlarged). From that day to this I have tried to keep my behaviour as good as possible.
Savarkars petition goes on to point out the gross injustice he suffered. His request for promotion in the prison hierarchy was turned down because he was a special class prisoner. This prompted him to ask for better food and treatment. The reply was you are only ordinary convicts and must eat what the rest do. He states that only for special disadvantages are we classed as special prisoners.
The next para is not easy to follow and is reproduced verbatim
When the majority of my casemen were sent outside I requested for my release. But although I had been cased (caned?) hardly twice or thrice and some of those who were released, for a dozen or more times, still I was not released with them for I was their caseman. But when after all the order of my release was given and when just then some of the political prisoners outside were brought into the troubles I was locked in with them because I was their caseman.
Savarkar goes on to point out that he was being discriminated against and suffering all the disadvantages of being in a penal settlement as well as those of being in a mainland Indiaan jail
He earned none of the remissions he would have got in an Indian prison and the release from jail into the penal settlement outside the Circular Jail in the Andamans was also denied him. In India he would have had home food once in a while and also visits from relatives.
Savarkar asks for an either or treatment. His desperation is recorded in the sentences that follow
This present plan of shutting me up in this jail permanently makes me quite hopeless of any possibility of sustaining life and hope. For those who are term convicts things are different, but, Sir, I have 50(fifty) years staring me in the face! How can I pull up moral energy enough to pass them in close confinement when even those concessions which the vilest of convicts can claim to smoothen their lives are denied to me?
Savarkar concludes by reminding the Home member to read the petition for clemency he had submitted in 1911 and sanction its being forwarded to the Indian Government. He goes on to say
The latest developments of the Indian politics and the conciliating policy of the Government of India have thrown open the constitutional line once more. Now no man having the good of India and Humanity at heart will blindly step on the thorny paths which in the excited and hopeless situation of India in 1906-1907 beguiled us from the path of peace and progress. Therefore, if the Government in their manifold beneficence and mercy release me I for one cannot but be the staunchest advocate of constitutional progress and loyalty to the English Government which is the foremost condition of that progress. As long as we are in jails there cannot be real happiness and joy in hundreds and thousands of homes of His Majestys loyal subjects in India, for blood is thicker than water; but if we be released the people will instinctively raise a shout of joy and gratitude to the Government who knows how to forgive and correct, more than how to chastise and avenge. Moreover my conversion to the constitutional line will bring back all those misled young men in India and abroad who were once looking up to me as their guide. I am ready to serve the Government in any capacity they like, for my conversion is conscientious so I hope my future conduct would be. By keeping me in jail nothing can be got in comparison to what would be otherwise. The Mighty alone can afford to be merciful and therefore where else can the prodigal son return but to the parental doors of the Government?
Hoping your honour will kindly take into notion these points.
Savarkar kept his word and never fought the British after his release from the Penal Settlement Andamans.
Those who want more details of British atrocity should read PENAL SETTLEMENT IN ANDAMANS edited by R.C. Majumdar M.A., Ph,D., D.Litt. published by Gazetteers Unit Department of Culture Ministry of Education and Social Welfare from which the above excerpts have been taken.