Veer Savarkar: Nationalist or Traitor?

Story of Veer Savarkar | It was a cold winter evening of London in 1906, when a “Chitpaawan Brahmin” invited a Gujarati Vaishya for a dinner, who were in London to attract the attention of world towards the plight of Indians & Blacks in South Africa. This Gujarati man was Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi & the person who invited him for dinner was Vinayak Savarkar.

Gandhi was telling Savarkar that his stand against British Government in India is way too aggressive. Savarkar interrupted him by saying “Let’s have dinner first”. Savarkar had made fried Prawns, Gandhi refused to eat it by stating that he is Vegetarian., the Savarkar laughed & said “How will you fight against British Imperialism without having animal protein”. That time Mohan das Gandhi has not become Mahatma Gandhi & was not famous in India. That night Gandhi came out from Savarkar’s home without getting his confidence for his Satyagraha movement.

Veer Savarkar remained & remembered as one of the most talked about & controversial figures till date. Was he “traitor” or “Proud nationalist”? Well the answer depends on whom you ask this question. Congress has always termed him as a traitor for being a suspect in Mahatma Gandhi’s Assassination, while BJP has always termed him a “Father of Hindutva” & Patriotic Nationalist.

Some less known facts of his life:

1.              In 1910, Savarkar got arrested for the involvement in the Murder of Mr. Jackson, Collector of Nasik. Initially his elder brother was taken into remand for charges of murder, but then in further investigation it got revealed that Pistol which was sent by Savarkar to his brother from London, was used in the murder.
2.               Veer Savarkar tried to escape from the Ship “SS Maurya” that was carrying him from London to India for trial. Savarkar intentionally worn his night gown while going for Toilet, so that he can cover mirrors inside Toilet, so that nobody can watch him escaping from the pothole of the toilet. He escaped in middle of the sea when the ship was taking a halt in an island. He was good in swimming & in 15 minutes he got near the shore. Ship guards even fired towards him, but he escaped, after searching for him exhaustively, finally guards caught him in the island.
3.              He got 50 years imprisonment in notorious Andaman Cellular jail. Cellular jail had 698 cells, 13.5 * 7.5 feet in size. Life in Cellular jail was harsh, political prisoners used to pull the carts & British officers used to sit in the carts. Their roads were not proper & region was hilly, so it was so strenuous to pull the cart & when prisoners were not able to pull the cart, they were abused & beaten up by British officers. Most of the time proper food was given to prisoners, they were not allowed to see the day light for many days. They were given quinine to drink & most of the prisoners suffered from pain.
4.            Prisoners had specific timetable for going to Toilet & there was a time limit to be inside the toilet. Sometimes prisoners were not allowed to go to toilet & they had to excrete in their jail cells only. Everywhere in the Jail cells there were smell of urine & defection. They were kept standing with hand cuffs throughout day.
5.              Veer Savarkar Spent 9 years & 10 months imprisonment & during this time he applied for mercy petition four times. He never expected that reality of being in imprisonment will be that harsh. First petition he wrote just after spending 2 months in jail. Every month 2-3 prisoners were executed in Cellular jail & that Execution Chamber was near to Savarkar Cell, he could hear the cry of Hanging prisoners. Experts believe that this could have a psychological hit on Savarkar.
6.              He always remained a person who operates from backend or behind the scenes. He had participated in revolution movement behind the scenes, never tried to come out openly. Some prisoners who were with him in Cellular jail said” Savarkar always used to stealthily instigate & motivate them for revolt against Jail authority, but when these prisoners asked him to join openly with them in revolt, he always refused that. He was not given much laborious work in the Jail.
7.              It was strange that unlike other prisoners, Savarkar gained 14 pounds weight during his imprisonment. Every month prisoners were weighted, so it came out in records that when Savarkar arrived in Jail, his weight was 112 pounds, however after 2years 3 months when he gave his fourth Mercy petition to Sir Reginald Craddock, his weight was 126 pounds.
8.             Savarkar & his followers stated it right & said that it was his strategy to get some relief & leverage from British authority. Savarkar had even written in his biography that if he would have done hunger strike in jail, Britishers would have not allowed him to send his letters to mainland India.
9.        He never gave much weightage to what people will think by his clemency & mercy petitions. He always believed that if he will remain out of Jail, he can do what he wanted to do for freedom.
10.             In 1924, Savarkar was released from Pune Yarvada jail on two conditions, that he will never be involved in any Anti-British political activity & he will not leave the Ratnagiri district without permission of the District Collector.
11.             It was strange that he was given pension by Britishers, Rupees 60 per month, that was considerably high with that time. Nobody knows why he was selected for pension & he was the only one who used to get such services from British empire.
12.             He was fond of Alphonso mango, ice cream & chocolates. He used to take 2 boiled eggs in breakfast & number of masala tea cups in a day.
13.            He himself was never a part of RSS, still his name taken with utmost respect in RSS parlance. His dream of Hindu Rashtra & Hindutva was taken as an ideology of RSS.
14.            His name was nominated for Bharat Ratna by BJP, though rejected by the president.
15.             Savarkar's name later was dragged in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi himself, he was acquitted.

 

Whether Hero or Villain, Veer Savarkar’s truth is not in Black or white but lies in the grey. He will always be the most talked person in Indian politics.