Contribution of Veer Savarkar to India's revolutionary freedom movement.

We often talk about butterfly effects which means a small event somewhere having a deep and profound effect on something very far away. The same can be said about the alternative struggle for India's freedom. In 1897 Pune was hit by a epidemic (plague) and the British government in Maharashtra was committing atrocities under the garb of controlling the epidemic. Enraged by the horrors of the government and its failures two young men the Chaphekar brothers killed the commanding officer of Pune, Mr Rand, subsequent to which they were hanged. Little could have anyone known that this event could inspire one of the pioneers of the Indian revolutionary movement. The boy merely 14 was so moved by this event that he rushed to the temple of 'Astha Bhuja Bhavani' in his house and took the oath 'Shartu la marata marata mare to zunzen' ...(will fight and kill the enemy till I survive or die in the process). This oath the boy took at 14 would remain his guiding thought through out his life and in many ways could change the course of history and have a impact on India's future. The boy was none other than Vinay Damodar Savarkar. His life is full of many achievements and one small post is too short to understand his entire life, so for the purpose of this post we will restrict it to revolutionary activities and the impact he had on the revolutionary movement. Whenever we have been tought history we have been tought all revolutionary movements were 'individual' acts of bravery by the 'extremists' factions of the freedom struggle. Lets try to busts this myth and the pivotal and central role that Vinayak played in this entire process.  

 

Savarkar was influenced by the early revolutionary activities in Ireland and Italy, which led him to the conclusion that to attain independence India has to wage an armed struggle against the British raj. With this aim in mind Savarkar started two organisations Mitra Mela and Abhinav Bharat. Mitra mela was overt organisation which acted as the breeding and hunting ground for revolutionaries which organised activities like Ganapati and Shivaji festivals and from there the 'potential' candidates would then be recruited to Abhinav bharat where actual revolutionary activities were planned and executed. The influence of Irish secretive societies was profound on Savarkar, and he modeled Ahinav Bharat on those lines. Savarkar was clear in his thought process from the beginning that the paths of Gokhale (Gandhi's mentor in congress) could only lead Indians to high paying jobs in the government and even Tilak's initiatives were only good for some incremental rights and not total independence. This was not out of disrespect to the two, Savarkar in many ways considered Tilak his guru, but he wanted to built on their works and take it to the next level. A few years on Savarkar shifted his base to Pune from his birth place Nashik handing over the reigns of Abhinav Bharat to his  brother Babarao who wanted to be a Sanyasi as he was influenced by Swami Vivekanand. By the time Savarkar moved to Pune Mitra mela and had spread to many districts in Maharashtra and had also started developing links with revolutionaries in Bengal and Punjab. 

As Savarkar shifted to Pune in 1902 Mitra Mela started gaining grounds in Pune and its epicenter became the  Ferguson college. There Savarkar came under the British lense for some of his fiery speeches against government. The positive effect was Savarkar also gained attention from likes of Tilak and S.M. Paranjpe whose writings he had followed closely. Savarkar galvanized young crowds by inspiring them via speeches on Shivaji, Peshwas and stories of 1857 revolt. By 1906 Tilak was preparing a Swadeshi andolan and Savakar led the 1st protest by burning of bonfire of the British clothes in Pune. Realising his potential Tilak recommended him to Shami Krishna Verma who ran scholarship for Indian students in London and thus Savarkar in 1906 still in his late teens moved to London where he would give the most contribution and create the frame work for the revolutionaries which was more or less followed by everyone till Subhas bose. 

India House: India House years were the best years for the revolutionary movement and here is were Savarkar became the focal point of the revolutionary activities. He met some very influential figures like Shamji Krishna Verma, Madam Kama, Lala Hardayal, Bhai Parmanand, VVS Ayivar, Senapati Bapat, Mandan Lala Dinghra and others. Being the prolific writier that he was Savarkar wasted no time in translating Mazzini's (Italy foremost revolutionary) biography into Marathi which was published by Babarao Savarkar in Pune. The biography was preceded by a prologue where Savarkar established a framework for what Indians should learn and adapt from his life. Even Tilak was a liitle surprised and taken aback by the depth of Savarkar's writing. After the success of that Savarkar wrote the revolt of 1857 and successfully presented that, it was not a 'revolt' but was the 1st War of Independence. This became the most influential book for the next 30 years in the freedom struggle and was a mandatory reading for all the people connected to the revolutionary movement including the likes of Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and Subhas Chandra Bose, everyone made it compulsory reading among their circles. He also wrote a book on Guru Govind Singh and used it to inspire the Sikh people an spread Guru Govind Singh's work in other parts of India. Also in the India House Savarkar Influenced people to take up revolutionary activities and from here he smuggled pistols to various parts of India namely Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjab. It was on Savarkar's advise that Senapati Bapat and others went to France and translated the  bomb manuals from French to Indian languages and smuggled to India which resulted into various bomb explosions in India specially by  Savarkar brothers in Maharashtra and Barin and Arvindo Ghose in Bengal. The bomb explosions rattled the British government and they started to investigate into and arresting people and soon the needle of all speculation narrowed to Savarkar. His brother was sent to Andaman  and Ghose brothers had to flee. Meanwhile influenced by Savarkar, Madan Lal Dhingra shot Curzon Wylie in London and entire Britain was rocked as the battle was now brought to their backyard. So Savarkar had to shift his base from Lonon to France. In France Savarkar along with Shamji, Madam Kama and Lala hardayal participated in 1st socialists conference in 1908 and fluttered the Indian flag that Savarkar had designed with Madam Kama. Meanwhile as many of Savarkar's friends were caught in London and hence Savarkar returned to London as he found it morally wrong to live in France while his friends suffered and he was caught in London immediately on arrival, deported to India and Sent to Andaman for 50yrs.  In just 3 years what Savarkar had achieved was beyond imagination. The account of some of his fellow people are very useful. 

Senapati Bapat said: "Before I met Savarkar I wanted to write on the Indian history extensively, but after meeting him I understood that it was best that I worked under his guidance and leave the writing to Savarkar as I could never match him." 

Bhai Parmanand:  "Lala Hardayal and Savarkar were the twin souls of Shamji Verma and became the magnetic center of attraction and activity in the years to come. It was, as it were, the manifestation of thunder and lightning which on one hand gave an alarming shock to the British Rule and on the other hand, startled the beholders with its brilliance."

Andaman and beyond: In Andaman Savarkar met people like Sachindranath Sanyal and others. In all the hardships they suffered together all the revolutionaries had one goal in common since beginning, that was, to somehow create a sipoy mutiny of Indian Soldiers in the British army and create a rebellion. These ideas were discussed here as well even tough Savarkar could not participate actively in future activities. But in 1st world war the Gaddar party which was formed by Lala Hardayal who was Savarkar's close confidant in India house and Sachindranath Sanayal along with Rasbbihari boss tried to materialise this plan against the British. That their efforts were not realised was a tragedy but the thought was not dropped. Sachindranath Sanyal later founded the Hidustan Republican Army and Rasbihari bose Shifted to Japan.  Sanayal trained under him Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad and passed the baton to them. 

Khanna who was a chairman in Punjab legislative council after independence writes, "When he 1st met Bhagat singh and Sukhdev as young revolutionary the book that he was suggested to read along with others on Russian revolutionaries and Irish Army was Life was Barister Savarkar as mandatory reading. 

Subbarao the editor of Gosthi Writes: "Savarkar's book on 1857 was termed by British as most dangerous and hence it was banned even before being published. But the book was indeed read by millions and its influence was immense. If it was not for Savarkar and his writing on 1857 we would have still called Shubhas Bose's Indian army as 'Indian mutiny'.  Even the British today cannot call Bose's efforts as 'Mutiny'. The credit for the change in thought process must go only to one man Savarkar. But Savarkars Greatest gift to thousands of Indians is that they have named their daughters after Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi. If not for him India would have long forgotten their beloved daughter as just another  'mutineer'."

Meanwhile by 1939 Savarkar because of his health and age had drifted off the active revolutionary movement. But when Second World War started, Rasbihari Bose had formed the INA and Subhas Bose was called to take charge of INA. Bose before leaving India met Savarkar and their he realised that Rasbihari was in touch with Savarkar. So when Rasbihari addressed Indians on Radio via his INA address he thanked only one man for being the torch bearer for the cause in Indian Mainland and the man was Savarkar. He had actively asked people to get recruited in the Indian army. All had worked to the common goal since the 1906 in India house to create a rebellion in Indian army and saw world war II as that opportunity. Sadly Subhas babu was not successful. But finally what all these revolutionaries had desired happened in 1946 when finally the Naval revolt happened in Bombay and no other army or air force regiment obeyed to fire on their own fellow country men.  It was this, what was accepted in the British parliament as the principal cause of granting Independence to India.  

Savarkar was among the few persons from the revolutionary background who was alive to witness Independence. The Revolutionary movement as can be seen from above, was no individual efforts but a well planned activity over half a century, people connected from all parts of India and Savarkar was for a long period the focal point of this movement . No one man can claim that his efforts alone were responsible for India's freedom but surely India should revisit its history and ask, can any single person be projected as the 'Father of India'?? when India had so many great sons who worshiped this land as their mother. On Savarkar Jayanti let us remember all the great sons who never wished to become the father and remained sons for life. 

Post scripts : reference used , Vikram Sampath's book and Sanjeev Sanyal's talk on revolutionaries.