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by Vikram Sampath


  67. Emperor vs Vinayak Damodar Savarkar , Case No. 1 of 1911, Judgment, ibid.

  68. For the other accused the following punishments were meted: Keshav Shripad Chandwadkar (fifteen years); Gopal Krishna Patankar, Trimbak Gangadhar Marathe and Krishnaji Gopal Khare (ten years each); Vyankatesh Parashram Nagpurkar (seven years); Vishnu Mahadev Bhat, Sakharam Dadaji Gorhe, Purushottam Laxman Dandekar, Damodar Mahadev Chandratre and Gopal Govind Dharap (five years each); Shridhar Vasudev Shidhaye, Raghunath Vidyadhar Bhave, Damodar Chintaman Paranjpe and Vaman Kashinath Palande (four years each); Vishnu Ganesh Kelkar, Kashinath Daji Tonpe, Parashram Vaman Gokhale, Anant Vishnu Konkar and Vishwas Balwant Dawre (three years each); Vinayak Govind Tikhe, Balwant Ramachandra Barve and Sakharam Ranganath Kashikar (two years each); Narayan Damodar Savarkar, Vinayak Vasudev Manohar, Gangaram Rupchand and Raghunath Chintaman Ambedkar (rigorous imprisonment for six months). Vinayak Kashinath Gaidhani, Ramchandra Babaji Kathe, Govind Sadashiv Bapat, Hari Anant Thatte, Shankar Pandurang Mahajan, Mukund Pandurang Moghe, Keshav Ganesh Paranjpe, and Trimbak Vinayak Jog were acquitted and discharged. S.V. Vaidya, V.S. Barve and V.K. Phulamrikar had already been discharged at an early period of the trial. The judgment spelt a virtual death knell to the Abhinav Bharat as most of its important members were jailed and the ignominy and fear ensured that it lost all prevalent and future members as well. (Source: Nasik Case Trial Judgment; ‘Savarkar Case: Trial & Conviction: Question of Extradition in case of failure at the Hague’, File No. J. & P. 448/1911, British Library, London).

  69. Harindra Srivastava. Five Stormy Years: Savarkar in London , pp. 283–84.

  70. Letter from Eyre A. Crowe to Sir Edward Grey, 15 February 1911. ‘Savarkar Case: Proceedings at The Hague’ (including result), IOR/L/PJ/6/1077, File No. 1131, British Library, London.

  71. Letter of Jean Longuet, ‘Savarkar Case: Proceedings at The Hague’ (including result), IOR/L/PJ/6/1077, File No. 1131, British Library, London.

  72. Ibid.

  73. Ibid.

  74. Award delivered at The Hague, ‘Savarkar Case: Proceedings at The Hague’ (including result), IOR/L/PJ/6/1077, File No. 1131, British Library, London.

  75. Ibid.

  76. Harindra Srivastava. Five Stormy Years: Savarkar in London , p. 296.

  77. Ibid., pp. 294–95.

  78. Ibid., pp. 296–97.

  79. Weekly Report of the DCI, 10 October 1911, OIOC, POS 3095, British Library, London.

  80. Indulal Yagnik. Shyamji Krishna Varma: Life and Times of an Indian Revolutionary , p. 292.

  81. Weekly Report of the DCI, 30 August 1910 and 11 October 1910, OIOC, POS 3095, British Library, London.

  82. Guy Aldred, ‘The White Terror in India’, August 1910, EPP 1/3, British Library, London.

  83. Herald of Revolt , March 1911.

  84. Ibid., October 1912.

  85. The descriptive roll of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar taken on the 9 February 1911 at Bombay has the following personal details about him: 26 years old as on date, Height: 5’-2 ½”, fair complexion, medium build, Chest measurement: 32 inches; Special marks: Broad forehead, high cheek bones, a scar (1/2” x 1/8”) on left frontal eminence, scar (3/4”x1/8” above inner end of right eyebrow, Scar (1/2”x1/8” above middle of left eyebrow). Is short-sighted and wears glasses. It was signed by the deputy inspector general of police, Criminal Investigation Department of Bombay on 10 February 1911. (Source: ‘Savarkar Case: Trial & Conviction: Question of Extradition in case of failure at the Hague’, File No. J. & P. 448/1911, British Library, London.)

  86. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life, http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 15.

  87. For references to Congress and Tilak’s Kesari , ibid., pp. 15–16.

  88. Harindra Srivastava. Five Stormy Years: Savarkar in London , p. 297.

  89. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life, http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 18.

  90. Ibid., pp. 6, 19.

  91. Memo by the Judicial Department in Government of India, Home Department, Letter no. 1555C, 28 February 1919, Bombay, File 60D(a)/1919: ‘Political Prisoners’, Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai. The memorandum provided reference to Government letter no. 2022.

  92. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life, http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 25.

  93. Ibid., p. 27.

  94. Ibid., pp. 28–30.

  95. Dhananjay Keer. Veer Savarkar , p. 99.

  96. Of all the convicts in the Presidency, the most hardened criminals, cold-blooded murderers, rapists, heartless dacoits and others, who were deemed unfit to languish in any prison in the country, were the ones bundled up in steamers and dispatched to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman Island.

  97. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 43.

  Chapter 8: Sazaa-e-Kalapani

  1. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life, http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf

  2. All the details about the islands and the settlement gleaned from: R.C. Majumdar Penal Settlement in the Andamans (New Delhi: Gazetteers Unit, Dept. of Culture, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, 1975, pp. 1–2); V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life, http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf ); Barindranath Ghose. The Tale of My Exile (Pondicherry: Arya Office, 1922); Ullaskar Dutt. Twelve Years of Prison Life ( Calcutta: n.p. 1924); Sachindranath Sanyal. Bandi Jeevan (New Delhi: Atma Ram & Sons, 1963). Author’s interviews with Dr Rashida Iqbal, curator of Cellular Jail Memorial, Port Blair.

  3. Letter from Sir Stamford Raffles, governor of Benkoelen to the Government of India in 1818, in which he also rues that this policy did not meet its desired objective of transforming the criminals.

  4. L.P. Mathur. History of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands , 1756–1966 (Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1968).

  5. R.C. Majumdar. Penal Settlement in the Andamans , pp. 62–63; Also interview with Dr Rashida Iqbal at Cellular Jail, Port Blair.

  6. Alison Bashford and Carolyn Strange. Isolation: Places and Practices of Exclusion (London: Taylor & Francis, 2004), p. 37.

  7. R.C. Majumdar. Penal Settlement in the Andamans , 1975, p. 119.

  8. Document at Cellular Jail, 4 September 1914 from J. Hope Simpson, officiating chief commissioner of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and superintendent of Port Blair to the secretary to the Government of India’s home department describing the punishments meted to Vinayak and his stay in jail. Document courtesy Dr Rashida Iqbal, Cellular Jail, Port Blair.

  9. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 63.

  10. Upendranath Banerjee. Nirvasiter Atmakatha . n.p., n.d., p. 72.

  11. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , pp. 64–65.

  12. Ibid., p. 65.

  13. Barindra Kumar Ghose. The Tale of My Exile , p. 53.

  14. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , pp. 68–69.

  15. Barindra Kumar Ghose. The Tale of My Exile , pp. 66–67.

  16. Ibid., pp. 84.

  17. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 86.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Barindra Kumar Ghose. The Tale of My Exile , p. 68.

  20. Ibid., p. 100.

  21. Ibid., pp. 71–72.

  22. Ibid., p. 160.

  23. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 139.

  24. Barindra Kumar Ghose. The Tale of My Exile , p. 80.

  25. 25. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportat
ion-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 140.

  26. Barindra Kumar Ghose. The Tale of My Exile ,, pp. 60–61.

  27. Ullaskar Dutt. Twelve Years of Prison Life , p. 49.

  28. Original article by Prem Vaidya published in Tumhi Ahmi Apan Saglech , a Marathi bimonthly (21 February–6 March 2000), edited by Avinash Dharmadhikari of Pune. Courtesy: Savarkar Smarark, Mumbai.

  29. Barindra Kumar Ghose. The Tale of my Exile , p. 86.

  30. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 82.

  31. Ibid., p. 102.

  32. Ibid., p. 149.

  33. This version of Nand Gopal’s resistance is presented from Barindra Kumar Ghose. The Tale of My Exile , pp. 88–93.

  34. Ibid., p. 90.

  35. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 90.

  36. Ibid., pp. 96–97.

  37. Ibid., p. 101.

  38. Ibid., p. 96.

  39. English translation of the biography of Babarao Savarkar accessed online from http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/babarao-savarkar-v003 , p. 47.

  40. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 103.

  41. Dhananjay Keer. Veer Savarkar , p. 115.

  42. The Jail History Ticket was a document that maintained a catalogue of the punishments given to a prisoner. This did not include the regular tasks, such as working on the oil mill or picking oakum, assigned to anyone. Even the punishments meted out were vastly underrated and reported, lest it catch the government’s attention.

  43. ‘Jail History Ticket of V.D. Savarkar’ [1911–1921], Government of India, Home Department (Special), 60(D)-F/1921, Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai. Vinayak’s Jail History Ticket also noted a petition submitted by him on 29 October 1912: ‘Petitioner [requested] to be released from Cellular Jail because he has been in sixteen months and that his conduct has been better.’ He sought to be released from Cellular Jail into the penal colony where ‘ordinary’ prisoners resided under much better conditions. That petition dated 29 October was rejected on 4 November 1912.

  44. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 133.

  45. Ibid., p. 148.

  46. Ibid., p. 106.

  47. Ibid., p. 114–15.

  48. The ‘Jail Ticket’ mentions that he was allowed this information on 18 December 1912.

  49. V.D. Savarkar. An Echo from Andamans , Poona: Venus Book Stall, 1947, p. 13.

  50. Ibid., pp. 14–15.

  51. Ibid., p. 15.

  52. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 152.

  53. Ibid., pp. 152–53.

  54. EPP 2/11, Bande Mataram , July 1912, British Library, London.

  55. R.C. Majumdar. Penal Settlement in the Andamans , p. 172.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Ibid., p. 173.

  58. Ibid., p. 175.

  59. Ibid.

  60. Mahratta, 28 July 1912, courtesy Savarkar Smarak, Mumbai.

  61. D.O. no. 18, 30 May 1912, Home. Poll. Dept. Cons. 1912, No 1. Quoted in R.C. Majumdar. Penal Settlement in the Andamans , pp. 181–82.

  62. Letter from Medical Superintendent, Jail District, Port Blair, F.A. Baker, to Deputy Secretary of Home Department, M.S.D. Butler; Quoted in R.C. Majumdar. Penal Settlement in the Andamans , pp. 182–83.

  63. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 155.

  64. Ibid., p. 156.

  65. Ibid., p. 157.

  66. Ibid., p. 159.

  67. Ibid.

  68. Details from ‘Jail History Ticket of V.D. Savarkar’ [1911–1921], Government of India, Home Department (Special), 60(D)-F/1921, Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai.

  69. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 170.

  70. Ibid., p. 171.

  Chapter 9: The Jail Chronicles

  1. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 174.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Petition from V.D. Savarkar (convict no. 32778) to the Home Member of the Government of India, 14 November 1913. GOI, Home Department (Political A), February 1915, #68–160, National Archives of India, New Delhi.

  4. Someone transported for life.

  5. A leave ticket confers a limited degree of freedom at the settlement wherein convicts were provided a six-month allowance by the authorities in a transitional stage leading to eventual promotion to ‘self-support’. It was hoped that ‘self-supporters’ act as independently employed settlers. In time, ‘self-supporters’ would be granted a pardon to freely settle in the Andamans.

  6. Petition from Nand Gopal (Prisoner No. 32240) to the Home Member of the Government of India, 15 November 1913, quoted in R.C. Majumdar. Penal Settlement in the Andamans , p. 209.

  7. Petition from V.D. Savarkar (convict no. 32778) to the Home Member of the Government of India, 14 November 1913, Government of India, Home Department (Political A), February 1915, #68–160, National Archives of India, New Delhi.

  8. A.G. Noorani. Savarkar and Hindutva: The Godse Connection , pp. 51–55; Dhananjay Keer. Veer Savarkar , pp. 150–53.

  9. Home Department, Pol A. Feb 1915, No. 68–160, quoted in R.C. Majumdar. Penal Settlement in the Andamans , pp. 202–03.

  10. Ibid., pp. 204–05, 221–22.

  11. ‘Jail History Ticket of V.D. Savarkar’ [1911–1921], Government of India, Home Department (Special), 60(D)-F/1921, Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai.

  12. IOR/L/PJ/1314. File no 2286, 12 June 1914–24 September 1914, ‘Report on V.D. Savarkar, imprisoned for importing weapons into India; treatment in prison in the Andamans’; British Library, London.

  13. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 178.

  14. First Boer War from 1880-1881 and Second Boer War from 1899-1902.

  15. Shashi Tharoor. An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India (New Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2016), pp. 87–88.

  16. Complete Works of Mahatma Gandhi , Vol. 14, pp. 291–92, https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-14.pdf

  17. Vedica Cant. India and the First World War: ‘if I die here, who will remember me?’ (New Delhi: Roli Books, 2014).

  18. Himani Savarkar. Tejasvi Taare (Mumbai: Savarkar Smarak, n.d.)

  19. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , p. 230.

  20. Ibid., p. 232.

  21. Ibid., pp. 230–31.

  22. Petition sent by V.D. Savarkar to the Chief Commissioner, Andaman Islands, October 1914, Government of India, Home Department (Political A), National Archives of India, New Delhi. Full text in Appendix III.

  23. ‘Jail History Ticket of V.D. Savarkar’ [1911–1921], Government of India, Home Department (Special), 60(D)-F/1921, Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai.

  24. Covering note to the ‘Petition of V.D. Savarkar’, IOR/L/PJ/6/1525, File no. 806; October 1917–March 1918, British Library, London.

  25. Sedition Committee Report, pp. 119–25. Secret report published by Government of India in 1918.

  26. James Campbell Kerr. Political Trouble in India: 1907-1917 (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1973), pp. 241–42.

  27. Alan. J. Ward. The Easter Rising: Revolution and Irish Nationalism ( Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1980), pp. 4, 99–102.

  28. James Campbell Kerr. Political Trouble in India: 1907-1917 , pp. 246–47.

  29. Peter Hopkirk. Like Hidden Fire: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire (New Y
ork: Kodansha, 1994).

  30. This marginal note by the Kaiser on a telegram from the German ambassador in St Petersburg is quoted in Fritz Fischer, Griff nach der Weltmacht : die Kriegszielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914–18 (Dusseldorf: Droste, 2002) (original pub. 1962), p. 110.

  31. The Kaiser’s comments to Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von Bülow, a German statesman who served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for three years and then as Chancellor of the German Empire from 1900 to 1909, 11 August 1908, quoted in Nirode Barooah. India and the Official Germany, 1886–1914. (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1977), p. 59.

  32. James Campbell Kerr. Political Trouble in India: 1907-1917 , p. 252.

  33. R21088-2, 114, clipping from Nieuws van den Dag reported to Nadolny, 3 September 1915, Politisches Archiv des Auswa r¨tigen Amts, Berlin.

  34. 21084-2, 94–5, Papen to Foreign Office, 31 May 1916; Politisches Archiv des Auswa r¨tigen Amts, Berlin.

  35. Sachindranath Sanyal. Bandi Jeevan , pp. 136–38.

  36. Details of the ‘Siam Project’ and ‘Batavia Plan’ gleaned from James Campbell Kerr. Political Trouble in India: 1907-1917 , pp. 259–65.

  37. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , pp. 246–47.

  38. Ibid., p. 125.

  39. Ibid., p. 181.

  40. Ibid., pp. 198–99.

  41. Ibid., p. 199.

  42. Ibid., p. 199.

  43. Ibid., p. 194.

  44. Ibid., p. 196.

  45. Ibid., p. 198.

  46. English translation of the biography of Babarao Savarkar http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/babarao-savarkar-v003.pdf , pp. 53–54.

  47. J.E. Llewellyn. The Arya Samaj as a Fundamentalist Movement: A Study in Comparative Fundamentalism. ( New Delhi: Manohar, 1993), p. 99; see also, Kenneth W. Jones. ‘The Arya Samaj in British India, 1875-1947’, in Religion in Modern India. Robert Baird (ed.) (New Delhi: Manohar, 1976).

  48. V.D. Savarkar. My Transportation for Life , http://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf , pp. 218–19.

 

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