Lets Kill Gandhi

by Gandhi, Tushar A.

  The division of India, which also meant the division of Punjab and Bengal, was already on the cards. Madanlal decided to go back to his village and organise the Hindus; 'the Muslims had already organised themselves into the National Guards, we had to do something'. He led attacks against the Muslims in Lahore; once while trying to explode a bomb he lost the first phalange of his index finger in Lahore. Later, speaking to writer Manohar Mulgaonkar, he recounted a more romanticised version, claiming that while working in a clandestine bomb factory he had slipped and his finger had been crushed in the teeth of a gear wheel. He said, 'My assistant immediately shut off the machine and wanted to call a doctor, but the factory was littered with grenades, and to call a doctor then would have been suicidal. I just picked up a knife and hacked it off.' The first story seems far more plausible.

  Madanlal crossed over to India with the first wave of refugees. He reached Gwalior where he joined a gang of marauders and attacked and murdered many Muslims fleeing to Pakistan. They would board trains at smaller stations in the princely state of Gwalior, identify the Muslims, pull them out of the train and massacre them. They often abducted Muslim women and after raping them, would sell them off. The Maharaja and his administration ignored these activities as the former was favourably inclined towards the activities of the Hindu Mahasabha. Soon after reaching Gwalior, Madanlal received news that his father was at Ferozepur Hospital. He had been severely mauled while trying to escape to India. His son vowed to avenge the injuries suffered by his father by inflicting ten times more severe retribution on the Muslims. He came to Bombay and started living in the Chembur refugee camp. To sustain himself Madanlal looked for employment and came in touch with Prof. Jagdish Chandra Jain who offered him a job selling books written by him. However, Pahwa had to look for other work and joined the Vassen Puspasen Fireworks factory. The real business there was making hand grenades and Madanlal was employed as a bomb maker. To supplement his income, he sold hand grenades to revenge-seeking refugees and others. It was during this time that he came in touch with Dixit Maharaj. Under the pretext of selling Jain's books, Madanlal sold hand grenades to him, although both of them later denied it in court. There was no other reason for the two of them to meet as often as they did.

  It was during this period that Dada Maharaj promised to help Apte with hand grenades and dynamite. Dixit was suitably impressed by Madanlal and spoke of him to his brother. They both trusted Madanlal and on a subsequent meeting they sent aid materials with him for the refugees. When Karkare came to Bombay to buy hand grenades, Apte must have referred him to the Maharaj brothers, who in turn introduced him to Madanlal. There was an instant bonding between the two. The garrulous small town hotelier and the lonesome young refugee found friendship and support in each other. Karkare persuaded Madanlal to move to Ahmednagar; he promised him shelter, plenty of opportunities for revenge and business opportunities. Madanlal was at a loose end, and decided to take up Karkare's offer. He took his pending wages in kind, packed a few dozen hand grenades, his meagre belongings and followed 'Karkare Seth' to Ahmednagar. He left without settling accounts with Jain, but later wrote to him saying that he would do so on his next visit.

  A few hours after Madanlal left for Ahmednagar, the Vassen Puspasen factory was raided and its owners and workers were arrested. Madanlal had escaped by the skin of his teeth.

  In Ahmednagar, Madanlal got together with some refugees and formed a band of avengers. Under Karkare's guidance, the gang started terrorising the Muslim residents of Ahmednagar. Madanlal forcibly took over a fruit seller's stall in the market by terrorising and driving away its Muslim owner. Karkare funded him to start his own fruit business. Now Madanlal was indebted to 'Karkare Seth', and was willing to do anything for him. Karkare expanded his business by driving away Muslim merchants and taking over. He found managers for these newly acquired businesses from among the many refugees; besides providing them with employment, it also earned for Karkare their gratitude and loyalty.

  Sometime in the first half of December, Madanlal visited Bombay. He met Jain who was rather angry with him for not having settled his accounts. Madanlal pacified him and squared up the account. Soon he was boasting about his life in Ahmednagar and about his exploits. He talked about his benefactor 'Karkare Seth', and how he was not only financing his business but also the campaign against the Muslims. He mentioned how he had attacked many Muslim establishments with hand grenades and boasted about how 'Karkare Seth' depended on him to provide muscle power whenever required. Madanlal also boasted to Jain how the two of them were able to evade arrest and get investigations against them scuttled.

  Mid-December Karkare took Madanlal to Poona where they met Apte and Nathuram. The plans for raiding the octroi post were again discussed. Karkare recounted Madanlal's exploits with hand grenades in Ahmednagar. Apte was pleased; at last they had found someone who was proficient with explosives, fanatically committed to their cause, and most importantly, someone who could be easily manipulated. Apte told the group that as soon as he arranged for a vehicle they would carry out the raids. He asked Karkare and Madanlal to prepare themselves and form a crack team from the refugees in Ahmednagar for the raid. He also hinted to Karkare and Madanlal that they would have to be ready for a mission at short notice and may have to stay away for a long time.

  Madanlal had been active in attacks on Muslim establishments and in provoking communal riots in Ahmednagar. He had thrown a grenade during a film show at Vasant Cinema, and once at a Muslim tazia procession while it was passing through the Kapda Bazaar area very close to the Deccan Guest House owned by Karkare. On one occasion he led a mob of refugees to the collector's office, demanding that the homes and businesses of the local Muslims be seized and distributed amongst the refugees. The Ahmednagar police had begun to notice that Karkare and Madanlal were very active amongst the refugees and in attacks on the Muslims but they turned a blind eye. This encouraged them both. From among the men who had joined Karkare and Madanlal's band they culled out the most fanatic and ruthless and started using them in their raids on the territories of the Nizam. They were preparing their team for the raid on the octroi post across the border.

  The raid never materialised. On 1 January 1948 the Ahmednagar police raided the home of Karkare's manager, S.V Ketkar. They found a trunk kept there by Karkare, filled with weapons and explosives. Some of the grenades they found were similar to the ones that had recently been exploded in Ahmednagar and Poona. The police raided Karkare's home and guest house but Karkare had been tipped off beforehand. He removed all the weapons and explosives and requested Madanlal to hide them. The police found nothing. A round-the-clock surveillance on Karkare and his men was ordered by the Home Office in Bombay. Things were getting uncomfortably hot for Karkare and Madanlal.

  On 5 January Karkare learnt that Congressmen were organising a public meeting for communal harmony. Raosaheb Patwardhan was going to address the meeting. Karkare ordered Madanlal and his men to disrupt the meeting and drive away the Congressmen. Madanlal reached the venue armed with daggers; their stock of explosives and grenades had been confiscated from Karkare's home. As soon as Patwardhan started speaking, Madanlal and his men started heckling him and shouting anti-Muslim and anti-Congress slogans. When Patwardhan continued to speak Madanlal rushed on to the stage, pulled away the mike, grabbed the senior Congress leader by the scruff of his neck and dragged him off the stage. Before he could act further, a couple of police constables pulled him away. There was complete pandemonium. A dagger was found on Madanlal's person, which was confiscated, and after reprimanding him he was let off. In court, during the Gandhi murder trial, Madanlal stated that the constables were sympathisers and therefore lenient.

  It was during this time that the two were urgently summoned to Poona. Apte wanted them to drop everything else and get there immediately. Just as they were about to leave on the 9th, Karkare's source in the Police Department informed them that a warrant for their arrest was being issued. Now it became imperative
that the two of them leave Ahmednagar immediately. At the railway station Madanlal bumped into Inspector Joshi who knew him as Karkare's man. He asked Madanlal what he was doing there. Madanlal told him that he was on his way to Delhi to get married and after a few minutes he boarded a train for Poona.

  Madanlal had been informed by his uncle, Dr. Ahooja who lived in Delhi, that they had short-listed some girls for his marriage. Madanlal, however, was committed to the Apte-Godse-Karkare gang. In Poona, Karkare and Madanlal visited Shastra Bhandar where they saw a variety of weapons. Madanlal assured Karkare that he knew how to use them and left after asking Badge to hold the stuff for them.

  The entire gang assembled at Nathuram's office. The plan was discussed and it was decided that since Badge had hiked his rates they needed to find a cheaper source for weapons. Madanlal knew that his old factory had been closed down by the police but claimed that he had other sources in the Chembur refugee camp. Apte told Karkare and Madanlal to leave for Bombay immediately and to procure as many hand grenades and explosives as they could.

  Bombay was home to the supreme leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the man who had instilled a hatred for Gandhi in his followers. The plan to kill, and the several failed attempts, on Gandhi's life carried out by the Poona Brahmins and the Apte-Godse gang had been endorsed by Savarkar, if not directly by issuing orders, then by inspiring through his vitriolic outburst of the need to save Hinduism from its enemy—Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's hold over the Indian masses had put the brakes on Savarkar's political career. After his compromise with the British, for all his efforts to be a national leader of the Hindus, Savarkar had been confined to being the leader of a few upper caste Brahmins of Maharashtra. This rankled an intrinsically hate-filled and bitter man, who had, all his life, practiced and preached the doctrine of violent revenge.

  Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was born on 28 May 1883 in a small village called Bhagur near Nasik into a high caste Maharashtrian Brahmin family. Since his childhood Savarkar had a distinct hatred for Muslims. That part of Maharashtra comprising Savarkar's village had for centuries been inhabited by Muslims with almost every village in the surrounding areas having an evenly matched population of Hindus and Muslims. Savarkar formed a gang with children from his village and regularly attacked Muslims and got into brawls with Muslim ruffians. Over a period of time, this grew into stabbings and planned attacks on mosques. To his credit, Savarkar was a brilliant student, but everything he did had an undercurrent of hatred and violence. He wrote prose and poetry with equal expertise and could bring tears to the eyes of the reader. He used this talent to incite people.

  During his teenage years, Savarkar was greatly influenced by the revolutionary anti-British movement in India. When he was fifteen, a sensational killing took place in Maharashtra. The Chaphekar brothers of Poona, incensed by the heartless and often brutal methods used by the British during the plague epidemic in Poona, planned and killed W.C. Rand, a British officer responsible for the brutality. The Chaphekar brothers were arrested and hanged by the colonial British administration. A whole generation of Maharashtrian youth were greatly influenced by their sacrifices. Savarkar was one of them.

  In 1901 he was admitted to the Ferguson College in Poona. This was the time when Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the 'Lion of India' and a very eminent leader of the hawks in Congress, held sway. His fiery speeches were responsible for influencing many young people joining the anti-British movement. Tilak was the first political leader who recognised the power of religion in Indian politics and used it to bring about social unity. Savarkar was influenced by Tilak and he led many student agitations against the British, exploiting his oratory skills to the hilt. He organised a movement of undergraduates and graduates and called it Abhinav Bharat, 'Renaissance India'.

  Even during this phase his pathological hatred of the Muslims continued. Savarkar was so blinded by his prejudices and hate that he failed to recognise that, to succeed in the fight against the British, the Hindus and Muslims of India would have to unite. Other Brahmin leaders had recognised this and Lokmanya Tilak was making efforts to reach an accord with the Muslims to bring them to the forefront of the anti-British movement. Savarkar paid a heavy price for his anti-British activities: the colonialists stripped him of his degree. Undeterred, with the help of eminent Indian leaders, he set sail for England to study and enrol at the Bar.

  In London, Savarkar was, as were other Indian students, exposed to a lot of revolutionary influences. Savarkar joined Gray's Inn and four years later he qualified and was admitted to the Bar. During these years he was influenced by the Anarchist movement in Europe. He met, and fell in love with, a British woman Margaret Lawrence. He started a Free India Society which met once a week; from the members of this society he culled out those who, like him, believed in revolutionary methods. They secretly got in touch with other revolutionaries in France; contacted Russian anarchists and learned the science of bomb-making and use of arms. According to Savarkar, a lot of funds were wasted on revolutionary conmen who, under the pretext of teaching them to make and use explosives, swindled them and took away their meagre cash reserves. At last they found a genuine Russian anarchist exile, who taught them the chemistry of explosives making and how to use them effectively.

  During his stay in England, Savarkar wrote prolifically and many of his manuscripts were smuggled into India and published. He wrote regularly for a paper called Talwar (the sword), published from Paris. He translated the biography of Guisseppe Mazzini in Marathi, but it was banned by the government. He wrote a chilling account of India's First War of Independence, the 1857 uprising of the Indian soldiers.

  Two chapters of Savarkar's book were stolen by British secret services and despatched to the colonial administration in India. The Indian administration banned it was even before it was fully written. It was finally published in 1907 by underground publishers. Before the Marathi original could be printed the British raided the publisher in Sholapur. The manuscript was smuggled out by Savarkar's friends in Poona and the English translation was published in Holland. The book became very popular in the expatriate Indian population in Western countries and many copies were smuggled into India. The British administration in India, alarmed by its contents, served an order prohibiting Savarkar from coming back to India.

  The colonial administration of India confiscated many despatches by Savarkar and found bomb-making manuals and other revolutionary material. His home was raided and his family harassed. During a raid they found a stack of these manuals in the house of Savarkar's elder brother, Baburao. The Imperialist British occupiers of India needed just this excuse to prosecute Savarkar. They alleged that he was preparing to wage war against the Crown and country. Baburao was sentenced to transportation for life, which meant imprisonment in remote places of British India such as far-flung Rangoon and Mandalay in Burma and on the Andaman Island, at the infamous Cellular Jail at Port Blair off the east coast of India, or Kala Pani, 'place of the black waters', as it was known those days.

  In 1909, in London, Madanlal Dhingra a member of Savarkar's Free India Society, killed Sir Curzon Wylie, the government prosecutor who had demanded and secured the penalty of death against Khudiram Bose and many other revolutionaries from Bengal. Savarkar organised a fund for Dhingra's defence in London and opposed the statement issued by some Indian expatriates in London condemning his revolutionary act. He also lobbied for a fair trial for Dhingra. In India, the revolutionary movement was in ferment. In Ahmedabad a bomb was hurled on Lord Minto; in Nasik, a revolutionary shot and killed the British collector, A.M.T. Jackson, to avenge Baburao's prosecution. The British administration alleged that the gun had been sent by Savarkar from London. Sensing that his arrest was imminent, Savarkar, with the help of his friends, escaped to Paris. There was a small community of Indians living in Paris, and Savarkar tried to foment revolutionary fervour amongst them. However he began missing his love and tried to sneak into London for a secret rendezvous. He was not destined to
meet her ever again.

  Savarkar was arrested at Victoria Station and imprisoned at the Brixton prison where he was served an order of deportation to India. The Indian government had rescinded its earlier order prohibiting Savarkar from returning to India and decided to prosecute Savarkar on the charge of waging war against the King Emperor. Deputy Superintendent of Police C.I. Power from the Bombay police was sent to London accompanied by a posse. The Scotland Yard also deputed Detective Inspector Edward Josh Parker to accompany Power on the journey back to India. The group was booked to return on the SS Maurea. Savarkar was a maximum security prisoner and was accompanied and watched by his captors twenty-four hours. For undisclosed reasons the ship docked at Marseilles. Savarkar knew he had to escape. He was sure that he would either be sentenced to death or imprisoned for life on his return to India. Early in the morning he requested to be allowed to go to the toilet. Two constables stood outside the door while Savarkar went into the toilet unshackled. He bolted the door and covered the spy hole with his tunic. He squeezed himself out of the porthole, jumped into the sea, and began swimming towards the shore.

  Savarkar reached French soil before the British police did. He was hoping to hide with his friends in Paris, but that was not to be. He was caught by a gendarme and handed over to his British pursuers. Savarkar's revolutionary life was over. On his return to India the British colonialists sentenced him to an unprecedented fifty years' sentence to be incarcerated in the Cellular Jail on the island of Port Blair.