Written By Ojas Koneripura (Grade 10)
Growing up in Bhagur near Nashik district of Maharashtra during his early years, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was known for his academic excellence. He aspired to become an advocate but faced challenging and unfortunate hardships that led to his evolution as a revolutionary. The climax of his life was in London, where he was arrested, followed by trials, convictions, and a 50-year prison term in the infamous ‘Kaala Paani’ in the Andamans, from 1910 to 1960. His eventual release proved to be important for the rise of his powerful legacy. Throwing light on his life and contributions during the freedom struggle, this narrative unfolds itself through Savarkar’s own writings and biographies which captures his lesser-known legacy.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s life has been more of events filled with mayhem, controversies and his legacy majorly debated and questioned with untrue and baseless allegations. His life has been continuously debated upon and viewed with suspicion, and speaking facts about him is often tagged as communal and casteist. He is often seen as a divisive figure and the proponent of a communal ideology of Hindutva.
From his childhood, it was pretty evident that Savarkar was born rebel. He had organized a gang, which was his own brainchild, named as ‘Vanarsena’ or the ‘Monkey Brigade’ when he was just eleven years old. He considered Bal Gangadhar Tilak as his Guru and started organizing the celebration of Shivaji Utsav and Ganesh Utsav, which were the ideas of Tilak. Savarkar was a voracious reader and right from his childhood he liked reading. His later revolutionary ideas and his undying zeal to drive away the British to free his motherland was majorly pumped by the biographies of Mazini, Garibaldi and Napolean. Apart from being a voracious reader, he was a prolific writer too. From the age of eleven he started writing ballads and poems related to freedom movements. This book also points out how at the age of 14, Savarkar wrote ballads of Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj and Tanaji Malusare. Due to his fiery speeches and influence, at the age of 17 he started the ‘Mitra Mela’ which later transformed to be the ‘Abhinav Bharat Society’ during his college days in Pune, which eventually influenced revolutionaries in Bengal, Punjab etc. It was already in his student life, Savarkar was showing the attributes of a revolutionary.
The birth of a revolutionary was dominantly seen in 1905, when Bal Gangadhar Tilak returned to Poona (Pune) from Bombay. Savarkar, just 22 years old, suggested that an enormous bonfire of British clothes and goods be lit in Poona (present day Pune). This procession gained much attention and Savarkar was now gaining popularity but he had to pay a price for his actions. The principal of Fergusson College, Sir Raghunath Purushottam Paranjpe, even though an Indian, was an anglophile, who was shook to his core to come to know that a student from his very own college had been found participating in such a horrendous project. Savarkar was fined an amount of Rs. 10 and was expelled from the residence of the college.
Savarkar’s life undergoes dynamic changes when he leaves India to London, to pursue the “white man’s law”. His revolutionary actions there, his heartbreaks, the climax of his life and his imprisonment will be continued in the next part.
Featured Image Courtesy – Swarajya
