Veer Savarkar- A profile in courage

Bonfire of British pride

1905, a year in which the Indian independence movement, took a more intense turn. The trigger was Lord Curzon's hasty partition of Bengal.  While the Muslims welcomed the decision, the Hindus of Bengal rose in unison against.  Curzon's hasty act was a trigger for the revolutionary fervor to  spread all over the nation, and Tilak was at the forefront in bringing it on center stage in Maharashtra.  Savarkar had already passed a resolution at Kothur appreciating the Bengalis for their opposition to the Partition. 

In Pune, a meeting was held of students, presided over by Kelkar to support the movement opposing Partition of Bengal.  Savarkar made a forceful appeal to boycott foreign goods and clothers.  He himself used only Swadeshi goods and clothes in response to Tilak's call.Tilak was whom Savarkar saw as his mentor and guide, while the former saw the fire and spirt in him, that would lead the revolution.  And that was when the revolution took an unprecedented turn.  He met Tilak, and explained to him his plan of not just boycotting, but also making a bonfire of all foreign goods and clothes.

Tilak advised him, that unless there was a cartload of foreign goods, burning would not really make an impact. The students supporting Savarkar, began to collect foreign clothes, they were joined by students of  Maharashtra Vidyalalaya. By Dussehra  enough clothes were collected for the bonfire, which were loaded on a cart and sprinkled with red powder. Paranjpe and Bhalakar Bopatkar led  the procession from beginning, Tilak joined them at Chitrashala. Soon enough the procession ended at Fergusson, where the clothes were unloaded into a heap.

As the fire was lit, the flames spread from the bottom to the top of the heap. And soon enough the bonfire began to burn bright. It was not just a bonfire of foreign clothes, it was a bonfire of British vanity, ego and arrogance.  As the flickering flames, leapt into the air,  the revolution that was but a spark, had now spread into a full fledged fire. A burning inferno that threatened to burn the Empire on which the sun never set into ashes.  While Tilak as usual spoke well, it was Paranjpe who stole the show. He held up a jacket for all to see, feeling for the pockets, he symbolically represented the gradual drain of wealth by British.  Enthused by the response to the bonfire, Savarkar planned a similiar one in Nashik too.

Savarkar's action however did not go down well with the Moderates, who made up most of Fergusson's management.  And with the Government pressuring the management to penalize him,  they asked him to pay the fine, and leave the hostel. Ganapat Rao Joglekar offered to pay the fine, however by this time, most of the students had gathered enough money. An enraged Tilak, attacked the Fergusson management in an editorial titled, "These are not our gurus".  Paranjpe, Bopatkar organized a meeting at the Sarvajanik Sabha Hall, where they congratulated the students for pooling in the funds to pay the fine.  Joglekar was also expelled, and he later joined the Deccan College, where he mentored Acharya Kriplani, who later became the Congress President.

Staying with a friend of his in Pune, Savarkar successfully completed his BA in 1905, and in 1906, shifted to Bombay for his LLB examination.  Once again at Bombay his prolific pen, began to flourish,  as he began to contribute to Vihari a weekly founded by Bhaskar Vishnu Phadke. His fiery and forceful prose made the weekly popular, as did his poetic imagination. In tandem with Bhat he began to propagate Abhinav Bharat's philosophy, spreading their network, discussing the country's political situation.  Members began to come in and meetings were held regularly at either the Sukha Niwas Lodge in Girgaum or the Chikalwadi tenenments.  Soon the younger members of Abhinav Bharat, began to propagate it's philosophy among all the leading educational institutions.  From Elphinstone, Wilson College( where Savarkar was studying) to Victoria Technical Institute to Art School,  Abhinav Bharat's ideology began to spread in the campuses. The revolutionaries also secured posts in Government departments like Railways, PnT, Customs, High Court, to keep a tab on the activities.  It was around this time, that Savarkar came across the issue of Indian Sociologist, edited by one Shyamji Krishna Varma.  And that would decide his future course of action too.