Life of Barrister Savarkar

Propaganga in England

Even while on board the ship Mr. Savarkar lay not idle though for a man of his tender heart and loving and lovable nature homesickness was bound to weigh heavily on his mind yet in spite of the dear memory of devoted friends and favourites and relations that made him pine and often moved him to tears he immediately opened his patriotic campaign amongst the few Indian students who sailed by the same steamer. A characteristic reminiscence was relate to us by one of them now a distinguished Barrister in Northern India, which will illustrate the inner working of Savarkar‟s mind this gentleman was then, like Mr. Savarkar himself, a raw youth of some 21 years of age and the only son of his mother. He came off a rich and respectable family. Naturally he was so overpowered by the trying experience of being left alone amidst strangers and the insolent foreigners who generally from the majority of the passengers that return to England by those statements after their stay in the "Dependency", and physically so weakened by the terrible sea sickness to which he like many an Indian unused for generation to sea voyages fell a victim, that he once actually thought of returning home as soon as the steamer touched the first port of her voyage.

One night he happened to leave his cabin and went up to the deck where he saw Savarkar intently looking at the blue and beautiful sky bedecked with stars and lisping some lines by himself. On being roused from that reverie, Mr. Savarkar admitted to his friend that he was so deeply touched by the natural beauty of the scene and the assuring calmness of the sea that poetry flowed and numbers came unasked to his lips. Glad to discover that in his young companion he had the luck to come in his young companion he had the luck to come in conduct with a poet, the gentleman in question pressed Mr. Savarkar to recite and translate some of the Marathi verses to him. They were so lovely that the gentleman formed a very high opinion of Mr. Savarkar and felt powerful drawn towards him. Their attachment grew and confidently he consulted Mr. Savarkar whether he should return to India as soon as he reached Aden. Why?" Asked Savarkar in astonishment. Is it the sea sickness or the home sickness, or both? Look here friend, how unmanly our race is daily growing. Not a couple of centuries have passed when Maratha women not only sailed the waters of Bombay but even commanded flotillas. Then look at the English boys: when they came to India in Clive‟s time it took six months to reach our land, so that their relations in England had to wait for a year even to get news of their safe arrival in India. But that did not dismay them. They came to strange lands and amidst the hostile millions not only lived, but fought and won, and became masters of an Empire. While we young men tremble to sail even amidst these luxurious conveniences of a first class voyage and with rich arrangements made in advance by our parents to smoothen an easy course of life in the lands to which we are bound. No! No! You must not go back. You say your mother is rich and cares not a jot for a Barrister‟s practice. But friend, the mother of our mothers—our motherland is not so rich. She wants her sons to go to foreign lands for a while, that they may learn what the world is like, what the strength of their foes and what the weaknesses of themselves. She wants them to grow strong and manly and daring. We must go to England, France and Russia and learn how to organize a Revolution, win back our Freedom. If not the petty personal financial necessity, then, this Grand ideal at least ought to stop thee from returning home. The memory of our dear ones? Friend, it grieves none more acutely then it does me. But then we must not only bear the anguish of our separation from them, but if need be even bear to witness them and ourselves rather crucified than betray the sacred mission of our life. Our mother is dear. But dearer, by far, ought to be, our motherland—the mothers of our race.‟

We have cited this anecdote almost as the gentleman told us, so far as he could relate it recollecting Mr. Savarkar‟s words. It was in this spirit that he ever worked. As soon as he reached England he was welcomed by Pandit Shamji, the patriotic and distinguished Indian leader who then was advocating the Home rule propaganda in England which was considered as too advanced and dangerous an activity by the then leading lights of the National Congress and even the Nationalist party. But within a year of Savarkar‟s reaching London things moved so rapidly that even the Home Rule by pacific means became a discarded and meaningless cry. Savarkar first prove to many of the advanced politically minded Indian youths in London that Peaceful Revolution is more or less a misnomer when applied to the solution of such questions as the Indian political one. He started a society named „Free India society‟ to whose weekly sittings all Indians were admitted and whose proceedings were openly conducted. On these occasions he used to deliver masterly speeches on history of Italy, France and America and the revolutionary struggles they had to undergo, and was never tried of pointing out how white the words Peaceful Evolution, had a meaning and a sense, peaceful revolution had neither. His spirited style erudition the force of his arguments evidently bore and the passionate sincerity which made even those who deferred from him, listen to him with attention and respected soon enabled him to carry the youthful and impressionable student world with him. Out of those then who felt attracted towards him and admitted they were convinced of the soundness of his views he used to pick out the best and initiate them into the inner-circle of the Abhinava Bharat Society. Thus Indian Students at Cambridge, Oxford, Edinborough, Manchester and other centre of education, were rapidly brought under the influence of the Revolutionary tenets.