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| Cellular Jail Hard Labor |
With the relaxed
rules, Savarkar took up several causes successfully:
(1) putting an end to
forcible religious conversions in the Jail, protecting young convicts from
molestation, and making sure Hindu convicts had same rights and opportunities
as the Muslim convicts
(2) establishing a
library with books, magazines, and newspapers in various languages; insisting
upon political prisoners learning the national language, Hindi, and any other
language besides their own; giving them lessons in geopolitics, history and
economics
(3) extending learning
opportunities to the general convicts as well, even personally teaching them to
read and write; in later years, their flourishing learning center was fondly
called Nalanda University
(4) making Hindi the
language of communication in Andaman
(5) establishing a
flourishing Hindu Sanghatan program; spreading national pride and patriotism to
the free lifers on the islands and the merchants and businessmen who visited it
(6) organizing the
collection and management of funds, though without any formal accounts, to run
all the programs
(7) establishing the
practice of Sunday meetings with talks, lectures, and bhajans.
· He composed thousands of lines of sublime poetry,
memorized them, and eventually got them published, a feat that is unequalled to
this date.
·
During WWI the German
cruiser Emdem was sent to free Savarkar. But it sank in battle.
· With Turkey taking the side of Germany in WWI, Savarkar
saw a new danger to India upon the horizon—the possibility of a combined attack
from Afghanistan. He thought deep and settled on a change of plan. He wrote to
the Government that “if it equips India with a form of government vital for her freedom and
progress. The revolutionaries of the past would then stop all violence and
wholeheartedly help Britain in her present war. . . . We pledge
our word of honor that we will bring recruits to the Indian army in large
numbers to stave off the invasion of India from the joined forces of
Afghanistan and Turkey.”
·
From 1916 onwards
Savarkar’s health deteriorated to the extent he even contemplated suicide. He
did get medical treatment and a special diet. Slowly he pulled through.
(The ship in the photo is the SMS Emdem.)
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