“O Goddess of Freedom, Life is to die for you,
Death is to live without you!”
-
V. D. Savarkar, Jayostute
(translation)
July
8, 1910 . . . that was the day Savarkar threw his heart
over the fence and executed a most daring, magnificent escape at Marseilles
harbor.
With
that he thumbed his nose at the might of the British Raj and put it in a most
sorry position! But there were many inherent dangers in his daring act and
consequences of failure were dire.
What
was going on in Savarkar’s mind before he took the leap?
Fortunately,
that has been recorded by his biographer Chitragupta in Life of Barrister Savarkar.
During the British Raj days, Savarkar often wrote under a pseudonym.
This biography is also purported to be written by Savarkar himself. Here are
his thoughts, in the third person, before he leapt to freedom:
“Mr.
Savarkar had weighed all the consequences of an attempt to escape in his mind.
He knew that failure was almost certain under these most unfavorable and
hostile circumstances. . . . And if failure was almost certain how terrible
would be the consequences! He had read harrowing accounts of the cruelty that
these very officers were capable of when in their calmer moods. To what
demoniacal fury and tortures would they not subject him if thus they got
exasperated by his attempt to break off from their custody? Then any such
attempt was bound to lay him open to far more serious charges and was bound to
prejudice his first case in a most damaging way. For as the case stood there
could have been no substantial documentary or other reliable evidence strong
enough to sustain all the charges against Mr. Savarkar, so cleverly had he
worked throughout that otherwise reckless agitation. Even the best legal
opinions, in spite of the confessions of his former comrades that were wrung
out by the Police in India, were one on the point that if he chose to defend
and if no further complications took place he could not get more than seven
years or so in any ordinary conducted trial. But an attempt at such daring
escape would doubtless furnish that much dreaded complication.
Yes:
true it was that thus the price of failure would be most exacting. But if it
succeeds? Succeeds even partially? What grand tradition of heroic fortitude
would it not leave behind to raise the prestige of the Indian revolutionist
party in the esteem of all mankind? It will take Europe by surprise. It will
wash away the stigma that the leader of Abhinava Bharat was trapped by the
Government as easily as one would trap a mouse.
No!
His arrest must cost them much more than the arrest of any single private
individual had ever done. It must tax the utmost ingenuity of the English
Government and force them to stand mortified and humiliated before all Europe.
If no help, well he would individually do it at any rate. It was worth risking
worth doing. Failure or success, he will have the satisfaction of having played
his own of Indian Independence. But if, in pursuit and hunt, they shoot? Well,
it would be far more in keeping with his position as the president of the
Abhinava Bharat, the leader of young Indian, to die in that fashion, to get
shot in the struggle than to live to rot in the Andamanese dungeons or end his
life on the gallows. He must risk. But the steamer was to sail just after day
break. These guards are all closing and tightly pressing on both sides. Still,
if at all, this is the time. Now or never!
He
actually repeated to his mind “Now or never!”
Such
were the thoughts running through the mind of this amazing man!
Watch
my videos, Savarkar: the Great Escape, Part I & II on Youtube:
 |
| Savarkar: The Great Escape, Part I |
 |
| Savarkar: The Great Escape, Part II |
Also
watch two quick videos:
 |
| Savarkar’s Heroic Jump |
 |
| The Savarkar Case Bungle up |
1) Savarkar’s Heroic Jump:
2) The Savarkar Case Bungle up:
The video, Point to Point Biography of Savarkar is a quick study guide to his biography. Click on the pictures with hands and on the swiveling targets to get more information (source documents, articles, videos, pictures etc.) in the PDF or PPT version. Those links are given in the description of the video.
 |
| Point to Point Biography of Savarkar |
Anurupa
