Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924: A Review
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Vinayak Damodar Savarkar is among the most debated figures in India’s freedom movement, evoking both admiration and criticism. Vikram Sampath’s biography of Savarkar, however, stands out for its balanced, evidence-based exploration of Savarkar’s life, offering a scholarly corrective to contemporary controversies surrounding his legacy.
Savarkar’s Formative Years
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was born into a nationalistic family of Chitpawan brahmins in 1883 to Damodarpant and Radhabai. He was one of four siblings, with an elder brother, Babarao, and two younger siblings, Maina and Narayan. As was the case with several Chitpawan Brahmins in those times, the Savarkar family was well-off as the jagirdars of the Bagur village in Maharashtra. As a child, Vinayak was a voracious reader and was always the leader of the pack with a domineering nature. His father recited several scriptures like the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and other Marathi works on the heroic feats of great warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap, and Peshwas to young children. This instilled a deep sense of patriotism and religiosity in them from a very young age. Born in a Brahmin family, Savarkar, however, despised the caste system that infested the country and mingled easily with the lower caste children during his childhood, which was not common in those days.
Savarkar was born with an innate ability to write thought-provoking prose, poems, and books, which he successfully utilized to actively mobilize the public sentiment in favor of complete freedom from British rule. It also eventually helped him greatly in gaining widespread support and recognition from the Indian people. In his youth, Savarkar founded a secret society called Abhinav Bharat Sangh (ABS), which advocated for uncompromising independence from British rule — a position that contrasted sharply with the tactics of many of the moderate leaders of the Congress Party, like Gokhale, at the time, who pursued constitutional methods such as petitions, deputations, and incremental reforms. Members of ABS advocated for calculated moves/strategies instead of throwing bombs or assassinating officers. This was so because Savarkar was deeply inspired by Shivaji, who fought for the continuance and survival of Hinduism in the country, and the young Italian revolutionary, Mazzini, from whom he derived several ideas of revolution for the Indian freedom struggle. He was also in constant touch and gathered support from figures such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak and SM Paranjpe, who frequently advised him on his revolutionary activities. He started mass celebrations of major Hindu festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra, and Diwali, where he spoke to the audience about India’s rich cultural history, about Shivaji and other great kings of the country, and inspired them to fight against the British for complete freedom. He did get into trouble with the authorities for instigating the Indians against the British, but he always managed to find new methods to inspire Indians to fight and revolt.
Savarkar was also the first person to have called the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny India’s First War of Independence. While he was in Britain for his law studies, he thoroughly researched and wrote a book on the “Sepoy Mutiny”. Despite significant struggles to smuggle the book to India, it did not see the light of day as the British authorities banned its printing in India. When staying in Britain, he wrote several such books and poems to inspire Indians back home to continue their relentless fight for freedom. He gained significant support from other prominent revolutionaries who were working in other parts of Europe, such as Madam Bhikaji Cama and Shyamji Krishna Verma, who helped smuggle his writings back to India.
Vikram Sampath’s treatment of Savarkar’s formative years is rich in detail and draws upon extensive primary sources. The narrative flows with clarity on how the revolutionary fire was ignited in young Savarkar, his activities in ABS, and the communication he had with various revolutionaries of that time, with clear evidence, sources, and citations.
Kalapani: Suffering and Resilience
Tired and vexed with Savarkar’s anti-British activities, the British government back home in India ordered his arrest. He was implicated in a non-existent crime with forced witnesses, which got him a lifetime imprisonment at Kalapani — in those days, one of the harshest of prisons and only those who committed unpardonable and goriest of the crimes were sent there. His elder brother Babarao was also sent to Kalapani, as he aided Savarkar’s efforts in the freedom struggle back in India. The conditions at Kalapani were extremely harsh and degrading, involving physical and psychological abuse of the prisoners (particularly the Hindus). Both brothers were denied access to proper sanitation facilities, forcing them to relieve themselves within the confines of their prison cell. It was especially tough when they suffered from diarrhea due to the stale, insect-laden food that they were served in prison. They were also forced and tormented to extract oil from coconuts by tying their already frail and sick bodies to the extraction machine. They were not only tortured physically but were also verbally abused by the jailers. Savarkar was imprisoned at Kalapani for 14 years in the same horrendous conditions. While Savarkar did write petitions to the British Government for his early release, which is considered weak by many in current Indian politics, Sampath contextualizes these actions — the extreme physical and psychological abuse he endured in Kalapani that would have broken the mightiest of men. Several revolutionaries who were sent there committed suicide due to the unbearable and inhuman conditions. Many of them suffered from perennial ill health and were denied basic medical treatment. Amidst all this, Savarkar persevered and kept his spirit and sanity alive.
While in Kalapani, he fought tirelessly to bring about huge reforms in the jail. He got permission to build a small library for the prisoners (who were mostly political prisoners), fought for quality food, and encouraged inter-religion and inter-caste dining in the prison, which was much frowned upon. He also motivated the prisoners who were demoralized due to the barbaric torture in the jail and spoke at length about Hinduism and the country’s rich history to other young and naïve revolutionaries. Savarkar vehemently opposed the religious conversions that took place in the prison. He personally encouraged and performed reconversions into Hinduism, which was met with severe opposition from the Hindus in the jail, but he persisted, nevertheless. He wrote several nationalistic poems on the prison walls with his nails as he was denied access to a pen and paper. He lost his own son and some of his beloved family members, but was denied permission to see them for one last time. An academically gifted individual with promising legal prospects in Britain, Savakar instead chose to forego personal comfort for the sake of India’s freedom and the betterment of the Hindu society.
The depiction of Kalapani is among the most powerful sections of this book. This section also covers the part of Savarkar’s life that has been the most talked about in the Indian political landscape. Time and again, Savarkar has been criticized by certain politicians/political commentators for apologizing to the British and writing clemency petitions while at Kalapani, all of which were portrayed as acts of cowardice or surrender to the British authorities. Sampath uncovers the horrendous and hazardous conditions that Savarkar had to endure at Kalapani (which several politicians of those times did not have to endure). Along with the factual evidence and reproduction of several letters exchanged between Savarkar and the British Government, Sampath allows the reader to form their own judgments, refraining from injecting any personal bias into the narrative.
Savarkar and Gandhi: Divergent Ideologies
During his young revolutionary days, one of Savarkar’s early speeches exemplified his beliefs and ideology, which later manifested heavily in his revolutionary work, writings, and speeches. In his own words – “The Abhinav Bharat calls for total and complete freedom, to attain which armed revolution is an inevitable means”. He called for the members of ABS to carefully consider the binaries of non-violence and violence based on
“Utilitarianism” (the greatest good to the greatest number of people). He believed the struggle through violence is also a legitimate and virtuous act if it leads to the country’s freedom and independence. The vision of freedom for Savarkar was not just of political freedom but also of spiritual, moral, and intellectual progress of the nation.
In sharp contrast to this, MK Gandhi’s ideology was that of staunch non-violence and satyagraha, which contributed to the widening ideological gulf between the two. Savarkar also did not approve of Gandhi’s strong advocacy for the Khilafat Movement or the Congress Party’s weak stand against the gruesome Moplah riots, which shook the whole nation. He wrote several articles expounding the dangers of a pan-Islamic movement in India, which was again very different from the beliefs of MK Gandhi about Hindu-Muslim unity. Savarkar and Gandhi seem to have met a couple of times, but their interactions were always short, marked by sharp ideological disagreements and criticism.
Although the primary focus of this book is on Savarkar’s life, Sampath contextualizes his journey within the broader ideological and political ferment of the era. The biography effectively weaves in major national developments, such as the numerous anti-Hindu riots that ravaged the country, the Khilafat Movement, the Arya Samaj, and the murder of Swami Shraddhanand. Sampath also includes contemporary commentaries from figures such as Tilak, Gandhi, and Savarkar himself on these events. In doing so, Sampath equips the reader to assess these tumultuous decades through well-documented reactions, articles, and ideological responses of the period’s leading writers and not rely on contemporary biases to shape opinions. By providing a broader national perspective on the key events of the time and the diverse responses these events elicited from various ideological thinkers, Sampath enables the reader to form a more informed, balanced, and nuanced opinion of Savarkar.
Hindutva, Social Reform, and Modernization
After suffering for 14 years at Kalapani with all his petitions to the British government being rejected, Savarkar was transferred to a prison in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, where he began writing on the Hindu nationalist identity and what it means to be an Indian. He elucidates the terms Hindutva and Hinduism and writes about how these two differ and how Hinduism is only a part of the larger identity – Hindutva (Hinduness). He also vociferously fought against the caste system in the country at a time when the varna/jati system was an integral part of society and untouchability was practiced far and wide in the country. He was undeterred when met with severe opposition from all quarters of society, including influential people like Gandhi. He was a staunch believer that science, modern thought, and industrialization were the forces that would help society progress. He was a person well ahead of his time with his progressive views on modernization, eradicating the caste system, and reconverting or bringing back the forcibly converted Hindus to the fold. He also encouraged and motivated the Hindus to take part in World War II so that they would learn to defend themselves, their motherland, and be well prepared for any future communal riots/attacks, as Savarkar feared.
After his jail term, Savarkar was allowed to stay in Ratnagiri under house arrest for most of his life from 1924 onwards. He was not supposed to engage in any political activities. Doing so would take him back to Kalapani for another life term. Volume One of the biography ends here, and the next part continues with his life and work at Ratnagiri.
Conclusion
Sampath’s prose is lucid and engaging, balancing academic depth with readability. Overall, Sampath’s biography of Savarkar presents a rigorously researched and nuanced narrative that sheds new light on his complex legacy. It prompts readers to critically reassess conventional understandings of India’s freedom struggle by providing a balanced examination of both his revolutionary contributions and controversial episodes.
