Savarkar
Page 64
We have the advantage of the Attack
And let us not forget this further advantage that we possess. We can choose the time when to begin the fight. The enemy, from the very nature of things cannot start the war of himself. We can attack and have the first shot. He can only defend. The choice of time and place is entirely in our hands and even a child knows what an immense advantage it is to fire the first shot.
And we begin by guerilla war
And, again we do not start the war by at once engaging in pitched battle with the enemy. We must first form guerilla bands that should scour the country all round, attack the enemy where he is least powerful and run away to another place as soon as he forms himself in the first, cut off his food supplies, upset his commissariat, hang upon his rear, break the line of his communications, and generally like the wolf, fall upon him at every unguarded part and confuse him by the very rapidity and uncertainty of our movements; and thus exhaust him in every part of the country till we are strong enough to fight a pitched battle. This is the kind of war, which all nations struggling for liberty must first adopt. This is the kind of war which Shivaji and Guru Govind Singh, Moulvie Ahmed Shah and Tatya Tope and Kunvar Singh, Garibaldi and Kossuth, Washington and William of Orange—in short, all the patriot warriors of the world adopted for the achievement of their country’s liberation. We too have already adopted it in this our present Revolution. For, what if not guerilla bands, are these young men who loot the banks and offices of the British Government and attack the Svadeshi enemies of Hindusthan’s independence? The enemy to suit his own purposes call them dacoits, as the revolutionaries of ’89 were called brigands, as the Mahrattas were called bandits and highway robbers. But History will surely regard these young men as the pioneers of our Revolution, as the first young guerillas who broke the power and the backbone of the Firinghi and removed the hypnotism of our minds as to the strength and resource of the enemy. Scouting—the master art of the guerilla—is not new to us. Our hunters and trackers, our gypsies and fakirs, our Kallars and Maravars are born scouts and their mastery of scoutcraft is unequalled. And the people of our villages would help us in every possible way—they hate the Firinghee so much. Even our enemies have confessed how the people were with the Revolutionaries in the great struggle of ’57. Says Charles Ball, ‘and all these bands of rebels (our patriots, whom, with Firinghee instinct, he calls rebels) were strengthened and encouraged to an inconceivable degree by the sympathy of their countrymen. They could march without commissariat, for the people would always feed them. They could leave their baggage without guard, for the people would not attack it. They were always certain of their position and that of the British, for the people brought them hourly information. And no design could possibly be kept from them while secret sympathizers stood round every mess table and waited in almost every tent in the British camp. No surprise could be effected but by a miracle, while rumour, communicated from mouth to mouth, outstripped even our cavalry.’ And today, if anything, the people will be still more with us in order to destroy the insolent, brutal Firinghi.
The Victory of Truth and Righteousness
Our guerilla bands would thus exhaust the enemy and increase their stores of arms by capturing a large number of the enemy’s cannon, and would eventually grow into a large army. And then, the fight between those who fight for independence and for a principle and those who fight for empire and for paltry lucre can only have one issue—the victory of the principle and the destruction of the tyrannous empire.
So, brothers and sisters of Hindusthan, let us clear ourselves of the illusion that we are disarmed! Let us rush into the battlefield and hammer down the chains that are binding us. Kalkin—the new ideal of Swadharma and Swaraj—is already born amongst us, for Dharma is in Her death-throes and Adharma is prospering in the world! Let us flock to the standard of the new Avatar and engage the tyrant in battle! Let our faith be great in the principle for which we fight! Let us fill ourselves with the haughty spirit of our ancestors and defend Dharma to the death! And Kali shall die, and a new age shall dawn for Hindusthan, and for all the world!—for the Scarlet Woman of the West will no more rule in Hindusthan and tyrannize the earth!
Vinayak’s ancestral house, Bhagur
Vinayak’s birthplace, Bhagur
Wasudev Balwant Phadke
Damodar Hari Chapekar
Hari Vinayak Chapekar
Vasudev Hari Chapekar, Mahadev Vinayak Ranade and Khanderao Keshav Sathe
Balakrishna Hari Chapekar
Vasudev Hari Chapekar
The Ashtabhuja Bhawani idol, the family deity of the Savarkars, which is now at the Khandoba Temple in Bhagur
The narrow lanes of Nashik where the Abhinav Bharat was born
The Abhinav Bharat congregated here in Nashik
Young turks of the Abhinav Bharat
Aabaa Darekar alias Kavi Govind
A 1901 photograph of young Vinayak
A 1902 photograph of young Vinayak
Ramachandra Trimbak or Bhaurao Chiplunkar, Vinayak’s father-in-law
Yamuna Bai (Mai) Savarkar
Ganesh Damodar Savarkar (Babarao)
Yesu Vahini or Yashoda Bai Savarkar
Vishnu Mahadev Bhat
Standing (L to R): Vishnu Mahadev Bhat, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Ganesh Vishnu Ranade, Ganesh Hari Oak, and Ganesh Vasudev Joglekar
Sitting (Lto R): Vasudev Narayan Moholkar, S.V. Gokhale, Krishnaji Pant Sath, Balakrishna Pant Gokhale, Vaidya
Seated on ground: Ganapatrao Phadke
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Shyamji Krishna Verma
Group Photograph taken in early 1909 at India House, London
Standing (L-R): Mitra, M.P.T. Acharya, Harnam Singh, Syed Haidar Raza, Dr Rajan and housekeeper Jack
Sitting (L-R): V.V.S. Aiyar, Gyanchand Verma, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Niranjan Pal, Khan, Lala Govind Amin
Koregaonkar, Niranjan Pal and Vinayak in London
Madan Lal Dhingra
Virendranath Chattopadhyay
V.V.S. Aiyar
Madame Bhikaji Cama
Lala Har Dayal
Original of Savarkar’s The Indian War of Independence
Anant Laxman Kanhere’s photograph in a Nashik Studio just before he murdered Jackson
Krishnaji Gopal Karve
Vijayanand Theatre in Nashik where Jackson was murdered by Kanhere
David Garnett
Guy Aldred
Vinayak photographed after his arrest at Victoria Station in London
Savarkar in jail clothes
Guy Aldred’s The Herald of Revolt , advocating the release of Savarkar
The Bande Mataram , July 1912 issue, seeking Savarkar’s release
Detailed deck plan of S.S. Morea that transported Vinayak from London
The Cellular Jail under construction, 1900
An old photograph of the Cellular Jail
The Cellular Jail, Port Blair
The flame of independence at the Cellular Jail, Port Blair
Bar Fetters, Cellular Jail, Port Blair
Cross-Bar Fetters, Cellular Jail, Port Blair
Kolhu or oil mill at the Cellular Jail
Letter from Vinayak to V.V.S. Aiyar
Model of prisoners being whiplashed, Cellular Jail, Port Blair
Model of prisoners grinding the oil mill or kolhu, Cellular Jail, Port Blair
The Gallows, Cellular Jail, Port Blair
Vinayak’s Cell, Cellular Jail
Ullaskar Dutt, political prisoner at the Cellular Jail
Babu Prithvi Singh Azad, political prisoner at the Cellular Jail
Hotilal Varma, political prisoner at the Cellular Jail
Indubhushan Roy, political prisoner at the Cellular Jail
Pundit Paramanand, political prisoner at the Cellular Jail
Sachindranath Sanyal, political prisoner at the Cellular Jail
Upendranath Banerjee, political prisoner at the Cellular Jail
Bhai Parm
anand, political prisoner at the Cellular Jail
Babarao Savarkar after his release from the Cellular Jail
Vinayak after his release from the Cellular Jail
The Savarkar brothers (L to R) Narayan, Ganesh and Vinayak, with Shanta, sister Maina Kale and Yamuna
Bibliography
1. UNPUBLISHED GOVERNMENT RECORDS
National Archives of India, New Delhi
Home (Public) Proceedings (These include files from the Ecclesiastical, Educational, Judicial, and Police Departments)
Home (Political) Proceedings including Fortnightly Reports, ‘A’ and ‘B’ files
Maharashtra State Archives, Bombay
Fortnightly Reports
Home Department (Political) Records
Home Department (Public) Records
Judicial Department Records
Revenue Department Records
Police Department Records
Plague Compilation
Deputy Inspector General’s Office, Bombay
Secret Abstract of Police Intelligence for the Bombay Presidency
Bombay High Court Archives
Special Tribunal Cases No. 2, 3 & and of l910 Records
Special Case No.1 of 1911 Records
Oriental and India Office Collections, London
Bombay (Home) Confidential Proceedings
Bombay Judicial Proceedings
Bombay Political Proceedings
EPP/1/3 (Proscribed Publications in non-European Languages)
Legal Adviser’s Records: L/L Series
Military Department: L/MIL/7 Series
Public and Judicial Records L/P&J/6 Series
Political and Secret Department: L/PS/8 Series
Political Department: Indian States: R/R Series
Private Manuscripts: MSS EUR Series.
National Archives of UK (Kew), London
Colonial Office (CO)
Foreign Office (FO)
Home Office (HO)
Metropolitan Police (MEPO)
Hague Tribunal Records
Bow Street Court Records, London
Proceedings against V.D. Savarkar
2. PRIVATE PAPERS
Oriental and India Office Collections, London
Birkenhead Papers, Mss. Eur. D 703
Curzon Papers, Mss. Eur. F 111
Dow Papers, Mss. Eur. E 372
Hirtzel Diaries, Mss. Eur. D.1090
Lamington Papers, Mss. Eur. B 159
Montagu Papers, Mss. Eur. D 523
Morley Papers, Mss. Eur. D 573
Northbrook Papers
Reading Papers, Mss. Eur. E 238
Willingdon Papers, Mss. Eur. F 93
Memoirs of Sir Maurice Henry Weston Hayward, ICS Bombay, 1889-1926, Mss. Eur. D 839
National Archives of India, New Delhi
Naoroji Papers
Gokhale Papers
N.C. Kelkar Papers
Virendranath Chattopadhyay Papers
Lala Har Dayal Papers
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi
Ambedkar Papers
Mohamed Ali Papers
All-India Congress Committee Papers
All-India Hindu Mahasabha Papers
Savarkar Papers
Oral Archives—Transcripts of Interviews—Senapati Bapat, Prithvi Singh Azad and Durgadas Khanna.
Kesari Office, Pune
Tilak Papers
3. PUBLISHED GOVERNMENT SOURCES
Administration Report of the Government of Bombay
Bombay Legislative Council Debates
Bombay Gazette
Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency (all vols.)
Indian Annual Register
Indian Law Reports, Bombay Series
Isemonger, F.C. and J. Slattery (comp.). An Account of the Ghadr Conspiracy, 1913-1915: Indian-Punjab Police Report. Lahore: Superintendent of Government Printing-Punjab, 1919
Native Newspaper Reports, Bombay, 1910
Report of the Indian Jails Committee, 1919-1920
Report on the Administration of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Penal Settlement of Port Blair , Government of India, Calcutta, 1904
Sedition Committee Report , 1918
Settlement Reports (V/27) for the Collectorates of Ahmednagar, Dharwar, Hyderabad, Khandesh, Nasik, Poona, Satara, Yeola. 1889–1899.
Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India. Vol. I, Bombay, Bombay State Publication, 1957
Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India. Vol. II , Bombay, Bombay State Publication, 1958
Terrorism in India: 1917-1936: Compiled in the Intelligence Bureau, Home Department, Government of India, 1937
The Deccan Riots Commission Report, 1875
4. OTHER PUBLISHED SOURCES
Ambedkar, B.R. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches. Bombay: Government of Maharashtra, 1979
——Bombay Riots, 1874. Bombay, 1874.
Gandhi, M.K. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi , Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1967
——Indian National Congress Presidential Addresses; 1881-1924
‘The Bombay Riots of August 1893’. Times of India, 1894
5. WORKS OF VINAYAK DAMODAR SAVARKAR
Savarkar Samagra Vangmaya (in Marathi), 8 vols, Poona: Maharashtra Prantik, 1963
Savarkar Samagra (in Hindi), 10 vols, New Delhi: Prabhat Prakashan, 2000 (1909)
The Indian War of Independence of 1857 . London: n.p., 1909.
Londonchi Baatmipatre (Newsletters from London), 1940
An Echo from Andamans . Poona: Venus Book Stall, 1947
Historic Statements. S.S. Savarkar and G.M. Joshi (eds). Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1967
My Transportation for Life. 2nd ed. Bombay: Veer Savarkar Prakashan, 1984
Inside the Enemy Camp (Shatruchya Shibirat )
Josepha Majhini: Atmacharitra ani Raajakaarana
Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu? . Bombay: Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak, seventh edition, 1999
6. NEWSPAPERS
Amrita Bazar Patrika
Bande Mataram
Bombay Chronicle
Comrade
Dnyanprakash
Harijan
HT Mint
Indian Express
Indian Mirror
Indu Prakash
Kal
Kesari
Mahratta
Quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha
Sakal
Sudharak
The Hindu
The Justice
Times of India
Young India
British Newspaper Archive (BNA)
Aberdeen Press
Bellin
Chronicle
Daily Dispatch
Daily Express
Daily News
Daily Press
Daily Telegraph
Daily Gazette
Der Wanderer
Echo
Evening Telegraph
Evening News
Globe
La Society Nouvelle
L’Humanite
L’Eclaire
Le Matin
Le Monde
Le Temps
Manchester Guardian
Mercury
National Review
New Age
New York Times
Petit Provincial
Sunday Chronicle
The Standard
The Homeward Mail from India, China and The East
The Times
The Morning Post
7. UNPUBLISHED DISSERTATIONS
Brückenhaus, Daniel. ‘The Transnational Surveillance of Anti-Colonialist Movements in Western Europe, 1905-1945.’ Yale: Yale University, 2011
Deshpande, Prachi. ‘Narratives of Pride: History and Regional Identity in Mahrashtra, India c. 1870-1960.’ Massachusetts: Tufts University, 2002
Fatima Ilahi, Shereen. ‘The Empire of Violence: Strategies
of British Rule in India and Ireland in the Aftermath of the Great War’. Texas: University of Texas and Austin, 2008
Goswami, Manu. ‘The Production of India: Colonialism, Nationalism and Territorial Nativism. 1870-1920’. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1998