Take-Aways of “My Transportation For Life” by Veer Savarkar
The year was 1910, a 19-year-old woman heard the following words of assurance from her husband “ We might meet again if the benign providence so willed it. Till then, we must think of life, not as a mere multiplication of children or building of houses, as birds build their nests of straw, but as something higher and nobler than these things. For the usual kind of life even the crows and kites live. If life meant dedication and service, they have already lived it. They have broken up their home and their fire-hearth along with it. And they had done so, that thousands may live happily and freely after them” The man was Veer Savarkar who was going to serve two back to back life imprisonments of 25 years each, until 1960. His crime was his work towards the freedom of his countrymen from the oppressive and rapacious Imperialists.
In this book titled “The Story of My Transportation for Life”, Veer Savarkar has chronicled his experiences during his imprisonment at Andaman in the notorious Silver Jail. The hard life of the Silver Jail was known to break even the toughest of men. The life in Silver Jail was a sordid saga of inhuman living conditions — improper food, back-breaking physical labor, pathetic hygienic conditions, insults, beatings, severe punishments like solitary confinements, endless chaining for hours at end, absolutely no contact with the outside world including one’s own family, religious bigotry & conversions, non-existent freedom of expression, restrictions on socializing, ban or reading or writing, treating political convicts and murderers in the same way and other unimaginable hostilities. In his own words, Veer Savarkar said he had suicidal thoughts but every time he recovered from them.
When Veer Savarkar arrived at Silver Jail, there was a jailor named David Barry who was a devil incarnate for the prisoners. He made it his agenda to break the revolutionary spirit of Veer Savarkar and other political convicts. He used to connive with some criminals to consistently create trouble for Veer Savarkar and used to keep a strict vigil on him through this network of informers. Veer Savarkar, unlike most of the other criminals, was not intimidated by him and this did not go down well with him. He was a brute and used to make sneering jibes at Veer Savarkar. Veer Savarkar was a well-read man, articulate, and an orator par excellence and used to give him befitting replies making him look like a fool in front of other prisoners and jail attendants. This infuriated him further and gave fuel to his resolve of creating even more trouble for Veer Savarkar. He gave him extremely tough physical labor of working on Kolhu to churn oil. Under ordinary circumstances, this work is done by an Oxen, however, it was the prisoners who were being made to do this in Silver Jai. In the evening, the prisoners used to be sent back to their cells and only the next morning they were allowed to come out. In between, if they had to answer nature’s call, they had no option but to use a corner of their small cell. Such was the state of affairs in Silver Jail in Andaman.
The true character of a man is known only in the face of adversity. Veer Savarkar’s character in the face of such adversity blossomed the way Lotus blossoms in the mud. His indomitable will, scholarship, courage, objectivity, logic, resourcefulness, sense of justice, foresight, and leadership resulted in the Silver Jail turning out to be the laboratory of his nationalistic and civilizational experiments. He organized protests, fought for the right to be treated fairly, made representations, organized secret societies — all at a very high personal cost to his brother and himself. He exposed the inhuman treatment meted out to the inmates of Silver Jail in such a manner that the news reached not only India but even London. He didn’t take any atrocity lying down, either to him or to other jail inmates. He raised his voice against the religious conversions happening in jail and started a Shuddhi movement for the converts to bring them back to the fold of their original religion. Amongst his fellow prisoners, there were some who didn’t welcome the re-converts. He took that issue head-on, risking the ire of his own ilk. He started eating with the re-converts and eventually convinced everyone to welcome the re-converts.
During the initial period of imprisonment, there were significant restrictions on Savarkar to read and write. He was not allowed to keep books and writing material. So he started writing his poems on the walls and used to memorize them. He used whatever was available — stone, pins, or even his nails at times to write. Many times when the prison authorities found out that he is writing they used to whitewash the walls. But he persisted. So strong was his resolve that despite all the restrictions, he was able to smuggle out some of these writings through the prisoners who were getting released and through some sympathetic prison wardens.
Later with his sustained efforts, he was successful in creating a library called “Nalanda Vihar” in jail. He spent hours teaching basics, languages, and history to lettered and unlettered inmates of the prison. He even encouraged others to teach and in a matter of time Nalanda Vihar become a temple of learning in the middle of the monstrosity called Silver Jail. His campaign resulted in many hardcore criminals turning out to be men of great service to the nation. His teachings led many to leave their old ways and started working towards a civilized life and liberation of the motherland.
He also championed the cause that the Jails, should not be the place to take revenge from the inmates but should be a penitentiary. The primary aim of the jail should be upliftment of the inmates. Inmates should be taught ethics and livelihood so they could become better citizens after being released from jail.
Such was the personality of the man that even the family of Brute David Barry — his wife and daughter became admirers of Veer Savarkar. Towards the end, David Barry lost his vigor and resigned himself to the corner of the jail before retiring to England.
In his far-sightedness, Svarakar used to mention to fellow inmates that Andaman should be developed as a proper colony and in the future shall serve as a naval base for free India.
He is also well known for some of the letters which he wrote to the Government of India, wherein he wrote about the pathetic living conditions in Silver Jail, his requests for release of his and other prisoners along with suggestions and thoughts on the prevailing situation. In his letters wherein he used to request for the release, he always maintained that if the government thinks he is not to be trusted to be released, he would be equally glad if others were released instead of him. He thought that there is no point in rotting in the jail when he and his compatriots could serve the motherland in a better way as free-men.
Victory to The Goddess of Freedom was his mission for which he relentlessly strived.
Jai Hind
