Gaurav Gatha-E-01-Veer Savarkar

Veer Savarkar _{THE GREAT ESCAPE}

ON AUGUST 15, 1947, India gained independence from Britain. But freedom from British rule was not a gift. It was an achievement. To achieve freedom thousands of Indian patriots, men and women, underwent untold sufferings. Many died on the gallows. Many spent years and years in British jails. Among the freedom fighters were revolutionaries who felt that the British must be overthrown by force. Their daring deeds and indifference to death thrilled the people and inspired a nation-wide awakening against foreign rule. 

"They were the heroes, the stormy petrels, Thrilling were their stories With bloody battles, bullets, revolvers and bomb-fires."
 

VINAYAK DAMODAR SAVARKAR, popularly known as Veer Savarkar, was one of the earliest revolutionaries. He was born in 1883 in a Chitpavan Brahmin family of Maharashtra. In 1899, when he was in his early teens, he founded a secret revolutionary party called "Mitra Mandal." In 1900, he joined the Fergusson College, Poona. There he stepped up his revolutionary activities. Many of his fellow-students came under his influence. Savarkar reorganised Mitra Mandal in 1904 and named it "Abhinav Bharat." In 1906, he went to England to study law. Lokmanya Tilak helped him to get a scholarship for this purpose. Savarkar's real aim to go to England was to organise revolutionary activities from abroad. In London, Veer Savarkar joined Shyamji Krishna Verma, a Gujarati businessman and one of the pioneers among the Indian revolutionaries. The India House, founded by Shyamji in London, was the nerve-centre of Indian revolutionary activities. Savarkar attracted quite a few Indian. students in England for revolutionary work. It was under his influence that Madan Lal Dhingra, a student of the University College of Engineer- ing, London, killed Sir William Curzon Wyllie, a hated British official who was responsible for adopting a policy of repression in India. Savarkar was arrested in London in 1910 and sent back to India. During his voyage under police escort, he made a daring attempt to escape when his ship was near Marseilles, a French port. He was illegally re-arrested on the French soil by the British police. On his arrival in India, Savarkar was tried in a conspiracy case and sentenced to transportation for life. He was imprisoned in the Andamans, known as "Kala Pani" in those days.

• Gaurav Gatha
• Title                        : Veer Savarkar
• Serial No.               :  01
• Pages                      : 36
• Script                      : English
• Publisher                : Gaurav Gatha Publication, New Delhi
• First Published on : May 1980