Meanwhile in India, branches of Abhinav Bharat were detected. A few
small factories of bombs and
secret stores were unearthed in Maharashtra after the arrest of Babarao.
He was sentenced to
transportation for life on June 8, 1909 on a charge of abetment to
waging war against the King. A
report compiled by the Intelligence Bureau in Delhi entitled Terrorism
in India 191 7-1936 recorded
what followed. 'Within a few days his brother, Vinayak Savarkar, made
a most seditious speech at
the India House in London. This speech was followed within twelve days
by the murder of Colonel
Sir William Curzon Wylie, Political A.D.C. at the India Office. In
December of the same year the
District Magistrate of Nasik [M.T. Jackson], who had committed Ganesh
Savarkar for trial, was
shot dead. Three men were hanged and in a conspiracy case which followed,
twenty-seven were
sentenced to imprisonment.
It is necessary to dwell at some length on these two murders because
they marked the initiation of
Savarkar's 'revolutionary' activity which led to his transportation
for life to the Cellular Prison. M.R.
Jayakar was a prominent leader of the Hindu Sangathan movement and
of the Hindn Mahasabha in
the twenties. Vinayak Savarkar presided over it from 1937 to 1942.
This is what Jayakar had to say
about the trial of Babarao and B.B. Bhopatkar in his memoirs:
[T] he feeling at the Bar, which I shared fully, was in strong disapproval
of the attitude adopted by
the accused in both these cases and it was felt that the level of dignity,
courage and integrity which
the cause of Indian freedom had reached during the two previous trials
of Tilak and Paranjpe had
been immeasurably lowered by the attitude of the accused in these two
later cases.
In London William Curzon Wylie fell victim to bullets fired by Madanlal
Dhingra on the night of July
1, 1909. Along with him fell Dr Cawas Lalkaka who tried to save his
life. The murder was
committed in the Hall of the Imperial Institute in London at the conclusion
of a meeting held to
celebrate the annual function of the National Indian Association. Keer's
account is particularly
noteworthy:
[Madanlal] was a devoted follower of Savarkar.... A few days before
the Wylie incident, Dhingra
had asked his leader whether the time for martyrdom had really come.
Out came the epigrammatic
reply from Savarkar, 'If a martyr is determined and ready that fact
by itself generally implies that the
time for martyrdom must have come.'... Lord Curzon [former Viceroy
of India] was Dhingra's
immediate target.
He escaped, fortuitously. Wylie was the next target.
What Keer left unsaid in his book, published while Savarkar was alive,
he confided, after his death,
to Robert Payne:
In 1909 he [Savarkar] had shown that he was perfectly capable of ordering
a young Indian to
murder Sir Curzon Wylie. To his biographer Dhananjay Keer,... he claimed
full credit for the
murder. He had given Madanlal Dhingra a nickelplated revolver, saying
curtly, 'Don't show me your
face if you fail this time'. Dhingra had acted like an automation,
blindly obedient to him, convinced
that he was sacrificing himself on the altar of India's freedom and
throughout the trial Savarkar
continually encouraged him in the belief that he was a martyr whose
name would be remembered for
centuries. The London police strongly suspected Savarkar of complicity
in the crime, but there was
never enough evidence to convict him. He was finally convicted of complicity
in the murder of Mr
Jackson at the Nasik Conspiracy Trial and sentenced to transportation
for life.
The memory of this earlier murder hovered like a ghostly presence over
the trial at the Red Fort [the
Gandhi murder trial in 1948] never mentioned in court, forgotten except
by the oldest members of
the audience who crowded the public benches. Savarkar had achieved
respectability and his crimes
had taken place so long ago that they could be discovered only in the
crumbling pages of ancient
newspapers. He was responsible for the murders of Sir Curzon Wylie
and Mr Jackson, although the
weapons had been wielded by others. The prosecution contended that
he had engaged in a secret
conspiracy with Godse and Apte, and was legally responsible for the
murder of Gandhi.
Keer's later disclosure explains Payne's comment:
Many years passed before the full story of Madanlal Dhingra became known.
There was some truth
in Gandhi's statement that he [Dhingra] was innocent. He had fallen
completely under the domination
of Savarkar and scarcely knew what he was doing. Savarkar had been
training him for many
months, preparing for the day when he would become a martyr to the
cause of India. Then, for
having failed [to kill Lord Curzon] Dhingra became all the more the
creature of Savarkar who
continually taunted him for missing a perfect opportunity. On the morning
of the assassination of Sir
Curzon Wylie, Savarkar gave Dhingra a nickelplated revolver and said
'Don't show me your face if
you fail this time'.
Keer however did not quote this crucial statement in the first edition
of his biography published in
1950 during Savarkar's lifetime. He did so only in the second edition
published in December 1966
after Savarkar's death. A written statement in his defence was found
on Dhingra's person at the time
of his arrest. It was written by Savarkar.
Suspicion for complicity in Wylie's murder fell instantly on Savarkar.
Later in the year, on December
29, 1909, the District Magistrate and Collector of Nasik District,
A.M.T. Jackson was shot dead at
a theatre. The assassin Anant Kanhere was arrested. Keer holds that
Ganpat Savarkar's 'terrific
transportation was avenged thus'. Jackson, however, did not try Ganpat
Savarkar. He merely
committed him to trial by the Sessions Court. There is a particular
poignancy about this murder.
Jayakar notes:
Collector Jackson was a reputed Sanskrit scholar and, it was believed,
a great admirer of Indians,
their language and literature. He was, therefore, it was alleged, posted
at Nasik specially to cure the
city of its disaffection. Jackson's reputation, as a friendly official,
was wide and his literacy activities
related mostly to writing papers and making speeches about ancient
Indian classics."
He was at a theatre to watch the popular Marathi play Sharada when Kanhere
shot him. Kanhere
was a brave man who was anxious to join military service. He was barred
from it. A promising
career came to an untimely and tragic end by his conviction and sentence
to death. Sadly, a far more
promising career was arrested and diverted to disastrous course by
these events.