1. Inspired by the sacrifice of Chapekar brothers he took an oath at the young age of 8 in front of their family goddess that “he will struggle for his whole life to free the country from foreign yoke”
2. He founded the revolutionary organization “Abhinav Bharat” and was the first to organize a pyre of foreign clothes under guidance of Lokmanya Tilak.
3. To become a barrister he sailed to England and stayed at India House in London.
4. In 1908, he celebrated the golden jubilee of 1857 War of Independence in London and inspired the Indian youth to take up the national cause
5. He was the inspiration behind Madanlal Dhingra, a carefree youth turned into revolutionary, who killed Curzon Wayli.
6. He was hanged in London but sacrificed his life without any remorse and roared in the British court that “It was God’s work to fight for the cause of freedom of motherland”
7. Veer Savarkar was involved in smuggling weapons like guns into India from England. One of the smuggled weapon i.e revolver was used by Anant Kanhere to kill Jackson, collector of Nasik. The weapon was traced to London and he was arrested for conspiring against the government.
8. He was awarded 2 back to back life imprisonments in Andaman i.e 48 years and the year of start was 1912. He is said to have commented in the court that “ With 2 life imprisonments, British government has accepted the Hindu concept of rebirth”
10. During transportation to India, he jumped from ship at Marseilles and was captured illegally from French coast by British police. Hence he became the first Indian whose case was argued at International Court of Justice at Hague
11. When in chains in jail of Mumbai his young wife came to meet him. It was probably the last meeting as he was going into jaws of death but the confidence of this man was unshakeable. How he consoled his wife is legendary, he said “if accumulating a few sticks and giving birth to children is life, then it is led by birds and animals but we are HUMAN. Even if we are ruined today, imagine thousands of lives who will smile because of us”. They both agreed to recite a shloka at same time during the day and thus meet mentally if not physically.
13. When in Andaman he was put in solitary confinement and was subjected to “kolhu” for oil extraction. If not fulfill the stipulated amount of oil one would receive lashes or would be confined in chains in a very uncomfortable position.
15. Even for nature’s call a fixed time was allotted and at night one had to relieve himself in a pot which would lie in the same cell.
16. Talking to any other prisoner was a strict NO and others would get harsh punishment for talking to Savarkar. No newspaper or books or paper for a literary giant like him.
17. Several revolutionaries were either driven to suicide or became mentally unstable due to the inhuman treatment. After a year he came to know that his elder brother was also in Andaman and with lot of efforts could only see him once.
18. He wrote novels, dramas and poetry on the walls of cell. Since there was also change of prison cells, he would memorize all the text he had written before. Every day he would memorize text he had composed before and while completing hard physical labor would compose poems or dramas. He composed literature of 10000 lines during his confinement in Andaman
19. The jail superintendent being a Pathan, there was a lot of encouragement for conversion of prisoners. Savarkar not only stopped that but reversed the trend by claiming that a person can become a HINDU with bath and chanting OM NAMAH SHIVAY.
20. When the question arose about official language he encouraged people for their preference to HINDI breaking the supremacy of URDU/PERSIAN.
21. It was due to his efforts that not only INDIAN but BRITISH PARLIAMENT had to discuss the condition of prisoners in ANDAMAN and soften the treatment meted out to them.
22. During confinement at Ratnagiri, he took up the cause against untouchability and started the first temple which was open for all castes. He composed several seminal works during
his confinement in Ratnagiri, prominent among them are Hindutva, Six Golden Pages of Indian History, My Life Imprisonment and several others.
23. Doctorji met him during his stay and discussed the cause of Hindu Organization which fructified in form of RSS.
