There is a historical irony so sharp it cuts through decades of political spin: one of the judges on the tribunal that sentenced Vinayak Damodar Savarkar to ‘transportation for life’ – one of the harshest sentences ever handed to an Indian freedom fighter, was himself a former President of the Indian National Congress. Yet today, it is that same Congress party and its intellectual ecosystem that brands Savarkar a “British loyalist” and a traitor to the freedom movement. The audacity of this position deserves to be examined closely.
The Judge: A Congress President In British Robes
Justice Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar was no ordinary colonial judge. He had been elected President of the Indian National Congress at its Lahore session in 1900. He was a Chitpavan Brahmin lawyer, social reformer associated with the Prarthana Samaj, and a vocal moderate voice within Indian public life. He was also knighted by the British Crown in 1910 – the very year of Savarkar’s trial and sentencing.
In December 1910, Chandavarkar sat on a Special Tribunal of the Bombay High Court alongside Chief Justice Basil Scott and Justice Heaton in the Nasik Conspiracy Case.
The tribunal convicted Savarkar on charges of sedition, abetment of murder, and waging war against the King-Emperor.
So, what were the cases against him? Savarkar faced prosecution in two major proceedings that led to his twin life sentences. The first was the Nasik Conspiracy Case, arising from the 1909 assassination of Collector A.M.T. Jackson by Anant Laxman Kanhere. British authorities linked Savarkar to the broader revolutionary network behind the act, including allegations of abetment and conspiracy against the Crown. He was tried before a Special Tribunal (as above) of the Bombay High Court and sentenced to transportation for life.
The second case related to his wider revolutionary activities, including his role in organising nationalist networks, circulating anti-colonial literature, and alleged involvement in procuring arms. These activities were prosecuted under provisions dealing with waging war and conspiracy against the British Empire. In this separate proceeding, Savarkar was again convicted and awarded a second sentence of transportation for life. Together, the two transportations for life began to be widely cited “50-year” imprisonment.
A Congress president, knighted by the British, was part of the tribunal that was locking away one of India’s most fearless revolutionaries for half a century.
Who Was Savarkar Before He Was Jailed?
The Congress attack on Savarkar is built almost entirely on his mercy petitions written from prison. What they erase is who Savarkar was before the prison gates shut.
By the time of his arrest in London in March 1910, Savarkar had emerged as a prominent figure in revolutionary nationalist circles. He also:
- Founded Abhinav Bharat, a pan-India revolutionary secret society, in 1904
- Authored The Indian War of Independence 1857 – a book so dangerous the British banned it before publication
- Was associated with organised armed revolutionary networks stretching from Pune to London to Paris
His arrest followed investigations into the Nasik Conspiracy Case, linked to the assassination of Collector A.M.T. Jackson in 1909, as well as his broader involvement in anti-colonial activities.
While being transported to India aboard the SS Morea on 8 July 1910, Savarkar escaped at Marseilles, swam to reaching French soil before being recaptured by authorities. This incident triggered a diplomatic dispute between France and Britain, eventually referred to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which ruled against his claim. Savarkar was subsequently tried in India and sentenced in multiple proceedings to transportation for life.
The Cellular Jail: What Congress Doesn’t Tell You
From 4 July 1911, Savarkar endured the Cellular Jail in the Andamans – not as a political prisoner but classified as a dangerous “seditionist” by the British. He spent years performing brutal oil-pressing labour, suffered 6 months of solitary confinement, was subjected to standing handcuffs as punishment, and was systematically isolated from other political prisoners.
It was from within this living hell that Savarkar wrote his clemency petitions – in 1911, 1913, 1917, and 1920. Congress has weaponised these petitions for decades, with Rahul Gandhi in 2022 unfavourably comparing Savarkar to Bhagat Singh in the middle of an election campaign in Maharashtra. The petitions, stripped of context – stripped of the oil press, the solitary cell, the standing handcuffs, are presented as proof of cowardice and collaboration.
What Congress never asks is this: how many Congress leaders endured even a fraction of what Savarkar did inside the Cellular Jail?
Congress: The Real British Bootlicker
So, let’s be clear. Savarkar endured decades of colonial torture and thus wrote a petition seeking conditional release. While it was a man who was Congress President and knighted by the British who was instrumental in pushing one of the greatest freedom fighters to Andaman’s Cellular jail. And this Congress has the audacity to defame Savarkar for writing mercy petition.
The real traitor is there for the people to see.
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