Veer Savarkar at Cellular Jail, Andaman
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar ; 28 May 1883–26 February 1966), popularly known as Veer Savarkar was a legendary revolutionary, freedom fighter, politician, lawyer, writer, and the formulator of the Hindutva philosophy. He was imprisoned in a solitary cell at cellular jail from 1911 to 1921. He was arrested in 1910 for his connections with the revolutionary group India House. Following a failed attempt to escape while being transported from Marseilles, Savarkar was sentenced to two life terms of imprisonment totalling fifty years and was moved to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but released in 1921.
Celluar Jail at Port Blair
A walk down this corridor at cellular jail at Port Blair is bound to make you sad and angry. Sad when you see first hand the inhuman torture and suffering that our freedom fighters were subjected to by the British and angry because you realise that you have not done much to justify their sacrifices and have not even bothered to preserve their memory befitting their stature.
Harsh imprisonment
So many years after visiting this prison at Port Blair, the memory sends a chill down my spine. Emotions are strong — anger at the extreme torture inflicted by the British on the freedom fighters, sadness that these bravehearts had to suffer so much and that we continue to bicker over honouring them, frustration that despite all these sacrifices where we are today and pride that there was a bunch of people who had the guts to take on the might of the British Raj and dream of throwing them out despite all the adversities and personal risks to their life and family. It is indeed a vortex of emotions that run high when you visit cellular jail. It is the ultimate temple of independent India.
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