Veer Savarkar: After reading volumes of articles in different publications, I hereby say that words have fallen short to describe the tortures that were mooted on him when he was lodged in Cellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar island.
You might call me going judgemental but this is what I felt when I visited the Cellular Jail.
The moment I entered into the small cell where he remained jailed for around 13 years, I realised how Britishers acted butchers’ way with prisoners there including with Veer Savarkar.
Even today, this cellular jail depicts the stories of tortures that were mooted on prisoners. The heart sinks listening to the gory stories as narrated by guides while watching the small cells where prisoners were stacked, the iron grills which prisoners must have hold trying to see far off searching for sunlight, the oil mills which they might have worked on with their sweat pouring out, the neck ring shackles which might have left many of them breathless and so on.
The statues of prisoners installed in the jail are enough to take us into that different world where humans were treated worse than animals.
And if there was a man who bore all such tortures for around 13 years from 1911 to 1924 (although he was given punishment for two lifers counting 50 years) and still came out alive, then he must have been no normal man. His grit, determination and strong will power might have been of different level.
Imagine, this man might also have seen the flogging room each day for many years and might have born the brunt of being a silent witness to many of his dear friends slipping down, silently, after being hanged to death, for their only fault– that was– to revolt against clutches of slavery.
At times, he might have missed his brother too, who was in same jail for two years, but that was an unknown fact to him for the norms of the isolation facility were very difficult.
While taking a tour to the Cellular jail, our heartbeat stopped for a second when we came right in front of his cell. We opened our shoes outside his cell, bowed our head in front of his picture and prayed to God to bless our country by giving more such heroes to Mother India so that all butchers existing in present India can be shooed off enabling our country to shine on world map brimming with more such stories of bravery, valour and patriotism.