Madanlal Dhingra, Savarkar and assassination of lord Curzon

Excerpts from the book “Savarkar and His times “ 1950 by Kheer Dhananjay .

Madanlal Dhingra

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Madanlal Dhingra was a manly spirit, a man who looked into his open grave! Smartly dressed he looked like a dandy. He was a devoted follower of Savarkar and was proud of his nation. One day someone taunted him that the Japanese were the bravest people in Asia. Dhingra retorted that his Hindu Nation was nothing less in comparison. In the course of the talk, it was decided to test the mettle of Madanlal himself, A pin was pierced through his palm. Blood flowed out profusely, but Dhingra remained unperturbed.

Lord Curzon

A few days before 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," Dhingra then joined a jolly club where high-placed Englishmen attended. He crept into their confidence. There he learnt to shoot and gained closer knowledge of men like Lord Morley, Lord Curzon and Sir Curzon Wyllie. The living symbol of racial arrogance, the Bengal culprit and the enlightened despot, Lord Curzon was Dhingra's immediate target. A few days before at a meeting he had pursued this target with the eyes of a crocodile. But the doors of the Hall were closed in his face and restless Dhingra returned and said to Savarkar, " The tiger has escaped!" Determined to avenge the misdeeds the British Government perpetrated in India, he then fell on an equally responsible man, Sir William Curzon Wyllie, with the fierceness of a lion and achieved his end ! He was arrested forthwith. Two pistols, a knife and a dagger were found on his person. After the deed, the doctors who examined the victims were astounded to see Dhingra's pulse beating normal, for he was no common killer. Great was the strength and noblest was the soul of Madanlal. Dhingra was then put into the Brixton Jail. And proceedings against Dhingra commenced.

The incident shook London to its marrow ! Some unusual crowbar turned London upside down, as it were ! India was the subject in every British cottage, in every paper, in trains, in trams, at public squares and in markets, palaces and the British Parliament. The atmosphere became tense. Dhingra's father wired to Lord Morley that he was ashamed to own Madanlal as his son. Even Dhingra's brother in London publicly disowned him. Under the fiery eyes of the Britishers loyal Indians also trembled. Their holy tears overflowed. They assembled on the 5th of July in the famous Caxton Hall to condemn Dhingra. At the meeting Sir Mancherjee Bhow-nagari, Sir Aga Khan, Sir Surendranath Banerjee, Sri B. C. Pal and Sri Khaparcle were loud in their denunciation. The meeting was attended by Maharajkumar of Coochbihar, Sir Dinshaw Petit, Fazalbhoy Karimbhoy, etc. Just then Theodore Morrison, a member of the India Council, brought Madanlal’s brother on to the platform. Madanlal's brother spoke sentences which were not his own. Sir Aga Khan, the chairman, then declared, " The meeting unanimously condemns Madanlal Dhingra." But a defying voice from the thickly crowded Hall roared, " No, not unanimously." The chairman angrily uttered : " Who says no ? " Out came the reply, " I say no," The chairman pursued, " Your name please." Upon this some lost their patience and shouted, " Pull him down, drive him out! " In a moment Sir Mancherjee Bhownagari jumped from the platform and ran in the direction of the voice. The challenging voice shot back : " It is me. My name is Savarkar." At this the audience trembled in their joints. They feared that revolutionaries would now bomb the meeting* Women shrieked, non-partisans took to their heels and partisans came from words to blows. The chicken-hearted shook beneath benches and chairs ! In the heat of the passion a Eurasian swooped down upon Savarkar and struck him a blow on the forehead. Savarkar's face was besmeared with blood. His clothes were dripping, his spectacles broken to pieces. " With all this I say, I am against the resolution," he said standing as firm as a rock to maintain his opinion to the last drop of his blood. As he was saying this, Sri Tirumalacharya, who was standing by Savarkar, thrashed the head of the aggressor, one Mr. Palmer, and down went Palmer reeling. Sri Aiyer was about to shoot Palmer, but Savarkar winked at him and restrained him.

In the meanwhile Sir Surendranath had left the hall protesting against the cowardly attack on Savarkar. Sir Aga Khan also did not like the rashness of Sir Mancherjee. At last at the instance of Sir Mancherjee the police interfered, but, seeing that the truth was on Savarkar's side, they let him go. Savarkar also let the Eurasian go ! And the meeting ended.

Tossing from side to side in his bed with a fold of wet cloth on his forehead, Savarkar at his residence dictated a letter the very night for the London Times. With its publication he silenced all the hostile criticism against him. His arguments were irrefutable when he stated that, as the case of Dhingra was sub judice, the meeting had no right to usurp the powers of the court and condemn Madanlal in advance. Moreover, he had a right to record his vote! Thus did the historic meeting test the stuff of the leader of revolution and his knowledge of law ! Here one thing may be made clear. Had the meeting at the Caxton Hall sympathized with Lady Curzon Wyllie in her bereavement and done nothing else, Savarkar would have also sympathized with the poor lady. Savarkar was a poet and philosopher full of human attributes. Niranjan Pal, who was present at the meeting, dwells upon this great trait in Savarkar and observes : " The assassination of Sir Curzon Wyllie reminds me of another great trait in Savarkar's character, his humanity. An Indian student laughingly described how Lady Curzon Wyllie ran down the staircase and threw herself on the body of her husband. All this was too much for Savarkar. 'A wife sobs her heart out for her husband and you laugh at it! I do not trust you I cannot !' Savarkar had replied in burning indignation. It was a prophetic statement for, the very man secured the King's pardon by giving evidence against Savarkar."

When preliminary hearing of the Dhingra trial commenced on July 10, at the Westminster Court, despite the evil advice to feign madness, Dhingra boldly asserted that he wished that the English Court of Law should sentence him to death, for in that case the vengeance of his countrymen would be all the keener. He further said : " Just as the Germans have no right to occupy this country, so the English people have no right to occupy India; and it is perfectly justifiable on our part to kill the Englishman who is polluting our sacred land. I am surprised at the terrible hypocrisy, the farce and the mockery of the English people." Dhingra made this ex tempore statement as the written statement found on his person at the time of his arrest was suppressed by the police who said that no such statement was recovered at all. Dhingra was then committed to Sessions.

In India also there were sky-high denunciations of the deed of Madanlal. N. C. Kelkar, at one such protest meeting, asked his audience to uproot the doctrine of violence. He said it was a poisonous tree which must not be allowed to grow, even in neglected corners. Kelkar was indeed a man of elastic convictions. Afterwards, while writing the life of Garibaldi, he openly glorified the sacrifice of revolutionaries as the fertilizer of the nation ! Gokhale went one step further than Kelkar. He denounced the whole London group of about fifty revolutionaries and insinuated that their activities would not stop unless Savarkar was arrested.

Dhingra's Sessions trial was a formal affair. There, too, he repeated his demand that his statement suppressed by the police should be read, and offered no other defense. But the police persisted in their assumed ignorance of the statement as in the lower Court. The Court thereupon sentenced Dhingra to death and the trial ended.

Newspapers now directly attacked Savarkar as the source of the tragedy. In India his relations and colleagues were persecuted. Some lost their jobs, some their property and his father-in-law heroically faced sufferings. Harsh measures were adopted to crush the Indian students. Pandit Shyamji's Scholarship money for Spencer Lectureship was returned. The Pandit and Virendranath Chattopadhyaya lost their degrees as a result of their writings and propaganda. Though Savarkar passed the final examination of the Gray's Inn, the Benchers of his Inn declined to confer the degree upon him. Thereupon Savarkar made an appeal to the authorities of the Gray's Inn. They appointed a Committee to inquire into the affair. That Committee instituted an inquiry into the matter. Match as Savarkar was for the legal brains on the Committee and their cross-examination, nothing was proved against him though this Committee was aided by the Government of India. At last the Committee of the Gray's Inn decided to confer the degree upon Savarkar provided he gave them a written undertaking that he would never participate in politics. Savarkar rejected their offer in toto I Getting the degree was not his aim. His sole aim was to free his country and make it great and powerful. This barrister was not meant for conducting petty cases and amass wealth. He was the nation's barrister. He was destined to study the case of his Fatherland and put it before the world opinion as did Mazzini and Lenin. Hindusthan knows how from the sunshine of his youth to the golden evening of his life, he has been a loyal barrister all along defending and fighting for the absolute political Independence of India, her integrity and her honour.

Savarkar was now on the verge of physical collapse. For the last four years he had worked with a phenomenal energy. Persecution reached its climax. A yell of wrath fell on him from all quarters. As the India House was closed down just a few days before the Curzon Wyllie incident, Savarkar then resided for some days with Sri B. C. Pal. On the next day of Wyllie's death angry crowds stormed Pal's residence. Elder Pal told the mob that Savarkar was his guest and averted further consequences. Savarkar, however, thought it wise to leave his residence for their and his safety. Homeless, friendless, starving, stranded and shadowed by C.I.D., he wandered from lodge to lodge and house to house for shelter. But who shelters a defeated Guru Govind Singh ? Was not the defeated Tatya Tope betrayed ? And so in a single day Savarkar had to quit two lodgings. From one of these he was ousted even at midnight! The C.I.D. men followed his shadow. No sleep, no rest, no food ! At last a German landlady accepted him as a boarder for some days.

Fatigued and fagged out, Savarkar soon went to Brighton, a seaside English town, for a change.   It was here sitting by the side of Niranjan Pal on the beach that in overwhelming emotions filled with helplessness and hopelessness in a foreign land, the deserted youth sobbed his glorious moving poem " Take me O Ocean ! Take me to my native shores.    Thou promised me to take me home.    But thee coward, afraid of thy mighty master, Britain, thou hast betrayed me.   But mind my mother is not altogether helpless.    She will complain to sage Agasti and in a draught he will swallow thee as he did in the past." Several front rank poets and first-rate literary men of Maharashtra have regarded this poem as an unparalleled poem  on patriotism.    Foremost amongst  them  is the chief disciple of Gandhiji, Acharya Kaka Kalelkar, who described it as an inscription on the Marathi language. Acharya Atre, a front rank playwright and journalist, recently commented in his address at a literary Conference at Indore that every lofty idea in this pathetic song represented a specimen of great life and great poetry !   Thirty years after, describing the moving incident at Brighton, Niranjan Pal remarked :     "It has been my supreme good fortune to have met and known almost all the great patriots and personalities of modern India, but I have yet to know of a patriot who loved his Motherland as dearly as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar."

Even at Brighton Savarkar had an urgent feat to accomplish. It was the publication of Dhingra's suppressed statement before he was hanged. Savarkar, therefore, called his comrade, Gyanchand Varma, to Brighton and arranged for giving publicity to Dhingra's written statement which had been suppressed by the police. Two days gone, and Dhingra would jc in eternity. Savarkar, therefore, resolved that Dhingra must see the statement published. Accordingly Savarkar got the copies of Dhingra's statement printed and Varma posted them from Paris to different American and Irish' papers. It was difficult to find an English paper to publish the statement. But an Irishman working as an assistant editor on the Daily News undertook the job and inserted it in his paper during the night shift. The statement then exploded on the morning of the 16th August throughout London as a bombshell! The C.I.D. and police officers were sure it would never be published. It was in their possession. But they were outwitted and the statement entitled " Challenge " flashed throughout the world. The statement of Dhingra read as below :

I admit, the other day, I attempted to shed English blood as an humble revenge for the inhuman hangings and deportations of patriotic Indian youths. ... I believe that a nation held in bondage with the help of foreign bayonets is in a perpetual state of war. Since open battle is rendered impossible to a disarmed race, I attacked by surprise; since guns were denied to me, I drew forth my pistol and fired." The statement proceeds: " As a Hindu, I feel that a wrong done to my country is an insult to God." It concluded: “The war of independence will continue between India and England so long as the English and Hindu races last (if this present unnatural relation does not cease)."

This was the statement which Dhingra said he did not remember fully and a copy of which the police had secured at Dhingra’s residence and another on his person. They had no idea that there were more copies in existence. How could Savarkar get a third copy and send it with Varma for being circulated and published all over the world ? Some papers like the London Times openly spoke out their minds by saying that someone must have put these words into Dhingra's mouth ! It was clear beyond doubt that the author of the statement was the leader himself !

Savarkar saw Dhingra in the Brixton Jail on July 22. He said to Madanlal, " I have come to have your Darshan" On hearing the tribute to his sacrifice, glee played over his face and grateful tears appeared in his eyes. Dhingra's last wish was that he should be burnt in conformity with Hindu rites, that no non-Hindu should touch his body, that his clothes and articles should be sold and the money should be donated to the National Fund! Is death more fearless than Madanlal ? How many such peerless jewels has a slave country to dedicate for propitiating the Goddess of Freedom ?

Delighted at the frustration of the police plan, Dhingra embraced gallows on August 17, 1909. His last words as explained in the statement were, " My wish is that I should be born again of the same Mother and that I should die the same death for her again." His dead body was not handed over to the London Hindus. Still Varma performed the funeral obsequies and got his head tonsured according to Hindu rites in honor of the great soul ! Long live Dhingra for the intense love of his country ! They never die who fall in a great cause ! He fell with faith in his mission and in the destiny of his countrymen and love for his Motherland.

Dhingra's deed thrilled the entire world. Huge placards from Irish papers paid glowing tributes to Dhingra : " Ireland honors Madanlal Dhingra who was proud to lay down his life for the sake of his country." Only men like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, however, who were then in London seemed to be unconcerned with the momentous deed. Later in life he has ' observed Gandhian Monday' over this thrilling episode even in his  Autobiography .

The storm raised by Dhingra did not immediately subside. Comments continued for a long time.

Mr. W. S. Blunt, author of Secret History oj the English Occupation oj Egypt, wrote about his interview with Mr. Lyne Stevens, the Doctor Royal friend. Blunt says: " He talked about the Dhingra assassination, which seems to have at last convinced his Royal friends that there is something wrong about the state of India. People talk about political assassinations as defeating its own end, but that is nonsense, it is just the shock needed to convince selfish rulers that selfishness has its limits of imprudence. It is like that other fiction that England never yields to threats. My experience is that when England has her face well slapped she apologises, not before." * Blunt further wrote in his Diaries that no Christian martyr ever faced his judges more fearlessly or with greater dignity and remarked that the day of Dhingra's execution would be regarded as one of martyrdom in India for generations.

Lloyd George expressed to Winston Churchill his highest admiration of Dhingra's attitude as a patriot. Churchill shared the same views and quoted with admiration Dhingra's last words as the finest ever made in the name of patriotism. They compared Dhingra with Plutarch's immortal heroes. Lala Hardayal wrote in the first issue of the Bande Mataram, started by Madame Cama: " In times to come, when the British Empire in India shall have been reduced to dust and ashes, Dhingra's monuments will adorn the squares of our chief towns, recalling to the memory of our children the noble life and noble death of one who laid down his life in a far-off land for the cause he loved so well."