Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

they thought was his carriage but instead killed two innocent persons, Ms. Kennedy and her daughter. The Muzzafarpur outrage was the first of its kind in India. Khudiram Bose, was arrested, tried and executed. Chaki shot him- self with his revolver when arrested. The police began investigations and a bomb fac- tory was discovered at Maniktola. A number of people were arrested including Aurobindo and his brother Barindra, who was thought to be the brain behind the whole plot. Eadley Norton opened the case for the Crown. It took him six days. C.R. Das pleaded for Aurobindo for eight days. The evidence against Aurobindo mostly consisted of his letters to his wife, speeches and articles. Das tried to establish that Aurobindo was a deeply religious and God-inspired Vedantist whose patriotism and love for his countrymen was the basis of his politics. After analysing the entire evidence, C.R. Das concluded : “My appeal to you, therefore, is that a man like this who is being charged with the offences imputed to him stands not only before the Bar in this court but stands before the Bar of the High Court of history and my appeal to you is this: that long after this controversy is hushed in silence, long after this turmoil, this agitation ceases, long after he is dead and gone, his words will be echoed and re-echoed not only in India but across distant seas and lands. Therefore I say that the man in his position is not only standing before the Bar of this court but before the Bar of the High Court of history”. Barindra Kumar Ghose was sentenced to death but on appeal the sentence was reduced to transportation for life. The others were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Aurobindo was acquitted in May 1909. While in jail he had mystic experiences and the vision of Sri Krishna everywhere and in eve- rything. In February 1910 he received infor- mation that he would be arrested. Following his inner voice he left for Chandernagore and then for Pondicherry where he completely withdrew from all political activities. Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi was tried and convicted in 1922 for writing four articles in Young India entitled “Disaffection as a Virtue”, “Tamper- ing with Loyalty”, “A Puzzle and its Solu- tion”, “Shaking the Manes.” He was charged with promoting sedition and proclaiming dis- affection. The case was the first of its kind involving the non-violent non-co operation movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi and the issue of morality versus law.

our beloved motherland can march on to an assured if not a speedy triumph. ” He was transported to the Andamans and jailed in 1911. He was brought to India in 1921 and kept in Yervada Jail. In 1923 the In- dian National Congress passed a resolution demanding the release of Savarkar. He was released in January 1923 from the Yervada Jail on the condition that he would not engage in any manner of political activity for a period of five years. There was strong criticism in the British and French press on the action of the British in capturing Savarkar on French soil. The French Government demanded the return of Savar- kar. The case was referred to the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague which gave its judgement on February 16,1911 in favour of the British Government while admitting that an irregularity was committed in the arrest of Savarkar and in his being handed over to the British police without the formalities of extra- dition having being complied with. The judgment of the Hague Court was severely criticised since it made a mockery of the right of asylum as understood in interna- tional law.

He created an international incident when he was recaptured by his British guards on French soil after an attempt to escape. As a student in India Savarkar was an active member of the Abhinav Bharati, a society in Poona which was engaged in fight- ing for India’s independence. On the recom- mendation of Tilak he was in 1906 awarded a scholarship for study in England. In London Savarkar gathered around him a number of Indian students who procured a book on bomb making and sent cyclostyled copies of it to India. In 1910 he was proclaimed an offender for his political activities by the Indian Gov- ernment which wrote to the British Govern- ment to extradite him to India to face trial. He was arrested in England in 1910 for speeches said to have been made in India in 1906 and for sending 20 Browning pistols to London while he was being taken to India by ship. Savarkar escaped through the porthole of the steamer when it anchored at Marseilles because of engine trouble. His British guards saw him jumping into the water and pursued him. Savarkar was arrested by a French policeman after a chase of 500 metres. He was taken to the vessel accompanied by the two British guards. Savarkar was placed in chains. The Government of India appointed a special tribunal to try Savarkar without a jury. Savarkar made a statement before the tribunal that he did not recognise the juris- diction of the Indian Government to try him as he was entitled to the right of asylum in France. His counsel also argued that Sav- arkar’s arrest on French soil was illegal. The tribunal overruled these objections. When asked whether he had anything to say in his defence Savarkar made this statement : “I am quite innocent of the charges against me. I took part in the pro- ceedings of the trial in England where courts are established by democratic rules sanctioned by the people. In such courts one can expect to get justice. The condi- tions of Indian courts of law is quite the reverse. I am not amenable to the jurisdic- tion of Indian courts of law. I therefore decline to give any statement or bring any evidence for my defence. ” Savarkar was sentenced to transportation for life. The Government instituted a second case against him, charging him with abetment in the murder of Jackson, the collector of Nasik. He was again sentenced to transportation for life. Savarkar rose and made this statemeni: “I am prepared to face ungrudgingly the extreme penalty of your laws in the belief that it is through suffering and sacrifice alone that

Sri Aurobindo

In August 1907 Aurobindo was arrested for having published certain articles in Bipin Chandra Pal’s English weekly “ Bande Ma- taram”. The Government believed that he was the author of the articles though they were unsigned. The charge failed because it could not be proved that he was the author of the articles. TJie magistrate also did not find them seditious. In May 1908 Aurobindo was arrested along with 38 other revolutionaries in what came to be known as the Maniktola Bomb Case or the Alipore Case. Mr. Kingsford, the Chief Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta, had been transferred to Muzaffarpur (Bihar) as District Judge. Two revolutionaries, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki, from Calcutta who had been told to kill him threw a bomb on what