PM Modi recalls: Story of Savarkar’s attempted escape from ship docked in Marseille

While in Marseille, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday night (Wednesday early morning in India) wrote about the port city’s “special” connection to India’s struggle for Independence.

“It was here that the great Veer Savarkar attempted a courageous escape. I also want to thank the people of Marseille and the French activists of that time who demanded that he not be handed over to British custody,” he posted on X.

Savarkar’s attempted escape

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was arrested in London in March 1910, on charges of anti-state acts and abetment of Nashik magistrate A M T Jackson’s murder. While being brought to India for trial onboard the commercial ship SS Morea, Savarkar tried to escape from custody in Marseille.

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SS Morea had sailed from London on July 1, 1910. It docked at Marseille a week later.

According to the records of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), on July 8, 1910, Savarkar, who was being closely guarded, sought permission to use the washroom. He then bolted the toilet from inside, jumped out of the ship’s porthole, and swam ashore.

However, Savarkar was soon apprehended by a brigadier of the French maritime gendarmerie, who handed him over to guards from the ship after mistaking him for a crew member. Savarkar’s escape, however, sparked a dispute between France and Great Britain, which was settled by the PCA.

Case before PCA

The issue before the international tribunal was whether the British should hand Savarkar over to France.

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“The French government did not approve of the manner in which Mr Savarkar had been returned to British custody and demanded his restitution to France, on the grounds that his delivery to British authorities amounts to a defective extradition. The British government contended that, according to the arrangements made for the security of the prisoner while the ship was in port, the French authorities had been obliged to prevent his escape,” the record of the case on the PCA’s website says.

The matter was decided on February 24, 1911. The PCA concluded that the British government did not need “to restore Mr Savarkar to the French government.”

“The Tribunal found that all those agents who had taken part in the incident had demonstrated good faith. The Tribunal concluded that despite the irregularity committed in the arrest of Mr Savarkar, such irregularity did not result in any obligation on the British government to restore Mr Savarkar to the French government,” the website says.

Savarkar was brought to India and tried. He was sentenced to two life terms by the Bombay High Court for 25 years each in December 1910 and January 1911. He would be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment in the Cellular Jail in Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, on July 4, 1911.

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Savarkar’s account

Savarkar references his attempted sea escape in his Marathi biographical work Mazi Janmathep, first published in 1927. The book has been translated into English as The Story of My Transportation for Life by Prof V N Naik.

Savarkar wrote: “… [When] our army of prisoners was taken out to proceed to the Andamans… I was left behind, I wondered why. A motor car came up to the door. Two big sergeants got down from it. I was put into it and they stepped in after me. The door was shut and the car started. I was not taken along the road like the rest because they feared that the crowd, who knew of my departure, had stationed itself on the road in scattered groups to have a sight of me. Besides I was the culprit who ran away in Marseille.

Perhaps, I may be spirited away in the same fashion by some member of the secret societies, of which there were many in those days. A mine may spring up beneath my feet, and, who knows, I may disappear all of a sudden. These and other reasons of safety had decided the authorities to take me to the station all by myself, in a car, and along a different route. They did not want to repeat the mistake that they had committed at Marseille.”

He wrote, “Whenever I was thus taken from one place to another in a special car and under a special guard, my fellow-prisoners thought highly of me… My effort to run away from the steamer-boat at Marseille did do me some good after all! It procured me a car to enjoy a long drive. It created in the mind of these prisoners a sort of reverence for me. And, further, right or wrong, the more the authorities tried to belittle me, the greater the respect they showed to me.”

This article was originally published by a indianexpress.com . Read the Original article here. .