 |
| David Garnett |
 |
| Paris, Bande Mataram, Aug 17, 1909 |
· December 1908-Jan 1909: Babarao identified Savarkar as the writer of letters found in his possession, and the British began weaving their web around Savarkar.
· May 1909: copies of Government’s English translation of poems published by Babarao and Savarkar’s letters reached London.
· June 1909: British Government launched a successful concentrated campaign (by letters and telegrams to the concerned authority) to discourage Benchers of Gray’s Inn from calling Savarkar to the Bar. Eventually they were successful. Though the charges made by the Gray’s Inn could not be proved, Savarkar was still not permitted to practice as his activities were declared suspect. (This fact was then later used in the argument to grant the warrant.)
· After the assassination of Curzon Wylie, Savarkar took a public stand in Caxton Hall in not condemning Madan Lal Dhingra and sent a letter to the Times to justify this. He published Madan Lal’s statement, squashed by the British, in the Daily News on August 16, 1909.
· November 1909: health shattered, Savarkar went to Wales to recuperate. There he wrote a Marathi book on the history of the Sikhs.
· January 1910: Savarkar went to Paris since a warrant for his arrest was imminent.
· February 8, 1910: a warrant was issued against Savarkar by a Bombay Magistrate on the grounds that his offences came within the Fugitive Offenders Act of 1881. The basis for the warrant was flimsy: (1) Savarkar’s speech of 1906, of which there was no available transcript, and was considered innocuous at the time. (2) He was also being extradited to Bombay for an alleged crime he had committed in 1909 in England while living in England.
· March 13, 1910: Savarkar returned to London to show his mettle as the leader of the revolutionaries by squarely facing the British might and was arrested at the station.
Briston Prison, London
- Anurupa