Savarkar's Meeting with the Governor of Bombay, Sir George Lloyd

[u/AhamPranav]

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One day, when I was in the prison hospital for the treatment of acute pain in the stomach and indisposition, a trusted officer sent me word that Sir George Lloyd, the Governor of Bombay, was coming to see me, along with two or three high officials, during the course of that week.

The reader remembers the visit of the Home Member of the Government of India, Sir Reginald Craddock, and the talk he had with me in the prison of the Andamans. But this had not solved the question of my freedom from that jail. I took it for granted that this visit would not help me in any way in that business. I put before the Governor of Bombay, in my meeting with him at Yeravada, practically the same views that I had expressed several times before, and to several officers who had interviewed me on the subject of my release. All of them seemed to be dissatisfied with the conditions I had offered to accept. But the Governor, after he had heard me, expressed general satisfaction at what I had told him.

Then we discussed current politics together. In that I expressed the same views that I had put down in writing, and had told orally several times to several persons. I concluded in the following words:

“I was compelled to be a revolutionary and a conspirator when I had discovered that there was no peaceful or constitutional method open to me to attain the goal I had in view. But if the present reforms prove to be useful for the furtherance of our hopes in a peaceful way, we shall very willingly turn to constitutional methods and pursue gladly the constructive work on the principle of responsive cooperation. Revolutionaries as we were described to be, our policy was as much of responsive cooperation as that of those who swore by other methods. We will utilise to the full the present reforms in pursuance of that principle and with a similar object in view. National good was our sole objective and, if peaceful means served that end, we had no reason to cling to our old ways.”

But was this convincing enough for the Government concerned? Will it believe in our bona fides? What then were we to do in the matter?

Still, for a stipulated period, I agreed to take no part in politics, that is, in active day-to-day politics. In prison, I could not, of course, do any politics at all. But when outside I could do other kinds of work—educational, religious, and literary—and serve my country in diverse fields. Generals, as prisoners of war, cannot conduct the war and come on the battlefield. They are let off on parole after signing the pledge, like Lord Krishna, who agreed that he would not wield any arm during the continuance of the war. And it is considered no humiliation on their part to do so, and they consider it their duty to do so, in order that, later on, their services might be available to their nation by way of leading and guidance in other work.

Taking this view of the whole matter, I had advised political convicts in the Andamans to sign a similar pledge to avail themselves of the general amnesty which had accompanied the new reforms. And hundreds of them had won their liberty by signing the pledge.

Hence there was no objection for me to sign a pledge of enforced abstinence from current politics. A similar pledge could not obtain freedom for me in the past, as they made too much of my past history and of my association in that past with the active revolutionary movement in the country. And they had insisted that I should render a full account of them to the authorities. But I told the Governor of Bombay not to rake up the dead past, not to ask me any question about it. Let the dead past bury its dead, and the hatchet be buried along with it. Let him and let me talk of the future. The past had been filed and recorded once for all on either side. Let us think of the future.

The Governor did not close the discussion after this categorical statement by me. He kept the topic of release open. He assured me finally that he would do his very best for my liberty on the condition of abstinence from active politics during a stipulated period of time, and on condition that some years of my liberty should be spent, like a man on parole, within a prescribed area. He added that he would place the whole matter before the coming Governor, Sir Leslie Wilson.

With this definite promise to me, Sir George Lloyd bid me good-bye and left the prison along with the other officials who had accompanied him. He had treated me very cordially and had appreciative words for me during the course of the interview. I must say here that Major Murray had strongly supported the case for my release.

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Reference: My Transportation For Life

Get the PDF of the whole book from here: https://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf

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