Chapter 24 - Too Seditious To Print

A raid on a printing press

This chapter has survived greatly since my very first draft, though the first draft was more humorous and cloak-and-dagger. This book has gotten a lot more serious than when I first wrote it.

I initially aimed for the kind of vibe you’d find among young men trying to do ambitious things, where the sense of humor and appetite for risk stay intact no matter what comes at them.

When I read all the contemporary writings of Savarkar and VVS Aiyar and anyone else associated with them who talked about meeting them in this era, they reminded me of my friends in college, and their struggles abroad reminded me of my own in grad school. When you read popular narratives, though, they come from older revolutionaries reminiscing, and they are tempered with age and foresight, and don’t capture how lightly they took life as young men.

There is still a lot of that - you’ll find that in the next 30 or so chapters. But things do get quite serious, as they tend to when the British close in on you.

Anyway, this chapter sees our friend Jean Jaure from the ship be mentioned again. And there’s violence and action here. There’s going to be more action and cloak-and-dagger in subsequent chapters. Hope you enjoy it!

Too Seditious To Print

Onkar Limaye surveyed the thin, balding man in front of him, his large nose and sharp cheekbones making him more imposing than he was, as they waited for his wife to bring them tea and snacks. Onkar owned a printing press, and people came to him all the time to publish their books and pamphlets. So he hadn’t been surprised when his friend Sadashivrao had brought a book to his notice.

“This might be a little too spicy for a book,” he had said, “Is he just printing it to make money from the controversy?”

“Oh no, Babarao won’t take a single pice from this,” Sadashivrao had said, “He is the very definition of a karmayogi.”

And it had been true. He had asked around about this Babarao Savarkar. Not only did he have a brother in London who had been a popular leader, but he was well-known and respected in his own right. And both of them had also worked with Bal Gangadhar Tilak. That was enough for Onkar Limaye.