Dr. Shreerang Godbole
On 23rd December 1910, a Tribunal found Veer Savarkar guilty of ‘abetment of waging war by instigation by the circulation of printed matter inciting to war, the providing of arms and the distribution of instructions for the manufacture of explosives’. He was sentenced to transportation for life and forfeiture of all his properties.
Not satisfied with this, the Tribunal ruled on 30 January 1911 that Veer Savarkar was guilty of abetment to murder and he was liable to be punished for the same with another transportation of life.
THIS AMOUNTED TO 50 YEARS OF INCARCERATION IN THE ANDAMANS. NOTHING SHORT OF LIVING MARTYRDOM!!
On hearing this sentence, Savarkar stood up and and left the judges dumb-struck with his following words, said in equanimity, “I am prepared to face ungrudgingly the extreme penalty of your laws, in the belief that it is through this suffering and sacrifice alone that are beloved Motherland can march on to an assured, if not a speedy triumph.”
Today is truly Martyrs’ Day for this special reason.
Arise Bharat 
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