I changed the mind of Harnamsingh

Those who travel a long distance across the seas have to face two reasons for sorrow from day one. First is seasickness and the second is homesickness. Seasickness makes one vomit often. Luckily, even though it was my first sea travel, I did not suffer from seasickness. But homesickness was severe. I lost my parents at young age, and having experienced the horrors of bubonic plague, we three brothers and my elder brother’s wife were very close. Even otherwise I used to feel affinity to any friends or relations. I used to feel restless at the loss of their company. However, now I had to do my duty and to control my sorrow. I had to hold back my sorrow and tears. That was harsh but without it, my aim would not have been achieved. I had to pay the price. Other Indians suffered from seasickness. They could not take food for three or four days, but they did not suffer from homesickness. They had dreams of becoming Barristers and later making money or joining the ICS and enjoying high authority. They were therefore smiling. The only exception was that of Harnamsingh.
 
Harnam soon became seasick. He was bedridden and could not eat. I nursed him as much as I could. But he also became homesick. He wanted to go back to his family. He could not stand the separation and the thought of being away from home for so long worried him. Finally he said to me, ‘ Savarkar, you are the only close friend I have. You will laugh at me, but I cannot bear the pain of being away from my family. We are not short of money at home. I wish to see my relatives right now. It takes fifteen days even to hear from one’s relatives. How can I stay for so long in a foreign land? I do not want to become a Barrister. Once we reach Aden, I will purchase a return ticket and go back to India. In a way, I feel ashamed that I am so weak, so fickle, but .. ’
 
I interrupted and said, ‘ You love your family so much. You should not be ashamed of that. It is but natural that you should feel restless and homesick. However, if we love our kith and kin so much, should we not be prepared to suffer for the sake of the very same people? At times, one must suffer separation from one’s family for a higher aim in life. I feel just like you. I too wish to meet my family right now, but I am controlling my urges, for achieving higher things in life. We must resist such temptations. It is our very love of our people that should give us strength to survive through the period of separation.’
 
I then reminded Harnam of Guru Govind Singh (1666 -1708), the 10th and the last Guru of the Sikhs, who organised them into a fighting force and raised the sword to protect Hindus from the onslaught by the Mughals. His eldest son Ajit Singh aged 17 was killed in the battle of Chamkour. Then, his second son Juzar Singh aged 13 went out in the battlefield. He too died fighting the Mughals. The next day, Guru Govind Singh escaped the siege with his family. However, he got separated from his remaining two sons who were captured by the Mughal Subedar of Sarhind on 27 December 1704. When they refused to embrace Islam, Jovar Singh aged 8 and Fateh Singh aged 5 were bricked up and left to die by the Mughals.
I continued, “ Both of us revere Guru Govind Singh. Was that warrior a heartless person? Of course not. He was an ocean of affection. When he heard that Jovar Singh and Fateh Singh were bricked up and left to die, he exclaimed
‘ My great heroes! They died for the Hindu dharma.’  Suppose, those youths had been tempted by love and had stayed away from the battlefield, or that Guru Govind Singh himself had embraced Islam out of fear, would we have considered them worthy of our respect? Guru Govind Singh’s family may perhaps have lived longer but would have been despised the same way as many Hindu families had been despised because they embraced Islam for similar reasons. They would have never become immortals to Hindus.”
 
“ If we say that we are the disciples of Guru Govind Singh, then we must be prepared to suffer the separation from our beloveds for the betterment of our people, our nation, our religion. We must not budge even an inch. So, what should be our aim? Should it be to earn money by becoming a barrister or passing the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination? Nay. Our aim must not be so low; it must be the freedom of India. We are going to England to work for that very reason and any other reasons must be secondary.”
 
“ Just like you, I also think that each time it would take at least a month to receive a reply from India to my letters. But my mind takes me back to the days of the East India Company. It used to take six months for their ships to travel from England to India via the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and the same time for the return journey. And yet, Englishmen came to India on successive voyages. They fought with our forefathers and established their rule in India. If we want to defeat them, we must be prepared to suffer hundred times more than they did.”
 
“ There were times when our ancestors established huge colonies from Indochina to further east up to Mexico and up to Iraq in the west. They too travelled extensively on the high seas. However, after the Muslim invasions in Northern India there was a break in the seafaring adventures. But now we must dream of flying the Indian flag all over the world once again. This zeal will give us the courage to bear the individual sufferings.”
 
“ After listening to such discourse, Harnam Singh abandoned his plan to return to India from Aden. I changed his viewpoint completely. In the end he asked me, ‘ Tell me, what can I do for my motherland? ”
 
[Note -
In 1908, Indian students used to wear badges honouring the heroes of the 1857 war against the rule of the British in India. There were skirmishes in England between Indian students and British authorities. Harnamsingh wore such a badge. But he refused to remove the badge. He also did not apologise for wearing the badge. He therefore had to leave the Agricultural College at Cirencester. British authorities put pressure on the Maharaja of Nabha and forced
him to withdraw the scholarship of Harnam. His Principal Mr John McClellan wrote to the India Office, ‘It is a great pity that Harnam has not apologised and returned to the college for continuing his studies. He was about to be given a gold medal.’
This just shows how much Savarkar influenced and transformed Harnam Singh.]