Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

Savarkar and Mazzini
263
Life is not leisure; it is duty. The first basic duty of politics is inde­pendence of the country. The sequence of duty is- human race, country, family and the self.32) The way to gain the country's independence was not begging.33) The great revolutions do not emerge from the begging bowl. Savarkar did not approve of the Boycott Movement. It is useless to boycott foreign cloth, tobacco or tea. There is no sense in expressing our annoyance at lifeless materiate.34* The victim of our wrath should be the foreign people rather than foreign material. The national movement meant the stopping of loot by other and to safeguard national rìghts. Italians stopped the loot and asserted their national independence. The history would repeat itself in India too. Indians have developed their self-respect and some of their leaders have developed a deep desire for independence.35)
But how to convey this desire to ali countrymen? We have to prepare carefully for a war of liberation. Strength, and not begging, alone should be our watchword under the circumstances; our salvation lay through the formation of secret societies. Because to speak the truth is prohibited, the honest work is prohibited and the country has become a big prison in which ali of us are prisoners. This was the raison d'etre for the underground national movement. He wrote, We would go underground, pian secretly, and when the time comes, break open the prison Windows... kickout the tyrants and breathe in the open air . With Mazzini as an example, Savar­kar advised that wherever secret organisations are not formed, they should begin to form now . 3*)
The secret organisations are the best instrument in the preparation of war of liberation. Citing the example of Young Italy Savarkar wrote, The task before us is not a small one. We are doing the work that God desires us to do. We are building humanity. We are creating our own nation.39* Freedom for its own sake must be achieved, ali other things would follow. It is not a question whether bread is cheaper or costlier in Italy. The important thing is whether it bears a stamp of slavery or not . > Stretching the same analogy, it can be said the reforming measures of the British, howsoever, beneficiai to Indians, must be kicked out as they bore the stamp of slavery. In spite of the bestowal of innumerable rìghts, the independence would stili be sought. Mazzini, wrote Savarkar, put it curtly thus, It is not a question of rights but of a right.41> Initiate youngmen into duty and direction. Italy burned constantly from 1831 to 1870. The patriots sacrificed their blood as oblation at the aitar of the goddess of freedom. Women were not behind their menfolk in the display of valour.
Mazzini instilled the spirit of freedom from slavery, national unity,
52) ivi, p. 39,
33) Ivi, p. 40.
34) Ivi, p. 41.
35) Ibidem.
36) Ivi, p. 42.
37) Ibidem.
38) Ivi, p. 43.
39) Ivi, p. 44.
40) Ivi, p. 45. 4 Ibidem.