Marseille, the port city in southern France, has an important significance in India’s freedom struggle. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Marseille in the last leg of his three-day visit to France. On Wednesday, he will accompany French President Emmanuel Macron to the Mazargues War Cemetry to pay tribute to the Indian soldiers who died fighting in the First World War.
The Marseille trip is also designed to hold diplomatic summits with key allies outside Paris, just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi took him to Jaipur last year.
Prime Minister Modi and Macron will inaugurate the newest Consulate General of India in Marseille. However, this port city has a strong connection to India’s freedom struggle. One of the great freedom fighters Vinayak Damodar Savarkar or Veer Savarkar attempted a daring escape on July 8, 1910, while he was being transported on board the British ship Morea to India for trial.
Savarkar slid out of a porthole and swam ashore. He ran before being finally apprehended by the French authorities and then handed over to the British on the ship.
Savarkar’s attempted escape proved to be an excuse for some diplomatic tensions between France and Britain. France felt that the freedom fighter’s return “violated international law,” as proper extradition procedures were not followed.
The case was submitted to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which ruled in 1911 that although there was an “irregularity” in his arrest, Britain was not obligated to return him to France. The French government argued that Savarkar being handed over to the British authorities violated international law as proper extradition procedures were not followed.
