Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

"Savarkar" and "Veer Savarkar" redirect here. For the 2001 Indian film, see Veer Savarkar (film). For the biography, see Savarkar (book). For the 2024 film, see Swatantrya Veer Savarkar (film).

Veer
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Savarkar
Born(1883-05-28)28 May 1883
Bhagur, Nasik district, Bombay Presidency, British India
(present-day Nashik, Maharashtra, India)
Died26 February 1966(1966-02-26) (aged 82)
Bombay, Maharashtra, India
NationalityBritish Indian (1883–1947)
Indian (1947–1966)
Other namesVeer Savarkar
Swatantryaveer
Occupations
  • Politician
  • activist
  • writer
Known forHindutva
Political partyHindu Mahasabha
Spouse
Yamunabai
​
​
(m. 1901; died 1963)​
[1]
RelativesGanesh Damodar Savarkar (brother)

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar[a] (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966) was an Indian politician, activist and writer. Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva while confined at Ratnagiri in 1922.[2][3][4] He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha.[5][6] The prefix "Veer" (meaning 'brave') has been applied to his name by his followers.[7]

Savarkar began his political activities as a high school student and continued to do so at Fergusson College in Pune.[8] He and his brother founded a secret society called Abhinav Bharat Society. When he went to the United Kingdom for his law studies, he involved himself with organizations such as India House and the Free India Society. He also published books advocating complete Indian independence by revolutionary means.[9] One of the books he published called The Indian War of Independence about the Indian Rebellion of 1857 was banned by the British colonial authorities.[10]

In 1910, Savarkar was arrested by the British government and was ordered to be extradited to India for his connections with India House. On the voyage back to India, Savarkar staged an attempt to escape from the steamship SS Morea and seek asylum in France while the ship was docked in the port of Marseille. The French port officials however handed him back to the British government. On return to India, Savarkar was sentenced to life terms of imprisonment totalling fifty years and was moved to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He was released in 1924 by the British officials after he wrote a series of mercy petitions to the British.[11] He virtually stopped any criticism of the British regime after he was released from jail.[12]

After being released from his restriction to Ratnagiri district in 1937, Savarkar started traveling widely, becoming a forceful orator and writer, advocating Hindu political and social unity. In his Ahmedabad addressal, he supported Two-nation theory.[13] The Hindu Mahasabha under Savarkar's leadership endorsed the idea of India as a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation).

In 1939, the ruling Indian National Congress resigned en masse over Britain declaring India a belligerent in World War II. The Hindu Mahasabha under Savarkar formed alliances with the Muslim League and other non-Congress parties to form government in many states. Subsequently, Congress under Gandhi's leadership launched the Quit India Movement; Savarkar boycotted the movement,[14] writing a letter titled "Stick to your Posts" and recruiting Indians for the British war effort.[15] In 1948, Savarkar was charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi; he was acquitted by the court for lack of evidence.

  1. ^ "Yamunabai Vinayak (Mai) Savarkar". Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  2. ^ Chandra 1989, p. 145.
  3. ^ Keer 1966, p. 143.
  4. ^ "Hindutva is not the same as Hinduism said Savarkar". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 20 April 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  5. ^ "Overview of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 25 July 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Vinayak Damodar Savarkar | Biography, History, & Books | Britannica". Archived from the original on 25 July 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  7. ^ Chaturvedi 2022, pp. 195, 197: "The earliest published reference that I have found thus far is the 1924 Marathi biography titled Swatantraveer Vinayakrao Savarkar by Sadashiv Rajaram Ranade.... Swatantraveer continued to be used as a title for Savarkar for the rest of his life, but at some point authors started employing veer in their English-language works when writing about him.... By the late 1930s it appears that the process was complete: he was now formally 'Veer Savarkar.'".
  8. ^ Jaffrelot 2017, pp. 127–182.
  9. ^ V. Sundaram (10 May 2008). "remembering all the revolutionaries of 1857". News Today INDIA TV. Archived from the original on 6 February 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
  10. ^ Visana, Vikram (5 November 2020). "Savarkar before Hindutva: Sovereignty, Republicanism, and Populism in India, c.1900–1920". Modern Intellectual History. 18 (4): 1106–1129. doi:10.1017/S1479244320000384. ISSN 1479-2443. S2CID 224983230. Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  11. ^ Jha, D.K. (2022). Gandhi's Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. p. 25. ISBN 978-93-5492-168-1. Archived from the original on 19 November 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
  12. ^ Devare, A. (2013). History and the Making of a Modern Hindu Self. Taylor & Francis. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-136-19708-6. Archived from the original on 30 January 2024. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  13. ^ Bombwall, K.R. (1967). The Foundations of Indian Federalism. Asia Publishing House. p. 228. It was Savarkar, and not Jinnah, who first propounded the two-nation theory. In his presidential address at the Ahmedabad (1937) session of the Hindu Mahasabha he declared: "there are two antagonistic nations. living side by side in India."
  14. ^ Prabhu Bapu (2013). Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915–1930: Constructing Nation and History. Routledge. pp. 103–. ISBN 978-0-415-67165-1. Archived from the original on 3 January 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  15. ^ McKean 1996, p. 72.


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