Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 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. He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha.  The prefix “Veer” (meaning ‘brave’) has been applied to his name by his followers.

Savarkar was born on 28 May 1883 in the Marathi Hindu Chitpavan Brahmin family, to Damodar and Radhabai Savarkar in the village of Bhagur, near the city of Nashik, Maharashtra. He had three other siblings namely Ganesh, Narayan, and a sister named Maina.^{[citation needed]} Savarkar began his activism as a high school student. When he was 12, he led fellow students in an attack on his village mosque following Hindu-Muslim riots, stating: “We vandalized the mosque to our heart’s content.”  In 1903, in Nashik, Savarkar and his older brother Ganesh Savarkar founded the Mitra Mela, an underground revolutionary organization, which became Abhinav Bharat Society in 1906. Abhinav Bharat’s main objectives were to overthrow British rule and reviving Hindu pride.

Savarkar continued his political activism as a student at Fergusson College in Pune. Savarkar was greatly influenced by the radical Nationalist leader, Lokmanya Tilak. Tilak was in turn impressed with the young student and helped him obtain the Shivaji Scholarship in 1906 for his law studies in London. To protest against Bengal partition of 1905, Savarkar led foreign-clothes bonfire in India with other students in presence of Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

Savarkar began his political activities as a high school student and continued to do so at Fergusson College in Pune. 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. 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.

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 Marseilles. The French port officials however handed him back to the British government. On return to India, Savarkar was sentenced to life terms of imprisonment totaling 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. He virtually stopped any criticism of the British regime after he was released from jail.

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. 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, writing a letter titled “Stick to your Posts” and recruiting Indians for the British war effort. 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.