In the history of India’s Swadeshi movement, it was Vinayak Damodar (Veer) Savarkar, not ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi, who first organized a public bonfire of foreign goods. A fact which gets often sidelined or ignored by ‘biased INC’ historians. In 1905, when he was in his early twenties, Vinayak Damodar (Veer) Savarkar became a passionate student leader…
In the historiography of India’s struggle for independence, references typically focus on imprisonment, exile, or capital punishment as instruments of colonial repression. Less frequently noted, however, is the annulment of academic qualifications as a form of political sanction. The case of Vinayak Damodar (Veer) Savarkar (1883–1966) stands out in this regard: he became the first…
Vinayak Damodar (Veer) Savarkar’s time in Paris (1909–1910) marked a decisive chapter in his revolutionary journey. It was a period of exile, reflection, and renewed determination, shaped by both personal hardship and the escalating storm of the Indian independence struggle. A Period of Strain and Loss The latter part of 1909 was fraught with turmoil…
In 1899, deep within the narrow lanes of Tilbhandeshwar, a sixteen-year-old schoolboy named Vinayak Damodar (Veer) Savarkar was quietly rewriting the script of India’s freedom struggle. While the Indian National Congress (INC) still pursued petitions and reform, Savarkar envisioned something far more daring — a secret society devoted to armed revolution. That vision took shape…
In the closing years of the 19th century, when the Indian National Congress (INC) still placed its hopes in petitions and polite appeals, a young man from Chinchwad near Pune took a radically different path. Damodar Hari Chapekar became one of the first Indians in modern history to take up arms against British colonial authority…