Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
 

News: Recently, PM Modi paid homage to Veer Savarkar on his birth anniversary (28th May).

Who was Veer Savarkar?
 Veer Savarkar was a Hindu and Indian nationalist and a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu nationalist organization and political party. He was also a lawyer, writer, and activist who fought against British colonial rule.

What were his contributions?
 Vinayak Damodar Savarkar made several contributions to India’s freedom struggle and Indian society.
 Veer Savarkar was involved in the Swadeshi movement and propagated the concept of Swadeshi as he was against foreign goods. In 1905, he decided to burn all the foreign goods in a bonfire on the auspicious Dussehra day.
 In Pune, he founded the “Abhinav Bharat Society” and later joined Tilak’s Swaraj Party.
 While studying law in London (1906–10), he helped to instruct a group of Indian revolutionaries in methods of sabotage and assassination.
 He is known for his book “The Indian War of Independence, 1857” (1909), in which he called the 1857 rebellion the first war of independence.
 He also coined the term Hindutva (“Hinduness”), which sought to define Indian culture as a manifestation of Hindu values.
 In 1911, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was sentenced to 50 years in the Cellular Jail of Andamans (also known as Kala Pani) for revolting against the Morley-Minto reforms (Indian Councils Act 1909). He was released in 1924.
 The freedom fighter is most known for his treatise Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?, wherein he put forth his ideas about what constitutes the Indian nation.