Part of: GS Prelims andMains GS-I: The Freedom Struggle – its various stages and important contributors /contributions from different parts of the country
In News: The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has paid tributes to Shyamji Krishna Varma on his Jayanti.
An Indian revolutionary fighter, lawyer and journalist, who led India’s freedom struggle from London
Founded the famous India House in London in 1904 which became the nerve centre and nucleus for India’s revolutionaries like Veer Savarkar, Madame Cama, Sardar Singh Rana, V V S Iyer, Lala Hardayal and Virendranath Chattopadhaya and Madhanlal Dhingra – was the political guru of Veer Savarkar, V V S Iyer and many other freedom fighters in this period
He started the publication of a monthly journal called ‘Indian Sociologist’ which became a vehicle of revolutionary ideas. In February 1905, he established the Indian Home Rule Society to raise his voice against British domination in India. The monthly Indian Sociologist became an outlet for nationalist ideas and through the Indian Home Rule Society, he criticised the British rule in India.
Later in 1905, Shyamji attended the United Congress of Democrats held at Holborn Town Hall as a delegate of the India Home Rule Society.
His resolution on India received an enthusiastic ovation from the entire conference. Shyamji’s activities in England aroused the concern of the British government:
He was disbarred from Inner Temple and removed from the membership list on 30 April 1909 for writing anti-British articles in The Indian Sociologist.
Most of the British press were anti–Shyamji and carried outrageous allegations against him and his newspaper. He defended them boldly.
The Times referred to him as the “Notorious Krishnavarma”. Many newspapers criticised the British progressives who supported Shyamji and his view.
His movements were closely watched by British Secret Services, so he decided to shift his headquarters to Paris, leaving India House in charge of Vir Savarkar. Shyamji left Britain secretly before the government tried to arrest him.
It was Shyamji who first advocated non-violent means of getting rid of the British and using withdrawal of cooperation with the colonial administration as the most effective weapon for this purpose. Gandhiji built on this and evolved Satyagraha as a tool to oust the British much later.
Narendra Modi dedicated a memorial ‘Kranti Tirth’, to Shyamji Krishna Verma at the revolutionary’s ancestral town Mandvi in Kutch district
