India House
Encyclopedia
Indian nationalism
Indian nationalism refers to the many underlying forces that molded the Indian independence movement, and strongly continue to influence the politics of India, as well as being the heart of many contrasting ideologies that have caused ethnic and religious conflict in Indian society...
organisation based in London between 1905 and 1910. With the patronage of Shyamji Krishna Varma
Shyamji Krishna Varma
Shyamji Krishna Varma was an Indian revolutionary, lawyer and journalist who founded the Indian Home Rule Society, India House and The Indian Sociologist in London. A graduate of Balliol College, Krishna Varma was a noted scholar in Sanskrit and other Indian languages...
, its home in a student residence in Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
, North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
was launched to promote nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
views among Indian students in Britain. The building soon became a hub for political activism and a meeting place for radical Indian nationalists.
It ranked among the most prominent centres for revolutionary Indian nationalism
Revolutionary movement for Indian independence
The Revolutionary movement for Indian independence is often a less-highlighted aspect of the Indian independence movement -- the underground revolutionary factions. The groups believing in armed revolution against the ruling British fall into this category. The revolutionary groups were...
outside India. India House published an anti-colonialist newspaper, The Indian Sociologist
The Indian Sociologist
The Indian Sociologist was an Indian nationalist publication in the early twentieth century. Its subtitle was An Organ of Freedom, and Political, Social, and Religious Reform....
, which the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
banned as "seditious
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
".
A number of prominent Indian revolutionaries and nationalists were associated with India House, most famously Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Vināyak Dāmodar Sāvarkar was an Indian freedom fighter, revolutionary and politician. He was the proponent of liberty as the ultimate ideal. Savarkar was a poet, writer and playwright...
; others included V.N. Chatterjee
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya alias Chatto was a prominent Hindu Indian revolutionary who aimed to overthrow the British Raj in India by using violence as a tool...
, Lala Har Dayal, V. V. S. Aiyar
V. V. S. Aiyar
Varahaneri Venkatesa Subramaniam Aiyar , also known as V.V.S. Aiyar, was an Indian revolutionary from Tamil Nadu who fought against the British occupation of India. His contemporaries include Subramanya Bharathi and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, who subscribed to the militant form of resistance against...
, M.P.T. Acharya
M. P. T. Acharya
Mandayam Parthasarathi Tirumal Acharya was an Indian nationalist, a key member of India House, and one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India...
and P.M. Bapat
Senapati Bapat
Pandurang Mahadev Bapat , popularly known as Senapati Bapat, was a major figure in the Indian independence movement....
. As key members of revolutionary conspiracies in India, they went on to be the founding fathers of Indian communism and Hindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expressions of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of historical India...
.
In 1909, a member of India House Madan Lal Dhingra
Madan Lal Dhingra
Madan Lal Dhingra was an Indian revolutionary freedom fighter. While studying in England, he assassinated Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, a British official, hailed as one of the first acts of revolution in the Indian independence movement in the 20th century.-Early life:Madan Lal Dhingra was born...
assassinated Sir W.H. Curzon Wyllie
William Hutt Curzon Wyllie
Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie KCIE was an Indian army officer, and later an official of the British Indian Government. Over a career spanning three decades, Curzon Wyllie rose to be Lieutant Colonel in the British Indian Army and occupied a number of administrative and diplomatic posts...
. Under the light of subsequent investigations by Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
and the Indian Political Intelligence Office
Indian Political Intelligence Office
The Indian Political Intelligence Office was an Intelligence organisation initially established in England in 1909 in response to the dissemination of anarchist and revolutionary elements of Indian nationalism to different countries in Europe after the liquidation of India House in London in 1909...
, the organisation fell into decline. A crackdown on India House activities by the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
prompted a number of its members, including Shyamji Krishna Varma and Bhikaji Cama, to leave Britain for Continental Europe, where they continued their activities. Some students, including Har Dayal
Har Dayal
Lala Har Dayal was a Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service...
, moved to the United States. The network created by India House played a key part in the Hindu-German Conspiracy for nationalist revolution in India during World War I.
Nationalism in India
Amid competition among regional powers and the ascendancy of the British East India Company, socio-economic changes during the 18th century led to the rise of an Indian middle classMiddle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
, along with the steady erosion of pre-colonial socio-religious institutions and barriers. The emerging economic and financial power of Indian proprietors brought them increasingly into conflict with the British Raj. A rising political consciousness among the social elite, including lawyers, doctors, graduates, native government officials and similar positions, spawned an Indian identity, which fed a growing nationalist sentiment in India in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The 1885 creation of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
in India by the political reformer A.O. Hume
Allan Octavian Hume
Allan Octavian Hume was a civil servant, political reformer and amateur ornithologist in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, a political party that was later to lead the Indian independence movement...
intensified the process by providing an important platform from which to demand political liberalisation, increased autonomy and social reform. The nationalist movement grew particularly strong, radical and violent in Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
and Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
, although notable, if smaller, movements also appeared in Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
, Madras and other areas across the South. The controversial 1905 partition of Bengal escalated the growing unrest, stimulating radical nationalist sentiments and becoming a driving force for Indian revolutionaries.
Indian nationalism in Britain
From its inception, the Congress sought to shape public opinion in Britain in support of Indian political autonomy.The British Committee of Congress published India, a periodical which featured moderate (or loyalist) opinion and provided information about India tailored to a British readership. The British arm of the Congress also established an Indian committee in the British Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
to influence policy directly.
While the British Committee of Congress succeeded in calling the British public's attention to issues of civil liberties in India, it largely failed to bring about political change, prompting socialists such as Henry Hyndman
Henry Hyndman
Henry Mayers Hyndman was an English writer and politician, and the founder of the Social Democratic Federation and the National Socialist Party.-Early years:...
to advocate a more radical approach. The Committee grew increasingly distant from an emerging Indo-centric movement which advocated self-governance in India. Both nationalist leaders in India, such as Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist. He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.-Early life and background:...
who had led the agitation against the Bengal partition, and Indian students in Britain criticised the committee for its perceived cautious approach. It was in this period, coincident with the political upheaval caused by the 1905 partition of Bengal, that a nationalist Indian lawyer named Shyamji Krishna Varma
Shyamji Krishna Varma
Shyamji Krishna Varma was an Indian revolutionary, lawyer and journalist who founded the Indian Home Rule Society, India House and The Indian Sociologist in London. A graduate of Balliol College, Krishna Varma was a noted scholar in Sanskrit and other Indian languages...
founded India House in London.
India House
Swami Dayananda Saraswati
Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati was an important Hindu religious scholar, reformer, and founder of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. He was the first to give the call for Swarajya – "India for Indians" – in 1876, later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak...
's cultural nationalism
Cultural nationalism
Cultural nationalism is a form of nationalism in which the nation is defined by a shared culture. It is an intermediate position between ethnic nationalism on one hand and liberal nationalism on the other....
and believed in Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
's dictum that "Resistance to aggression is not simply justified, but imperative". A graduate of Balliol College, he returned to India in the 1880s and served as administrator (divan
Divan
A divan was a high governmental body in a number of Islamic states, or its chief official .-Etymology:...
) of a number of princely state
Princely state
A Princely State was a nominally sovereign entitity of British rule in India that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule such as suzerainty or paramountcy.-British relationship with the Princely States:India under the British Raj ...
s, including Ratlam
Ratlam
Ratlam , known historically as Ratnapuri, is a city in the Malwa region in Madhya Pradesh state of central India. The town of Ratlam lies 480 m above sea level. It is the administrative headquarters of Ratlam District....
and Junagadh
Junagadh
Junagadh is the headquarters of Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. The city is the 7th largest in Gujarat. The city is located at the foot of the Girnar hills, 355 km south west of state capital Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. The city is in western India. Literally translated,...
. He preferred this position to working under what he considered service to the alien rule of Britain. However, a supposed conspiracy of local British officials at Junagadh, compounded by differences between Crown authority and British Political Resident
Political Resident
In the British Empire a Political Resident or Political Agent was an official diplomatic position involving both consular duties and liaison function....
s regarding the states, led to Varma's dismissal, He returned to England, where he found freedom of expression more favourable. Varma's views were staunchly anti-colonial
Anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...
, even supporting the Boers during the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
in 1899.
Indian Home Rule Society
India House was a large Victorian Mansion at 65 Cromwell Avenue, Highgate, North London, which provided accommodation for up to thirty students. It first housed an organisation called the Indian Home Rule SocietyIndian Home Rule Society
The Indian Home Rule Society was an Indian organisation founded in London in 1905 that sought to promote the cause of self-rule in British India. The organisation was founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma, with support from a number of prominent Indian nationalists in Britain at the time, including...
(IHRS). This was founded in February 1905 by Shyamji Krishna Varma along with other notable expatriate Indians such as Bhikaji Cama, S.R. Rana and Lala Lajpat Rai
Lala Lajpat Rai
Lala Lajpat Rai was an Indian author, freedom fighter and politician who is chiefly remembered as a leader in the Indian fight for freedom from the British Raj. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari or Sher-e-Punjab meaning the samem and was part of the Lal Bal Pal trio...
to serve as a rival organisation to the British Committee of Congress.
After founding the IHRS, Krishna Varma used his considerable financial resources to offer scholarships to Indian students in memory of leaders of the 1857 uprising on the condition that the recipients would not accept any paid post or honorary office from The Raj upon their return to India. These were complemented by three additional scholarships worth Rs
RS
RS may refer to:- Genetics :A unique submitted SNP record receive a reference SNP ID number . Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DbSNP- Computer-related :* RuneScape, a multiplayer online role playing game...
2000, endowed by S.R. Rana
S. R. Rana
Sardar Singh Rewabhai Rana , often abbreviated 'S.R. Rana', was an Indian political activist, founding member of the Paris Indian Society and the vice-president of the Indian Home Rule Society....
in memory of Rana Pratap Singh.
The IHRS was available "to Indians only", and it garnered significant support from Indians—especially students—living in Britain. Following the model of Victorian public institutions, it had a constitution which clearly articulated its aim to "secure Home Rule for India, and to carry on a genuine Indian propaganda in this country by all practicable means". It recruited young Indian activists, raised funds, and possibly collected arms and maintained contact with revolutionary movements in India. The group also professed support for causes in sympathy with its own, such as Turkish, Egyptian and Irish republican nationalism. The close relationships established with these movements by Krishna Varma later influenced the activities and alliances of India House, both in Britain and abroad.
The Paris Indian Society
Paris Indian Society
The Paris Indian Society was an Indian nationalist organisation founded in 1905 at Paris under the patronage of Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama, B.H. Godrej and S. R. Rana...
, a branch of the IHRS, was also launched in 1905 under the patronage of Madam Cama, Sardar Singh Rana and B.H. Godrej. A number of India House members who later rose to prominence—including V.N. Chatterjee, Har Dayal and Acharya and others—first encountered the IHRS through the Paris Indian Society. Cama herself was at this time deeply involved with the Indian revolutionary cause, and nurtured close links with both French
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
and exiled Russian socialists. In 1907, Cama, along with other IHRS associates, attended the Socialist Congress of the Second International
Second International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. There, supported by Henry Hyndman
Henry Hyndman
Henry Mayers Hyndman was an English writer and politician, and the founder of the Social Democratic Federation and the National Socialist Party.-Early years:...
, she demanded recognition of self-rule for India and in a famous gesture unfurled one of the first Flags of India
Flag of India
The National flag of India is a horizontal rectangular tricolour of deep saffron, white and India green; with the Ashok Chakra, a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its centre. It was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on 22 July 1947, when it became the...
.
The Indian Sociologist
The Indian Sociologist
The Indian Sociologist was an Indian nationalist publication in the early twentieth century. Its subtitle was An Organ of Freedom, and Political, Social, and Religious Reform....
(TIS), a penny monthly (with Spencer's dictum as its motto), as a challenge to the British Committee's Indian. The name was possibly intended to convey Krishna Varma's conviction that the ideological basis of Indian independence was to be the discipline of sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
. TIS itself was critical of the moderate loyalist approach and its appeal to British liberalism, exemplified by the work of G.K. Ghokale
Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, CIE was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society...
; TIS advocated Indian self-rule. It was critical of the British Committee, whose members—as ex-members of the Indian Civil Service—were, in Krishna Varma's view, complicit in the exploitation of India. The Indian Sociologist quoted extensively from the works of British writers, which Krishna Varma interpreted to support colonial exploitation and the Indian right to oppose it, by violence if necessary. It advocated confrontation and demands rather than petition and accommodation. However, Krishna Varma propounded his views and justifications of political violence in nationalist struggle as the last resort, and his support was initially intellectual. Freedom of the press and the liberal approach of the British establishment meant Krishna Varma could air views that would have been rapidly suppressed in India.
Still, the views expressed in TIS drew stinging criticisms from ex-Indian Civil Servants in the British press and Parliament, who suggested intellectual dependence on Britain by highlighting Krishna Varma's citation of British writers and lack of reference to Indian tradition or values. They argued that Krishna Varma was disconnected from the Indian situation and Indian feelings. Most famously, Valentine Chirol, editor of The Times who had close associations with the Raj, accused Krishna Varma of preaching "disloyal sentiments" to Indian students, and demanded his prosecution. Chirol later described India House as "The most dangerous organisation outside India". Krishna Varma, and the messages emanating from TIS, further drew the attention of Edward VII who, greatly concerned, asked John Morley
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn OM, PC was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. Initially a journalist, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1883...
, the liberal Secretary of State for India
Secretary of State for India
The Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister responsible for the government of India and the political head of the India Office...
, to stop the publication of such messages. Although Morley refused to take action at the time, Chirol's tirade against TIS and Krishna Varma forced the Government to investigate. Detectives visited India House and interviewed the printers of its publication. Krishna Varma saw these actions as the start of a crackdown on his work and, fearing arrest, moved to Paris in 1907; he never returned to Britain.
Savarkar
After Krishna Varma's departure, the organisation found a new leader in Vinayak Damodar SavarkarVinayak Damodar Savarkar
Vināyak Dāmodar Sāvarkar was an Indian freedom fighter, revolutionary and politician. He was the proponent of liberty as the ultimate ideal. Savarkar was a poet, writer and playwright...
. Savarkar, a law student who had first arrived in London in 1906 on scholarship from Krishna Varma, was an admirer of the Italian nationalist philosopher Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
and a protégé of the Indian Congress leader, Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader "Father of the Indian unrest"...
Savarkar was associated with the nationalist movement in India, and founded the Abhinav Bharat Society
Abhinav Bharat Society
Abhinav Bharat Society was a secret society founded by Ganesh Damodar Savarkarin 1904. Initially founded at Nasik while still a student Fergusson College at Pune, the society developed from an organisation called Mitra Mela...
(Young India Society) while studying at Fergusson College
Fergusson College
Fergusson College is a degree college in western India, situated in the city of Pune. It was founded in 1885 by the Deccan Education Society and at that time was the first privately governed college in India. It is named after Sir James Fergusson, the Governor of Bombay, who donated a then...
in Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
. (These links put him in contact with the still largely unknown Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in 1906.) In London, Savarkar's fiery nationalist views did not endear him to the residents of India House, most significantly V.V.S. Iyer. Over time, however, he became a central figure in the organisation, devoting his efforts to nationalist writings, organising public meetings and demonstrations; and initiating branches of Abhinav Bharat in the country. He kept in touch with the movement in India through his brother Ganesh Damodar Savarkar
Ganesh Damodar Savarkar
Ganesh Dāmodar Sāvarkar was an Indian freedom fighter, Hinduist Rightist, a revolutionary, and founder of the Abhinav Bharat Society....
, who in turn passed his work on to B.G. Tilak.
Impressed and influenced by the Italian wars of Independence, Savarkar believed in an armed revolution in India and was prepared to seek assistance from Germany towards this end. He proposed the indoctrination of Indian soldiery in the British army, just as the Young Italy movement had indoctrinated Italians serving in the Austrian forces. In London, Savarkar founded the Free India Society
Free India Society
The Free India Society was a political organization of Indian students in England, committed to obtaining the independence of India from British rule. Initially an intellectual group, it became a revolutionary outfit under its founding leader, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar....
(FIS), and in December 1906 he opened a branch of Abhinav Bharat Society. This organisation drew a number of radical Indian students, including P.M. Bapat, V.V.S. Iyer, Madanlal Dhingra, and Virendranath Chattopadhyaya. Savarkar had lived in Paris for some time, and frequently visited the city after moving to London. By 1908, he had recruited to the organisation a number of Indian businessmen residing in Paris. During one visit, he acquired in the French capital a bomb manual given to Hem Chandra Das—a Bengali revolutionary of the Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti was an armed anti-British organisation in Bengal and the principal secret revolutionary organisation operating in the region in the opening years of the 20th century. This association, like its offshoot the Jugantar, operated under the guise of suburban fitness club...
—by the Russian revolutionary Nicholas Safranski . Savarkar met Gandhi again when the latter visited India House in October 1906, and his hardline views may have influenced Gandhi's opinion on nationalist violence.
Transformation
The umbrella organisation of India House, which now included the Abhinav Bharat Society and its relatively peaceful front the Free India Society, rapidly developed into a radical meeting ground quite different from the IHRS. Unlike the latter, it became wholly self-reliant in finances, organisation, as well as ideological mores. Under Savarkar's influence, it drew the inspiration for its nationalist work from the histories of Indian revolutionary movement, from religious scriptures such as the Bhagavad GitaBhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
, and from Savarkar's own studies in Indian history including The Indian War of Independence
The Indian War of Independence (book)
The Indian War of Independence is an Indian nationalist history of the 1857 revolt by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar that was first published in 1909...
. Savarkar translated Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
's autobiography into Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
and extolled the virtues of secret societies. The FIS had a semi-religious oath of initiation, and served as a cover for the Abhinav Bharat Society's meetings on Sunday evenings.
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
and Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
, while a significant but smaller group came from Bombay
Bombay Presidency
The Bombay Presidency was a province of British India. It was established in the 17th century as a trading post for the English East India Company, but later grew to encompass much of western and central India, as well as parts of post-partition Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula.At its greatest...
and Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
. The members were predominantly Hindus. Most were students in their mid-twenties, and usually belonged to the Indian social elite, from families of millionaires, mill owners, lawyers and doctors. Nearly seventy people in all attended meetings regularly, including several women. The Sunday night meetings were selected for lectures by Savarkar on topics ranging from the philosophy of revolution to bomb-making and assassination techniques. Only a small proportion of these recruits to the society were known to have previously engaged in political activity or the Swadeshi movement in India.
Abhinav Bharat Society had two goals: to create through propaganda in Europe and North America an Indian public opinion in favour of nationalist revolution; and to raise funds, knowledge and supplies to carry out such a revolution. It emphasised actions of self-sacrifice by its members for the Indian cause. These were revolutionary activities which the masses could emulate, but which did not require a mass movement. The outbuilding of India House was converted to a "war workshop" where chemistry students attempted to produce explosives and manufacture bombs, while the printing press turned out "seditious" literature, including bomb-making manuals and pamphlets promoting violence toward Europeans in India. In the house was an arsenal of small arms that were intermittently dispatched to India through different avenues. Savarkar was at the heart of these, spending a great deal of time in the explosives workshop and emerging on some evenings, according to a fellow revolutionary, "with telltale yellow stains of Picric acid
Picric acid
Picric acid is the chemical compound formally called 2,4,6-trinitrophenol . This yellow crystalline solid is one of the most acidic phenols. Like other highly nitrated compounds such as TNT, picric acid is an explosive...
on his hands". The residents of India House and members of Abhinav Bharat practiced shooting at a range in Tottenham Court Road in central London, and rehearsed assassinations they planned to carry out.
The deliveries of weapons to India included, among others, a number of Browning Pistols sent through Chaturbhuj Amin, Chanjeri Rao, and through V.V.S. Iyer when he returned to India. Sympathetic Europeans may have served as couriers on several occasions. Revolutionary literature was shipped under false covers and from different addresses to prevent detection by Indian postal authorities. Savarkar's The Indian War of Independence was published (in 1909) and was considered inflammatory enough to be removed from the catalogue of the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
to prevent Indian students from accessing it.
By 1908, the India House group had overtaken the London Indian Society
London Indian Society
The London India Society was an Indian organisation founded in London in March 1865 under the leadership of Dadabhai Naoroji and W.C. Bannerjee in London. The purpose of the organisation was to promote awareness of the rising Indian social and political aspirations in England, and to raise the...
(LIS), established in 1865 by Dadabhoi Naoroji and till then the largest association of Indians in London. Subsequently, India House took over the control of LIS when, at the annual general meeting that year, members of India House packed the gathering and ousted the old guard of the society.
Culmination
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, Manchester Guardian and Dispatch
Sunday Dispatch
The Sunday Dispatch was a British newspaper, published between 27 September 1801 and 1961. Until 1928, it was called the Weekly Dispatch.-History:...
. By 1909, India House was under surveillance from Scotland Yard and Indian intelligence, and its activities were considerably curtailed. Savarkar's elder brother Ganesh was arrested in India in June that year, and was subsequently tried and exiled to the penal colony in Andamans
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...
for publication of seditionist literature. Savarkar's speeches grew increasingly strident and called for revolution, widespread violence, and murder of all Englishmen in India. The culmination of these events was the assassination of Sir William H. Curzon Wyllie
William Hutt Curzon Wyllie
Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie KCIE was an Indian army officer, and later an official of the British Indian Government. Over a career spanning three decades, Curzon Wyllie rose to be Lieutant Colonel in the British Indian Army and occupied a number of administrative and diplomatic posts...
, the political aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to the Secretary of State for India
Secretary of State for India
The Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister responsible for the government of India and the political head of the India Office...
, by Madanlal Dhingra on the evening of 1 July 1909, at a meeting of Indian students in the Imperial Institute in London. Dhingra was arrested and later tried and executed.
In the aftermath of the assassination, India House was rapidly liquidated. Investigations into the killing were expanded to look for broader conspiracies originating from India House; although Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
stated that none existed, Indian intelligence sources suggested otherwise. These sources further suggested that Dhingra's intended target was John Morley, the Secretary of State for India himself. A number of sources suggested the assassination was in fact Savarkar's brainchild, and that he planned further action in Britain as well as India. In March 1910, Savarkar was arrested upon his return to London from Paris and later deported to India. While he was held at Brixton Prison during the deportation hearing, an attempt was made in May 1910 by the remnant of India House to storm his prison van and rescue Savarkar. This plot was coordinated with help from Irish republicans led by Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne MacBride was an English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats. Of Anglo-Irish stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars...
. However, the plan failed when the ambush stormed an empty decoy van while Savarkar was transported along a different route. In the following year, police and political sources brought pressure on the residents of India House to leave England. While some of its leaders like Krishna Varma had already fled to Europe, others like Chattopadhyaya moved to Germany. Many others moved to Paris. The Paris Indian Society
Paris Indian Society
The Paris Indian Society was an Indian nationalist organisation founded in 1905 at Paris under the patronage of Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama, B.H. Godrej and S. R. Rana...
gradually took India House's place as the centre of Indian nationalism on the continent.
Counter measures
Although India House had stated its goals in The Indian Sociologist, the threat arising from the organisation was not initially considered serious by either Indian intelligence or British Special Branch. This was compounded by a lack of clarity and communication from the Department of Criminal Intelligence operating in India under Charles Cleveland, and Scotland YardScotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
's Special Branch. Lack of direction and information from Indian political intelligence, compounded by Lord Morley's reluctance to engage in postal censorship, led to Special Branch underestimating the threat.
Scotland Yard
In spite of these problems, and although Special Branch was wholly inexperienced in dealing with political crime, the first observations of India House by Scotland Yard had begun as early as 1905. Detectives attended Sunday meetings at India House in May 1907, where they gained access to seditious literature. The appearance of one agent, disguised as an Irish-American by the name of O'Brien, convinced Krishna Varma of the need to decamp to Paris. In June 1908, concrete plans for cooperation between Indian and British police were arranged between India OfficeIndia Office
The India Office was a British government department created in 1858 to oversee the colonial administration of India, i.e. the modern-day nations of Bangladesh, Burma, India, and Pakistan, as well as territories in South-east and Central Asia, the Middle East, and parts of the east coast of Africa...
and Scotland Yard; the decision was made to place an ex-Indian policeman in charge of surveillance of India House.
The arrival of B.C. Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist. He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.-Early life and background:...
and G.S. Khaparde in London in 1908 further stirred the matter, since both were known to have been radical nationalist politicians in India. By September 1908, an agent had been installed within India House who was able to invite detectives to the Sunday night meetings of the Free India Society (attendance for Europeans was by invitation only). The agent passed on some additional information, but was not able to infiltrate Savarkar's inner circle. Savarkar himself did not come under special scrutiny as a dangerous suspect until November 1909, when the agent delivered information about discussions of assassinations at Indian House. The agent may have been a young Maharashtrian by the name of Kirtikar, who had arrived at India House as an acquaintance of V.V.S. Iyer, ostensibly to study Dentistry in London. Kirtikar was discovered after Iyer made enquiries at the London Hospital where he was supposed to be training, and was one night forced by Savarkar to confess at gun-point.
After this incident, Kirtikar's reports were likely screened by Savarkar before they were passed on to Scotland Yard. M.P.T. Acharya was at this time instructed by V.V.S. Iyer and V.D. Savarkar to set himself up as an informer to Scotland Yard; they believed this would provide information to the police and help corroborate the reports sent by Kirtikar. Although it pursued Indian students and shadowed them avidly, Scotland Yard was severely criticised for its inability to penetrate the organisation. The Viceroy's secretary, William Lee-Warner, was assaulted twice in London: he was slapped in the face in his office by a young Bengali Student named Kunjalal Bhattacharji, and subsequently assaulted in a London park by another Indian student. The Yard's inefficiency was blamed for these events.
Department of Criminal Intelligence
Unknown to Scotland Yard, the Indian Department of Criminal Intelligence (DCI) had made covert efforts of its own to infiltrate India House by the beginning of 1909, with more success. An agent named "C" had been residing in India House for nearly a year; after convincing the residents that he was a genuine patriot, he began reporting back to India. Possible reasons why DCI did not inform the Yard include an intention not to interfere with London investigations, desire to maintain control over "C", and fear of being accused of "deviousness" by the Yard.However, the agent's first reports in early 1909 were of little value. Only in the months immediately preceding the Curzon Wyllie assassination did they prove useful. In June, he described the shooting practice at Tottenham Court range and rifle practice in the back of India House. This was followed by reports of V.V.S. Iyer and Savarkar's advice to M.P.T. Acharya on acts of martyrdom. Following the arrest and subsequent transportation of Savarkar's elder brother Ganesh Savarkar in India on 9 June 1909, C's reports note that Savarkar's speeches grew increasingly strident and called for revolution, widespread violence, and murder of all Englishmen in India. In the following weeks, Savarkar was barred from joining the bar due to his political activity. These events led to the assassination of Sir Curzon Wyllie. Although it was believed that Savarkar may have personally instructed or trained Dhingra, Metropolitan police were unable to bring a prosecution against the former, since he had an alibi for the night.
Indian Special Branch
In the aftermath of Curzon Wyllie's assassination, Special Branch was reorganised in July 1909 following a meeting between India OfficeIndia Office
The India Office was a British government department created in 1858 to oversee the colonial administration of India, i.e. the modern-day nations of Bangladesh, Burma, India, and Pakistan, as well as territories in South-east and Central Asia, the Middle East, and parts of the east coast of Africa...
and the Commissioner of Police
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service, classing the holder as a chief police officer...
Sir Edward Henry
Edward Henry
Sir Edward Richard Henry, 1st Baronet GCVO KCB CSI KPM was the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 1903 to 1918....
. This led to the opening of the Indian Special Branch which staffed 38 officers by the end of July. It received considerable resources during the investigation of Curzon Wyllie's assassination, and satisfied the demands of Indian Criminal Intelligence with regards to monitoring the Indian seditionist movement in Britain.
The police brought strong pressure on India House and began gathering intelligence on Indian students in London. These, along with threats to their careers, robbed India House of its student support base. It slowly began to disassemble, and—as Thirumal Acharya described bitterly—the residence was treated akin to a "leper's home" by the Indian students in the city. In addition, although student political activism could not be curtailed too heavily for fear of accusations of repression, the British Government successfully implemented laws to curtail the publication and distribution of nationalist or seditious material from Britain. Among these was Bipin Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist. He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.-Early life and background:...
's Swaraj, which was forced to close, an event which ultimately drove Pal to penury and mental collapse in London. India House gradually ceased to be an influence in Britain.
Influence
India House's political activities were chiefly aimed at young Indians, especially students, in Britain. Political discontent was at the time growing steadily among this group, especially those in touch with Indian professionals and studied in depth the philosophies of European liberalism. Their discontent was noted among British academic and political circles quite early on, with some voicing fear that these students would take refuge in extremist politics.Nationalist movement
India House's influence among this student group grew considerably, even while under the stewardship of Shyamji Krishna Varma. Indian students who discussed the community at the time described a growing influence of India House—especially in the scenario of the 1905 partition of Bengal—and attributed to it the decrease in the number of Indian applicants for Government posts and the Indian Civil Service. The Indian Sociologist attracted considerable attention amongst London newspapers. Others, however, disagreed with these views, and described India House's appeal as limited. S.D. Bhaba, president of the Indian Christian Union, once described Krishna Varma as a man "whose bark was worse than his bite".Under Savarkar, the organisation became the focus of the Indian revolutionary movement abroad and one of the most important links between revolutionary violence in India and Britain. Although the organisation welcomed those with extremist views as well as moderates, the former outnumbered the latter. Significantly, a number of the residents, especially those who agreed with Savarkar's views, did not have any history of nationalist movement in India, suggesting they were indoctrinated during their stay at India House.
More significantly, India House was a source of arms and seditious literature that was rapidly distributed in India. In addition to The Indian Sociologist, pamphlets like Bande Mataram and Oh Martyrs! by Savarkar extolled revolutionary violence. Direct influences and incitements from India House were noted in several incidences of political violence and assassinations in India at the time. One of the two charges against Savarkar during his trial in Bombay was for abetting of the murder of the District Magistrate of Nasik A.T.M. Jackson by Anant Kanhere in December 1909. The arms used were directly traced through an Italian courier to India House. Other activists such as M.P.T. Acharya and V.V.S. Iyer were also noted in the Rowlatt report to have aided and influenced other political assassinations, including the murder of Robert D'escourt Ashe at the hands of Vanchi Iyer. The Paris-Safranski link was strongly suggested by French police to be involved in the 1907 attempt in Bengal to derail the train carrying the Lieutenant-Governor Sir Andrew Fraser. The activities of nationalists abroad is believed to have quite strongly shaken the loyalty of a number of native regiments of the British Indian Army
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
.
India House and its activities had some influence on the subsequent nonviolent philosophy
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
adopted by Gandhi. He had met some members of India House, including Savarkar, in London as well as in India, and disagreed with the adoption of nationalist and political philosophies from the west. Gandhi dismissively labelled this revolutionary violence as anarchist and its practitioners as "The Modernists". Some of his subsequent writings, including Hind Swaraj, were opposed to the activities of Savarkar and Dhingra, and disputed the argument that violence was innocent if perpetrated under a nationalist identity or while under Colonial victimhood. It was against this strategy of revolutionary violence—and in recognition of its consequences—that the formative background of Gandhian nonviolence was framed.
India Houses abroad
Following the example laid by the original India House, India Houses were opened in the United States and in Japan. Krishna Varma had built close contacts with the Irish Republican movement. As a result, articles from The Indian Sociologist were reprinted in the United States in the Gaelic AmericanGaelic American
The Gaelic American was an Irish Catholic newspaper published in the United States that was, along with the Irish Nation, owned by John Devoy. A weekly publication of the Sinn Féin, it was amongst the foremost Irish ethnic newspapers till the Great Depression when its readership declined. It had at...
. In addition, with the efforts of the growing Indian student population, other organisations mirroring India House emerged. The first of these was the Pan-Aryan Association, modelled after the Indian Home Rule Society, opened in 1906 through the joint Indo-Irish efforts of Mohammed Barkatullah, S.L. Joshi and George Freeman
George Freeman
George Freeman is a Canadian comic book penciller, inker, and colorist.Freeman's comic book illustrating career began with Richard Comely's independent Canadian publication, Captain Canuck. He made the move to the majors and subsequently worked on several superhero comics, such as Green Lantern,...
. Barkatullah himself had been closely associated with Krishna Varma during his earlier stay in London, and his subsequent career in Japan put Barkatullah at the heart of Indian political activities there.
The American branch also invited Madame Cama—who at the time was close to the works of Krishna Varma—to give a series of lectures in the United States. An India House, although not officially allied to the London organisation, was founded in Manhattan in New York in January 1908 with funds from a wealthy lawyer of Irish descent called Myron Phelps. Phelps admired Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...
, and the Vedanta Society
Vedanta Society
The Vedanta Society of Southern California, with its headquarters in Hollywood, was founded in 1930 by Swami Prabhavananda. The society is a branch of the Ramakrishna Order, and maintains subcenters in Pasadena, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Trabuco Canyon...
(established by the Swami) in New York was at the time under Swami Abhedananda
Swami Abhedananda
Swami Abhedananda was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, who Swami Vivekananda sent to the West to head the Vedanta Society, New York in 1897, and spread the message of Vedanta, a theme on which he authored several books through his life, and subsequently founded the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math,...
, who was considered "sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
ist" by the British. In New York, Indian students and ex-residents of London India House took advantage of liberal press laws to circulate The Indian Sociologist and other nationalist literature. New York increasingly became an important centre for the global Indian movement, such that Free Hindustan, a political revolutionary journal published by Taraknath Das closely mirroring The Indian Sociologist, moved from Vancouver and Seattle to New York in 1908. Das collaborated extensively with the Gaelic American with help from George Freeman before Free Hindustan was proscribed in 1910 under British diplomatic pressure. After 1910, the American east coast activities began to decline and gradually shifted to San Francisco. The arrival of Har Dayal
Har Dayal
Lala Har Dayal was a Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service...
around this time bridged the gap between the intellectual agitators and the predominantly Punjabi labour workers and migrants, laying the foundations of the Ghadar movement
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
.
An India House was opened in Tokyo in 1907. The city—like London and New York—had by the end of the 19th century a steadily growing Indian student population, with whom Krishna Varma kept in close contact. However, Krishna Varma was initially concerned about spreading his resources thin, especially since the Japanese centre lacked a strong leadership. He further feared interference from Japan, which was on friendly terms with Britain. Nonetheless, the presence of revolutionaries from Bengal and close correspondence between London and Tokyo houses allowed the latter to gain prominence in The Indian Sociologist. The India House in Tokyo was a residence for sixteen Indian students in 1908 and accepted students from other Asian countries including Ceylon, aiming to build a broad foundation for Indian nationalism based on pan-Asiatic
Pan-Asianism
Pan-Asianism is an ideology or a movement that Asian nations unite and solidify and create a continental identity to defeat the designs of the Western nations to perpetuate hegemony.-Japanese Asianism:...
values. The movement gained new momentum after Barkatullah, on the directions from Krishna Varma and George Freeman, moved from New York to Tokyo in 1909. Taking up the post of Professor of Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
at Tokyo University, Barkatullah was responsible for East Asian distribution of The Indian Sociologist and other nationalist literature from London. His work at the time also included the publication of Islamic Fraternity, which was financed by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. Barkatullah transformed it into an anti-British mouthpiece, invited contributions from Krishna Varma, and advocated Hindu-Muslim unity in India. He published other nationalist pamphlets which found their way to the Pacific coast and East Asian settlements. Further, Barkatullah established links with prominent Japanese politicians including Okawa Shumei
Okawa Shumei
-Esternal links:* Takeuchi Yoshimi: ""* Prof Dr. Selçuk Esenbel, Dozentin an der Bosporus-Universität: ""*...
, whom he won over to the Indian cause. British CID, concerned about the threat that Barkatullah's work posed to the empire, exerted diplomatic pressure to have Islamic Fraternity closed down in 1912. Barkatullah was denied tenure and was forced to leave Japan in 1914.
World War I
Berlin Committee
The Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee after 1915, was an organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and political activists residing in the country. The purpose of the Committee was to promote the cause of Indian Independence...
in Germany, Ghadar Party
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
in North America, and the Indian revolutionary underground
Revolutionary movement for Indian independence
The Revolutionary movement for Indian independence is often a less-highlighted aspect of the Indian independence movement -- the underground revolutionary factions. The groups believing in armed revolution against the ruling British fall into this category. The revolutionary groups were...
attempted to transport men and arms from United States and East Asia into India, intended for a revolution and mutiny in the British Indian Army. During the conspiracy, the revolutionaries collaborated extensively with the Irish Republican Brotherhood
Irish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...
, Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
, Japanese patriotic societies, Ottoman Turkey and most prominently the German Foreign Office. The conspiracy has since been called the Hindu-German conspiracy. Among other efforts, the alliance attempted to rally Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
against British India.
A number of failed mutinies were made in India through 1914-1915, of which the Ghadar Conspiracy
Ghadar Conspiracy
The Ghadar Conspiracy was a conspiracy for a pan-Indian mutiny in the British Indian Army in February 1915 formulated by the Ghadar Party...
, the Singapore Mutiny
1915 Singapore Mutiny
The 1915 Singapore Mutiny, also known as the 1915 Sepoy Mutiny, or Mutiny of the 5th Native Light Infantry was a mutiny involving up to half of 850 sepoys against the British in Singapore during the First World War, linked with the 1915 Ghadar Conspiracy...
, and the Christmas Day Plot
Christmas Day Plot
The Christmas Day plot was a conspiracy made by the Indian revolutionary movement to initiate an insurrection in Bengal in British India during World War I with German arms and support...
were the most notable. The threat posed by the conspiracy was key in the passage of the Defence of India Act 1915
Defence of India Act 1915
The Defence of India Act 1915, also referred to as the Defence of India Regulations Act, was an Emergency Criminal Law enacted by the British Raj in India in 1915 with the intention of curtailing the nationalist and revolutionary activities during and in the aftermath of World War I...
, and suppression of the movement necessitated an international counter-intelligence operation on the part of the British empire lasting nearly ten years. Following the end of World War I, ex-members of India House and erstwhile members of Berlin Committee
Berlin Committee
The Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee after 1915, was an organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and political activists residing in the country. The purpose of the Committee was to promote the cause of Indian Independence...
and the Indian revolutionary movement increasingly turned to the young Soviet Union, becoming closely associated with communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. When the Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...
was founded in Tashkent, in October 1920, a number of its founding members including M.P.T. Acharya, Virendranath Chattopadyaya, Champakaraman Pillai and Abdul Rab had been associated with India House or the Paris Indian Society.
Indian political intelligence
The foundation of British counter-intelligence operation against the Indian revolutionary movement was laid at this time. In January 1910, John Arnold Wallinger, the Superintendent of Police at Bombay, was reassigned to the India Office in London, where he established the Indian Political Intelligence OfficeIndian Political Intelligence Office
The Indian Political Intelligence Office was an Intelligence organisation initially established in England in 1909 in response to the dissemination of anarchist and revolutionary elements of Indian nationalism to different countries in Europe after the liquidation of India House in London in 1909...
. Wallinger used his considerable skills to establish contacts with police officials in London, Paris and throughout continental Europe, creating a network of informants and spies. During World War I, this organisation, working with the French Political Police, the Sûreté
Sûreté
Sûreté is a term used in French speaking countries or regions in the organizational title of a civil police force, especially the detective branch thereof.-France:...
, was key in tracing the Indo-German conspiracy, and attempted to assassinate ex-members of India House (among them V.N. Chattopadhyaya) who were at the time planning for nationalist mutiny in British India. Among Wallinger's recruits during the war was Somerset Maugham, who later mirrored some of his characters and stories on his experiences during the war. Wallinger's organisation was renamed Indian Political Intelligence in 1921, and subsequently grew to form the Intelligence Bureau
Intelligence Bureau (India)
The Intelligence Bureau also known as IB is India's internal intelligence agency and reputedly the world's oldest intelligence agency. It was recast as the Central Intelligence Bureau in 1947 under the Ministry of Home Affairs...
in independent India.
Hindu nationalism
A branch of the nationalist and revolutionary philosophy that arose from India House, especially from the works of V.D. Savarkar, was consolidated in India in the 1920s as an explicit ideology of Hindu nationalismHindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expressions of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of historical India...
. Exemplified by the Hindu Mahasabha, it was distinct from Gandhian devotionalism, and acquired the support of a mass movement that has been described by some as chauvinist. The Indian War of Independence is considered one of Savarkar's most influential works in developing and framing ideas of masculine Hinduism. Amongst Savarkar's work during his stay at India House was a history of the Maratha Confederacy which he described as an exemplary Hindu empire (Hindu Padpadshahi). Further, Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
ian evolutionism and functionalism that Savarkar examined at India House strongly influenced his social and political philosophy, and helped lay the foundations of early Hindu nationalism. It charted the latter's approach to state, society and colonialism, and Spencerian doctrines led Savarkar to stress a "rationalist" and "scientific" approach to national evolution, as well as military aggression for national survival. A number of Spencerian ideas featured prominently in Savarkar's works well into his political writings and works with the Hindu Mahasabha.
External links
- Shyamji Krishna Verma and India House. Bharatiya Vidya BhavanBharatiya Vidya BhavanBharatiya Vidya Bhavan is an Indian educational trust. It was founded on November 7, 1938 by Dr. K. M. Munshi, with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi...
, Mumbai.