Indian War of Independence 1857 – Veer Savarkar

           

Indian War of Independence 1857 – Veer Savarkar 

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), popularly known as Swatantrya Veer Savarkar was a great freedom fighter, social reformer, writer, poet, historian, political leader and philosopher. Most historians, British as well as Indian, have described and dismissed the rising of 1857 as a ‘Sepoy Munity’ or at best ‘The Indian Mutiny’. The book, initially written in Marathi, was penned by Savarkar in response to celebrations in Britain of the 50th anniversary of the 1857 Indian uprising with records from India Office archives and the whole project received support from Indian nationalists in Britain including the likes of Madame Cama, V.V.S. Iyer and M.P.T. Acharya. The book, which describes the 1857 revolt as a unified and national uprising of India as a nation against British authority, was seen at the time as highly inflammatory, and the Marathi edition was banned in British India even before its publication. Its English translation was ultimately printed in Holland in 1909, with the British government not tracing it until too late. The copies were printed with false dust wrappers purporting to be copies of The Pickwick Papers and other literary classics, and large quantities were shipped to India where it quickly became a bible of political extremists.

               

A scene from the 1857 War of Independence

The Indian War of Independence is considered to be an influential work in Indian history and nationalist writing, and also one of Savarkar’s most influential works.

To read and download more books by Savarkar, visit http://www.savarkar.org

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