Shyamji Krishna Verma

He was the mentor to many leading lights of India’s revolutionary movement, ranging from Veer Savarkar to Lala Hardayal to Madame Bhikaji Cama. He  gave up a flourishing legal career to take part in the freedom struggle.  He founded the India House in London, which would become the center for most Indian revolutionaries, operating outside of India or in exile. Shyamji Krishna Varma, one of the most brilliant minds of the modern era, a selfless patriot, who gave his everything for the nation’s freedom. He was deeply influenced by the views of Swami Dayanand Saraswati’s teachings, as well as that of Herbert Spencer.

Resistance to aggression is not simply justified, but imperative

Shyamji Krishna Varma was born in the year of India’s great mutiny, 1857 on October 4, in Mandvi, Kutch to Krushnadas Bhanushali, a laborer in a cotton press and Gomatibai. He belonged to the Bhanushali community who are of Kshatriya origin and are settled mostly in Kutch and speak Kutchi.  His ancestors were from Bhachunda, a village now located in Abdasa taluk of Kutch, having lost his mother at age of 11 he was raised by his grandmother. He migrated to Mumbai later, where he learnt Sanskrit, and was a student of the Wilson High School. He got married to Bhanumati, daughter of a rich businessman, sister of his close friend Ramdas.It was in Mumbai he met Swami Dayananda Saraswati in 1875, and was deeply influenced by his teachings. He soon began to speak on Vedic philosophy and also became the first non Brahmin to be awarded the title of Pandit in Kashi in 1877, for his prowess in Sanskrit.

He studied at Ballol College, Oxford in 1881, and later came back to India in 1885 for law practice. During his stay in England, he delivered an impressive speech on the origins of writing in India, and was made a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. In India he set up his legal practice at Ajmer, and also invested in cotton printing presses, there which gave him a steady income. He worked in the princely states of Ratlam, Udaipur for some time. However a rather bitter experience with a British agent in the state of Junagadh shook his faith in their rule, and he resigned in 1897.

Plunging headlong into the freedom struggle, he was a close associate of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and a part of the Extremist section of Congress. After Swami Dayananda, it was Tilak who influenced him the most. He however had no faith in the Moderates tactics of petition, campaign, and felt only an aggressive resistance, could get rid of the British rule. He once again moved to England, where he would play a very significant role in the freedom struggle. He stayed at the Inner Temple in London, and studied the writings of Herbert Spencer who would be another major influence on him.

He bought an expensive home at Highgate, where he would set up the India House on July 1, 1900, which was meant for Indian students in London to accomdate them, and would soon become a meeting spot for various revolutionaries living in exile or abroad. It was inagurated by Henry Hyndman of Social Democratic Federation, a pro India writer and thinker, in a function attended by Lala Lajpat Rai, Madam Bhikaji Cama, Dadabhai Nauroji among others.

He used his money to fund scholarships in the name of Herbert Spencer and Swami Dayananda Saraswati, two thinkers he greatly admired. These scholarships would be greatly beneficial to poor Indian students, as well financially supporting Indian students in London.

He also started the Indian Sociologist, a magazine to spread, economic and political ideas. He aimed to awaken Indians against the British Raj, and also spread nationalism through it. In February 1905 he also set up the India Home Rule Society with the objective of securing home rule for India, while carrying on the propaganda against the British rule and spreading the values of freedom and national unity among Indian masses.

His activities however began to worry the British Govt that saw him as a threat. He was debarred from the Inner Temple, his membership was revoked. Even the British media wrote against him regularly, and he was put under constant surveillance by the Government.

Among the many Indian students who wished to avail his scholarship was Savarkar, who in his application, tressed upon his participation in the Swadeshi movement, the college debarring him and his relationship with Tilak and Paranjpe.

“For me independence and liberty are the very pulse and breath of a nation. From my boyhood, dear Sir up to this moment, the only theme of which I dream about during night and muse during daytime is the loss of freedom of my country and regaining it. “

This was Tilak’s reccomendation later

“He is from Bombay, his name is Savarkar. He graduated last year, a dynamic young man who has been in the forefront of the Swadeshi movement.  Because of which he has had to incur the displeasure of the college management. He does not wish to enter Government service and his character is excellent”.

By May 1906, Savarkar was given the Shivaji scholarship, a sum of Rs 2000, and he had to sign an agreement with Shyamji. On May 20, Savarkar signed it in presence of Daji Nagesh Apte and Krishnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar. It stated that in case of a dispute between Savarkar and Shyamji, Tilak would be acting as the mediator here. When Savarkar met Shyamji Krishna Varma, he took him around London, and told him this is your Kurukshetra now, where you have to fight your battle. True to his name, he was the Krishna to Savarkar’s Arjun, guiding him in the battlefield.

His India House, by now had become a hub for the Indian freedom struggle abroad, and a refuge for many Indians arriving in England then. Veer Savarkar, Madame Bhikaji Cama, Lala Hardayal, Madan Lal Dhingra, all were nurtured in Shyamji’s India House in London. From Irish revolutionaries to free thinkers to rationalists, the India House was soon teeming with activity, it became a center of discourse.However with the constant British surveillance on his activities, Shyamji felt it safer to shift to Paris, and leaving India House in charge of Savarkar, he evaded the police network and reached Paris in 1907.

Though the British Government tried to extradite him, it was in vain, as he had the support of many influential French politicians too. Shyamji by now managed to get support for the cause of India’s independence all over Europe, and even among many sections in Britain. When Veer Savarkar was arrested, Shyamji successfully managed to ignite public opinion against his arrest.

However he had to once again flee Paris in 1914, to Geneva, due to the visit of King George V there. And with a ban on political activities, he had to live under virtual seclusion in Geneva. Even in Geneva, he was placed under house arrest, where he got in touch with Dr. Briess, president of the pro India Comittee there. In reality Briess was a secret agent of the British Government,  who regularly informed them of the activities. He also offered a sum of 10,000 francs to League of Nations to endow a lectureship on independence, freedom, which however was rejected on pressure by the British Government. He even made the offer to the Swiss Government, however inspite of all the applause for it, nothing really came out, leaving him disappointed.

He spent his last years there and passed away  on March 30 1930, a disillusioned man, broken by the betrayal of what he felt were close friends around him. Though the British suppressed the news of his death, it managed to come out and tributes were paid to him by Bhagat Singh, then undergoing trial in the Lahore prison.  He made a deal with the Swiss Govt to preserve his ashes for a 100 years, and send them to India only when it became independent. A truly great son of India, who mentored many other revolutionaries, set up India House, ignited a national discussion. A thinker, freedom fighter, intellectual and activist, that was Shyamji Krishna Varma.