Remembering Veer Savarkar

The 126th birth anniversary of Veer Savarkar falls on 28 May 2009. It is an occasion to remember and reflect on Savarkar's life and achievements.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, commonly known as Swatantryaveer Savarkar was a fearless freedom fighter, social reformer, writer, dramatist, poet, historian, political leader and philosopher. He remains largely unknown to the masses because of the vicious propaganda against him and misunderstanding around him that has been created over several decades. This website attempts to bring the life, thought, actions and relevance of Savarkar before a global audience.

Veer Savarkar - A legend

* The first political leader to daringly set Absolute Political Independence as India's goal (1900).
* The first Indian political leader to daringly perform a bonfire of foreign (English) clothes (1905).
* The first Indian to organize a revolutionary movement for India's Independence on an international level (1906).
* The first Indian law student who was not called to the
English Bar despite having passed his examination and observed the
necessary formalities, for his activities to seek India's freedom from
the British (1909).
* The only Indian leader whose arrest in London caused legal
difficulties for British Courts and whose case is still referred to in
the interpretations of the Fugitive Offenders Act and the Habeas Corpus (Rex Vs Governor of Brixton Prison, ex-parte Savarkar)
* The first Indian historian whose book on the 1857 War of
Independence was proscribed by British Authorities in India even before
its publication. The Governor General had asked the Postmaster General
to confiscate copies of the book six months before the book was
officially banned (1909).
* The first political prisoner whose daring escape and arrest on French soil became a cause celebre
in the International Court of Justice at The Hague. This case was
mentioned in many International Treaties at that time (1910).
* The first graduate whose degree was withdrawn by an Indian University for striving for India's freedom (1911).
* The first poet in the world who, deprived of pen and paper,
composed his poems and then wrote them on the prison walls with thorns
and nails, memorized ten thousand lines of his poetry for years and
later transmitted them to India through his fellow-prisoners who also
memorized these lines.
* The first revolutionary leader who within less than 10 years
gave a death-blow to the practice of untouchability in the remote
district of Ratnagiri while being interned there.
* The first Indian leader who successfully started -
o A Ganeshotsava open to all Hindus including ex-untouchables (1930).
o Interdining ceremonies of all Hindus including ex-untouchables (1931).
o "Patitpavan Mandir", open to all Hindus including ex-untouchables (22 February 1931).
o A cafe open to all Hindus including ex-untouchables (01 May 1933).

* The first political prisoner in the world who was sentenced
to Transportation for Life twice, a sentence unparalled in the history
of the British Empire.
* The first political leader to embrace death voluntarily by way of Atma Samarpan in the highest tradition of Yoga (1966).

Read more at http://www.savarkar.org/en/veer-savarkar