Answer the following questions in brief.

Explain the contribution of Swatantryaveer Savarkar in the armed revolutionary movement.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was an eminent Indian revolutionary who fought for the independence of the country from British rule. His involvement in the struggle for India’s independence began early on when he founded the ‘Mitramela’- a secret organisation of revolutionaries in Nasik in 1900. This organisation known for encouraging revolutionary and nationalist views was renamed as ‘Abhinav Bharat’ in 1904.

Savarkar went for his higher studies to London through a scholarship provided by the India House. Pandit Shyamji Krishna Varma, an Indian patriot, had established India House, in London, which also provided assistance to Indian revolutionaries along with scholarships to Indian students who wanted to pursue higher education. From London, he supported the Indian independence movement by sending in guns and by writing revolutionary literature.

Savarkar published The Indian War of Independence about the Indian rebellion of 1857 that was banned by British authorities. He also wrote an inspiring biography of Joseph Mazzini, the famous Italian revolutionary. He was arrested in 1910 for his connections with the revolutionary group India House. Savarkar was sentenced to two life terms of imprisonment totalling fifty years and was moved to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but released in 1921 after several mercy petitions to the Britishers. In his autobiography ‘Majhi Janmathep’ he wrote down about his experiences during incarceration. After his release, he was detained in Ratnagiri by the government. Savarkar started many social movements such as the removal of caste differences, removal of untouchability, common dining, purification of language etc. He was the President of Marathi Sahitya Sammelan at Mumbai in 1938. Not only was Savarkar a great writer but he is remembered in Indian history as one of the first to take up armed resistance against the British rule in India.