Shyamji Krishna Varma
Shyamji Krishna Varma | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 30 March 1930 | (aged 72)
Monuments | Kranti Teerth, Mandvi, Kutch |
Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
Occupation(s) | Revolutionary, lawyer, journalist |
Organizations | |
Movement | Indian Independence Movement |
Spouse |
Bhanumati (m. 1875) |
Parent(s) | Karsan Bhanushali (Nakhua), Gomatibai |
Shyamji Krishna Varma (4 October 1857 – 30 March 1930) was an Indian
In 1905, he founded the India House and The Indian Sociologist, which rapidly developed as an organised meeting point for radical nationalists among Indian students in Britain at the time and one of the most prominent centres for revolutionary Indian nationalism outside India. Krishna Varma moved to Paris in 1907, avoiding prosecution.
Early life
This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2022) |
Shyamji Krishna Varma was born on 4 October 1857 in
In 1875, he married Bhanumati, a daughter of a wealthy businessman of the Bhatia community and sister of his school friend Ramdas. Then he got in touch with the nationalist
In 1877, a public speaking tour secured him a great public recognition. He became the first non-Brahmin to receive the prestigious title of Pandit by the Pandits of Kashi in 1877.
He came to the attention of Monier Williams, an Oxford professor of Sanskrit who offered Shyamji a job as his assistant.[4]
Oxford
Shyamji arrived in England and joined
Legal career
He returned to India in 1885 and started practice as a lawyer. Then he was appointed as Diwan (chief minister) by the King of Ratlam State; but ill health forced him to retire from this post with a lump sum gratuity of RS 32052 for his service. After a short stay in Mumbai, he settled in Ajmer, headquarters of his Guru Swami Dayananda Saraswati, and continued his practice at the British Court in Ajmer.
He invested his income in three cotton presses and secured sufficient permanent income to be independent for the rest of his life. He served for the Maharaja of Udaipur as a council member from 1893 to 1895, followed by the position of Diwan of Junagadh State. He resigned in 1897 after a bitter experience with a British agent that shook his faith in British rule in India.
Nationalism
Having read Satyarth Prakash and other books of Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Shyamji Krishna Varma was very much impressed with his philosophy, writings and spirit of Nationalism and had become one of his ardent admirers. It was upon Dayanand's inspiration, he set up a base in England at India House.
However, he rejected the petitioning, praying, protesting, cooperating and collaborating policy of the Congress Party, which he considered undignified and shameful. Shyamji Krisha supported
England
Ordained by Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya samaj, Shyamji Krishan Varma upon his arrival in London stayed at the Inner Temple and studied Herbert Spencer's writings in his spare time. In 1900, he bought an expensive house in Highgate.
He was inspired by Spencer's writings. At Spencer's funeral in 1903, he announced the donation of £1,000 to establish a lectureship at University of Oxford in tribute to him and his work.
A year later he announced that Herbert Spencer Indian fellowships of RS 2000 each were to be awarded to enable Indian graduates to finish their education in England. He announced additional fellowship in memory of the late Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, along with another four fellowships in the future.
Political activism
In 1905, Shyamji focused his activity as a political propagandist and organiser for the complete independence of India. Shyamji made his debut in Indian politics by publishing the first issue of his English monthly,
Indian Home Rule Society
On 18 February 1905, Shyamji inaugurated a new organisation called
- Securing Home Rule for India
- Carrying on propaganda in England by all practical means with a view to attain the same.
- Spreading among the people of India the objectives of freedom and national unity.
India House
As many Indian students faced
Later in 1905, Shyamji attended the United Congress of Democrats held at
Paris and Geneva
He arrived in Paris in early 1907 to continue his work. The British government tried to have him extradited from France without success as he gained the support of many top French politicians.[citation needed] Shyamji's name was dragged into the sensational trial of Mr Merlin, an Englishman, at Bow Street Magistrates' Court, for writing an article in liberators published by Shyamji's friend, Mr. James.
Shyamji's work in Paris helped gain support for Indian Independence from European countries. He agitated for the release of Savarker and acquired great support all over Europe and Russia.[
Post–World War I
He offered a sum of 10,000 francs to the League of Nations to endow a lectureship to be called the President Woodrow Wilson Lectureship for the discourse on the best means of acquiring and safe guarding national independence consistently with freedom, justice, and the right of asylum accorded to political refugees. It is said that the league rejected his offer due to political pressure from British government. A similar offer was made to the Swiss government which was also turned down. He offered another lectureship at the banquet given by Press Association of Geneva where 250 journalists and celebrities, including the presidents of Swiss Federation and the League of Nations. Shyamji's offer was applauded on the spot but nothing came of it. Shyamji was disappointed with the response and he published all his abortive correspondence on this matter in the next issue of the Sociologist appearing in December 1920, after a lapse of almost six years.
Death and commemoration
He published two more issues of Indian Sociologist in August and September 1922, before ill health prevented him continuing. He died in hospital at 11:30 p.m. on 30 March 1930 leaving his wife, Bhanumati Krishnavarma.
News of his death was suppressed by the British colonial government in India. Nevertheless, tributes were paid to him by Bhagat Singh and other inmates in Lahore Jail where they were undergoing a long-term drawn-out trial.[6] Maratha, an English daily newspaper started by Bal Gangadhar Tilak paid tribute to him.
He had made prepaid arrangements with the local government of Geneva and St Georges cemetery to preserve his and his wife's ashes at the cemetery for 100 years and to send their urns to India whenever it became independent during that period. Requested by Paris-based scholar Dr Prithwindra Mukherjee, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi agreed to repatriate the ashes. Finally on 22 August 2003, the urns of ashes of Shyamji and his wife Bhanumati were handed over to then Chief Minister of Gujarat State Narendra Modi by the Ville de Genève and the Swiss government 55 years after Indian Independence. They were brought to Mumbai and after a long procession throughout Gujarat, they reached Mandvi, his birthplace.[7] A memorial called Kranti Teerth dedicated to him was built and inaugurated in 2010 near Mandvi. Spread over 52 acres, the memorial complex houses a replica of India House building at Highgate along with statues of Shyamji Krishna Varma and his wife. Urns containing Krishna Verma's ashes, those of his wife, and a gallery dedicated to earlier activists of Indian independence movement is housed within the memorial. Krishna Verma was disbarred from the Inner Temple in 1909. This decision was revisited in 2015, and a unanimous decision taken to posthumously reinstated him.[8][9]
In the 1970s, a new town developed in his native state of
The India Post has issued a postal stamp on shyamji Krishna Varma on 4 October 1989.
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Shyamji Krishna Varma 1989 stamp of India
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Kranti Teerth, Shyamji Krishna Varma Memorial, Mandvi, Kutch (replica of India House is visible in background)
References
- ISBN 978-0-14-010781-4.
- ^ ISBN 81-261-2355-9.
- ISBN 0-7914-2063-9.
- ^ a b Sundaram, V. (8 October 2006) Pandit Shyamji Krishna Verma, boloji.com. Accessed 28 August 2022.
- ^ ब्यावरहिस्ट्री डोट काम पर आपका स्वागत है. Beawarhistory.com. Retrieved on 7 December 2018.
- ^ Sanyal, Jitendra Nath (May 1931). Sardar Bhagat Singh.
- ^ Soondas, Anand (24 August 2003). "Road show with patriot ash". The Telegraph, Calcutta, India. Archived from the original on 17 September 2004. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
- ^ "Modi dedicates 'Kranti Teerth' memorial to Shyamji Krishna Verma". The Times of India. 13 December 2010. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- ^ Bowcott, Owen (11 November 2015). "Indian lawyer disbarred from Inner Temple a century ago is reinstated". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
Further reading
- Mr. Vishnu Pandya, Mr. Hitesh Bhanushali (1890). Krantiveer's Biography as a Story-Gujarati. Krishna Type Setting Works, Sadra, Dist. -Ahemdabad, State - Gujarat, Country - India.
External links
- Media related to Shyamji Krishna Varma at Wikimedia Commons