Shyamji Krishna Varma (1857-1930)

A revolutionary, lawyer and journalist, and best known for establishing the India House and the Indian Home Rule Society in London, Varma mentored a number of radicals including Savarkar and Lala Hardyal. He displayed excellent intellect right from the early age. His mastery over Sanskrit at the young age earned him the title of Pandit. He came in touch with Swami Dayanand, a fountainhead of revolutionary thought and founder of Arya Samaj, and was even appointed the President of the Bombay Arya Samaj. Dayanand was impressed by his profound knowledge of Sanskrit and ancient scriptures, so he was asked to tour India to conduct lectures focussing on the Vedic philosophy. This earned him popularity among people across India.

Varma moved to England upon invitation by Sir Monier Williams, a professor in Oxford University, and received a postgraduate degree in arts (the first Indian to do so) and a Bachelor in Civil Law. He helped Williams in the study of oriental Sanskrit texts. He was later called to the Inner Temple as a pioneering Indian barrister. Numerous professors and scholars, including Max Muller thought high of his potential.

Back in India in 1885, he served as the Diwan (chief minister) or part of the cabinet in several princely states like Ratlam, Udaipur and Junagadh. Peeved at the attitude of the British agent at Junagadh and his humiliation by the British racial discrimination, he returned to England in 1897 to run India’s freedom movement from there. When Gandhiji supported the British government in the Boer War, Varma criticised him strongly because the people of Boer were a small nation fighting for their freedom against the British imperialism and greed.

In addition to establishing the India House and the Indian Home Rule Society in 1905, he also started a monthly journal, The Indian Sociologist, a tool to propagate his views on freedom and self-rule. The purpose of setting up the Society was to specifically secure home rule in India, carry out propaganda in England by all possible means, and to spread the virtues of freedom and national unity among Indians. He also published pamphlets, wrote books and delivered lectures condemning the British domination over India. In addition to the Herbert Spencer Fellowship, he also started other fellowships, including the ones in the name of Swami Dayanand, to support the cause of Indian students and social justice.

At the inauguration ceremony of the India House, a hostel providing lodging and boarding to 25 Indian students, were present numerous Indian and foreign luminaries, including Dadabhai Naoroji, Lala Lajpat Rai and Madam Cama. Speaking on this occasion, Mr. H.M. Hyndman, the founder of the Social Democratic Federation, said: “As things stand, loyalty to Great Britain means treachery to India. The institution of this India House means a great step in that direction of Indian growth and Indian emancipation, and some of those who are here this afternoon, may live to witness the fruits of its triumphant success.”

Owing to his fiery writings and speeches, he was disbarred from the Inner Temple; interestingly, he was reinstated to it posthumously more than a century later saying that he was not given a proper, fair hearing. To avoid arrest, Varma moved to Paris, and then to Geneva in Switzerland when the First World War broke out. Even there, he continued with his campaign until his death.

About this time, when Gandhiji was raising voice for the rights of the coloured people in South Africa which never focussed on India’s freedom, Shyamji Krishna Varma started his freedom movement abroad. He too favoured non-violence as the tool to achieve freedom, but did not rule out violence if need be. He was the first to adopt the term Swaraj or self-rule which was later adopted by the Congress leader Dadabhai Naoroji and others.

In Paris, Varma continued with his agenda of India’s freedom and worked to procure support among the Europeans. There he also agitated to secure the release of Savarkar when he was arrested when fleeing from the ship by the French police and handed back to the British authorities. For this, he received great support all over Europe and Russia. In Geneva, he had to somewhat moderate his tone for freedom struggle as he had given a word of political inaction to the Swiss government during the war period.

Varma did not live to witness India’s independence, but he had strong conviction that one day India would rise to freedom. Just before his death, he made prepaid arrangements with the local government at Geneva, Ville de Geneve, and St. George Cemetery to preserve his and his wife’s ashes at the cemetery for one hundred years and to send their urns to India whenever India gains freedom. It took a nationalist leader, Narendra Modi, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, to bring back the urns and erect a memorial in the name of this great patriot at his birthplace Mandvi in 2003.

Written by: A.K. Gandhi