Shyamji Krishna Varma (Freedom Fighter) Biography - 450 Words

Shyamji Krishna Varma was a great nationalist leader who took the Indian national movement outside India. He was born on October 4, 1857 in Mandvi, Kutch region of Gujarat. His father's name was Karsan Bhanushali while Gomtibai was his mother. He achieved a great mastery over Sanskrit.


He was very much inspired by Swami Dayanand and became his disciple. Soon he became the President of Bombay Arya Samaj. His fame as a Sanskrit scholar spread all over India and he got the title of 'Pandit' from scholars of Kashi, becoming the first non-Brahmin to get the title of 'Pandit'.

Shyamji Krishna Varma passed his Graduation in 1883. He was elected a non-resident member of the Royal Asiatic Society. He started his career as a lawyer in the Bombay High Court in 1885. He also served as the Diwan of Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh. He visited England in 1897 and settled there. He was very much inspired by Herbert Spencer's ideas and philosophy. But he was much disappointed with the oppressive policies of the British government in India and miserable condition of his fellow countrymen under the foreign rule. He was very much influenced with the political ideas and nationalist theory of B.G. Tilak.

In 1905, he founded the India Home Rule Society, popularly known as The India House for Indian students coming for education in London. The chief objective of the India House was to spread the idea of nationalism. Soon it became a-big centre of Indian nationalistic activities in London. A group of Indian revolutionaries like V.D. Savarkar, Lala Hardayal and Madan Lal Dhingra joined the India House of London. The India House shaped nationalist movement against the British rule outside India. Shyamji Krishna Varma also launched a monthly journal named The Indian Sociologist to spread his nationalistic and revolutionary ideas to his fellow countrymen and others as well. He portrayed the real and cruel face of the British government in India through this journal. After the outbreak of World War I, he made Geneva the centre of his revolutionary activities. He never left the fight of independence of India from the curse of the British rule.

He passed away on March 3D, 1930, leaving his goal of India's freedom unattained, though it was achieved a couple of decades later. In honour of Herbert Spencer, Shyamji started five Indian fellowships, each worth ~ 2000 in England. He also founded an annual Herbert Spencer lectureship at Oxford worth £ 1000. He also started a Swami Dayanand fellowship and launched many others in honour of other great Indian leaders.

Shyamji's The India House was a centre of Indian revolutionaries. It really provided a platform to Indians for their activities against the British rule, in London.