India House and Revolutionary Nationalism

India House was a student hostel and political organization established in Highgate, London, between 1905 and 1910. Founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma, it served as the headquarters for Indian revolutionaries operating in Europe. The institution provided housing, political education, and financial support to Indian students in the United Kingdom while organizing radical anti-colonial networks.

Foundation and Institutional Framework

In February 1905, Shyamji Krishna Varma launched the Indian Home Rule Society in London. On July 1, 1905, he inaugurated India House at 65 Cromwell Avenue, Highgate. The primary objective was to create an independent platform for Indian nationalism outside the reach of British Indian police surveillance.

Associated Organizations and Fellowships

• Indian Home Rule Society (IHRS): Served as the parent political body aimed at securing self-rule for India through anti-colonial propaganda.
• The Indian Fellowships Scheme: Shyamji Krishna Varma instituted travel stipends for Indian graduates. Notable awards included the Swami Dayananda Saraswati Fellowship, Shivaji Fellowship, and Maharana Pratap Fellowship.
• The Indian Sociologist: An official monthly journal edited by Shyamji Krishna Varma. It circulated political essays advocating non-cooperation and armed resistance against British rule.

Ideology, Operations, and Key Personalities

India House evolved into an underground hub for radical political ideas, weapons procurement, and revolutionary publishing. Members drew inspiration from Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini, Russian nihilists, and historical Indian uprisings.

Radicalization under V. D. Savarkar

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar arrived at India House in 1906 on a Herbert Spencer Fellowship. Under his influence, the hostel transformed into a secret operational center.

• Free India Society: Savarkar founded this organization as the open wing of Abhinav Bharat in London to recruit students.
• Literature and Propaganda: Savarkar authored The Indian War of Independence 1857, which reinterpreted the 1857 Revolt as an organized national war against colonial rule. He also translated Mazzini’s autobiography into Marathi.
• Arms Procurement: Members procured semi-automatic Browning pistols and smuggled them into India concealed inside false-bottomed trunks sent to revolutionaries in Maharashtra and Bengal.

Major Incidents and Dissolution

Assassination of Sir Curzon-Wyllie (1909)

On July 1, 1909, Madan Lal Dhingra shot Lt. Col. Sir William Hutt Curzon-Wyllie, political aide-de-camp to the Secretary of State for India, during a meeting at the Imperial Institute in London. Dr. Cawas Lalcaca, an Indian physician who attempted to defend Wyllie, was also killed. Dhingra made no attempt to escape and was arrested at the scene.

Colonial Suppression and Aftermath

The assassination triggered immediate crackdowns by New Scotland Yard and British intelligence services.

• Execution of Dhingra: Madan Lal Dhingra was tried, convicted, and hanged on August 17, 1909, at Pentonville Prison.
• Arrest of Savarkar: V. D. Savarkar was arrested in London in March 1910 under the Fugitive Offenders Act. Following his attempted escape at Marseilles, he was tried in the Nasik Conspiracy Case and transported to the Andaman Islands.
• Dispersal of Network: Scotland Yard placed India House under constant surveillance, forcing its leaders to close the hostel in 1910. Key activists shifted operations to Paris, Geneva, and Berlin, laying the groundwork for the Berlin Committee during World War I.

Essential Facts

Shyamji Krishna Varma was a Sanskrit scholar educated at Balliol College, Oxford, who served as Diwan in multiple Indian princely states including Ratlam, Udaipur, and Junagadh before moving to England. In June 1907, rising British intelligence pressure forced Shyamji Krishna Varma to abandon London and move the headquarters of The Indian Sociologist to Paris. Sardar Singhji Rahabhai Rana (S. R. Rana), a pearl merchant based in Paris, funded several fellowships associated with India House, including those awarded to V. D. Savarkar and Senapati Bapat. The Browning pistols smuggled from London by India House operatives were used in the 1909 assassination of Nasik District Magistrate A. M. T. Jackson by Anant Laxman Kanhere. Shyamji Krishna Varma died in Geneva in 1930. His ashes were preserved in Switzerland and brought back to India in 2003, where they are enshrined at the Kranti Teerth memorial in Mandvi, Gujarat.