As the intellectual fountainhead and founder of what is termed as “Hindu nationalism,” Vinayak Damodar Savarkar has emerged as one of the most controversial Indian political thinkers of the 20th Century. This lecture explores the lesser known role and contribution of Savarkar as a revolutionary figure and interprets the impact of his philosophy and writings on India’s revolutionary movement.

Right from his early days in Nasik, where he founded the Mitra Mela and Abhinav Bharat that galvanized revolutionary movements across Maharashtra and created contacts with counterparts in Bengal, the lecture discusses his leadership in leading the revolutionary movement in London as a law student. The coalition of Indian revolutionaries in Europe strove hard to achieve total and complete freedom for India. His works on Mazzini and the First War of Independence of 1857 created a vast intellectual corpus for revolutionary thinking in India. His associates carried on the activity even after his arrest, trial and extradition to the Cellular Jail, especially during the First World War, to get him and other political prisoners released.

This talk encompasses all these aspects of Savarkar’s stormy early life.


About the Speaker: -

Bangalore based historian, Dr. Vikram Sampath is the author of three acclaimed books: Splendours of Royal Mysore: the Untold Story of the Wodeyars; "My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: The Life and Times of a Musician"- and "Voice of the Veena: S Balachander - A Biography" . Vikram was awarded the Sahitya Akademi's first Yuva Puraskar and the ARSC International Award for Excellence in Historical research in New York for his book on Gauhar Jaan. The book has also been adapted to theatre as a play "Gauhar", directed by Lillette Dubey. The book is now being adapted to a Bollywood film by noted film-maker Ashutosh Gowariker. Vikram was among the 4 writers and artists to be selected by the former President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee as a Writer-in-Residence, to stay at the Rashtrapati Bhawan for 2 weeks, in 2015.

Vikram has a doctorate in history & music from the University of Queensland, Australia. Vikram is now a Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi . He is an Aspen Global Leadership Fellow, a Visiting Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study), Berlin and works closely with the Prime Minister's Office on matters related to culture policy. An engineer /mathematician from BITS-Pilani and an MBA in Finance from S P Jain, Mumbai,

Vikram is also a trained Carnatic vocalist trained under several eminent gurus. He has established the Archive of Indian Music, India's first digital sound archive for vintage recordings, is the Founder-Director of the Bangalore Literature Festival, Indic Thoughts Festival and the ZEE Group's ARTH- A CULTURE QUEST. Vikram has worked with several corporates such as GE Money, Citibank and Hewlett Packard and later the Government of India's Ministry of Culture where he headed the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in South India.

Subscribe to our YouTube channels:

YouTube English:    / sangamtalks  
YouTube Hindi:    / sangamhindi  

Follow Sangam Talks on social media :

Telegram : https://t.me/sangamtalks
Twitter:   / sangamtalks  
Facebook:   / sangamtalks  
Instagram:   / sangamtalks  
Website: http://www.sangamtalks.org
Donate: http://www.sangamtalks.org/donate




#VeerSavarkar
#EarlyIndianRevolution
#SangamTalks