revolutionary

Madame Cama

About: 

Madame Cama is known as the 'Mother of Indian Revolution'. She was married to Rustom Cama, a wealthy lawyer based in Bombay. Having worked as a social worker during the Bombay Plague epidemic in 1897, she became ill herself and was sent to Britain in 1901/2 for treatment.

Cama met Shyamaji Krishnavarma and became involved in European revolutionary circles. She met Dadabhai Naoroji, a moderate nationalist, and worked for him in his unsuccessful campaign to contest Lambeth North in the 1906 General Election. However, Cama identified with more radical politics than Naoroji's, in particular the Indian Home Rule Society and Krishnavarma's India House. In 1907, she attended the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart. Cama addressed the delegates at Stuttgart and unfolded the Indian Tricolour Flag (green, yellow and red) with Bande Mataram written on the middle. This was the first time an Indian flag was displayed in a foreign country and was part of the template for the tricolour adopted by the Indian nation.

In 1909, Cama settled in Paris and began publishing a monthly journal called Bande Mataram after the assassination of Sir Curzon-Wyllie. Her house became a meeting point for various revolutionaries and exiles (Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, V. D. Savarkar, members of the Ghadr Party) and she met many Indians when they came through Europe (Jawaharlal Nehru, Herabai Tata, Mithan Lam). Cama herself was an exile from India until she renounced seditionist activities. The portrayal of the revolutionary Indian wife Kamala in Alice Sorabji Pennell’s Doorways of the East appears to be based on the life and character of Madame Cama. In November 1935, she returned to Bombay and died nine months later.

Date of birth: 
24 Sep 1861
Contributions to periodicals: 

Bande Mataram

Secondary works: 

Mody, Nawaz B. (ed.), The Parsis in Western India: 1818-1920 (Bombay: Allied Publishers Ltd, 1998)

Saha, Panchanan, Madame Cama 'Mother of Indian Revolution' (Calcutta: Manisha, 1975)

Sethna, Khorshed Adi, Madame Bhikaiji Rustom Cama (New Delhi: Govt. of India, 1987)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)

Visram, Rozina, Women in India and Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)

Yajnik, Indulal, Shyamaji Krishnavarma (Bombay: Lakshmi Publications, 1950)

Archive source: 

India Office intelligence files, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

City of birth: 
Bombay
Country of birth: 
India
Current name city of birth: 
Mumbai
Other names: 

Bhikaiji Rustom Cama

Bhikai Sorab Patel

Location

44 St Marks Road
North Kensington, London, W10 6JT
United Kingdom
51° 31' 8.8896" N, 0° 13' 2.5968" W
Date of death: 
13 Aug 1936
Location of death: 
Bombay (Mumbai), India
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1901
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1901-9 (on and off)

Tags for Making Britain: 

Virendranath Chattopadhyaya

About: 

Virendranath Chattopadhyaya was the second of eight children born to Aghorenath Chattopadhyaya and his wife, a Bengali family, in Hyderabad. His siblings include Sarojini Naidu and Harindranath Chattopadhyaya. Virendranath was also known as 'Chatto'.

Virendranath travelled to England in 1902 to study law and compete for the Indian Civil Service (ICS). He failed the ICS exams twice and enrolled in Middle Temple. In 1903, he was living with an English woman in Notting Hill under the names Mr and Mrs Chatterton. The couple parted ways in 1909.

Virendranath was rejected from Shyamaji Krishnavarma's India House scholarships in 1905 but was intimately involved with the India House organization in Highgate. Following the murder of Sir Curzon Wyllie by Madan Lal Dhingra in July 1909, Chattopadhyaya sent a letter to The Times in support of Savarkar's right to freedom of speech in response to the assassination. He was then expelled from Middle Temple. Virendranath was a close friend of V. D. Savarkar in London and visited him frequently in Brixton Gaol in 1910. To avoid a warrant for his arrest, Virendranath went into exile in June 1910 by moving to Paris.

Published works: 

Grammar of Hindustani Language (London, 1913)

Date of birth: 
31 Oct 1880
Connections: 
Contributions to periodicals: 

Orient Review, 1908 (editor and publisher)

Notes and Queries, 1908-1910 (contributed philological notes)

The Talwar, 1909 (editor)

Secondary works: 

Barooah, Nirode K., Chatto: The Life and Times of an Indian Anti-Imperialist in Europe (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Mukherjee, Meenakshi, 'From the Margins of History: Agnes Smedley and Virendranath Chattopadhyay', Elusive Terrain: Culture and Literary Memory (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008)

Smedley, Agnes, Battle Hymn of China (London: Victor Gollancz, 1944)

Archive source: 

Letters to The Times, 28 December 1908, 9 July 1909, 12 July 1909

Indian Agitators Abroad, compiled by the Criminal Intelligence Office, Simla (1911), Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

City of birth: 
Hyderabad
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Chatto

Location

Notting Hill London, W11 3AG
United Kingdom
51° 30' 32.1156" N, 0° 12' 7.164" W
Date of death: 
02 Sep 1937
Location of death: 
Moscow, Russia
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1902
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1902 - 9 June 1910

Shyamaji Krishnavarma

About: 

Shyamaji Krishnavarma first came to Britain in 1879 as a Sanskrit scholar and assistant to Professor Monier Williams at Oxford. He graduated from Balliol College in 1883 and was called to the Bar in 1884. In 1881, he attended the Berlin Congress of Orientalists.

Krishnavarma returned to India to work in service to the Indian Princely States and then returned to England in 1897, settling with his wife at Highgate. They first lived at a house he bought at 9 Queenswood Avenue. He endowed an annual lecture in honour of Herbert Spencer in 1904, after attending the funeral service of Herbert Spencer in Golders Green in December 1903. He also created scholarships for Indian students to study in Britain from 1905, on the condition that they would not work for the British Government.

In February 1905, Krishnavarma founded the Indian Home Rule Society. He then established India House in Highgate (at 65 Cromwell Avenue) in the same year (July 1905), as a hostel for Indian students, which became a meeting-place for Indian revolutionaries in London. Krishnavarma fled to Paris in 1907 to avoid arrest and censure by the British Government in relation to his published inflammatory material, such as the journal The Indian Sociologist, and the political activities of India House. He was also disbarred from Inner Temple. After a lapse between 1914 and 1920, Krishnavarma began to publish The Indian Sociologist again from Geneva until 1922. He died in Geneva in 1930.

Published works: 

Editor of Indian Sociologist, 1905-14, 1920-2

Introduction to Richard Congreve’s pamphlet, India [Denying England’s right to retain her possessions], first published in 1857; reprinted with Krishnavarma’s introduction (London: A. Bonner, 1907)

Various articles on Sanskrit and Indology

Date of birth: 
04 Oct 1857
Connections: 

Madame Cama, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, Sukhsagar Datta, Charlotte Despard (through India House), Maud Gonne, H. M. Hyndman (through India House), Benjamin Jowett (from his time in Oxford), Monier Monier Williams, Max Müller, Dadabhai Naoroji (through India House), V. D. Savarkar (India House), Herbert Spencer (attended his funeral).

Secondary works: 

Padhya, Hemant, 'Shyamji Krishnavarma' (unpublished, contact author) [H. Padhya also holds an archive of material relating to Krishnavarma]

Yajnik, Indulal, Shyamaji Krishnavarma: Life and Times of an Indian Revolutionary, foreword by Sarat Chandra Bose (Bombay: Lakshmi Publications, 1950)

Varma, Ganeshi Lal, Shyamji Krishna Varma: the Unknown Patriot (New Delhi: Govt. of India, 1993)

Archive source: 

IOR/L/I/1/1432, India Office Records, Asian and African Collections Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Private collection, Hemant Padhya

Involved in events: 

Foundation of Indian Institute, Oxford, 2 May 1883 (see The Oxford Chronicle and Berks and Bucks Gazette, 5 May 1883)

Foundation of India House, Highgate, 1 July 1905 (see The Indian Sociologist, August 1905)

City of birth: 
Mandavi, Kutch, Gujarat
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Shyamji Krishnavarma

Locations

Balliol College, Oxford OX1 3BJ
United Kingdom
51° 43' 26.2992" N, 1° 16' 30.414" W
65 Cromwell Avenue, Highgate
N6 5HH
United Kingdom
51° 34' 12.9684" N, 0° 8' 29.1084" W
9 Queenswood Avenue (60 Muswell Hill Road), Highgate
N10 3JE
United Kingdom
51° 35' 8.8512" N, 0° 8' 48.6564" W
Date of death: 
30 Mar 1930
Location of death: 
Geneva, Switzerland
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Apr 1879
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1879-85, 1897-1907

India House

About: 

Not to be confused with the offices of the Indian Embassy in Aldwych, India House was set up as a hostel for Indian students and became a hotbed for Indian revolutionaries in Europe. The House was opened on 1 July 1905 by H. M. Hyndman in Highgate. Other prominent figures present at the opening included Dadabhai Naoroji, Charlotte Despard and Bhikaji Cama. The Indian Home Rule Society held weekly Sunday meetings at India House, passing resolutions condemning arrests in India and advocating total independence for India. They held Annual Martyrs’ Day celebrations to commemorate the 1857 Rebellion.

Founded by Shyamaji Krishnavarma, leadership was taken up by V. D. Savarkar in 1907 as Krishnavarma was exiled to Paris. Krishnavarma's journal, The Indian Sociologist, was an organ of India House. The organization disbanded after its implication in the murder of Sir Curzon Wyllie in July 1909. The assassin, Madan Lal Dhingra, had been known to frequent India House and Savarkar refused to condemn his actions. Following their arrests, India House was closed down and sold.

Published works: 

The Indian Sociologist, journal edited by Krishnavarma (1905-14 and 1920-2)

Savarkar’s Indian War of Independence, translated from Marathi to English at India House and published in London in May 1909

Secondary works: 

Garnett, David, The Golden Echo (London: Chatto & Windus, 1953)

Ker, J. C., Political Troubles in India, 1907-1917 (Calcutta: Superintendent Govt Printing, 1917)

Srivastava, Harindra, Five Stormy Years: Savarkar in London (June 1906 - June 1911) (New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1983)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)

Date began: 
01 Jul 1905
Connections: 

Madame Cama, Lala Har Dayal, Charlotte Despard, Madan Lal Dhingra, M. K. Gandhi (stayed there on a visit in 1906), David Garnett, H. M. Hyndman, Dadabhai Naoroji.

Ghadr Party

Date ended: 
01 Jan 1909
Archive source: 

Metropolitan Police Report, File 3264 (2 Sep 1908), L/PJ/6/890, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Location

65 Cromwell Avenue Highgate
London, N6 5HH
United Kingdom
Involved in events details: 

Murder of Curzon Wyllie, July 1909

David Garnett

About: 

David Garnett, the son of Edward Garnett and Constance Black, was well-connected in literary circles and with Socialist and revolutionary European exiles in his youth. Garnett was a writer and publisher, and involved with the Bloomsbury Group. He was editor of the New Statesman from 1932 to 1934.

Garnett met his first Indian while preparing for the London Matriculation at the London Tutorial College in Red Lion Square. He met a young Bengali, Dutt (Sukhsagar Datta), who introduced him to his friends, Ashutosh Mitter and Niranjan Pal (playwright and son of Bepin Chandra Pal). Garnett became close friends with these young Indians, meeting them at various times in London and taking them down to his family's home in Caerne. At some point after 1907, Dutt took Garnett to India House in Highgate, where he was introduced to V. D. Savarkar and spoke to Madan Lal Dhingra briefly.

After the murder of Curzon Wyllie in July 1909, Savarkar asked Garnett to publish Dhingra's statement, which Garnett passed on to Robert Lloyd at the Daily News where it appeared the next morning. Attracted by Savarkar's 'extraordinary personal magnetism', Garnett would meet him regularly, and when Savarkar was arrested and put into Brixton Gaol, Garnett visited him there. Garnett takes credit for hatching a plan to help Savarkar escape from prison, enlisting the help of Indian exiles in Paris. The plan was foiled when his family found out about it, despite Maud Gonne's attempts to warn Garnett. When Savarkar returned to India, Garnett severed all ties with him.

Published works: 

The Golden Echo (London: Chatto & Windus, 1953)

Date of birth: 
09 Mar 1892
Contributions to periodicals: 

Daily News

New Statesman

Secondary works: 

Partridge, Frances, ‘Garnett, David (1892–1981)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2009) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31138]

Archive source: 

Papers, University of Texas, Austin

Correspondence with Constance and Edward Garnett, Eton College, Berkshire

Correspondence, King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge

Correspondence, University of Reading

Involved in events: 

Aborted attempt to help V. D. Savarkar escape from Brixton Gaol, 1910

City of birth: 
Brighton
Country of birth: 
England
Date of death: 
17 Feb 1981
Location of death: 
France
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