India House: Difference between revisions

{{Use Indian English|date=June 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}

[[File:India House today.jpg|thumb|right|India House today. A number of [[blue plaque]]s commemorate the stay of its various residents including Savarkar.]]

India House is a large [[Victorian Mansion]] at 65&nbsp;Cromwell Avenue, [[Highgate]], North London. It was inaugurated on 1 July 1905 by Henry Hyndman in a ceremony attended by, among others, [[Dadabhai Naoroji]], [[Charlotte Despard]] and [[Bhikaji Cama]]<ref name=OUIndiaHouse>{{cite web | url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/india-house | title=India House | publisher=Open University | access-date=26 October 2015}}</ref> When opened as a student-hostel in 1905, it provided accommodation for up to thirty students.<ref name=Hopkirk44>{{Harvnb|Hopkirk|1997|p=44}}</ref> In addition to being a student-hostel, the mansion also served as the headquarters for several organisations, the first of which was the [[Indian Home Rule Society]] (IHRS).

Krishna Varma co-founded the IHRS in February 1905,<ref name=Majumdar299>{{Harvnb|Majumdar|1971|p=299}}</ref> with Bhikaji Cama, [[S.R. Rana]], [[Lala Lajpat Rai]] and others,<ref name=Owen62/><ref name=Innes171>{{Harvnb|Innes|2002|p=171}}</ref><ref name=Joseph59>{{Harvnb|Joseph|2003|p=59}}</ref> as a rival organisation to the British Committee of the Congress.<ref name=Joseph58>{{Harvnb|Joseph|2003|p=58}}</ref> Subsequently, Krishna Varma used his considerable financial resources to offer scholarships to Indian students in memory of leaders of the [[1857 uprising]], on the condition that the recipients would not accept any paid post or honorary office from the [[British Raj]] upon their return home.<ref name=Qur123/> These scholarships were complemented by three endowments of 2000 Rupees courtesy [[S. R. Rana|S.R. Rana]], in memory of [[Rana Pratap Singh]].<ref name=Bose2002p4>{{Harvnb|Bose|2002|p=4}}</ref> Open to "Indians only", the IHRS garnered significant support from Indians&nbsp;– especially students&nbsp;– living in Britain. Funds received by Indian students as scholarships and bursaries from universities also found their way to the organisation. Following the model of Victorian public institutions,<ref name=Owen67/> the IHRS adopted a constitution. The aim of the IHRS, clearly articulated in this constitution, was to "secure Home Rule for India, and to carry on a genuine Indian propaganda in this country by all practicable means".<ref name=Fischer-Tine>{{Harvnb|Fischer-Tinē|2007|p=330}}</ref> It recruited young Indian activists, raised funds, and possibly collected arms and maintained contact with revolutionary movements in India. When Savarkarcame He changed it as Indian Home Rule Society <ref name=Owen63/><ref name=Parekh158>{{Harvnb|Parekh|1999|p=158}}</ref> The group professed support for causes in sympathy with its own, such as Turkish, Egyptian and Irish republican nationalism.<ref name=Innes171/>

More significantly, India House was a source of arms and seditious literature that was rapidly distributed in India. In addition to ''The Indian Sociologist'', pamphlets like ''Bande Mataram'' and ''Oh Martyrs!'' by Savarkar extolled revolutionary violence. Direct influences and incitement from India House were noted in several incidents of political violence, including assassinations, in India at the time.<ref name=Yadav4/><ref name=Hopkirk46/><ref name=Majumdar1966p>{{Harvnb|Majumdar|1966|p=121,147}}</ref> One of the two charges against Savarkar during his trial in Bombay was for abetting the murder of the District Magistrate of [[Nasik]], [[A.M.T. Jackson]], by [[Anant Kanhere]] in December 1909. The arms used were directly traced through an Italian courier to India House. Ex-India House residents M.P.T. Acharya and V.V.S. Aiyar were noted in the [[Rowlatt report]] to have aided and influenced political assassinations, including the murder of Robert D'Escourt Ashe at the hands of [[Vanchi Iyer]].<ref name=Yadav4/> The Paris-Safranski link was strongly suggested by French police to be involved in the 1907 attempt in Bengal to derail the train carrying the Lieutenant-Governor [[Sir Andrew Fraser]].<ref name=Popplewell135>{{Harvnb|Popplewell|1995|p=135}}</ref> The activities of nationalists abroad is believed to have shaken the loyalty of a number of native regiments of the [[British Indian Army]].<ref name=Lahiri129>{{Harvnb|Lahiri|2000|p=129}}</ref> The assassination of Curzon Wyllie was highly publcised.<ref name=OxfordDNBMadanlalDhingra/> The symbolic impact of Dhingra's actions on the colonial authorities and on the Indian revolutionary movement was profound at the time.<ref name=Tickellp137>{{Harvnb|Tickell|2013|p=137}}</ref> The British empire had never been targeted in its own metropolis.<ref name=OxfordDNBMadanlalDhingra/> Dhingra's last statement is said to have earned the admiration of [[Winston Churchill]], who described it as the finest ever made in the name of Patriotism.<ref name=OxfordDNBMadanlalDhingra>{{cite web | url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/71628 | title=Dhingra, Madan Lal. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | publisher=Oxford University Press | access-date=29 October 2015}}</ref>

*{{citation |last1= Kara |first1= Maniben (Ed) |year= 1986 |title= The Radical Humanist, Vol 50 |place= Bombay |publisher=  Indian Renaissance Institute }}.