Shyamji Krishna Varma

Shyamji Krishna Varma

Shyamji Krishnavarma (Shyamji Krishna Nakhua) (1857–1930) was an Indian revolutionary, lawyer and journalist who founded the Indian Home Rule Society, India House and The Indian Sociologist in London. A graduate of Balliol College, Krishna Varma was a noted scholar in Sanskrit and other Indian languages. He pursued a brief legal career in India and served as the Divan of a number of Indian princely states in India. He had, however, differences with Crown authority, was dismissed following a supposed conspiracy of local British officials at Junagadh and chose to return to England. An admirer of Dayanand Saraswati's approach of Cultural nationalism, and of Herbert Spencer, Krishna Varma believed in Spencer's dictum "Resistance to aggression is not simply justified, but imperative".

In 1905 he founded the India House and The Indian Sociologist, which rapidly developed as an organised meeting point for radical nationalists among Indian students in Britain at the time and one of the most prominent centres for revolutionary Indian nationalism outside India. Most famous among the members of this organisation was Veer Savarkar. Krishna Varma moved to Paris in 1907, avoiding prosecution. He died in 1930.