Vinayak Damodar Savarkar - Works

Works

Veer Savarkar wrote more than 10,000 pages in the Marathi language. His literary works in Marathi include "Kamala", "Mazi Janmathep" (My Life Sentence), and most famously "1857 - The First War of Independence", about what the British referred to as the Sepoy Mutiny. Savarkar popularised the term 'First War of Independence'. Another noted book was "Kale Pani" (similar to Life Sentence, but on the island prison on the Andamans), which reflected the treatment of Indian freedom fighters by the British. In order to counter the then accepted view that India's history was a saga of continuous defeat, he wrote an inspirational historical work, "Saha Soneri Pane" (Six Golden Pages), recounting some of the Golden periods of Indian history. At the same time, religious divisions in India were beginning to fissure. He described what he saw as the atrocities of British and Muslims on Hindu residents in Kerala, in the book, "Mopalyanche Band" (Muslims' Strike) and also "Gandhi Gondhal" (Gandhi's Confusion), a political critique of Gandhi's politics. Savarkar, by now, had become a committed and persuasive critic of the Gandhi-an vision of India's future.

He is also the author of poems like "Sagara pran talmalala" (O Great Sea, my heart aches for the motherland), and "Jayostute" (written in praise of freedom), one of the most moving, inspiring and patriotic works in Marathi literature. When in the Cellular jail, Savarkar was denied pen and paper. He composed and wrote his poems on the prison walls with thorns and pebbles, memorised thousands lines of his poetry for years till other prisoners returning home brought them to India. Savarkar is credited with several popular neologisms in Marathi and Hindi, like "Hutatma"(Martyr),"Mahapaur" ( Mayor),Digdarshak (leader or director, one who points in the right direction), Shatkar (a score of six runs in cricket), Saptahik (weekly), Sansad (Parliament), "doordhwani" ("telephone"), "tanklekhan" ("typewriting") among others.

He chaired Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in 1938.

Books by Savarkar:

1. Saha Soneri Paane (translation: Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History )
2. 1857 che Svatantrya Samar
3. Hindupadpaatshahi
4. Hindutva
5. Jatyochhedak Nibandha
6. Moplyanche Banda
7. Maazi Janmathep (translation: My life imprisonment)
8. Kale Pani
9. Shatruchya Shibirat
10. Londonchi batamipatre (translation: London Newsletters)
11. Andamanchya Andheritun
12. Vidnyan nishtha Nibandha
13. Joseph Mazzini (on Giuseppe Mazzini)
14. Hindurashtra Darshan
15. Hindutvache Panchapran
16. Kamala
17. Savarkaranchya Kavita (translation: Poems by Savarkar)
18. Sanyasta Khadg

All these Books are available as Free E-Books (PDF) on