The Indian War of Independence (book)

The book, initially written in Marathi, was penned by Savarkar in response to celebrations in Britain of the 50th anniversary of the 1857 Indian uprising with records from India Office archives. The project received support from Indian nationalists in Britain, including the likes of Madame Cama, V.V.S. Iyer and M.P.T. Acharya, as well as Indian students who had dared not show their support or sympathy for India House openly.[3] Published during Savarkar's stay in London at the India House, it sought to bring the Indian movement to public attention in Britain as well as to inspire nationalist revolution in India.

The book was influenced by histories of the French Revolution and the American Revolution. Additionally, Karl Marx had published a short article named "The Indian Revolt" in the New-York Tribune in 1857 and later went on to write the book "The First Indian War of Independence 1857-58" in the coming years. Savarkar published his book later in 1909, using much the same format as Marx's work. [4]

The book, which describes the 1857 revolt as a unified and national uprising of India as a nation against British authority,[5] was seen at the time as highly inflammatory, and the Marathi edition was banned in British India even before its publication.[6] Publication of the English translation faltered after British printers and publishing houses were warned by the Home Office of its highly seditious content, while the British foreign office brought pressure on the French Government to prevent its publication from Paris.[6] It was ultimately printed in the Netherlands in 1909, with the British government not tracing it until too late.[3][6][7] The copies were printed with false dust wrappers purporting to be copies of The Pickwick Papers and other literary classics, and large quantities were shipped to India where it quickly became a bible of political extremists.[6] It was excluded from the catalogue of the British Library to prevent Indian students from accessing it. In India, the book remained banned till the end of The Raj forty years later.[6]