Vinayak Damodar Savarkar : 28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966 was an Indian politician, activist, and

writer. Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva while imprisoned at
Ratnagiri in 1922. He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha.

He and his brother founded a secret society called Abhinav Bharat Society. When he
went to the United Kingdom for his law studies, he involved himself with organizations
such as India House and the Free India Society. He also published books advocating
complete Indian independence by revolutionary means.

Hindus, according to Savarkar, are those who consider India to be the land in which
their ancestors lived, as well as the land in which their religion originated: "one for whom
India is both Fatherland and Holyland".

Savarkar had started public life as a secular, reasonably non-sectarian, anti-

imperialist activist. He might have already been a bit of a Hindu chauvinist but that did
not distort much his political ideas.