The Transnational Life and Political Philosophy of Shyamji Krishnavarma

Abstract

Shyamji Krishnavarma was a freedom fighter, who strongly and violently opposed British rule in India. He was born in Mandvi in Gujarat in 1857 and grew up to became a citizen of the colonial Indian Ocean, receiving his education in Bombay and Oxford. Settling in London, he started a radical journal, The Indian Sociologist. His ideas were derived from Hinduism, revolutionary struggle, and the sociology of Herbert Spencer. In the latter half of the twentieth century, there was little interest in his legacy. In more recent times, however, Krishnavarma has been promoted as the counterpoint to Gandhi and to a waning vision of Gujarati identity. In this paper, I chart the international geography of his life and resurgent ideas.