💮Did you know about the Right-hand man of Veer Savarkar who…

He completed his graduation with B.A in History, Politics and Latin from St. Joseph’s College. He studied Law and passed the Pleader examination from the University of Madras in the year 1902.

Later he practised as a Junior Lawyer or Pleader in the District courts of Tiruchi. In 1906, he went to Rangoon, and practised as a junior in the Chambers of an English Barrister.

From Rangoon, he left for London in 1907, enrolled in Lincoln’s Inn with a view to becoming a Barrister at Law.
At the end of the conversation with Savarkar, there was a metamorphosis in his life. He became an activist in the Indian freedom struggle.

He became the right hand of Savarkar in organizing the Indian Home Rule League and giving training for a violent uprising for India’s liberation.

VVS was the man who stood by Savarkar in all his endeavours. He was inspired by Savarkar and in turn inspired Savarkar.

Savarkar, VVS Aiyar and TSS Rajan (who later joined the Congress and also served as Minister in Madras Presidency) were the trio who made India House a hub of revolutionary activities.

One of the seminal works of Savarkar, ‘The Indian War of Independence’, was translated

from Marathi to English under the supervision of VVS Aiyar. When the British Government arrested Savarkar for sedition, it was Aiyar who with the help of Irish revolutionaries attempted to recue him from prison in London.
In 1910, Aiyar resigned his membership of Lincoln’s Inn.

A warrant was issued by the British for his arrest &Aiyar escaped to Paris.But he had no wish to remain in Paris as political exile.From there, Aiyar sailed to Pondichery. Enroute,from Rome,he sent a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy by post to Mandayam Srinivasachari in Pondichery.

On arrival, Aiyar, disguised as a bearded Muslim, landed up in Srinivasachari’s house and asked if he had received a copy of the Divine Comedy. The name of the book was the password for identity. Thus, he managed to return to India, albeit to French Pondicherry, and

there he met Subramaniya Bharathi and Aurobindo. He remained in Pondicherry for ten years till the end of the First World War

In Pondicherry, Aiyar was involved in the plot to assassinate Ashe, the Collector of Tirunelveli. Vanchinathan who assassinated General Ashe was his

disciple and it was Aiyar who trained him in the use of pistol.
After the end of World War I, VVS Aiyar returned to Chennai and functioned as the Editor of the journal Desabhaktan. In September 1921 he was arrested for sedition and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.

Today, if a question is asked, ‘Who is the father of modern Tamil short stories?’, most of us will invariably come out names like Kalki or Pudumaippithan, depending on the taste of the individual

While both of them deserve a distinctive place in the annals of literary history of modern Tamil, the correct answer surprisingly is VVS Aiyar.

It is said that a busy man finds time for everything. His love of literature being so intense, in the midst of freedom

struggle and with the Damocles sword of arrest threatening him every moment during his exile in Pondicherry, he translated Tirukkural into English. Apart from that, he wrote hundreds of short stories. He has also translated one of the short stories composed by

Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali into Tamil, titled Kapulivala.

And it was in prison that VVS Aiyar wrote his magnum opus – a study of Kamban’s Ramayana. He wanted, as was his personal trait, to infuse a sense of courage and heroism in people and towards this end he wrote a

number of biographies of freedom fighters and warriors. A biography of Garibaldi, the Italian patriot, was written by him as a serial in ‘India’. He did a biography of Guru Govind Singh also.

Aiyar died in 1925 by drowning at the Papanasam falls, while trying to save his

daughter Subhadra who was struggling in the water. However, many people believed that his death was mysterious and not natural. May be it will never come to light.
On his death, Vinayak Damodar Sarvakar, Aiyar’s comrade in arms, paid a moving tribute in the journal, 'Mahratta'
🙏