Veer Vinayak Damodar Svarkar (28 May 1883 - 26 February, 1966) was an Indian politician, activist, and writer. He developed the Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva while imprisoned at Ratnagiri in 1922. He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha. Savarkar joined the Hindu Mahasabha and popularized the term Hindutva (Hinduness),previously coined by Chandranath Basu, to create a collective "Hindu" identity as an essence of Bharat (India). After 1937, he started traveling widely, becoming a forceful orator and writer, advocating Hindu political and social unity. In 1938, he was a president of Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Mumbai. Serving as the president of the Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar endorsed the idea of India as a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation). He started his militarisation of Hindus from then in order to liberate the country and protect the country and Hindus in the future. The airport at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar's capital was renamed Veer Savarkar International Airport in 2002. One of the commemorative blue plaques affixed on India House fixed by the Historic Building and Monuments Commission for England reads "Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, 1883–1966, Indian patriot and philosopher lived here". A commemorative postage stamp was released by government of India in 1970. A portrait of Savarkar was unveiled in the Indian Parliament in 2003. (Information Credit : Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Wikipedia) #Savarkar#Hindutwa
