The Paris Indian Society was an Indian nationalist organisation founded in 1905 at

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

under the patronage of Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama, Munchershah Burjorji Godrej and

S. R. Rana Sardarsinhji Ravaji Rana (1870–1957), often abbreviated S. R. Rana, was an Indian political activist, founding member of the Paris Indian Society and the vice-president of the Indian Home Rule Society.. Biography Sardarsinhji Rana was born on ...

. The organisation was opened as a branch of the

Indian Home Rule Society The Indian Home Rule Society (IHRS) was an Indian organisation founded in London in 1905 that sought to promote the cause of self-rule in British India. The organisation was founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma, with support from a number of promine ...

founded that same year in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

under the patronage of

Shyamji Krishna Varma Shyamji Krishna Varma (4 October 1857 – 30 March 1930) was an Indian revolutionary fighter, an Indian patriot, lawyer and journalist who founded the Indian Home Rule Society, India House and '' The Indian Sociologist'' in London. A graduate ...

. The Paris Indian Society also saw active participation from Indian nationalists who at various times were associated with the

India House India House was a student residence that existed between 1905 and 1910 at Cromwell Avenue in Highgate, North London. With the patronage of lawyer Shyamji Krishna Varma, it was opened to promote nationalist views among Indian students in Britai ...

during its short existence. This included

Virendranath Chattopadhyaya Virendranath Chattopadhyaya ( bn, বীরেন্দ্রনাথ চট্টোপাধ্যায়), alias Chatto, (31 October 1880 – 2 September 1937, Moscow), also known by his pseudonym Chatto, was a prominent Indian revolutiona ...

Har Dayal Lala Har Dayal Mathur (Punjabi: ਲਾਲਾ ਹਰਦਿਆਲ; 14 October 1884 – 4 March 1939) was an Indian nationalist revolutionary and freedom fighter. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple ...

, M.P.T. Acharya and Vinayak Damodar Savrkar. Other prominent Indians associated with the society included P.O. Mehta, H.M. Shah, P.C. Varma and a number of other prominent Indians in Paris at the time. The Paris Indian Society, under the strong leadership of Madam Cama, developed close links with the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

and Russian socialists in exile in Paris, and Cama herself attended the Socialist Congress of the

Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...

at Stuttgart in 1907, where seconded by

Henry Hyndman Henry Mayers Hyndman (; 7 March 1842 – 20 November 1921) was an English writer, politician and socialist. Originally a conservative, he was converted to socialism by Karl Marx's '' Communist Manifesto'' and launched Britain's first left-wing ...

, she demanded recognition of selfrule for India. It was at this congress that Cama famously unfurled one of the first Flag of India. Following the liquidation of the

in the wake of Curson Wyllie's assassination in 1909 by Madanlal Dhingra, the PIS became the refuge and hub of Indian revolutionaries who fled England. The Paris Indian Society at this time grew to be one of the most powerful Indian organisations outside India at the time, and grew to initiate contacts with not only French Socialists, but also those in continental Europe. It sent delegates at this time to the International Socialist Congress in August 1910. At the time of

V.D. Savarkar Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (), Marathi pronunciation: �inaːjək saːʋəɾkəɾ also commonly known as Veer Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966), was an Indian politician, activist, and writer. Savarkar developed the Hindu national ...

's rearrest at Marseilles following his escape during deportation from England, this socialist network was successfully able to exert pressure on the French government to press for Savarkar's extradition to France before the International Tribunal at Hague ruled in favour of Britain. In Paris, the Indian Society also held regular meetings and sought to train its members in skills necessary for revolution, which included training in firearms, learning military tactics, as well as organising the publication of revolutionary literature. It also sent recruits other countries and, after training, some were sent back to India to carry on propaganda work The Paris Indian Society produced the ''

Bande Mataram ''Vande Mataram'' (Sanskrit: वन्दे मातरम् IAST: , also spelt ''Bande Mataram''; বন্দে মাতরম্, ''Bônde Mātôrôm''; ) is a poem written in sanskritised Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in the ...

'' from 1909, and Madam Cama later financed the '' Talvar'' to be produced in Berlin.

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