Berlin Committee

The Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee (Indisches Unabhängigkeitskomitee) after 1915, was an organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and political activists residing in the country. The purpose of the committee was to promote the cause of Indian Independence. Initially called the Berlin–Indian Committee, the organisation was renamed the Indian Independence Committee and came to be an integral part of the Hindu–German Conspiracy. Members of the committee included Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (alias Chatto), Chempakaraman Pillai, Dr Jnanendra Das Gupta, and Abinash Bhattacharya. A number of Indians, notably Shyamji Krishna Varma, had formed the India House in England in 1905. This organisation, with the support of Indian luminaries like Dadabhai Naoroji, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madame Bhikaji Cama and others, offered scholarships to Indian students, promoted nationalistic work, and was a major platform for anti-colonial opinions and views. The Indian Sociologist, published by Krishna Varma, was a notable anti-colonial publication. Prominent Indian Nationalists associated with the India House included Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (also known as Veer Savarkar), Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (alias Chatto), and Har Dayal. The British government kept track of India House because of the nature of its work and the increasingly inciting tone of The Indian Sociologist, which proposed killing British colonial officials. English detectives followed and watched the student leaders in India House. In 1909, Madan Lal Dhingra, closely associated with the India House, shot and killed William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, the political ADC to the Secretary of State for India. In the aftermath of the assassination, India House was rapidly suppressed. Evidence found showed that Browning pistols were being sent to India in order to bring about an armed revolution. Savarkar was deported from England, and denied asylum by the French government on a stop in Marseilles) while Krishna Varma successfully fled to Europe.