Banned Indian revolutionary text, owned by Swedish radical

[Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar]. The Indian War of Independence of 1857 by an Indian Nationalist.

€ 6,500.00

First edition, scarce. The Swedish leftist Kata Dalström's personal copy of this banned history of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Its anonymous author (the title page reads "An Indian Nationalist") is none other than Indian revolutionary Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), who would be jailed and exiled by the British Empire on charges of involvement in the assassination - which occurred in the same year as publication - of the British colonial official William Hutt Curzon Wyllie (1848-1909). Considered dangerously revolutionary by the British colonial government, Savarkar's book, written while he was living in London, was banned even before the completion of its print run - which was done in the Netherlands, as no British press was willing or able to take on the project.

Originally written in Marathi, Savarkar or his circle translated the work into English and smuggled the book into India disguised with false covers (allegedly, these included those of The Pickwick Papers). The work was also quite popular with European leftists and revolutionaries, including Kata Dalström, whose ownership inscription appears on the title-page. Dalström was a leading leftist in Sweden, and certainly the best-known female leftist in Sweden in her time, who advocated for workers' rights, a variety of socialist and communist policies, and suffrage.

A single copy listed in institutions on OCLC (at the University of Manchester). A scarce work by a key figure in the fight for Indian sovereignty, and with a uniquely radicalist provenance.