The secret revolutionary organisation 'Abhinav Bharat', formed in 1904, was founded by:

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966) and his elder brother Ganesh Damodar Savarkar (Babarao) founded a secret society called the "Mitra Mela" at Nashik in 1899. In 1904, it was renamed the "Abhinav Bharat Society" ("Young India Society"), inspired by Giuseppe Mazzini's "Young Italy". Its aim was to overthrow British rule through armed revolution.

The society trained its members in the use of weapons and bomb-making, and spread revolutionary literature. It had branches in Maharashtra and abroad.

In 1906, Savarkar went to London to study law, on a scholarship from Shyamji Krishna Varma. There he lived at India House, a hostel and centre for Indian revolutionaries founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma in 1905. In London, Savarkar wrote "The Indian War of Independence, 1857" (1909), which presented the Revolt of 1857 as a national war of independence. The book was banned by the British even before publication.

In 1909, Madan Lal Dhingra, a member of Savarkar's circle in London, shot dead Sir William Curzon Wyllie, an official of the India Office. In the same year, in Nashik, Anant Laxman Kanhere, a member of Abhinav Bharat, shot dead A.M.T. Jackson, the Collector of Nashik (the Nashik Conspiracy Case). Savarkar was arrested in London in 1910 for his links with these events. While being taken to India by ship, he made a daring escape attempt at Marseilles, France, by jumping through a porthole, but was recaptured. He was sentenced to two life terms (50 years) and sent to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman Islands in 1911. He was released from jail in 1924, with restrictions, which were lifted in 1937.

Savarkar later became President of the Hindu Mahasabha (1937-43). He wrote "Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?" (1923). The airport at Port Blair is named after him.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Bal Gangadhar Tilak was an extremist leader who popularised the Ganapati and Shivaji festivals.
• ✗Shyamji Krishna Varma founded India House and the Indian Home Rule Society in London (1905).
• ✗Lala Har Dayal was a founder of the Ghadar Party (1913).