Ganesh Dāmodar Sāvarkar (13 June 1879[1] – 16 March 1945), also called Babarao Savarkar, was an Indian revolutionary, activist and founder of the Abhinav Bharat Society.

[3]: 107  His parents' death laid the liability of his family at an age of twenty years.

[1] He led an armed movement against the British colonial government in India, he was sentenced to transportation for life as a result.

[3]: 117  Dhananjay Keer describes Jackson as "part of the oppressive machinery of the British Empire" and "...responsible for deporting Babarao..."[4]: 197 M. J. Akbar writes that "The five friends who started the RSS were B. S. Moonje, L. V. Paranjpe, Dr. Tholkar, Babarao Savarkar and Hedgewar himself".

[5]: 306  Rity Kohli writes that Savarkar's essay on nationalism "Rashtra Mimansa"[6]: 471  was abridged into "We, and our Nationhood, Defined", by Golwalkar, in 1938, which was the first systematic statement of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideology.