Thousands of people gathered with the national flag on Fergusson College Road, turning the usually busy stretch into a sea of saffron, white and green ahead of Independence Day

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who is popularly known as Veer Savarkar, was born on May 28, 1883, in Nashik; Savarkar was a freedom fighter, politician, lawyer, and writer and was popularly known for coining the term "Hindutva'