This chapter explores how two early-twentieth-century activist writers invoked the ancient past to articulate a modern possibility for India in the throes of British sovereignty. Nationalists in the period of emergent nationalism (1905–1917) often enlisted the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gītā, the most famous section of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata, in the Indian struggle. As a result, the sacred text became a kind of political myth that was instrumentalized for the nation, thereby outliving the original context in which it first appeared. Believing that its philosophical teachings contained edifying lessons pertinent to the present, Indian leaders and activists utilized their interpretations of the Bhagavad Gītā to mobilize the masses by stressing the importance of duty and action to gain independence from Britain. For C. Subramania Bharati and Aurobindo Ghose (later known as Sri Aurobindo), I argue, this formulation entailed recasting Arjuna, one of two primary characters in the Bhagavad Gītā, according to their own specific circumstance and agenda during this phase of the Indian national movement.