The essays collected here constitute a significant study of the national movement and popular politics in modern India. Their enduring significance is suggested by a move away from studying the mainstream nationalist discourse to focus on the less-eulogized facets of the anti-imperialist movement at the village, city, region, and provincial levels. D.A. Low, the editor of this volume was the founder of the Canberra-Sussex school that initiated the transition from elite to popular historiography. This new edition carries a foreword, by Rajat Kanta Ray, a leading contemporary historian, that grounds the work and supplies the reason for the revival of this classic. He narrates an interesting anecdotal history of the historiography of Congress and the Raj and the resultant intellectual debate that raged at the time. In his introduction, low underlines the fact that the transfer of power came about not through any war of independence but partly because of the ability of the Congress to win over peasant communities which ironically the British had enfranchised. This valuable collection will be cherished by those concerned with the history of nationalism and imperialism as well as the origins of post-independence politics in India. It will be of particular interest to scholars and students of history, politics, and the lay reader.
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