Crusader Extraordinary: Krishna Menon and the India League 1932-1936

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Our investigation in this volume commences in 1932 when Krishna Menon along with Ellen Wilkinson, Monica Whately and Leonard Matters were commissioned by the India League to proceed on to India. The group was entrusted with a mission to study in depth the nature of the authoritarian regime initiated by Wedgwood Benn and carried out in cold blood by the combined efforts of Samuel Hoare and Willingdon. India that they saw had been witnessing deepening economic crisis, mounting communal tension, increasing ascendancy of official repression against the Congress movement and also the rise of overwhelming pressure from below for a radical transformation of the society having their impact on Gandhian strategy and tactics. From London, Menon had been watching closely the failure of the western democracies to contain the sinister advent of Fascism. As a perceptive observer, Menon went about discerning for himself the laws of motion of capitalism in its historical phase of corporations and combinations and delineating the legitimising process of the capitalist states. With his immense insight into the existing political and economic systems. Menon had galvanized the India League into an effective platform for struggle. By 1932 the League committed itself to Swaraj. It had become an uncomfortable organization for the Conservatives and the Theosophists who deserted it and the League affiliated itself to the mass movement in India.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Suhash Chakravarty

Suhash Chakravarty was born in Maihar (Madhya Pradesh). Educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, and Selwyn College Cambridge, he obtained a Master's degree in history from the University of Delhi and went on to take his Doctorate from Cambridge. He returned to teach history at St. Stephen's College and later became a Reader and then a Professor at Delhi University. He spent a year at Selwyn College as a Visiting Fellow (1977-78) and a term at Humboldt University, Berlin, as a term at Humboldt University, Berlin, as a Visiting Professor (1991). He served as a sectional President of the Indian History Congress in its session at Calcutta (1990). His other Books include From Khyber to Oxus: A Study in Imperial Expansion (1976), Anatomy of the Raj (1991), The Raj Syndrome (1989), V.K. Krishna Menon and the Indian League Vol. I and Vol. II (1997), The Rajcharitmanas in Hindi (1998) and India League's Condition of India (1999). In 1991, he was awarded a Nehru national fellowship by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund to work on V.K. Krishna Menon and the India League. Suhash chakravarty writes with verve, clarity, wit and at times with biting sarcasm. His range of scholarship is extensive and his historical craftsmanship has been widely acclaimed. He is interested in poetry, music and political analysis. He lives with his wife and son in Delhi.