India’s Freedom Movement: Legacy of Bipin Chandra Pal

The book contains a number of scholarly essays on the life, time and legacy of Bipin Chandra Pal who along with Tilak, Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo Ghosh led the extremist challenge from within the Congress in the beginning of the 20th century.  The extremists created the first mass upsurge in the Indian Nationalist Movement and facilitated the arrival of the Gandhian era that led to India’s independence and the beginning of the process of decoloniztion world-wide.  Like many other stalwarts in the nationalist phase, Pal also moved from one position to another.  He started as a Brahmor Samajist delivering religious discourses abroad to the revolutionaries, advocating an international commonwealth of nations and ending as a severe critic of Gandhi during the non-cooperation movement.  A large section of this collection critically evaluates the evolution of these various phases critically and comprehensively.  The culmination of this revolutionary and militant nationalism is with the fascinating role of Subhash Chandra Bose, whom the Congress historians acknowledge as the co-architect of India’s freedom.  In the light of this extraordinary importance of Subhash in our nationalist movement, two well researched articles on him have been included in this volume.  The former Chief Election Commissioner, Mr. J.M. Lyngdoh’s brilliant insights on the nature and working of Indian democracy which he delivered on the occasion of Pal’s birthday celebration in Delhi, two years ago, is also incorporated in this volume.