The regeneration of India over the century and a half from the nation building work of Raja Rammohun Roy to that of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru is a glorious chapter in the country’s history. Independence was its natural culmination. But it was marred by the sub-continent’s partition, which was accompanied by one of the worst blood baths ever witnessed in the world. This book explores the reasons for this paradox. The author establishes, through extracts from historical documents (including correspondence between successive Viceroys and Secretaries of State for India) how British imperialism carries a shameful load of guilt for the carnage resulting from its systematic and diabolical policy of dividing Indian from India. Also to blame are those Indians who rose to the bait of the favours held out by the British to members of this religion here and that caste there. All this is of topical relevance in dealing with today’s threats to India’s unity and has lessons for other newly free countries which have plural societies and face the challenge of achieving emotional integration. This history of the period from 1800 to 1950, brought out on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of independence, has other noteworthy features. It examines the two faces of the religious traditions of India: one humanist and beautiful, and the other fanatical and ugly-a dualism which is by no means peculiar to India. The major events of the freedom struggle are narrated largely in term of the principal actors-the men and women from different parts of the country who brought to the action the individuality and colour of their personality. Given at the end of the book, for ready reference are select documents pertaining to the major landmarks in the struggle for India’s independence: the first round of non-violent non-cooperation launched in 1920; adoption of complete independence as the national objective; definition of the social and economic content of freedom; the Congress resolution demanding that the British ‘Quite India’; the dawn of Independence Day; and the proclamation of the Republic.
There are no reviews yet.