The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘I want more people to read it’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 17, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘I want more people to read it’

Staff Reporter

Will Durant’s indictment of Raj atrocities is republished

The book was first published in 1930
It was banned in the United Kingdom

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

REAL INDIAN HISTORY: Vidya Virkar (right) of Strand Book Stall handing over a book, The Case for India, to Mohan Das Pai of Infosys, at The Strand Book Festival in Bangalore on Sunday.

Bangalore: “I have seen a great people starving to death before my eyes, and I am convinced that this exhaustion and starvation are due not, as their beneficiaries claim, to over-population and superstition, but to the most sordid and criminal exploitation of one nation by another in all recorded history.”

That is how Will Durant, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian philosopher, describes India in his book The Case for India, which has now been republished by Strand Book Stall.

Launching the book at the Stand Book Festival here on Sunday, T.V. Mohandas Pai, board member, Infosys, said he first read the book five years ago and found it fascinating.

“The book talks about the brutality and criminality of the British Raj. I had tears in my eyes when I read it. I took photocopies of the book and distributed them to my friends. I wanted more people to read it,” he said.

He said that a sheikh from Abu Dhabi, who was commissioning a book on the Arab civilisation, sent him a copy of the book.

“I met him and during the course of our conversation, he asked me if I knew the history of Indian civilisation. When I said yes, he said he would give me a book about the ‘real’ Indian history. Four months later, I received the book by post and was fascinated by it,” he said.

Mr. Pai said that “we (Indians) lack pride in our own country. We must study the history of the country, understand our roots and cherish the democracy that we enjoy.”

Vidya Virkar of Strand Book Stall said that The Case for India was first published in 1930. “The book was banned in the U.K. and was out of print for a long time. It had not been republished because of its contents,” she said.

She said that Strand Book Stall decided to republish the book because “India is gaining new confidence and looking to become a global power. It is time to look back and take pride in the fact that through all the hardship, we were able to maintain our dignity.”

Will Durant alludes to Indian civilisation as the greatest known to man. His book reveals India’s glorious heritage and philosophical underlay in a way that leaves no doubt that the point at which India is poised today is not just a historical accident, Ms. Virkar added.

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