MALAYALAM
Run-up to Independece
B. R. P. BHASKAR
ADHUNIKA INDIA: by Bipin Chandra, Translated by Senu Kurian George; DC Books, DC Kizhakemuri Edam, Good Shepherd Street, Kottayam-686001. Rs. 150.
BIPIN CHANDRA’S Modern India, the last volume in a three-part series by eminent historians, covers the period from the last days of the Mogul Empire till Independence. An objective study of this period is by no means easy since shadows cast by developments of the time still darken the country’s political and cultural landscape. With professional skill, the author negotiates the tricky terrain, dispelling clouds of prejudice. His detailed analysis of the causes of the 1857 uprising is a case in point. Going beyond the events that precipitated the armed conflict, he draws attention to the developments that prepared the ground for the failed challenge to British rule. There is no attempt to either sanitise the happenings or romanticise them.
The account of the freedom struggle is characterised by the same measure of objectivity. The author attributes the nationalists’ reluctant acceptance of the Partition to the growth of communalism leading to a situation that held out the possibility of a prolonged civil conflict. The social movements that left a deep impress on the national polity receive only sketchy treatment. He disposes of the contributions of a host of social reformers from Jotiba Phule, M. G. Ranade and D. K. Karve to Sree Narayana Guru, E. V. Ramaswami and B. R. Ambedkar in one sentence, and presents the national movement as the chief agent of social reform in the 20th century.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Book Review
