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BOOK WATCH

Pearls of wisdom

When the text under review is The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches, one does not expect to see a mention of Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi in such a collection. But, lo and behold, there he s its pretty in the “Acknowledgements” for showing the editor Rakesh Batabyal “how much magic local culture brings to a political speech” way back in 1980 with a “fascinating speech, in Bengali, laced with humour, wit and sarcasm”.

This is the kind of earthiness Batabyal brings to the exhaustive collection of over 150 speeches delivered by Indians from 1877 to date. So, along with the evergreen speeches of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, this book features speeches made by other luminaries of India who have paled in the shadow of the leading lights.

Subaltern historians will surely have some good words for this collection since it gives its due to the likes of Kashinath Trimbak Telang, N.G. Chandavarkar, Har Bilas Sarda, S. Satyamurti, O. Tanikachala Chettiyar, Jaipal Singh, V.I. Muniswamy Pillay, M. Singaravelu, N. Rachiah, O.V. Alagesan, Kapur Singh and Nath Pai.

Needless to say, such has been the way mainstream history has been written in this country that most people would need to do a “Google search” on many of these names. Batabyal spares his readers this exercise by giving brief introductions to each of the speeches included in the collection which not only throw light on the individual but also sets the speech in context.

This being not just the 60th year of Indian Independence, but also the very month when India made its “tryst with destiny”, recollection is the flavour of the season. Journalist-cum-historian Rudrangshu Mukherjee ties up with Random House to bring out another book of the same genre as Batabyal’s; only it is more selective and, therefore, a third of the Penguin edition in size.

By Mukherjee’s own admission, the selection is subjective and his attempt is to trace modern Indian history through speeches. Though he has attempted not to over-emphasise politics by including the likes of Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita, Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie, there is no denying the recurring political tenor.

Like Batabyal’s effort, this book contextualises every inclusion. But, unlike Batabyal whose introduction to the collection is more academic and provides a historian’s perspective, Mukherjee looks at the evolution of making speeches in modern India and brings to the book a journalistic style.

He dwells at length on what constitutes a good speech that stands the test of time. At the same time, he reflects on how some of these speeches, when read, do not have the substance or solidity associated with the printed word.

Since his preoccupation here is with the art of speeches, Mukherjee goes into the emergence of ghost-writers post-Nehru and the change thereafter. Gone are the days of spontaneity and in comes an era of matter-of-fact addresses as politicians began reading out material put together by ghost-writers.

The year 2007 also saw the passing of another milestone in time, the 150th anniversary of the “First War of Indian Independence” as far as India is concerned and “The Sepoy Mutiny” for the British. In its wake has come a numbe r of books on the happenings of 1857; the most recent being military obituarist Julian Spilsbury’s The Indian Mutiny.

Knowing full well that there can be no one answer to the nature of the events of 1857 — despite the passage of time, Indians and the British still see it differently — Spilsbury has steered clear from that line of study and instead busied himself with piecing together the incidents that took place across Northern India in the summer of that year.

While there are eyewitness accounts, like that of Amelia Horne, of brutality by the Indian soldiers who picked up arms against the East India Company, Spilsbury also throws in an equal number of instances when the natives saved the lives of the Britishers; particularly the women and children.

As for the larger debate on the impact of 1857 on the course of Indian and British history, Pilsbury makes a passing mention of how it resulted in the India Act of 1858, mandating the end of East India Company rule and the country being ruled thereafter by a Viceroy and Secretary of State answerable to British Parliament. Also, he charts the battlefields of 1857, which could be a ready-reckoner for putting together a tour of that turning point in Indian history.

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