Nobody ever thinks of writing a book on ‘America After Carter’ or ‘Britain After Margaret Thatcher’. But books ·and articles on ‘Post-Nehru India’, and ‘China After Mao’ abound. Why? Is it that America and Britain are crisis-free societies? Obviously not; they have been visibly moving from crisis to crisis.
The quickies are upon us again. The post-election deluge (post-1977 election, that is, when the profitable and chic publishing fashion really started) is now being followed up with a pre-election deluge (pre-1980 election, that is). This is the second set in what will, in true Ladies’ Singles fashion, hopefully be a best of three sets match.
The book is not a mere addition to the much discussed topic of Britain’s responsibility towards India and India’s response to it as well as her reaction. Nor is it a mere narration of the emergence and growth of a political party. Indian National Congress Versus British presents a factual analysis of how an all powerful alien government and a national political party fought their elaborate battle over six decades.
Arya Dharma by Kenneth Jones was the first serious historical study of the Arya Samaj movement. Now Jordens complements Jones’s work by providing a comprehensive historical account of the life and ideas of Dayanand Saraswati.
The undivided Bengal with its Muslim majority had a Muslim problem which was not exactly the same as the Muslim problem of another Muslim majority province of the pre-Partition days, the Punjab; in fact, the Punjab’s was more a problem of the sense of insecurity felt by its Hindus.
In the twenties and thirties, and up to 1942, the South, and for a time the Central Assembly under British rule, reverberated with the voice of Satyamurti, patriot, orator, parliamentarian par excellence.