On the Road to Freedom-Footprints on Indian History 1877-1936 (Part I) ^Sale

The awakening of the average Indian and his conscious strivings to have his voice heard resumed not long after the Mutiny of 1857. It was suppressed by the Raj with iron hands. The native response grew hard and more organised—ranging from Pheroze Mehta’s constitutional pleas to Tilak’s bold demand for ‘swaraj’ and from Gandhi’s idealistic nonviolence to Bose’s armed patriotism. Unlike 1857, this struggle was not a short-lived intense, violent upheaval that could be savagely subdued. India was patient and determined for a long-haul struggle. This captivating work brings a large part of this fascinating period back to life. It chronicles the sacrifice of the revolutionaries, political challenge by the Swarajya Party, mass movements led by Gandhi, identity politics of Jinnah and British strategy of ‘divide and rule’. Part II of this book opens in 1937 when the undercurrent of tension among European nations came to the surface and the rivalry between imperialism and fascism began to enter into the discourse of Indian political parties too. The engrossing work records the dilemma of the Congress in supporting British war efforts and upholding Gandhian nonviolence at the same time. Subhas Bose’s unfaltering quest for an undivided India’s independence shines through amidst unprecedented chaos. The book goes on to narrate the long procrastinated Quit India Movement and the heroic accounts of the INA. It exposes how the nervous British, hastening to leave India, play their malicious diplomatic ‘end game’ in dividing the country with tacit endorsement of native politicians. The book ends by describing Indian independence in the midst of partition and fratricidal bloodshed, while the youngest nation refused to be overwhelmed by formidable adversities, aspiring to take its rightful place in the comity of nations!