Author: Rakesh Batabyal
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 916
ISBN/UPC (if available): 014310263X
Description
A vivid, captivating history of India, in the words of the men and women who shaped it.
At their best, speeches highlight the concerns of the times and inspire a nation to great acts. From Surendranath Banerjea’s 1878 speech addressing the issue of Indian unity to M.A. Jinnah’s address in 1940 calling for the creation of Pakistan, from Homi Bhabha’s espousal of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in the 1960s to Rajiv Gandhi’s remarkable address on disarmament in 1988, from Gopal Krishna Gokhale’s first budget speech in the imperial legislative council in 1902 to Manmohan Singh’s equally epoch-making one in 1992, great speeches have shaped the development of India as we know it today.
The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches brings together over 150 of the most influential and important speeches in our history. Included here are classics like Dadabhai Naoroji’s maiden address to the House of Commons in 1892, Bhagat Singh’s soul-stirring statement in court during his trial, Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Tryst with Destiny’, as also speeches on an eclectic range of subjects—politics, economics, science, social and religious reform—by some of the best minds of India: C.V. Raman and Jagadish Bose, Sir Syed Ahmad and Pherozeshah Mehta, Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, P.C. Mahalanobis and Amartya Sen, among others. Thematically arranged and skillfully introduced and contextualized, each speech proves the enduring potential of human oratory to motivate and enrich. The result is a definitive and inspirational chronicle of a nation in the making.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Conceiving a Nation
2. Critique of Colonialism
3. The Idea of Social Reform
4. Nationalism on the March
5. The Dreamers
6. Towards Freedom
7. Demands of Representation
8. The Birth of a Nation
9. The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
10. The Constitution: Embodiment of The
National Spirit
11. The Spirit of Freedom: Quest for a Just and
Moral society
12. Economy and Development
13. The Chinese aggression
14. State of the Nation-I
15. Education
16. Labour
17. State of the Nation-II
18. India and the world
Select Bibliography
Sources and Copyright Acknowledgements
Index