Author: K C Yadav
Publisher: Manohar
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN/UPC (if available): 817304371X
Description
This work on the variegated and multimorphous history of Haryana covers the modern period, from 1803 when the British occupied this region to 1966 when it became a full-fledged state. It is by and large a painful story. For about 143 years the British exploited the region to the hilt to satisfy their colonial greed and imperial designs. They maltreated the people and did everything possible to break their spirit and down their morale.
The Haryanavi people withstood, despite serious handicaps, these shocks and injuries. They waged a long, bloody struggle against the imperialist forces of oppression, exploitation, and deprivation. But struggles, no matter how bloody and long, do have their end. The one that the Haryanavis were engaged in for long also came to an end –on 15 August 1947. They, like their other countrymen, became free.
And became masters of their destiny, too? Not, precisely! the hopes, aspirations and needs of the exploited, backward people of Haryana were not met with as they ought to have been in the state of Punjab that their region was then a part of. Hence a struggle for a separate state of Haryana where the people could be the masters of their destiny in the real sense. As a result, they had a separate state of their own on 1 November 1966. This is, in brief, what this book is all about.