Author: Ram Chandra Pradhan
Publisher: Macmillan
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 463
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0230634060
Description
The saga of the Indian National Movement, with its unique leadership and ideological foundation, continues to engage those interested in the history of India.
This volume takes its readers through the panorama of modern Indian history with all its trials and tribulations, and keeps it intellectually stimulating all through the narrative. This book attempts to present its case, free from ideological biases. The result of a lifelong engagement with teaching and research, this book incorporates the sharp classroom debates and analysis of bright and committed students, thus enriching its formulations and interpretations.
It provides a fresh look at the national struggle for independence and attempts to provoke, promote and unleash, critical and creative thinking among the student community. In the process, it seeks to relieve them from the drudgery of working as intellectual foot soldiers to the authorities in our academia.
This book marks a departure from the earlier studies in terms of its new and updated sources as well as in its freedom from the great ideological divides that continue to bedevil our academic life. As such, it avoids both the extremes of woolly sentimentalism and ideology-based debunking.
Essentially eclectic and synthesizing in its approach, and written in a lucid style, the book covers different phases and facets of our national struggle. To that end, it adopts a thematic, rather than a chronological narrative. The book will prove invaluable for students of political science and modern India history, as well as general readers.
Contents
PART I: THE BRITISH CHALLENGE AND THE INDIAN RESPONSE
The Story of the British Conquest of India
Impact of British Rule on Indian Agriculture
Impact of British Rule on Indian Industries
Impact of British Rule on the Socio-Cultural Life of India
Indian Responses to the British Challenge
PART II: THE MAINSTREAM OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT
Founding of the Indian National Congress
The Moderates and the Indian Freedom Struggle
Partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi Movement
The Extremists and the Indian Freedom Struggle
The Home Rule Movement: An Appraisal
Lucknow Pact
Khilafat Movement
Non-Cooperation Movement
Swaraj Party
Simon Commission
Nehru Report
Civil Disobedience Movement
The Gandhi- Irwin Pact
The Round Table Conference
Communal Award
The Act of 1935 and the Indian Freedom Movement
Quit India Movement
Mahatma Gandhi’s Contributions to the Freedom Struggle in India
PART III: THE MINOR STREAMS OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT
Role of the Communist Party of India in the Indian Freedom Struggle
The Congress Socialist Party and the Indian Freedom Struggle
Peasant Movements and the Indian Freedom Struggle
Trade Union Movement and the Indian Freedom Struggle
Tribal Movements and the Indian Freedom Struggle
Role of Women in the Indian National Movement
The Backward Classes, the Depressed Classes
Movement and the Indian Freedom Struggle
Princely India and the Freedom Movement
PART IV: ARMED REBELLION AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT
Armed Revolutionary Movement and the Indian Freedom Struggle
The Ghadar Party and its Role in the Indian Freedom Struggle
The Revolutionary Movement 1925-1934
The Indian National Army and India’s Struggle for Independence
PART V: TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE AND PARTITION
The Cripps Mission
The Cabinet Plan
The Mountbatten Plan and the Partition of India
Muslim Separatism and the Indian Freedom Movement: A Historical Survey
The Partition of India: An Overview
Appendices
I. Historiography of Colonialism and Nationalism in India: An Overview
II. Colonialism and Theories of Imperialism
III. Chronology of Major Events from Ad 1600 to 1947
Select Bibliography
Index