‘I found that I had begun to take a great liking for the man . . . Oddly, this did not grow out of any feeling of veneration . . . for that would have implied my being overawed and somewhat fearful in the presence of someone vastly superior. Rather, my feelings grew spontaneously and from the very depths of my heart. I simply revelled in the man’s company.’-Mahendra Nath Dutta (Swami Vivekananda’s brother) on Ramakrishna
Press reports in the 1870s Calcutta marvelled at the way ‘highly educated’, ‘civilized’ and ‘reasoning’ men, like Mahendra Nath Dutta, were drawn to the ‘ill clad’, ‘illiterate’, ‘friendless’ and ‘unpolished’ Ramakrishna. The progressive press, which had first brought Ramakrishna to public attention, scoffed at his use of ‘vulgar’ speech, while acknowledging its effectiveness in religious communication. Despite these critiques, Ramakrishna came to occupy an important place in the cultural life of late-nineteenth-century Bengal.
Amiya P. Sen’s lucid introductions and fluent translations of the interactions between Ramakrishna and his followers in His Words make for an engaging and illuminating account of Ramakrishna’s teachings. Compiled from a variety of contemporary and near-contemporary sources, this book brings out the dramatic simplicity of Ramakrishna’s incisive commentaries on profound religious ideas.
See also by Amiya Sen Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: The Sadhaka of Dakshineswar
Raja Rammohun Roy (1774—1833) was a great champion of liberty and civil rights in colonial India. He was also a true cosmopolitan who envisioned a world without borders. A tireless crusader for religious and social reform, Rammohun attempted a progressive reinterpretation of Hinduism and tried to improve the lot of socially marginalized groups such as women.
Yet, in spite of his lofty public presence, Rammohun was a hugely controversial figure. He shocked the Hindu orthodoxy by his support to the abolition of Sati, offended evangelists by separating the moral message of Christ from the purely theological, and was often dragged into legal disputes over family property. By the time of his death in Bristol, he was as much resented as respected, both at home and abroad.
Using relatively unexplored sources, this elegant and accessible new biography by Amiya P. Sen paints a fascinating portrait of one of the legendary makers of modern India.
The story of the forging of India, the world’s largest democracy, is a rich and inspiring one. This volume, a sequel to the best-selling India’s Struggle for Independence, analyses the challenges India has faced and the successes it has achieved in the light of its colonial legacy and century-long struggle for freedom. It covers the framing of the Constitution and the evolution of the Nehruvian political and economic agenda and basics of foreign policy; the consolidation of the nation and contentious issues like party politics in the Centre and the states, the Punjab problem, and anti-caste politics and untouchability. These, along with objective assessments of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rajiv Gandhi, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, constitute a remarkable overview of a nation on the move.
The Discovery of India has acquired the status of a classic since it was first published in 1946. Nehru’s brilliant intellect, deep humanity, and lucid style make ‘The Discovery of India’ essential reading for anyone interested in India, both its past and its present.
Written over five months when Jawaharlal Nehru was imprisoned in the Ahmadnagar Fort, The Discovery of India has acquired the status of a classic since it was first published in 1946.
In this work of prodigious scope and scholarship, one of the greatest figures of Indian history unfolds the panorama of the country’s rich and complex past, from prehistory to the last years of British colonial rule. Analysing texts like the Vedas and the Arthashastra, and personalities like the Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru brings alive an ancient culture that has seen the flowering of the world’s great traditions of philosophy, science and art, and almost al its major religions.
Nehru’s brilliant intellect, deep humanity and lucid style make The Discovery of India essential reading for anyone interested in India, both its past and its present.
Elegant, perceptive, and startlingly prophetic, Nehru: A Contemporary’s Estimate is one of the finest accounts of Nehru ever written. Walter Crocker, the Australian high commissioner to India, admired Nehru the man—his grace, style, intelligence and energy—and was deeply critical of many of his political decisions—the invasion of Goa, India’s Kashmir policy, the Five Year Plans. This book, written shortly after Nehru’s death, is full of invaluable first hand observations about the man and his politics. Many of Crocker’s points, too—especially the implications of the Five Year Plans and of the introduction of democracy to India—are particularly relevant today. Out of print for many years, this classic biography has been reissued with an authoritative foreword by Ramachandra Guha.
Thomas Macaulay is most famous for having introduced the English language as a medium for learning in India, creating a class of westernized Indians who are sometimes derisively referred to as ‘Macaulay’s children’. Was this an act of cultural imperialism or a modernizing move far before its time?
Macaulay has always inspired both admiration and hostility in India. Ever since he served on the Supreme Council of India in the 1830s, his thinking and policies have had a profound, transformative impact on the subcontinent. Today, some Dalit activists even celebrate him as their liberator from caste tyranny.
Macaulay is the first biography of this vastly influential figure for the general reader, giving a vivid sense of a brilliant, eccentric, contradictory man and his complex times. In a portrait that is as elegant as it is intriguing, Zareer Masani traces Macaulay’s fascinating journey from child prodigy, historian and parliamentary orator in London to imperial administrator in India, and then a revered elder statesman back in Britain. The reader is allowed a glimpse into what it felt like to be at the centre of power in a global empire, ruling over hundreds of millions of Indian subjects and shaping the destiny of a subcontinent.
Told by the authority on the subject, Culture of Encounters gives us insight into how and why the Mughals-one of the most powerful imperial powers-poured immense energy into drawing Sanskrit thinkers to their courts, adopted and adapted Sanskrit-based practices, translated dozens of Sanskrit texts into Persian, and composed Persian accounts of Indian philosophy. Beginning with the invitation of Brahman and Jain intellectuals to King Akbar’s court, this incisive work details the numerous, Mughal-backed texts they produced under emperors Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan.
These cross-cultural encounters created a dynamic idea of Mughal rule essential to the empire’s survival. Many works, including Sanskrit epics and historical texts, were translated into Persian, elevating the political position of Brahmans and Jains and cultivating a voracious appetite for Indian writings throughout the Mughal world.
The first book to read these Sanskrit and Persian works in tandem, Culture of Encounters recasts the Mughal Empire as a multi-lingual state that collaborated with its Indian subjects to establish its role as an Indian empire. Revisiting a forgotten part of India’s history, Audrey Truschke certifies the critical role of the sociology of empire in building the Mughal polity, which came to shape the literary and ruling cultures of early modern India forever.
In 1991, an exciting journey began when finance minister Manmohan Singh initiated what came to be called the economic liberalization of India. It was the beginning of a bold new era that would redefine this country. India threw open its gates to outside businesses, embracing foreign products, competition and changing everything forever. Twenty-five years on, What’s Changed looks at how the country has metamorphosed since the first set of reforms were introduced. Experts like Kumar Mangalam Birla, Harsha Bhogle, Rama Bijapurkar, Siddharth Roy Kapur and many others write about the changes they have witnessed in their industries. This insightful book edited by Kartikeya Kompella casts a probing look at the quarter century of liberalized India and how it changed us all.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) was born in Porbander on the western coast of India. His childhood and early upbringing were undistinguished but as an adult he initiated and was involved in a series of novel forms of peaceful protests which established him as one of the most important leaders of the twentieth century and one whose message and relevance transcended national boundaries. This meticulously edited volume culled from the Collected Works of Gandhi contains a representative selection of his writings focusing on themes which were central to Gandhi’s philosophy.
On 26 January 1950, the Constitution of India was formally adopted and came into effect. Its Preamble set out in brief the enlightened values it enshrined and hoped to engender. In a radical shift from mainstream constitutional history, this book establishes B.R. Ambedkar’s irrefutable authorship of the Preamble by uncovering the intellectual origins of its six most central concepts-justice, liberty, equality, fraternity, dignity and nation.
Although Ambedkar is universally regarded as the chief architect of the Constitution, the specifics of his role as chairman of the drafting committee are not widely discussed. Totally neglected is his almost single-handed authorship of the Constitution’s Preamble, which is frequently and mistakenly attributed to Jawaharlal Nehru rather than to Ambedkar. This book establishes how and why the Preamble to the Constitution of India is essentially an Ambedkarite Preamble. It is clear that its central concepts have their provenance in Ambedkar’s writings and speeches.
Through six eponymous chapters, this book unfolds the story of the six constitutional concepts. In doing so, it spotlights fundamental facts about modern Indian history, as well as Ambedkar’s revolutionary political thought, hitherto ignored in conventional accounts.
