Reflections

The Essential Gandhi – An Anthology of his Writings on his Life, Work and Ideas is a collection of the writings of The Mahatma on various topics, throughout his life. This is a Vintage publication, and is edited by Luis Fischer. And, having read the book – I concede that this is a truly masterly collection of his writings, as we shall see in this review. I have to express my heartfelt gratitude to both the publication house and the team that put this together, and brought this to us, the normal people. THE CONTENTS The book is organized into topics, with collections of his writings presented on : his time in England, his early days, the beginning of his method of struggle, his South African experience; subsequently moving on to the later and far more pivotal Indian Freedom Struggle period, wherein we find writings collected on Segregation, Civil Disobedience and how it begins, Non-Violence, Political Views of The Mahatma, Jail time, Independence and his views, Human We...

I was on my way to a business meeting, when I chanced upon something that looked a lot like it as related historically to someone I hold very dear to me heart – Lokmanya Tilak; so, on a lark and with an attitude of “wont hurt to see what this is”, I walked in. It was rather late, around 7-ish, so the place was closed – but there was enough present in terms of indication and signboards to tell me that I had indeed hit on a hidden gem, a vintage place of historical significance in my hunt for the origins of the Indian Independence Struggle, documented regularly on my blog for the past several years.  The next day, I walked in on the next leg of my pilgrimage – a visit to Kesari. As I have noted before, there was a complete absence of people there, which was immensely saddening and tragic to my eyes & heart, which was sold to the Independence Struggle and the people who achieved the impossible. To be fair, the people present there did state that there were visitors t...

YUGPURUSH : THE PLAY The play is directed by acclaimed director Rajesh Joshi of ' Code Mantra ' fame, and scripted by well-known playwright Uttam Gada of 'Maharathi' fame. The music direction is by popular composer duo Sachin - Jigar. Duration: 120 minutes with intermission. This play has a series of awesome reviews and testimonials , in addition to being from the stable of one of the most powerful dramas in Marathi - Code Mantra. Click the link to see the testimonials How did The Mahatma become just that : The Mahatma ? How did Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi traverse the journey to becoming a Mahatma ? This is the subject the current play under review attempts to tackle, which it does remarkably well. This, however, is not a play on the Indian Freedom Struggle; neither is it a play on The Mahatma per se, in that it doesn’t have The Mahatma in the primary role; the central character is a man who should be known to us all – Raichand Mehta.  {Cli...

  INDIA WINS FREEDOM  Maulana Azad / Humayun Kabir   This is the full version, which  was released to the publishers only in Sept 88, as per the events given in this paragraph. The issues arising out of these pages were heard by The Calcutta High Court, The Delhi High Court and The Supreme Court, before Justice B. N. Kirpal of The Delhi High Court directed on 29 th Sept 1988 that a copy of each of the text deposited in the National Archives and The National Library be handed over to Orient Longman. The Court further directed that the material should be published without alteration, after comparing the copies to ensure they were identical. This is an autobiography, though it has been penned by Humayun Kabir. The Preface to The 1959 Edition clearly gives the full sequence of events that lead to this book, readers are requested to read it. People don’t normally read Prefaces – I call on all readers to ensure they read every word. The Author sat wit...

The most common misconception is that The Indian Independence Struggle started with The Mahatma, or with The Lokamanya, or indeed with Gopal Krishn Gokhale; a rising stream of thought credits Netaji, with another stream adamant on crediting The Mahatma; nothing could be more simplistic; and nothing could a more incomplete picture of the true story . The events leading upto and of 1857 were integrally connected with the Independence Struggle in the latter period of 1900-1947, and deserve equal credit. Furthermore, crediting any one single event or source is also not advisable. Such an attempt assumes history to be a standstill pond – rather than the river it is in reality. Let us look at the full picture in a relative short panoramic and simplified view, focussing on key factors that will hopefully place the entire scenario in front of everyone’s eyes FACT NO 1 : THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS   {Let us first settle this, as it is at the center of the current debate}...