There are also accusations about the writer being biased towards the Congress, but he specifies in detail the approach adopted by him and how it borrows from all major ideologies. I loved how Bipan Chandra has touched upon almost every single contribution to the movement, right from the Northwest frontier to the Southern tip of India. It is as detailed as it can be in 650 pages and spans the entire 200 odd years of British rule in India in just 39 chapters.

It is a very handy compilation of quotes, anecdotes and many, many cross references from different works on this subject. This book by Bipan Chandra sheds light on all of these people and introduces us to many aspects of India’s freedom struggle that we wouldn’t come across otherwise. We just know that Justice Ranade, Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal Gangadhar Tilak played a crucial role in early stages of the freedom movement, but how exactly that happened is not touched upon at all! While writing textbooks for high school history, the authors tend to concentrate on a few of those leaders that came towards the end of the movement (mainly Gandhi and Nehru) and ignore the ones who laid the groundwork for the final showdown.Įven when they are mentioned, they are only paid lip-service with only a short description of their work. It involved millions of people and had several leaders that spanned many generations. But the study is just a brief overview of the entire movement and does very little justice to this major event in the history of the sub-continent. In India, we are taught about our freedom struggle for almost 5 years as part of the high school curriculum. Forty-eighth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge.

Bipin chandra post independence