The Indian War of Independence (book)
Nationalist ) | |
Publisher | Sethani Kampani, Bombay (reprint, India) |
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Publication date | 1909, 1947 (First public edition, India) |
Publication place | India |
Published in English | 1909 |
The Indian War of Independence is an Indian
Creation
Savarkar initially wrote The Indian War of Independence in
Savarkar finished writing the book in 1907, when he was at the India House in London, but could not find a publisher in Europe because the book was written in Marathi. So, he decided to publish an English translation. It is not clear who translated the book, but the language is quite consistent throughout the translation, which suggests that the translation was done by a single person. The anonymous publisher simply states that "other residents at the India house" translated the work, and that they expedited the publication without waiting for an elegant translation.[3]
Inspiration
The book was influenced by histories of the
Savarkar was inspired by the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini's assertion that the history of a revolution must consider "the principles and motives of the people involved", and referred to the First Italian War of Independence as an example for the Indian historians to consider.[5]
Karl Marx had published a short article named "The Indian Revolt" in the New-York Tribune in 1857.[6] Some later writers have wrongly claimed that Karl Marx inspired Savarkar's use of the term "war of independence" for the event. Marx never used the term to describe the 1857 revolt, although a volume of his articles was published in Moscow in 1959 under the title The First Indian War of Independence 1857–1859. This volume was based on a Russian-language edition, whose title does not use the term "First". The title may have been inspired by Savarkar's book, whose original edition did not use the term "First" either. The word "first" appears in an edition of Savarkar's book published in 1945 in Kuala Lumpur. The edition, titled The Volcano, or The First War of Indian Independence, was published by the Indian National Army (INA) and the Japanese Ministry of Propaganda.[7]
Ban
The book was seen at the time as highly inflammatory, and the Marathi edition was banned in
In July 1909 Madan Lal Dhingra, a member of Savarkar's Abhinav Bharat Society, had assassinated the British official Curzon Wyllie. The British officials knew that Savarkar had planned to release a text, and were concerned that it may incite further acts of violence against the British administration.[9]
Savarkar's earlier works were not widely read: his fist book - on Mazzini - was immediately banned by the government; the manuscript of his second book - on the history of the Sikhs - was either lost in post or destroyed by officials before it could be published. Therefore, Savarkar's associates maintained secrecy regarding the book's publication and circulation. An underground network of revolutionaries circulated the book, hoping that it would encourage a revolution against the British.[9]
On 21 July 1909, H.A. Stuart, the Director of the
The book was ultimately printed in the Netherlands in 1909, with the British government not tracing it until too late.[2][8][11] The copies were printed with false dust wrappers purporting to be copies of The Pickwick Papers and other literary classics, and large quantities were shipped to India, where it quickly became a bible of political extremists.[8] It was excluded from the catalogue of the British Library to prevent Indian students from accessing it. In India, the book remained banned until the end of the Raj forty years later.[8]
Savarkar's views
So, now, the original antagonism between Hindus and Mahomedans might be consigned to the Past. Their present relation was one not of rulers and ruled, foreigner and native, but simply that of brothers with the one difference between them of religion alone. For, they were both children of the soil of Hindusthan. Their names were different, but they were all children of the same Mother; India therefore being the common mother of these two, they were brothers by blood.
V.D. Savarkar, The Indian War of Independence[12]
The book describes the Indian Rebellion of 1857 as a unified and national uprising of India as a nation against British authority.[13]
Savarkar states that both the British and the Indians committed cruel and brutal acts during the uprising, but characterizes such acts by Indians as justifiable acts of vengeance. On the other hand, he describes such acts by the British as oppressive and disproportionate, giving the example of massacres by General
Unlike Savarkar's later works, the book emphasizes
Critical reception and legacy
Regarding the national character of the revolt, some erstwhile and modern histories draw similar conclusions as Savarkar,
The book is considered to be an influential work in Indian history and nationalist writing,[18] and also one of Savarkar's most influential works in developing and framing ideas of Hinduism.[19]
References
- ^ a b Ranbir Vohra 2000, p. 70.
- ^ a b B.D. Yadav 1992, p. 14.
- ^ Vinayak Chaturvedi 2022, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Vikram Visana 2021, pp. 1–24.
- ^ Vinayak Chaturvedi 2022, p. 91.
- ^ "V.D. Savarkar and The Indian War of Independence, 1857". University of California, Irvine. Retrieved 20 June 2008.[dead link]
- ^ Vinayak Chaturvedi 2022, pp. 29–31.
- ^ a b c d e Peter Hopkirk 2001, p. 45.
- ^ a b c Vinayak Chaturvedi 2022, p. 87.
- ^ Vinayak Chaturvedi 2022, p. 86.
- ^ "Mutiny at the Margins". University of Edinburgh. Archived from the original on 18 May 2008. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
- ^ Vinayak Chaturvedi 2022, p. 98.
- ^ Amalendu Misra 2004, p. 184.
- ^ Vinayak Chaturvedi 2022, pp. 100–103.
- ^ Vinayak Chaturvedi 2022, p. 97.
- ^ a b Farhat Hasan 1998, p. 149.
- ^ Krishan Nanda 1965, p. 701.
- ^ Nicholas B. Dirks 2001, p. 127.
- ^ Sikata Bannerjee 2005, p. 50.
Bibliography
- Amalendu Misra (2004). Identity and Religion: Foundations of Anti-Islamism in India. SAGE. ISBN 0-7619-3226-7.
- B.D. Yadav (1992). M.P.T. Acharya, Reminiscences of an Indian Revolutionary. Anmol. ISBN 81-7041-470-9.
- Farhat Hasan (1998). "A Welcome Study". Social Scientist. 26 (1/4): 148–151. JSTOR 3517586.
- Krishan Nanda (1965). "1857 in India: Mutiny or War of Independence? by Ainslee T. Embree". The Western Political Quarterly. 18 (3). University of Utah on behalf of the Western Political Science Association: 700–701. JSTOR 445762.
- Nicholas B. Dirks (2001). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08895-0.
- ISBN 0-19-280230-5.
- Ranbir Vohra (2000). The Making of India: A Historical Survey. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-0712-3.
- Sikata Bannerjee (2005). Make Me a Man!: Masculinity, Hinduism, and Nationalism in India. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-6367-2.
- Vikram Visana (2021). "Savarkar before Hindutva: Sovereignty, Republicanism, and Populism in India, c.1900–1920" (PDF). Modern Intellectual History. 18 (4): 1106–1129. S2CID 224983230.
- Vinayak Chaturvedi (2022). Hindutva and Violence: V. D. Savarkar and the Politics of History. SUNY Press. ISBN 9781438488776.
External links
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (10 May 1909). The Indian War of Independence of 1857. London. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
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