Sanjeev Sanyal (HarperCollins India 2023)
This is a book for all politically aware thinkers to read. I greatly enjoyed reading Revolutionaries, mainly for the panoramic perspective and timeline the author has so painstakingly traced, of the many untold stories of Indian armed rebellion against British imperialism. This however, seems to be aimed at providing the current power in India with a lineage of legitimacy, perhaps only to challenge the Congress dynastic elite! It is faintly reminiscent of usurpers of royal power tracing their lineage back to antiquity for validity. In the present case, validation is sought from the extreme sacrifices made by a long line of networked revolutionaries and their families during India’s freedom struggle, with glancing references made back to the 1857 Armed Indian Uprising and even earlier to the medieval akhadas of soldier sanyasis, without all of which, the story of our Independence would certainly remain incomplete.
The saga of the Indian rebellion against the British in this narrative unfolds from the formation of the Anushilan Samiti in 1902 in the continuing tradition of the akhada, to the establishment of India House and Abhinav Bharat in the enemy heartland, traces the transcontinental Ghadar Movement, follows the climactic action of numerous members of the longstanding Hindustan Republican Association, takes us through the formation of the Azad Hind Fauz and finally, to the Indian Naval Mutiny, and the poignant modern finale of the arrival of Netaji in Delhi with the installation of his statue on Kartavya Path. There is an accompanying fanfare of heroic names, some well known, like Sri Aurobindo, Rashbehari Bose, Vinayak Savarkar, Bagha Jatin, Surya Sen, Khudiram Bose, Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and yet many others who barely find a mention in mainstream historical narratives, for instance, the Chapekar brothers, Pandurang Kharkoje, K. B. Hedgewar, Udham Singh, Lala Hardayal, A.S Rama Raju, M. N. Roy, and the author’s own ancestor, Satchindra Nath Sanyal, to name only a few.
Mainstream historical narratives depict isolated brief flare-ups of anti-imperial revolution, immediately stamped out with finality by the British. In contrast, Sanyal’s perspective reveals that the revolutionaries were organised into interconnected units under charismatic, educated, aware and articulate leaders, who inspired tremendous popular support among Indians and foreigners, and who methodically spread their strongholds throughout India and the world and were connected to major global political events like the Russian Revolution, the Irish Independence movement and the two World Wars. The revolutionary in Sanyal’s narrative does not just appear momentarily poised on the gallows but is rooted more deeply in worldwide foundations of political theory and action. The revolutionary movement is also revealed to have existed parallel to the Indian Congress and interacting frequently with it, only to part ways due to growing mutual distrust and misunderstandings. Sanyal has included detailed accounts of lesser known events like the Alipore Bomb Case, the Komagata Maru incident, the international ramifications of the Ghadar movement, the impact of Kalapani or the infamous cellular jail, the trans-continental deployment of the Indian revolutionaries in the World Wars and the Hindu-German trials, the Kakori Conspiracy and the terrible famines as a direct outcome of deliberate imperialist policy. These and many other similar events sidelined in mainstream history are here narrated as an interconnected network of cause and effect along the timeline of the Indian Independence movement. These tales of heroism and sacrifices deserve the detailed narration that Sanyal has provided. It is noticeable, however, that the names are almost entirely masculine, with little mention of the women who no doubt, played their untold parts.
Sanyal weaves a spellbinding narrative, certainly a page turner, owing to his meticulously painstaking research, including not just published as well as private documents, but also involving physically tracking down forgotten spots where momentous events took place. All these details add credibility to his fascinating tale. I particularly commend his including the oral evidence of stories handed down verbally in the families and associates of revolutionary heroes that reflect the authenticity of their lived experience rather than otherwise. After years of indoctrination in the central discourse structured by authorised experts, it is a novel and liberating experience to listen to the voices of peripheralized or silenced others.
It is necessary however, to sound a cautionary note. In a world that continues to be overtaken by uncontrollable political violence impacting civilian lives for prolonged durations, Sanyal’s narrative could be naively taken to heart as a call to the way of the sword. This would be a calamity, for the Revolutionaries itself is evidence enough of the immediate failed outcome of violent revolution. To offset the noble courage and almost foolhardy, daring risks taken, painful sacrifices made, and losses suffered by the revolutionaries, it reveals a litany of their crucial errors in judgement, imperfect coordination, missed timings and lack of adequate resources, further set back by nefarious internal betrayals and brutal police reprisals. The Naval Mutiny, even in this narrative, had an immediately successful impact only because of its occurrence at a crucial juncture of history, and despite the active opposition from mainstream Congress leaders, who in retrospect, lacked the vision to realise this fact. Overall, Sanyal’s tales of armed rebellion reveal at what great cost and after what lapse of time the revolutionary legacy has finally been democratically elected to power in India in the twenty first century. For all the retrospectively perceived political errors of the Nehru-Gandhi-Congress establishment and their cultural biases, their lack of sympathy for the revolutionary way to freedom and their refusal to acknowledge its contribution to India’s hard won Independence, it is yet historically evident that violence has its own drawbacks and unless carried to its extreme limits of risking civilian lives (to which level the Indian revolutionaries never descended, except in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi), mostly fails to deliver. The author must be commended for a fair retelling of the complete story of Indian Independence, replacing the selective version that had marginalised truth in the mistaken interest of national unity.