Underground Asia


Book Description

An Economist Best Book of the Year A Financial Times Best Book of the Year A major historian tells the dramatic and untold story of the shadowy networks of revolutionaries across Asia who laid the foundations in the early twentieth century for the end of European imperialism on their continent. This is the epic tale of how modern Asia emerged out of conflict between imperial powers and a global network of revolutionaries in the turbulent early decades of the twentieth century. In 1900, European empires had not yet reached their territorial zenith. But a new generation of Asian radicals had already planted the seeds of their destruction. They gained new energy and recruits after the First World War and especially the Bolshevik Revolution, which sparked utopian visions of a free and communist world order led by the peoples of Asia. Aided by the new technologies of cheap printing presses and international travel, they built clandestine webs of resistance from imperial capitals to the front lines of insurgency that stretched from Calcutta and Bombay to Batavia, Hanoi, and Shanghai. Tim Harper takes us into the heart of this shadowy world by following the interconnected lives of the most remarkable of these Marxists, anarchists, and nationalists, including the Bengali radical M. N. Roy, the iconic Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, and the enigmatic Indonesian communist Tan Malaka. He recreates the extraordinary milieu of stowaways, false identities, secret codes, cheap firearms, and conspiracies in which they worked. He shows how they fought with subterfuge, violence, and persuasion, all the while struggling to stay one step ahead of imperial authorities. Underground Asia shows for the first time how Asia’s national liberation movements crucially depended on global action. And it reveals how the consequences of the revolutionaries’ struggle, for better or worse, shape Asia’s destiny to this day. Previous praise for Tim Harper Praise for Forgotten Wars: “[A] compelling book.”—Philip Delves Broughton, Wall Street Journal “Lucid...majestic.”—Peter Preston, The Observer “Authoritative.”—Pankaj Mishra, New Yorker Praise for Forgotten Armies: “Panoramic... Vivid.”—Benjamin Schwarz, New York Times Book Review “A spectacular book.”—Martin Jacques, The Guardian




The Defining Moments in Bengal


Book Description

This work explores some of the constitutive elements in the life and mind of Bengal in the twentieth century. The author addresses some frequently unasked questions about the history of modern Bengal. In what way was twentieth-century Bengal different from 'Renaissance' Bengal of the late-nineteenth century? How was a regional identity consciousness redefined? Did the lineaments of politics in Bengal differ from the pattern in the rest of India? What social experiences drove the Muslim community's identity perception? How did Bengal cope with such crises as the impact of World War II, the famine of 1943 and the communal clashes that climaxed with the Calcutta riots of 1946? The author has chosen a significant period in the history of the region and draws on a wealth of sources archival and published documents, mainstream dailies, a host of rare Bengali magazines, memoirs and the literature of the time to tell his story. Looking closely at the momentous changes taking place in the region's economy, politics and socio-cultural milieu in the historically transformative years 1920-47, this book highlights myriad issues that cast a shadow on the decades that followed, arguably till our times.




Gentlemanly Terrorists


Book Description

Durba Ghosh uncovers the critical place of revolutionary terrorism in the colonial and postcolonial history of modern India.




Revolutionary Desires


Book Description

Revolutionary Desires examines the lives and subjectivities of militant-nationalist and communist women in India from the late 1920s, shortly after the communist movement took root, to the 1960s, when it fractured. This close study demonstrates how India's revolutionary women shaped a new female – and in some cases feminist – political subject in the twentieth century, in collaboration and contestation with Indian nationalist, liberal-feminist, and European left-wing models of womenhood. Through a wide range of writings by, and about, revolutionary and communist women, including memoirs, autobiographies, novels, party documents, and interviews, Ania Loomba traces the experiences of these women, showing how they were constrained by, but also how they questioned, the gendered norms of Indian political culture. A collection of carefully restored photographs is dispersed throughout the book, helping to evoke the texture of these women’s political experiences, both public and private. Revolutionary Desires is an original and important intervention into a neglected area of leftist and feminist politics in India by a major voice in feminist studies.




My People Uprooted


Book Description

Gives An Overview Of Bengal Society And Hindu-Muslim Relations In Bengal From The First Partition Of The Province In 1905 - Traces The Events Leading To The Partition Of The Province In 1947 - Describes The Persecution And The Exodus Of The Hindus From East Bengal In Different Phases - Analyses The Course Of Events Why Hindus Could Not Resist - Why There Was No Recipocal Movement As In Punjab - Why Bengali Hindus Swallowed The Insult And Ignonminy And Why Interested Quarters Sought To Obliterate This Sad Chapter Of History. 11 Chapters - Appendix - Bibliography - Index.




Brothers Against the Raj


Book Description

Subhas Chandra Bose and his brother Sarat were among the most important leaders of the Indian struggle for independence. Brothers Against the Raj is the definitive biography of the Bose brothers, placing them in the context of the Indian freedom struggle and the turbulent international politics of the period. Leonard A. Gordon uses material gathered from archives, records and over 150 interviews he conducted with the brothers' political contemporaries and family members, as well as hundreds of unpublished letters, to bring to life once more two of India's most controversial leaders during one of the most significant epochs in Indian history. "[A] distinguished book... Mr. Gordon is a thorough scholar..." "one of the books of the year for 1990." "Gordon has done full justice to the Bose brothers, giving them their due and recounting their story in the context of the turbulent times in which they lived." "Professor Gordon has... conducted exhaustive and painstaking research and put its fruits into an eminently readable book. Besides, he has skilfully put the story of their lives into the context of the complex politics of India and Bengal of their times." "The author is a New Yorker but knows Calcutta well... The entire distinguished family seems to come alive as he writes, but he is careful to paint them with their warts intact." "[An] extraordinary, informative, and insightful study of Subhas and Sarat Bose." " I have found the book informative and absorbing. [ Gordon has] managed to combine empathy with objectivity- not an easy feat."




Modern Indian History


Book Description

Written in an easy-to-understand language, this informative and well-written textbook provides an interpretive and comprehensive account of the history of modern India from 1707 to the present day. Organised into 44 chapters in two parts, the textbook commences with a discussion on the decline and disintegration of the Mughal Empire and walks us through the advent of Europeans and the phases of British imperialism. It also provides a detailed discussion on the important aspects of Indian National Movement introducing contributions of prominent leaders of the Movement. It is fortified with questions at the end of each chapter to help students prepare for the examinations. Besides the students of History and Law, this textbook would also be of immense value to the aspirants of various competitive examinations, especially IAS, PCS and NET




The Bomb in Bengal


Book Description

This Book Describes A Moment In History Which Became A Landmark On The Map Of The Anticolonial Struggle, But Which Nationalist Historiography Did Not Sufficiently Engage With-The Revolutionary Movement In Bengal. A New Introduction Situates The Central Concerns Of The Book Against Very Recent Events In World History Which Have Changed The Way Terrorism Is Viewed Today.




M.N. Roy


Book Description

This book traces the life of M N Roy from his early years, to the Russian Revolution of 1917 which deeply drew him to Marxism and led him to found the first Communist Party outside Russia in Mexico in 1919. It takes us through his deep involvement with Marxism, and his subsequent disillusionment with Lenin and the autocratic nationalist and colonial aspects of Marxist thought, to his belief in democracy and commitment to a scientific, humanist and moral kind of socialist thought.




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