Rebels with a cause

In the last two decades, terrorist activity against colonial rule has received short shrift from historians. The reasons are many. In a perceptive comment made a few years ago, the historian Sumit Sarkar pointed out that both terrorists and moderate nationalists despite ideological differences, shared common ground in their overt dependence on elite initiatives. With the rise of people's history and subaltern studies, the concerns of these actors naturally took a back seat. Also problematic was the enmeshing of terrorism with revivalist Hinduism. Additionally, since the 1980s, terrorism has had rather uncomfortable associations for Indians.

However, as Maya Gupta and Amit Gupta's studies show, violent outbursts and political activity during colonial rule were not always driven by sectarian goals; they were equally driven by a unified concern to overthrow alien rule. And many advocates of violent activity crossed the river of fire to embrace a wider and deeper understanding of colonialism and indigenous exploitation. By this yardstick people like Hemchandra Kanungo and Bhagat Singh can truly be called revolutionaries.

The essays embrace a wide range of subjects. While Maya Gupta has written the chapters on the Vellore Mutiny, and the national revolutionaries from World War I to the 1930s, Amit Gupta has concentrated on the later period. His essays offer detailed assessments of the Chittagong Uprising, Subhas Bose, and especially the communist inspired uprisings in Telengana and Kakdwip. The essays on the latter are very welcome since studies of organised peasant movements have become rare. Reading the essays chronologically one gets a sense of the gradual change in the nature of anti-colonial struggles over time. The Vellore Mutiny (1806) began as a patriotic outburst. Later struggles exhibited a more reasoned nationalist ideology.

The book as a whole is carefully researched, full of insights and lucidly written. Perhaps what makes this set of essays so accessible is the enthusiasm that the authors bring to their subject. Their argument forcefully demonstrates how important were the contributions of romantic youths and ordinary peasants — which current historiographical fashion has rendered marginal — to the trajectory of struggle against colonialism and feudalism. In this context it must be mentioned that a revival of interest in revolutionaries seems to be underway. Peter Heehs has written a fine book on Swadeshi Bengal as has Manini Chatterjee on the Chittagong Uprising. The journalist Kuldip Nayar too has written a popular book on Bhagat Singh and the Punjab terrorists.

Two essays in this collection deserve special mention. Maya Gupta's account of the Vellore Mutiny is perhaps the first proper study of an important episode in Indian history to which historians have been paying lip service for far too long. It is only with detailed studies like this, that one begins to comprehend the linkages to bigger events like 1857. Amit Gupta's;s essay on Subhas Bose is probably one of the best short essays on this still controversial if beleaguered nationalist. In its reasoned and critical understanding, its overall grasp of the context and its ability to make connections, this essay will be unsurpassed for a long time to come.

PARTHO DATTA

(The writer teaches modern Indian History at a Delhi College)

Defying Death: Struggles against Imperialism and Feudalism, Maya Gupta and Amit Gupta, Tulika, Delhi,2001, p.283

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