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Book Review
A great liberal leader
INDIAN POLITICS SINCE THE MUTINY: C. Y. Chintamani; Rs. 195.
C.Y. CHINTAMANI — The Liberal Editor Politician: Rupa Charitavali Series; Rs. 95. Both pub by Rupa & Co., 7/16, Ansari Road, New Delhi — 110002.
A LITTLE over 50 years after India's Independence, one finds a whole new generation coming of age for which the struggle for freedom is, at best, about memorising some passages out of the texts prescribed by various Boards of Education.
And as for the oral tradition, a means through which the youth until a couple of decades ago came to know about the men and women who went through a lot of privation to make India a free country is also denied to the school-going child today.
The books under review, one, being a biography of one of those who played a role in the making of the Indian nation, and the other, being a compilation of lectures delivered by C. Y. Chintamani, a tall leader belonging to the liberal tradition, are indeed useful additions.
The liberals, as a lot, are indeed painted as having been those who broke away from the Indian National Congress for they were not prepared to participate in the Non-Cooperation Movement. But then, reading through the lectures Chintamani delivered in the Andhra University (in 1935), one gets a picture that is perhaps far clearer than the impression left behind by school texts.
The liberals, in the first place, were not apologists of the British administration. They were Congressmen at heart, asserts Chintamani and explains the pains he (and also those who constituted the liberal fold) went through while walking out of the INC.
Chintamani was not just a political activist; he was an active journalist and was the Editor of The Leader for several years and had contributed to a whole lot of nationalist publications before and after his stint as a Minister in the United Provinces.
The core value, says Chintamani, that guided him and his comrades who formed the Liberal Party was a commitment to do just what they thought was the right thing to do.
It was this, he insists, that guided them to walk out of the INC (because they were not convinced with the idea of non-cooperation and hence refused to be part of the movement). But then, Chintamani is clear (and he stated it aloud in 1935 in his lecture in the university) that he, as well as all those who made the Liberal Party, continue to remain Congressmen and their opposition to the British rule remained as intense as it was with the Indian National Congress.
This and several other portions of the lecture (the remarks on the social reformers of Bengal for instance) throw new light on the perceptions about the liberals in Indian political tradition.
The publishers deserve all appreciation for this venture. True, the history of a nation and of an era shall not be centred around one or another personality for then it becomes hagiography.
But then, there is no way the events in history can be studied and a culture is brought about where the people are encouraged to think with a sense of history without indulging in a project where the personalities who played a role in the making of the modern era and their thoughts are placed in perspective.
The collection of Chintamani's lectures (his perception of the political events since 1957) and the Charitavali series are indeed a valuable addition in this context.
V. KRISHNA ANANTH
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