Praveen Davar sets the record straight in 'Freedom Struggle and Beyond'

Mani Shankar Aiyar

THIS is a most informative collection of essays profiling the stalwarts of the freedom movement. The articles include succinct biographical sketches of the key nation-builders after Independence. The book is rounded off with insightful pieces on the wars in which Independent India has been involved and on the controversies stirred by the BJP’s relentless denunciation of the Congress, and the many distortions of the historical truth.

Although the book by the party activist is written with obvious sympathy and admiration for Congress leaders, it is by no means sycophantic or partisan. On the contrary, the writing reveals deep academic research and is enlivened by apposite quotations from the principals or other observers. The profiles range from Dadabhai Naoroji to Annie Besant; Lokmanya Tilak to Gopal Krishna Gokhale; Lajpat Rai to Bhagat Singh; Chittaranjan Das to Sardar Patel; and, of course, Nehru and Bose. Towering above all is Mahatma Gandhi, who is not profiled but whose presence lights the entire narrative.

Also covered are life-altering events like the brutal massacre at Jallianwala Bagh, the Salt Satyagraha, the abolition of untouchability and Partition. Thus, the publication is not only comprehensive, it makes a hundred years of the freedom movement and Independent India accessible to the lay reader, the new generation and the general public.

Facts are meticulously marshalled, and dates are clearly provided to ensure chronological authenticity. This is yeoman service and should be made compulsory or, at least, optional reading in high schools and universities. To this end, one hopes that the book will be translated into Hindi and regional languages.

The author digs out telling nuggets from the life and work of the great leaders he profiles, retrieving from history less-remembered episodes and striking quotes, as well as material, to filter misconceptions and blatant lies being spread about the various personalities of the freedom movement, the hard decisions they made, and the circumstances in which the choice had to made. If there is criticism warranted in this regard, it is about the paucity of profiles relating to nationalist Muslims and leaders of other minority communities. Of course, Maulana Azad is covered. One would have hoped that Dr Ansari would have similarly been included.

The third section deals with India’s wars and is written with the authority and insight of a former member of the armed forces (for Praveen Davar carries the prefix of ‘Captain’). I found his two chapters on the 1962 war, in particular “Where the Generals went wrong”, refreshingly frank and persuasive about the failings of the top commanders. All this has, of course, been revealed in the Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report that has been suppressed from official viewing for the best part of six decades. Why? Only so that the focus might remain on the failures of other branches of the establishment, such as the Intelligence Bureau under BN Mullick, and, the butt of biting critique, the acerbic VK Krishna Menon, then Raksha Mantri, and, above all, Prime Minister Nehru, whose physical life was cut short by the emotional hubris of the war of 1962.

The last and, perhaps, most interesting section is on the “Issues that Remain Alive”. It covers the rebuttal of the motivated misinformation that the saffron forces have been purveying, apart from seeking to claim as their own true heroes such as Sardar Patel, Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh.

Davar does not use rhetoric as arrows; he uses scholarly study and relies on original sources. What, therefore, could have been empty polemics in lesser hands is turned into sober, penetrating insights that restore historical truth to its pedestal.