Book Release

1857: Bharat Ka Pahla Mukti Sangharsh, Dr. Devendra Choubey, Dr. Badrinarayan, Dr. Hitendra Patel, Prakashan Sanasthan, New Delhi

14 November 2008, amidst an auspicious gathering of scholars and dignitaries, JNU campus saw release of the Hindi book titled ''1857: Bharat Ka Pahla Mukti Sangharsh'' (1857: India's First freedom Struggle).  The book release program was co-hosted by 'Rangshree', an organization dedicated to support the folklore and culture of India, who conducted their 4th Kunwar Singh Memorial Lecture  '1857: Dalit Aur Hindi Navjagran' (1857: Dalit and Hindi Renaissance).  The chief speaker for the program was noted social scientist and professor of JNU Abhijit Pathak.  The scholarly audience consisted of luminaries like Chamanlal, Chandra Sadyat, Goving Prasad, Prof. G.J.V. Prasad etal apart from various other scholars and students.

The three editors of the book that was released Devendra Choubey, Badrinarayan, Hitendra Patel ------ spoke about the concept of the book on this auspicious occasion. Their lecture focused on a new progressive form of history.  Dr. Choubey tried to highlight how this book, moving away form the established notions and ideas, tries to focus on the various forms of alternative histories that are available to us. Getting nostalgic, he recounted in his speech how prior to the conception of the book, he had innumerable discussions with Prof. Varyam Singh, who had intialy suggested him to take up an assignment which questioned the present day history and its beliefs.  He tried to sum up the significance of 1857 by quoting a Portuguese doctor who was settled in Kanpur and had said that ''the people of India have woken up and this revolt is not restricted to one individual or king or a single kingship.  It is a war of the people.''  He also mentioned that one of the major highlights of the book was that all the contributors of the book were born post 1960.

The noted Historian and co-editor of the book, Dr. Badrinarayan emphasized that the book dispels the myth that the 1857 was limited to the north Indian states only, because the book records the uproar and struggle that took place in 1857 in the far off Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the extreme North.  Referring to the book, he explained why the book was in Hindi.  According to him thinking in English or any other foreign language imposes certain restriction to the thought process but Hindi being the mother tongue, provides one with the liberty to think and dream  in a free way.  Highlighting the importance of the above said book he said that the book marks a collective effort to highlight the people's history and tries to move away from the official history.  

Dr. hitendra Patel, the other co-editor of the book questioned the relevance of the history.  He asked to bring in parity between the academic history and non-academic source to write history.  Drawing the audience attention to the contribution made by Dr. Rammanohar Lohia in the field of 1857, he said we should not forget people like Lohia and continue the academic legacy that he has left behind for us.  For Dr. Patel History is also like literature and hence time and again history, just like literature, can be reanalyzes and questioned in terms of text, context, form, content, content of the form and form of the content.  Justifying a book on 1857 in twenty first century he said that though the era of 1857 has long passed by yet the spirit of it still continues.

The main speaker for the evening and eminent historian Prof. Deepak Kumar of Zakir Hussain Center, JNU, New Delhi, too highlighted the need to move beyond the shekels of the current history that is catered to us.  The appreciated the new perspectives on history that are being taken in to considerations like the oral history, preserved history and the lived experience to construct a more multi faceted history.  He praised the book, ''1857 : Bharat Ka Pahla Mukto Sangharsh'' as an effort to bring in the various voices of India which were hitherto un represented or underrepresented.  He also highlighted the need to have both literary imagination and historical imagination to work had in hand and not pose as antithetical to each other.

Arun Kumar Tripathy, the well known journalist and an august speaker of the evening, claimed that most of the history recorded to date has been distorted due to official or political pressures.  But now things are changing as researchers and scholars are willing to think differently and are refusing to comply to any pressure.  He himself had written a lot about 1857 in the year 2007 (which marked the 150th year of the Revolt of 1857) to highlight the efforts of those who were lost in the pages of history or probably never got their due.  Mr. Tripathy asked the scholars to work on ladies like Umrao Jaan and Hazrat Mahal who had contributed immensely to the struggle and help in dispelling the misconcept that 1857 was restricted to men only.  He insited that 1857 independence movement reflected the Indian ness and the spirit will help India to overcome the cotemporary problems like communal troubles.

The noted Dalit writer Omprakash valmiki though could not make it to the function, had sent his observations which was read out by Mr. Mahendra Singh.  Mr. Valmiki referred 1857 as the loci of Hindi 'navjagran' (renaissance).  Yet he could not help but wonder how this renaissance could not gain a mass appeal despite the efforts from people like Bharatendu.  He posed some critical questions like why was this renaissance so town-centric and why was it restricted to Hindu- Brahmin-males only?  He opined that instead of bringing in Hindu- muslim together the navjagran made the difference wider with educated Hindu male using more of Sanskrit in his hindi making it impossible for Muslims to understand and educated Muslims youths using more of Persian in Urdu making the language   inaccessible to the common Hindi speaking mass.

Continuing the discussion further, Dr. badrinarayan wondered that if the Hindi renaissance was product of 'culture' and 'communalism' then was it that those who were not part of it were non-cultural or non-communal?  He insisted that those forces of dalit identity which were part of the navjagran phase still existed but they need to be mobilized for the betterment of society.  He also high lighted the problem tics of trying to negotiate with the multiple dalit identity that the pre-Independence situation encountered like a dalit who has been an Ambedkarite or has joined Arya Samaj or Congress?  He also asks the Dalit to come to the fore front and assert their identity.

The chief speaker of the evening, Prof. Abhijit Pathak, tried to analyze the mind that emerges in the post 1857 and post Hindi Renaissance era.  He also wonders if there is any relation to Hindi renaissance and nationalist aspect freedom struggle as they both had their basis on the pains and sufferings of the people on the margins.  He also invoked the dalit imagination and dalit Question in the present day scenario.  He said that the Dalit question recalled the forbidden.  He said that many spiritual and political leaders like Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda or Gandhi posed the dalit question yet the intensity was much less with which the dalit's were critiquing the high caste Hinduism and expressing their own demands.  Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda or Gandhi had some positive reference like Puranas or Vedas to fall back upon and introspect the situation. but dalits did not have any such nostalgic past.  So B. R. Ambedkar began with negative reference points and adhered to the slogan of French Revolution, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”.   he considered the Brahmins of Hinduism as the 'Superman' of Nietzsche who have rights only and no duties to perform.  Both Ambedkar and Phule discarded the idea of 'unified nationalism' as propagated by Gandhi because they believed that the internal colony has too many hierarchies and the unification  is only a eye wash as the social strata is full of gaps and holes.  Pathak speaking of symbol and ionization recalls the words of Kanchi Illaya who had asked for 'buffalo nationalism' as cow is a symbol of Hinduism and hence that nationalism restricts itself to upper caste Hindus only.  He also invoked how leftist history in school curriculum hardly gave any space to the social reforms undertaken by Phule and other where as they devoted a lot of space to the contribution of Aurobindo and Vivekananda.  The speaker again drew our attention to the politics of representation.  According to him a person who is born to the marginal society is always better able to express him/her to the non-marginalized segment of the society and is able to do justice to the marginalized segment by placing their opines and views and demands.  But that does not imply that a person not born to a marginalized family cannot feel the sufferings they are undergoing.  He cited an example in the form of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who fought for the rights of the Dalits.  But if we cannot appreciate him for his work and reduce his efforts through the reductionist process based on his birth then we will be doing injustice to the complexities and multiplicity called Gandhi.   Pathak concluded his deliverance by asking the audience to not view the possibilities expressed by Gandhi and Ambedkar as opposing to each other.  On the other hand we should try to concentrate on the aesthetic aspect of the ideas which provide relative autonomy because the moment one achieves aesthetic pleasure one transcends the barriers, it provides a liberating philosophy like the products of William Blake or Satyajit ray.  The marginalized literature needs to come out of its cocoon of 'dalit' literature or 'black' literature to have a universal appeal.

(Khusi Pattanayak,Research Scholar, CES, SLL&CS
Vinay Kumar and Ganpat Teli,Research Scholar, CIL, SLL&CS)

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School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies

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• Translating Saugata Bhaduri, Powerkatha, 2008 (e.)

Sports Office

• Health & Physical Education  Theory & Practical, Indian Publishers & Distributors, 2008, Vikram Singh.

• Khel Manovigyan, Vikram Singh, University Publication, 2008

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