000			02057nam a2200169 4500
020			_a9788178243665
082			_a954.035 _bGOP/I
100			_aGopal, Sarvepalli
245			_aImperialists, nationalists, democrats : the collected essays
260			_aRanikhet _bPermanant Black _c2013
300			_a431 p.
520			_aS. Gopal (1923 2002) was the most respected Indian historian of his time. His biographies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan remain the finest political lives written in the country. His writings on Indian history and politics are admired for their flair, elegance, insight, and thoroughness. The present book gathers together thirty pieces from scattered and relatively inaccessible sources. It is remarkable equally for the quality of the writing within it, reminiscent of the virtues that made Gopal s reputation. The English prose of most Indian academics is wooden , say Ramachandra Guha and Sunil Khilnani in their preface to this collection. Gopal, who had immersed himself in the literature of the language, was by contrast a stylist with a wry turn of phrase. Though his mother tongue was Telugu and he spoke Tamil fairly well as well as an Oxford-educated Brahmin could he wrote almost entirely in English, crafting his sentences fastidiously ... This is everywhere apparent in the essays here. They range from analyses of imperialists such as Curzon and Churchill, to nationalists such as Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Patel, to novelist-democrats such as E.M. Forster and Rabindranath Tagore. The Suez Crisis, cricketers and cricket-writing, secularism and Hindutva, women and Indian law, and the English language in South Asia are among the varied subjects that they are about. This is not a collection only for historians and students of Indian politics. It is a book for anyone wanting to read first-rate English prose by one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking writers of modern India.
650			_aIndia
650			_apolitics and government
700			_aSrinath Raghavan, Ed.
942			_cBK
999			_c62196 _d62196