New Delhi: Veteran journalist Prem Prakash’s latest book ‘History that India Ignored’, is a piercing re-examination of India’s Independence movement. The book challenges several conventional notions related to the freedom movement, with the most widely discussed being Mahatma Gandhi’s role in steering the nation towards freedom in 1947.
Prem Prakash, is one of India’s most respected journalists, with over seven decades of experience. He has reported firsthand on pivotal moments in modern Indian history, including the 1962 and 1965 wars.
The book ‘History that India Ignored’ sends out a clear message — history knows only about Mahatma Gandhi … youths also sacrificed their lives for Independence.
His commitment to factual integrity and historical justice informs his latest work, which seeks to balance the skewed lens through which India’s freedom struggle has often been presented.
Prem Prakash, who is the founder of news agency ANI, also held a discussion about the book with Sanjeev Chopra, Author and Columnist and Rasheed Kidwai, Author and Journalist, during a programme here.
Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the PMO was present in the event as Chief Guest.
This meticulously researched volume covers India’s struggles against foreign aggression from the time of Alexander to the invasions by the Muslims and later by the British.
The book then goes on to restore the rightful place of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Veer Savarkar, Khudiram Bose, Madan Lal Dhingra, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and countless others whose names were either erased or marginalised in mainstream historical accounts.
From hangings and deportations to hunger strikes and heroic resistance, the book documents the courage and conviction of the revolutionaries in the face of savage British oppression.
The author, Prem Prakash, has covered the freedom struggle across the length and breadth of India and has woven the many uprisings and revolts by revolutionaries, maharajahs, and Marathas in different parts of the country into one cohesive, fascinating and revealing narrative.
The book assumes significance as it has been released at a time when India is re-evaluating its history and identity. The book has come as a vital corrective.
The author has challenged the popular belief that India’s Independence was won solely through non-violence and negotiations by the Congress.
Instead, he presents compelling evidence that the revolutionaries’ sacrifices, the Indian National Army’s uprising, and the 1946 mutinies in the Royal Indian Navy and Air Force played pivotal roles in ending British rule.
Historians credit Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party for India’s Independence, but till 1930, their demand was for Home Rule or Dominion status.
It was only when three of the revolutionaries, led by Bhagat Singh demanding complete Independence were about to be hanged that Jawaharlal Nehru, while raising the Congress flag in Lahore in 1930 declared complete Independence as the goal of India’s fight for freedom.
The revolutionaries’ fast unto death had also forced the British to recognise that they had a right to fight for their country’s freedom and were political prisoners, not criminals.
These long-forgotten details are what makes the book a compelling read. Prem Prakash says: ‘The armed struggle by the revolutionaries has been downplayed or ignored by historians.’ His book seeks to correct this distortion.
(IANS)
