At a talk at Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India’s Principal Economic Advisor, Sanjeev Sanyal spoke about the buried history of Indian revolutionaries whose contribution to the freedom struggle is often overlooked.
Crux of the Matter
Sanjeev Sanyal, who was on a lecture circuit in Ahmedabad, visited Ahmedabad University and talked to the Management and Economics students about Indian Financial Market, Economic Survey and Budget making process. He gave the annual SV Desai Memorial lecture at HL College of Commerce and talked about Principles for building the 21st Century Economy of India.
Had the honour of delivering the SV Desai Memorial lecture today at HL College in Ahmedabad. Spoke about the principles for building a 21st century economy for India. pic.twitter.com/m6bHzOBulT — Sanjeev Sanyal (@sanjeevsanyal) February 11, 2020
At Gujarat University, he retold the story of Indian Freedom Struggle from the viewpoint of the revolutionaries. The less-heard sporadic incidents of revolution kickstarted the fire in Indians.
Retelling the Story of Revolutionaries Sanjeev Sanyal exquisitely pointed out that the incidents of revolution beginning from the 1857 Revolt were some way or other threaded together. Revolutionaries like Veer Savarkar, Aurobindo Ghosh, Barin Ghosh, Rashbehari Bose, et al. kept resurfacing on the front page of the freedom struggle and kept influencing the next generation. He marked an interesting juxtaposition of revolt in armed forces with the tactics used by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The revolutionaries constituted an eclectic group following diverse ideologies, ranging from socialists, democrats, communists, and Hindu nationalists. The death of the majority of the early revolutionaries by the time of Independence, says Sanjeev, resulted in the diffusion of the stories of bravery.
Some of the interesting points from the historical digging he has done are:
In 1897, Chapekar Brothers killed British officer W. C. Rand in Pune.
Soon after, Aurobindo Ghosh and his brother Barindra Kumar Ghosh gradually built a movement in West and East India respectively.
India House in London, developed with the assistance of Veer Savarkar, Bhikhaji Cama, Madanlal Dhingra, Lala Hardayal, VVS Aiyer, et al, was at the forefront of the Indian Revolutionary Movement in the early 1900s.
Collapse of India House compelled Savarkar and others to flee to nearby European nations. This helped them build strong ties with other countries.
The trio of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal, popularly known as Lal Bal Pal also left a remarkable influence on the revolutionaries.
Rashbehari Bose founded the Indian National Army (INA) during World War II. His revolutionary feats also include the killing of Lord Hardinge and starting the Gadhar movement during World War I. Later, he fled to Japan, where he met Subash Chandra Bose, who later took charge of the Azad Hind Fauj (INA).
Sachindra Sanyal founded the Hindustan Republican Association on lines of IRA to fight the British Army in an armed revolution.
Sachin Sanyal inspired the generation of Chandrashekar Azad and Bhagat Singh.
Early Revolutionaries like Savarkar and Aurobindo were continuously persecuted by the British authorities and had separated from the movement by the 1920s but continued to influence it. It is when Bose became the Chief of Congress, the revolutionary movement came into the mainstream. Ties of Indian revolutionaries with Japan, Germany, and other nations from the times of World War I helped them carry out armed revolution and form INA. On a similar note, Germans had also supported Lenin in carrying out the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. These ties are often used to malign and sideline the revolutionaries and the revolutionary movement by certain historians.
Indian School of Economics? Sanjeev Sanyal also mentioned that he and Gujarat University Vice-Chancellor, Himanshu Pandya have talked about setting up an indigenous Indian School of Economics at Gujarat University. This university, rather than blindly adopting the theories of the development of economics from the West, would focus on the indigenous development of economics while also adopting cutting-edge economic paradigms from the West and incorporate the same in the curriculum.
Interaction with Start-ups Sanjeev Sanyal later visited start-ups at the Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC). He had an interactive session with startups like E – Vega, WeHear, Bemmr, POIS, AltMat, BioPlastics, Booz E-Scooter, Justfreights, Summachar, etc. The Gujarat University based incubator, that houses start-ups belonging to diverse fields, received constructive feedback, insightful suggestions and assistance from the Principal Economic Advisor.
Curiopedia
Sanjeev Sanyal is the Principal Economic Advisor to the Government of India. An internationally acclaimed economist and best-selling author, he spent two decades in the financial sector and was Global Strategist & Managing Director at Deutsche Bank till 2015. He was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010. He is also a well-known environmentalist and urban theorist. In 2007, he was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship for his work on urban dynamics. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore and a Senior Fellow of the World Wide Fund for Nature. More Info
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