At the outset, it needs underscoring that the book ‘Revolutionaries’ by ‘Sanjeev Sanyal’ is a brilliant combination of widespread research and conscious effort at making the book easy to understand. Thoroughly loved the flow of the book. After going through this book, it is quite apparent that the historical narrative about India’s freedom struggle was pockmarked with flaws. Many of those flaws had been intentionally put into use and many of the details were given short shrift in the books commonly available on the subject. At an individual level, it was always baffling to read such truncated versions giving only a single dimension of history, glossing over the pitfalls of the individuals involved, reducing the revolutionary aspects to the margins and flaunting the theoretical ethics all through. This book is one properly researched work which highlights those flaws alongside making the importance of the revolutionary aspects of the movement felt.
Any struggle in the world runs on two strands, both complementing each other, step by step. One is a strand of normal politics, argumentations, demonstrations and agitations. Another is the strand of revolutionary activities, using meaningful violence to make one’s point heard. It is exactly the latter one, which was missing for a larger part of the narrativization of the Indian Freedom Struggle. It is heartening to learn about that portion of the struggle being driven by proper planning and coordination, and not just being the expression of any rag-tag, misled and a crude group of youth.
Throughout the book, one gets to learn about the people and organisations, which were presented in footnotes only till now. Anushilan Samiti and its role in acting as a fountainhead have been presented in the most exquisite detail. All the revolutionaries from Vasudev Balwant Phadke, Chapekar brothers, V.S.Chiplunkar, Aurobindo Ghosh, Barin Ghose, V.V.S Aiyar, Taraknath Das, Rashbehari Bose, Sohan Singh Bakhna, Pandurang Khankhote, etc to Subhas Bose and Bhagat Ram Talwar have been described in detail. Ghadar Movement, India House in London and the patronization of the revolutionaries overseas by Shyamji Krishna Varma have been elucidated in the book like never before.
Substantive portions of the book are so rich that a reader wants to complete it in one go. The intrigues of the intelligence agencies, pervasive moles in every revolutionary group and the conditional help of the German sleuths make for a very persuasive read. It surely speaks volumes about the character of the revolutionaries, remaining single-minded in their striving for achieving their goal, in the face of extraordinary repression from the side of the British. The acts of the revolutionaries, as one understands, remain just one hit away from their realisation, whether it be Ghadarites or the Jugantar group.
The rise of M.N.Roy, the Communist Party of India, the Hindustan Republican Army and the influence of Socialism on it has been given adequate enough weightage. Kudos to the author, for not just writing the book, but actually teaching its readers about some minute details of the freedom struggle. The genesis of the Indian National Army, its order and organisation and its final moments of action have been dealt with from the zeroth principles. Royal Indian Navy (RIN) mutiny has been explained in detail heretofore not mentioned anywhere in the books. Loved it.
The trajectories of the lives of revolutionaries have been followed till the end. Saddening it is to learn that some of them lived very penurious lives after falling off the radar of the public eye. Some of them changed sides, rather evolved, from one side of the ideological spectrum to the other. The case in point here is of Ulaskar Dutt and his heart-breaking love story. Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee, who goes on to lay the foundation of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, resisting any intrusion from the externally-guided Communists. Quite interesting is the case of Pandurang Khankhote, who goes on to become a leading agriculturist the world over, after being associated, pith and marrow, with revolutionaries in the Indian Freedom Struggle.
It goes without saying that the book is a fabulous read. But there are certain pitfalls in the book, which flow tangentially to the accepted principles of historiography. One cannot and must not follow any emotionally-driven line of thought while writing history. Historians report the facts of history as they are, and do not give judgement about what the real-time actors of those times must have felt while carrying out their actions. Phrases like “they must have felt..”, “remembering the past..”, “allegedly…” are simply meaningless, no matter what colour they are ornated with.
Vinayak Savarkar did suffer the travails of Cellular Jail in Andamans (the book mentions the etymology of the word Andaman), but to ascribe his animosity towards Muslims to his treatment by Muslim men in jail is ridiculous. Savarkar had every right to critique Gandhiji’s wagon-hitching with Muslims on the issue of Khilafat. But to whip up anger against Muslims for no definitive reason is crass communalism. Savarkar, in 1939, raked up the threat of a Muslim takeover of India. It was simply a manifestation of ugly hatred inhabiting his psyche. The author’s going to length in explaining things on behalf of Savarkar is very poor in taste.
The author has given a wide-eyed view of the pedigree he comes from. Dr. Nalinaksha Sanyal is the great-grandfather of the author, a brilliant revolutionary, an excellent economist and a sportsperson. Good that we get to learn about him.
For the book’s whining tone and tenor, the rating for the work goes down to 3.5 out of 5. Otherwise, it would have been 4 out of 5.

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Uzair Qadri