Reimagining Swaraj Through Indian Traditions- Essays in Honour of Shri Dharampal on his Birth Centenary

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Dharampal (19 February 1922-24 October 2006) was a historiographer and political philosopher whose reconstruction of India's past since the late 1700s offered a fundamentally different picture of Indian society from extant mainstream histories. As a Gandhian, the primary motivation for his work arose from a deep commitment towards enabling ordinary people to come into their own, facilitated by a public acceptance of their ways, beliefs, knowledge and idioms in various facets of social life.

The contemporary relevance of Dharampal's work lies in its political philosophy that urges us to critically evaluate Indian society through indigenous categories that lie outside Western discourse, without becoming hostage to a desire to replicate an imagined ideal society of the past.

This volume celebrates Dharampal's life and work through 33 articles that include reminiscences, archival material, critiques and recommendations for a future India from a number of intellectuals, many of whom were intimately associated with him.

The publisher of this volume, the PPST group, comprising scientists, technologists and scholars, has striven since the 1980s to foster the development of indigenous roots for promoting the theory and practice of S&T (Science and Technology) in the country. The PPST believes that the knowledge embedded in our traditions and ordinary people ought to form a significant part of our developmental and nation building efforts.

Over the last twenty years, the co-publisher of the volume, Other India Press, has been responsible for making Dharampal's extensive writings widely available through their publication of his collected works in 5 volumes.

Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him... control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and... self melting away.

Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi's message to humanity, a "talisman" in his words and widely believed to have been issued during his last days, fittingly describes the strivings and work of Dharampal the scholar, historiographer, political philosopher and a great Indian patriot. A major part of his life's work was devoted to a reconstruction of the past that offered a fundamentally different picture of Indian society as compared to extant "objective" histories of India, more recognizable today as mere self-affirming narratives of the triumphalism and invincibility of the West. The primary motivation for his work however seems to have been firmly located in a concern for enabling ordinary people to come into their own, driven by a public acceptance of their ways, beliefs and idioms in various facets of social life. Accordingly, his archival work reflects an emphasis on understanding India since the 1800s from the standpoint of its ordinary people and extends it through a political philosophy that urges us to critically evaluate Indian society through native categories. This would help us assess its strengths as well as weaknesses in the process of steering it towards a new social order in our times, without becoming hostage to a desire to replicate an imagined ideal society of the past. Most importantly, his work lends credence to a growing realization in former colonies of how the dysfunctionality of post-colonial societies is not so much a consequence of the devastation of their material and human resources during their enslavement in the past, extensive as it might have been, as it is of the loss of selfhood in thought, expression and deed that continues to this day.

**Contents and Sample Pages**