The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that a publication of this vintage is absolutely delectable and brings back memories of days gone by giving a peep into a past that will not return. He was addressing the gathering, here today, after releasing the book 'Patriots, Poets and Prisoners: Selections from Ramananda Chatterjee's The Modern Review, 1907-1947' edited by Shri Anikendra Sen, Shri Devangshu Datta and Ms. Nilanjana S. Roy.
The Vice President congratulated the editors for the selection undertaken, and the publisher for bringing this anthology to the notice of the present generation of citizens. The founder-editor, Ramananda Chatterjee was a man of vision, he added.
The Vice President said that the contents of the volume testifies to the intellectual stature, and vigour, of the contributors and of their times, and includes a debate between Lala Lajpat Rai and Gandhi ji on Ahimsa; a scintillating essay by Rabindranath Tagore on nationalism; translation of a classic short story by Munshi Prem Chand and a cheeky piece on Jawaharlal Nehru by someone who called himself ‘Chanakya' among others.
Following is the text of Vice President's address:
Shri Dilip Padgaonkar, The editors of the book, Ladies and Gentlemen,
A publication of this vintage is absolutely delectable. To some it brings back memories of days gone by; to others a peep into a past that will not return.
I congratulate the editors for the selection undertaken, and the publisher for bringing this anthology to the notice of the present generation of citizens. I agree with their assertion that much of India's true and often stirring history lies in the archives of little magazines and turn-of-the-century journals.
The founder-editor, Ramananda Chatterjee was certainly a man of vision. Sir Jadunath Sarkar, no mean judge of men and events, described him as the voice of India to the world outside.
The contents of the volume tell their own story. Where else can one find a selection of this caliber? It testifies to the intellectual stature, and vigour, of the contributors and of their times. Here is a sampling:
• A debate between Lala Lajpat Rai and Gandhi ji on Ahimsa where Gandhi ji asserts that ‘Ahimsa does not displace the practice of other virtues but renders their practice imperatively necessary before it can be practiced even in its rudiments;'
• a scintillating essay by Rabindranath Tagore on nationalism that, if publicized today, might bring the publisher under the ambit of an archaic law;
• The translation of a classic short story by Munshi Prem Chand;
• An obtuse conversation between Einstein and Tagore on the nature of reality;
• A cheeky piece on Jawaharlal Nehru by someone who called himself ‘Chanakya' cautioning on Nehru's propensity to be impatient and dictatorial but also arguing that he could not be a fascist. The reasoning is interesting: ‘he is too much of an aristocrat for the crudity and vulgarity of fascism' and also because ‘the fascist is a public face and not a pleasant face in public or private.'
It was left to the historian Ramchandra Guha to discover in NMML archives Nehru's own note acknowledging the authorship of the article!
One last word about the intellectual powerhouse that Calcutta, now Kolkatta, was in those early decades of the 20th century. I am reminded of a 24 year old young man who started a paper called Al Hilal, created a Party of God (Hizbullah), preached communal harmony, established contacts with revolutionary figures like Shyam Sunder Chakravarty and was eventually imprisoned for three years in Ranchi.
I once again thank the three editors for resurrecting these writings. I thank them for inviting me to this function.
Jai hind.
Source: PIB
|
|
Comments:
