Selected Works of C. Rajagopalachari. Volume Ⅰ 1907-21

摘要

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, familiarly known as CR or Rajaji, is the latest choice by the Nehru Memorial Library for their series of selected works of eminent twentieth-century Indians. The Editors see him as "one of the most enigmatic personalities in post-Independent Indian politics" (p. xvii). There was an attractive maverick side to CR that led me to become one of his biographers. Included is a measured brief biographical sketch by his grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi. This the first of ten volumes covers the highly dramatic years 1907 to 1921 when the raj responded to nationalist pressure by a series of constitutional reforms, the Morley-Minto of 1909, the Montagu-Chelmsford of 1919, together with the nefarious Rowlatt Act of 1919, and when the nationalist movement, largely if not exclusively led by the Indian National Congress, initially divided between Moderates and Extremists, came under Gandhi's leadership, first in the Rowlatt satyagraha of 1919, then the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat campaign of 1920-22. In this superbly edited volume the editors largely restrict themselves to Who's Who like entries on every person named in the documents with but minimal commentary on events.