The Penguin Book of India’s Oral History

What was it really like to live through India’s struggle for freedom from the British colonial rule? What did those who took part in it remember: of Gandhi and the Congress, of ideological disagreements, of going underground, of prison, protest and the choices that changed their lives? In the 1980s, eminent historian Bipan Chandra, together with Mridula Mukherjee, Aditya Mukherjee, and a team of scholars began recording the memories of men and women who had witnessed and participated in the freedom movement. This amazingly brilliant collection brings together the conversations, featuring voices as varied as Renuka Ray, Usha Mehta, S. A. Dange, E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Achyut Patwardhan, Umashankar Joshi, Morarji Desai, J. R. D. Tata, S. Nijalingappa, Vadilal Lallubhai Mehta, Vijay Merchant and K. K. Das. Candid, personal and thought-provoking, their recollections take us beyond the familiar history of movements and milestones into the arguments, friendships, convictions and sacrifices that animated an extraordinary generation. Together, they offer something increasingly rare: India’s freedom struggle remembered by those who were there.