13th February 2016
The Swatantra Party: Victory in Defeat by H. R. Pasricha – please download, read, and share this book
Whenever discussions occur re: the Swatantra Party, I cite Pasricha’s book (e.g. here). However, most people don’t have access to the book as it had a very limited print run (in 2002).
SV Raju sent me a copy of this book (from Mumbai to Melbourne) nearly 14 years ago. The binding of the book is of extremely poor quality and has come apart. I don’t know how many copies of this book are in good condition across the world. However, the book is of significant importance to students of Indian politics.
While this is a copyrighted book, neither Pasricha nor Raju are now alive, and the Rajaji Foundation – a not-for-profit entity – is probably dormant. (I know that the Indian Liberal Group – or whatever its new avataar is called – went dormant many years ago). I know for sure that Pasricha would have wanted his book to be widely known/ disseminated.
I’ve therefore decided to OCR and convert this book into Word/PDF, so current generations may benefit from Pasricha’s perspective on Swatantra. This is a historical document of considerable interest to every Indian liberal – particularly to members of the Swarna Bharat Party.
Download
Sir,
Self-serving Tamil Periyarists and Casteists did not allow C. Rajagopalachari (aka Rajaji) to gain political mileage solely on the basis of his caste (Rajaji was a Brahmin) and deliberately misinterpreted (and refused to analyze) his political statement (Rajaji asked them to preserve their ancestral business skills till they get a better job to sustain and improve our local economy), otherwise he would have been a world renowned classical liberal and today’s India or at least today’s Tamil Nadu would have been a liberal and prosperous society rather than a backward and reactionary society that it is.
Rajaji was a legend.
But Tamil Nadu at the time was burning in anti-Hindi agitation and saw Brahmins as an agent of Hindi (which admittedly was used to suppress the Tamil language at the time). As a Tamil myself, looking back at the events, I place the first and foremost blame on the brute force used by socialist Nehru and his cabal to curb our voice and deny us our rights to our own heritage in the name of national integration, which eventually failed. And I extend the blame to the extremely reactionary Tamils who in their short sight, effectively shunned Rajaji and missed out what could have potentially made them a prosperous society.
Look at Tamil Nadu today, the only state (possibly the only place on earth) where being a cinema actor is a very important aspect in becoming a successful politician. Doesn’t matter whether or not his/her rule benefits us in the long run, we just want to see a great dancer and hero on screen rule us in real life. This is the result of Tamil reaction. In no other state in India, no matter how dire they are, would you find people electing leaders solely on the basis of how they acted in films.
Back to the post. I’ve downloaded it and will read it soon.
Thanks.
I am unable to download the PDF. It seems the link has broken down. Can you please reupload it?
You’re right. Onedrive (Microsoft) has MESSED UP tens of my links – these stupid people can’t be trusted. But now I don’t have time to redo the whole thing. Sorry about that.