Radha Rajan has not exactly covered herself with glory by twisting history that “The British manoeuvred Gandhi into India as leader of the INC after forcibly removing Tilak and Aurobindo from public life.” Academicians, however, have the license to compress the events spanning a couple of decades into just a single slanted sentence. And the hapless reader has to equip himself with several lenses in order to filter down the essence.
Seva, Sangathanas and Gurus: Service and the Making of the Hindu Nation by Sujata Patel in Religion, Community and Development: Changing Contours of Politics and Policy in India (Eds. Gurpreet Mahajan and Surinder S. Jodhka, Routledge India, 2010) brings out some interesting comparative facets of Patit Pawan Sanghathana (PPS) and Sadhu Vaswani Mission (SVM). None of the 15 authors featured in the book has found it worthwhile to remember Sri Aurobindo though.
Discussions on Akshardham Cultural Complex (ACC) by Christiane Brosius in India’s New Middle Class: Urban Forms of Leisure, Consumption and Prosperity (Cities and the Urban Imperative, Routledge India, 2010) and on Amar Chitra Katha by Deepa Sreenivas in SCULPTING A MIDDLE CLASS: History, Masculinity and the Amar Chitra Katha in India (Routledge India: 2010) are two other pertinent reads. [TNM] 3:19 PM, 8:39 PM
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