Its a popular belief that its Books which choose you and not the other way round and I can definitely say that the saying has been true for me for this book. It was just on a sleepy Saturday that I laid my hand on this astounding tale of Partition at a second hand book shop.
Its a tale from the close Quarters, from the desk of somone who spearheaded the nation into an almost Blodless freedom.
It is one book which puts one in an extreme conundrum. How is one supposed to react when ones' icons fall into a deep abyss of Human falacy? How is one supposed to react when he understands that the greatest error in the human history was done by none other than his greatest icon whom he had emulated since childhood?
I am not sure about the answers to these questions nor am I sure to the feelings I am exposed to by this book. What I know is that I just need to know more about this most tragic event in the history of this subcontinent.
The book being a Biography and written by the long time associate of Maulana is completely devoid of a human angle of him which one sees very clearly in Mahatama's "My experiments with truth" and Mandela's "Long walk to freedom." This book does paint Maulana as the one of the greatest of his time and I have no doubt about it.
This book has opened a Pandora's box which is the reason why its full publication was extremely controversial and only a court case was won was when readers were humbled by Maulana.
It is my first thorough insight into the events leading to Partition but it seems to me as a slightly biased view with lot of personal feelings about individuals and events involved. And I don't blame Maulana for this as the time was such and the tragedy was one of its kind.
But this book has definitely given me a good starting point to research into a story whose genesis I wanted to know more about since a long time.
Manish Saini
Its a tale from the close Quarters, from the desk of somone who spearheaded the nation into an almost Blodless freedom.
It is one book which puts one in an extreme conundrum. How is one supposed to react when ones' icons fall into a deep abyss of Human falacy? How is one supposed to react when he understands that the greatest error in the human history was done by none other than his greatest icon whom he had emulated since childhood?
I am not sure about the answers to these questions nor am I sure to the feelings I am exposed to by this book. What I know is that I just need to know more about this most tragic event in the history of this subcontinent.
The book being a Biography and written by the long time associate of Maulana is completely devoid of a human angle of him which one sees very clearly in Mahatama's "My experiments with truth" and Mandela's "Long walk to freedom." This book does paint Maulana as the one of the greatest of his time and I have no doubt about it.
This book has opened a Pandora's box which is the reason why its full publication was extremely controversial and only a court case was won was when readers were humbled by Maulana.
It is my first thorough insight into the events leading to Partition but it seems to me as a slightly biased view with lot of personal feelings about individuals and events involved. And I don't blame Maulana for this as the time was such and the tragedy was one of its kind.
But this book has definitely given me a good starting point to research into a story whose genesis I wanted to know more about since a long time.
Manish Saini
