This volume has been published by the Research Unit for Political Economy (R.U.P.E.), constituted under the People's Research Trust.
R.U.P.E. is concerned with analysing, at the theoretical and empirical levels, various aspects of the economic life of the country and its institutions. However, to understand any complex social phenomenon we have to turn to a study of its history; and thus we must seek the roots of the condition of present-day India in our past.
That was precisely the approach of Suniti Kumar Ghosh's earlier works, The Indian Big Bourgeoisie: Its Genesis, Growth and Character and the first volume of India and the Raj: Glory, Shame and Bondage. They offered an interpretation of pre-1947 India that stood in dramatic opposition to the overwhelming weight of established historiography.
The main distinction of these works was not the interpretation they offered, which a stream of political opinion in India has broadly shared for decades. Rather, it was the wealth of substantiation and tightness of argument, which made it impossible for established historiography to dismiss.
The proponents of the established views chose neither to contend seriously with this newly substantiated interpretation, nor to budge even slightly in their own interpretation. Instead, they did their best to ignore it, as if it did not exist.
It is important to realise that these decisions are not merely academic, but political.
S.K. Ghosh's works are not based on newly-discovered archival material, but on material that has long been available, and indeed has been the object of study by established historians. Still the facts he cites strike one as revelations, because there has been a remarkable silence about them -- no doubt, precisely because they have a profound political implication.
For if the Indian National Congress did not win genuine independence for India in 1947, we are as yet not free today, and every act of the Indian State must indeed be seen in that light.
It is all the more necessary then for us to shatter the silence. It is against this background that R.U.P.E. takes pride in publishing this volume. It is our hope that those who are interested in historical truth promote this book or, failing that, seriously contend with it.
Given our paucity of resources, we would not have been able to publish this work without donations and generous interest-free loans from several persons, to whom we are very grateful. We also thank Mr D.R. Amladi who prepared the index, and Sameer Bhole and Neeta Deshpande, who typeset the book.
Rajani X. Desai,
for R.U.P.E.