HVK Archives: Early intellectual resistance to British colonial rule.
Early intellectual resistance to British colonial rule. - The Indian Express
J. V. Naik
()
9 May 1997
Title : Early intellectual resistance to British colonial rule.
Author : J. V. Naik
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : May 9, 1997
Prof. R Coupland wrote, "Indian nationalism is the child of the British Raj."
The fact is, the British imperial rule in pursuit of its own interests unwittingly
created conditions that gave rise to Indian nationalism which was unique in many
ways. It was nationalism that activised Indian people for putting an end to the
alien rule and for a new ordering of their society.
Curiously, the first, and the most articulate critique of British colonial rule as
well as that of the prevailing social obscurantism in the country was made by a
small band of newly English-educated intellectuals in the city of Mumbai in the
early 1840s. Taking advantage of the short-lived freedom of press granted by Sir
Charles Metcalfe, they made a penetrating analysis of British colonial rule in all
its aspects and denounced it as "the most bitter curse India has ever been visited
with".
Bhaskar Pandurang Tarkhadkar (1816-1847), whose "eloquent epistles" against
"oppressive" British colonial rule, published in Bombay Gazette from July to
October 1841 and which earned him sobriquet "A Second Junius", Bhau Mahajan
(1815-1890), editor of the powerful Marathi newspaper Prabhakar, founded in 1841
with its motto Deshkalyan or "Welfare of the Country", and Ramkrishna Vishwanath,
the unknown author of a book on Indian history and political economy, the first of
its kind in Marathi, which contained a severe indictment of British economic
policies and which was significantly dedicated to the "People of India" were the
most prominent among the early nationalist writers who gave expression to the
discontent that lay latent in the hearts and minds of the people of India
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