Bipan Chandra QUOTES

2 " Bhagat Singh revered Lajpat Rai as a leader. But he would not spare even Lajpat Rai, when, during the last years of his life, Lajpat Rai turned to communal politics. He then launched a political-ideological campaign against him. Because Lajpat Rai was a respected leader, he would not publicly use harsh words of criticism against him. And so he printed as a pamphlet Robert Browning’s famous poem, ‘The Lost Leader,’ in which Browning criticizes Wordsworth for turning against liberty. The poem begins with the line ‘Just for a handful of silver he left us.’ A few more of the poem’s lines were:
‘We shall march prospering, not thro’ his presence;
Songs may inspirit us, not from his lyre,’ and
‘Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more.’

There was not one word of criticism of Lajpat Rai. Only, on the front cover, he printed Lajpat Rai’s photograph! "

― Bipan Chandra , India's Struggle for Independence

4 " Perhaps the attitude for us to take towards our many failures is the one adopted by Gopal Krishna Gokhale towards those of the Moderate nationalists: Let us not forget that we are at a stage of the country’s progress when our achievements are bound to be small, and our disappointments frequent and trying. That is the place which it has pleased Providence to assign to us in this struggle, and our responsibility is ended when we have done the work which belongs to that place. It will, no doubt, be given to our countrymen of future generations to serve India by their successes; we, of the present generation, must be content to serve her mainly by our failures. For, hard though it be, out of those failures the strength will come which in the end will accomplish great tasks.9 "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

6 " would go to the length of giving the whole Congress organization a decent burial, rather than put up with the corruption that is rampant, "

― Bipan Chandra , India's Struggle for Independence

8 " John Lawrence rightly remarked that ‘had a single leader of ability arisen among them (the rebels) we must have been lost beyond redemption. "

― Bipan Chandra , India's Struggle for Independence

10 " A conversation between Gandhiji and Narayana Guru is significant. Gandhiji, in an obvious reference to Chaturvarna and the inherent differences in quality between man and man, observed that all leaves of the same tree are not identical in shape and texture. To this Narayana Guru pointed out that the difference is only superficial, but not in essence: the juice of all leaves of a particular tree would be the same in content.8 "

― Bipan Chandra , India's Struggle for Independence

12 " Kings are made for the people, not peoples for their Kings. "

― Bipan Chandra , India's Struggle for Independence

14 " For example, the elective principle was first introduced by the British in the Indian Councils Act of 1892. The Congress and its nationalist precursors, and the Indian Press, had been demanding elections to the councils, elected majorities in them, and greater powers to the non-official members of councils for many years before that. Nationalist demands had already far exceeded what was granted in 1892. "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

16 " Friendly relations between the Hindus and Muslims were a very healthy feature of life in eighteenth-century India. "

― Bipan Chandra , History of Modern India

18 " Secularism is not, therefore, opposed to religion. It only means confining religion to the private life of the individual and dissociating it from politics and the state. As "

― Bipan Chandra , History of Modern India

20 " The unity and stability of the empire had been shaken up during the long and strong reign of Aurangzeb; "

― Bipan Chandra , History of Modern India