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Dharampal(Hindi: धरम पाल) (1922 - 2006), was a Gandhian thinker and a historian from India. Among the established Indian historians, Dharampal has yet to find his place compared to the sheer significance of his contributions. His books are based painstakingly, and entirely, on colonial British documents of East India Company and commissioned surveys conducted in parts of India, before the annexation of India. His writings are abundantly rich in written references and documents outlining the deliberate colonization agenda of British imperialism. He shows the determination of British civil servants in colonizing India as per set patterns, often referred by Gandhi as divide and rule rationale. Dharampal died on October 24, 2006 at Sevagram near Wardha, Maharashtra.
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Early Life & Family
He was born in January 1922 into a rich family in Kandhla, a small town in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.
He is survived by a son and two daughters. His son, David, lives in London and a daughter, Gita, is a professor of history at Heidelberg University of Germany. His wife died in London in 1986.
Legacy
Dharampal effectively dispelled colonial myths and facile untruths about Bharat, the deliberate underplaying of civilizational achievements, and at bringing out the real strength, structure and working of the Indian society.
Another major result of Dharampal's work among contemporary Indian thinkers, is how he was able to establish the intellectual connection, between Gandhi's ideas and his politics of non violence. Today, based on Dharampal's work, Gandhi can be seen as a visionary philosopher, while at the same time, an earthy political man, who understood the compulsions of the British, as well as the strengths of non violence as a strategy, appropriate for mainstream Indian freedom movement.
Dharampal effectively dispelled many colonial myths about the state of Indian society pre British, generated by a body of British and British universities trained and influenced Indian historians of recent times. His book "The British Origin of Cow-Slaughter in India" published in 2002 brought out new light on the anti- kine movement in India, a fact which was not known even to the researchers. 1
He took the focus away from Marxian and colonial interpretations of Indian history. His body of writings, serve now as a seminal and powerful inspiration, for many foundational reinterpretations and interventions, in Indian society, and its rationale, in contemporary Indian thinking.
Published Works
- Rediscovering India - Collection of more than 20 articles, notes, organised into three themes- Published by SIDH, Mussoorie, 2003.
- Understanding Gandhi - A collection of 7 essays including growing up in the Gandhian Era and the future of Sevagram as he envisaged it. Other India Press, Goa 2003.
- The British Origin of Cow-Slaughter in India, with some British Documents on the Anti-Kine-Killing movement, 1880-1894 along with T.M. Mukundan. Published by SIDH, Mussoorie, 2002.
- Dharampal's Collected Writings in 5 Volumes was brought out in 2000 by Other India Press.
Vol 1: Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century Vol 2: Civil Disobedience in the Indian Tradition Vol 3: The Beautiful Tree Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century Vol 4: Panchayat Raj and India's polity Vol 5: Essays on Tradition, Recovery and Freedom (which included the Bharatiya Chit, Manas and Kaal)
- Despoliation and Defaming of India - The Early Nineteenth Century British Crusade, Bharat Peetam, Warda, 1999.
- The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous India Education in the Eighteenth Century, Biblia Impex, New Delhi, 1983. Reprinted by Keerthi Publishing House Pvt Ltd., Coimbatore, 1995.
- Bharat ka Svadharma, Itihas Vartaman aur Bhavishya ka Sandarbha (Hindi), Vagdevi Prakashan, Bikenar, 1994.
- Bharatiya Cit Manas Kala (Hindi), 1991.
- Some Aspects of Early Indian Society and Polity and their Relevance to the Present- Indian Association for Cultural Freedom, Pune, 1988.
- Angrazon se Pehale ka Bharat (Hindi) Reprinted, Shatabdi Prakashan, Vidisha - Calcutta, 1988.
- Some Reflections on Mahatma Gandhi1985
- Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth century: Some Contemporary European Accounts- Impex India, Delhi, 1971.
- Towards a Reappraisal of the Gandhian Era. An Approach July-September 1982
- Structuring Hind Swaraj: Mahatma gandhi in Action 1932-1940, February 1982
- The Madras Panchayat System, Vol II: A General Assessment- Impex India, Delhi, 1971.
- Civil Disobedience and Indian Tradition: with some early nineteenth century documents. Sarva Seva Sangh Prakashan, Varanasi, 1971
- Panchayat Raj as the Basis of Indian Polity: An exploration into the Proceedings of the Constituent Assembly- AVARD, New Delhi, April 1962
References
External links
- Dharampal, the Great Gandhian and Historian of Indian Science
- www.dharampal.net: online repository of the works of Shri. Dharampal
- www.dharampal.blogspot.com: Blog on Shri. Dharampal by Nagarjuna - Westthink
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 12 November 2008, at 19:43.
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