Towards Freedom Documents On the Movement for Independence in India, 1940: Part 2

The Towards Freedom volumes, each edited by a distinguished scholar, bring together historical materials relating to the period 1937—47 from a wide variety of sources–official records, private and organizational papers, newspapers, and other contemporary publications available within the country. The series presents, documents relating to the activities, attitudes, and ideas of diverse classes and sections of Indian society, all of which contributed to the attainment of independence with partition.

Part 1 covers in five chapters, different aspects of sociopolitical history of British India such as political and constitutional negotiations surrounding the Second World War. Part 2 focuses on popular movements. Chapter 6 discusses labour movement through case studies of Bombay, Central Provinces and Berar, Madras, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, United Provinces. Chapter 7 studies peasant movements in different parts of India like Bihar, Bombay, United Provinces, Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Malabar, Punjab, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu. Movements of students, women, and depressed classes are discussed in Chapter 8. The last chapter examines movements in princely states of Rajputana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Central India, Hyderabad, Mysore, and Travancore.

A unique resource, this collection presents unpublished documents from the national and state archives and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, as well as extracts from English newspapers and weeklies and some collections of private papers. It sheds light on contours of the freedom movement in British India, as well as movements for civil and political rights, socio-cultural movements, and constitutional legislation.
The General Editors Preface provides the context and focus. K.N. Panikkars Introduction to the volume situates the movements in the historical context and underlines their importance in the politics of the year 1940. The Calendar of Documents at the beginning of the volume is an excellent guide to the selected source material.