REBELS AGAINST THE RAJ: WESTERN FIGHTERS FOR INDIA'S FREEDOM

Author: Ramachandra Guha Publisher: Penguin Random House

When the world’s finest historian Ramachandra Guha speaks or writes, everybody takes note of it. The much-awaited Rebels Against the Raj throws light on the lives of seven foreigners (four British, two American, and one Irish) who chose to fight for India’s freedom from British colonial rule. It’s the story of these four men and three women who did some commendable work and left a legacy in the fields of journalism, social reform, education, the emancipation of women, and environmentalism. The reader gets deep insights into relations between India and the West.

My first biographical subject, the activist-anthropologist Verrier Elwin, always regretted that he never courted imprisonment in the cause of Indian freedom. This book is about seven remarkable foreigners who made that definitive show of solidarity with their adopted homeland.”