Indian Crisis : The Background

First published in 1943, this book argues for self-rule in India. The difficulties, in regard to the multitudinous divisions of caste, creed, and community, are squarely faced; the tragic failures and mistakes of the recent war years are dealt with; and full consideration is given to the permanent influence of great movements of thought.

The author of Indian Crisis (first published in 1943) spent over fifteen years as an educationalist and social and religious worker in India and was awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal for Public Service. He has had prolonged personal acquaintance not only with the Indian “intellectuals”, but also with the concrete problems of poverty, famine, and epidemic as they are met with not only in the Indian industrial city and the small country town, but also in the villages in agricultural districts and amongst the jungle tribes. He is convinced that the present British system must give way as swiftly as possible to a future in which India shall have liberty to devise and run her own system of government. The difficulties ahead, especially in regard to the multitudinous divisions of caste, creed, and community, are squarely faced; the tragic failures and mistakes of the recent war years are dealt with; and full consideration is given to the permanent influence of great movements of thought, which coming from the distant past mould both personalities and movements in modern India. This book will be beneficial for anyone interested in the colonial history of India.