Sunday, July 28, 2013

Extremists and moderates in Indian freedom struggle

Since childhood, I have wondered about the appropriateness of thelabels moderates and extremists in the pre-Gandhi congress (lal-bal-pal days). In Maharastra, the extremist view was iconised by Tilakand the moderate view was iconised in Agarkar in those days. Clearlythe labels were incorrect, I have felt sharply since childhood.The "moderates" were asking for larger change while the "extremists"were asking for less. Clearly those who were called the "moderates"ought to have been called the "extremists" and vice versa.In fact the myopia of those who assigned the labels is infuriatingto say the least. A classic case of jiski lathi uski bhains.

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