British Policy and Birth of Congress

British Policy and Birth of Congress Sudhir Chandra THE melancholy of reviewing a posthumous work is in the present case deepened by the thought that Briton Martin, Jr was Just thirty-eight at the time of his death, and still collecting material in Poona. That he was working in India indicates his realisation that a study like the one he had undertaken, involving interaction between British official policy and Indian public opinion, could not be complete without thorough acquaintance with contemporary Indian sources, only a few of which he had been able to see in England. In a sense, therefore, the work is incomplete, not really approximating to the idea the author had in mind. And yet this is the most detailed and comprehensive account of a crucial year pregnant with epochal developments in the history of modem India. Here is the kind of study that is required by the paucity of known facts about modern India, the kind that alone can make possible macro- studies and fairly reliable interpretations and generalisations.