Maithilisharan Gupta and the Idea of Indian Nationalism-A Centenary Critique

Indian Nationalism A Centenary Critique Sudhir Chandra Viewed within the perspective of the evolution of Indian national consciousness, Maithilisharan Gupta's nationalist ideology would warrant the conclusion that though he was proud of his Hindu legacy and zealously promoted Hindu consciousness, he was not a communalist. He envisaged a free and ever progressing democratic India that would extend equal rights to all its citizens irrespective of their caste and creed. At the same time, however, tike most Hindus, he was heir to a historically produced complex of feelings that did not quite square with the logic underlying the vision of such an India. Nationalist Hindus of the generations of Romesh Dutt and Maithilisharan Gupta may have, as indeed they did, entertained the virtually undefined belief that Hindu and Indian were synonymous terms.