India’s freedom struggle is the topic which interests many ones from different parts of the world. Not only the Indians but people from far off nations are also very much interested in knowing what took India to get its independence as well as what took India so long to get the independence… And now that we are nearing the 70th anniversary of our independence on 15th of August, the readers out there are once again curious to know if there are the books in fiction genre which could reflect a little on the freedom struggle of India. Voila! We are here to answer the same! Literature News will tell you what fiction books you can best read which features Indian freedom struggle with a certain blend of fancy.
While other experts might advise you reading The History of Modern India or Discovery of India even if you ask for fiction, we will not do the same. We will bring you the titles which are pure fiction even if we can find only one or two. So, we can be outnumbered in numbers but certainly not in our research. So, which are the novels based on Indian freedom struggle?
Waiting for the Mahatma by R K Narayan is a novel which was published in 1955 and this book encircles around the freedom struggle of India to a very great extent. The main protagonists in the book are Sriram and Bharati and they both are freedom fighters. This book features the Mahatma method of independence but also shares a glimpse of the Netaji – Subhash Chandra Bose’s indoctrination on occasions. A part of the MA and BA syllabus of some of India’s universities, Waiting for the Mahatma is a book which you must read if you want to know more about the Indian freedom struggle through the fiction.
Buy Waiting for the Mahatma from Amazon India on Discount!
Kanthapura by Raja Rao, published in 1938, is one of the earliest novels, written in English which feature the freedom struggle of Indians. However, this novel takes a completely different ground and it does not talk about the physical struggle with bombs and guns. Raja Rao has focused on the beautiful faction of the story – he writes about the person who is from the Brahmin family but transcends all the orthodox norms and mingles with the people from the lower sections of the society (then). He instils the seed of freedom in the hearts of all the people in village Kanthapura and makes an army without the armour. They boycott English clothes; they boycott English goods; they boycott everything English… This novel is a unifier and beautifully documents what kind of struggles we had to undergo for our freedom and at one time how beautifully we used to live in peace…. together without any prejudice, unlike today.
Buy Kanthapura from Amazon India on Discount!
These two novels are fiction at the best which describe the Indian freedom struggle. You must read these two by the greatests among the Indian novelists until the date. All others are there but not at par and that’s why we have mentioned just the two.
article by an LN Staff
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