India’s third President, Dr. Zakir Husain has written the foreword to the book by Durga Das and described it as “Indian history seen from the inside.” The author, in the President’s words, “grew up along with the movement which culminated in freedom; from 1918 onward, he was at the centre of things.”  

The book chronicles the historical panorama, spreading from the fledging years of the freedom movement beginning with Curzon and embracing the succeeding pro-consuls of Britain on the one hand and the torchbearers of the freedom movement – from Tilak to Gandhi to Nehru --- on the other and the years that followed 15th August, 1947, the great watershed of Indian history. 

President V.V. Giri, India’s fourth President, released the seminal book on November 14, 1969, tenth anniversary of INFA, at a glittering function at New Delhi’s prestigious India International Centre. Those present included Vice President of India, G.S. Pathak, Home Minister Y.B. Chavan, Defence Minister Swaran Singh, Food Minister, Jagjivan Ram and Chairman of the Press Council of India Justice Ayyangar. The book was published by Collins of London and John Day Company of New York.  Indian editions, both hard cover and paper back, have been brought out subsequently by Rupa.  

During his 50 years of journalism, Durga Das held key positions – first as Editor of the Associated Press of India (forerunner of the Press Trust of India) at New Delhi and Simla, subsequently as the first Indian Special Representative of the Statesman with the Government of India, then as Chief Editor of the Hindustan Times and, finally, as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of India News and Feature Alliance. Scarcely anything of political importance took place in Delhi or Simla, the twin seats of the British Raj, and later in Nehru’s Delhi, without his being a close and discerning observer, reporter and interpreter.  

He travelled widely and made three round the world tours in 1957, 1959 and 1967. Importantly, his visits were marked by meetings with top world leaders. In 1957 and 1959, he met among others Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, Chancellor Adenauer, Prime Minister Macmillan and Premier Ikeda. In 1967, he undertook another world tour to determine India’s role in the future and met President Johnson and Premier Sato and shared his impressions with Indira Gandhi on return to New Delhi. The New York Times honoured him uniquely. It published the news of his death on May 17, 1974 as a top item across two columns with his photograph, devoting almost two-thirds of a column to his obituary headlined: Chronicler of the Freedom Movement.  

Durga Das knew intimately the nation’s leading figures: the Viceroys from Lord Chelmsford to Lord Mountbatton and politicians from Tilak and Gandhi to Jinnah, Nehru, Patel, Shastri, Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi. The result is a fascinating and wholly absorbing contribution to the history of the twentieth century. This fast-moving, lively and independent account of politics and international affairs is, therefore, enriched by intimate, perceptive and far from uncritical sketches of the great leaders. Perhaps no other book reminds the reader so firmly that politics, even at its most exalted and dramatic, is about people. No one who is interested in India, in the history of British imperialism or in the realities of present-day Asia can neglect this goldmine of a book.

The book answers many important questions over which controversy rages even today. Symbollic of these issues is, for instance, the basic question: who conceded Pakistan. Writes Durga Das: “Some name one person, some the other. But in point of fact, there is no simple straight answer.  Both the Congress and the Raj for their own reasons were keen on maintaining a united India. But both were walking the slippery path of winning the support of the third side of India’s power triangle: Muslims. Whitehall unconsciously first planted the seed of partition by conceding separate electorate and communal representation, in Minto’s words, to the Muslim “nation. …..Wavell almost succeeded in preserving the unity of India in co-operation with the Congress with his plan for a wartime coalition. But his effort was frustrated at the eleventh hour when Jinnah received the secret offer of “Pakistan on a platter” from his friends in Whitehall and in Delhi.  

“Nehru, Patel and Prasad next acknowledged and endorsed Jinnah’s two-nation theory in March 1947, by advocating in a resolution adopted by the Congress Working Committee the division of the Punjab into Muslim-majority and Hindu-majority areas. This was done by the three without consulting Gandhi, who reacted sharply and considered this to be an hour of great humiliation. Patel was the first to accept the partition plan at the formal conference of national leaders convened by Mountbatten. Unknown at the time, Churchill played a key role in the creation of Pakistan. Attlee earnestly attempted to maintain a united India, however fragile its federal structure. But the compulsion of events went beyond the control of the main British and Congress actors in the final scene of the freedom drama. And destiny helped Jinnah.”  

The memoirs running into 486 pages are in five books:  

Book I            -          1900-21          Political awakening

Book II           -          1921-39          The Gandhian Revolution

Book III         -           1939-47          Independence Dawns

Book IV         -           1947-64          The Nehru Era

Book V           -          1964-68          After Nehru What?  

Why the Polish edition?

India-EU Council has decided to bring out a Polish edition of Durga Das’ seminal memoirs “India from Curzon to Nehru and After” to meet the increasing desire among the Polish people to know India better as an emerging global power. There is very little knowledge about India in Eastern Europe and more specially in Poland, the biggest new member State of the European Union. The Poles and others have so far only a stereotyped impression of India, its great poverty and cheap labour force. But the Poles are now eager to know not only about the India of today but also about India’s recent past, especially its historic struggle for freedom. Interest in India’s independence has been greatly stimulated by the major democratic changes that have taken place in Eastern Europe led by the Polish struggle and its Solidarity movement.

The President of the India-EU Council, Dr. Malgorzata Bonikowska has visited India several times during the past two years. She fell in love with the country and has read several books and literature on India. She was greatly impressed by Durga Das’ memoirs and felt that these needed to be translated into Polish and made available to the Poles to enable them to know modern India and its aspirations and dreams better. Unfortunately, the media in the EEC countries does not provide any in-depth information on India and the region. It merely reports the crisis situations (Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and Mumbai mayhem etc) as there is hardly any reliable or understandable source of information about the present or the past.

The India-EU Council earnestly believes that Eastern Europe and the Indian sub-continent should know each other better in order to build stronger political-economic and socio-cultural relations. In fact Poland is planning to launch a Polish Cultural Centre in Delhi in May. The project of translating Durga Das’ memoirs into Polish is supported by the Polish Foreign Ministry. Importantly, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of major democratic changes in Eastern Europe, led by Poland. It is, therefore, a matter of satisfaction that the Polish edition on India’s chronicle of freedom is coincidentally being published this year. The India-EU Council also plans to launch a website India-EU Observer in cooperation with the Polish Foreign Ministry to promote better understanding and friendship between the two regions through media and educational projects.