{"id":1274,"date":"2022-11-27T11:20:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T11:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/?p=1274"},"modified":"2022-11-27T11:20:33","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T11:20:33","slug":"indias-freedom-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/indias-freedom-story\/","title":{"rendered":"India’s Freedom Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

India’s Freedom Story <\/em><\/strong>
\nby Ira Saxena and Nilima Sinha
\nPublisher:<\/strong> Harper Collins (2021)<\/p>\n

I was long overdue in catching up with this part of India\u2019s history. So when presented with a chance to read a short book spanning the whole of it, I took it eagerly. <\/p>\n

Perhaps it was the language that made me nostalgic for my school days when we read about India\u2019s freedom struggle for the first time. I liked reading this book as an adult because I have now developed a better understanding of the world. <\/p>\n

The book begins, rather abruptly, with the Battle of Plassey and then goes on to describe how the East India Company and later the British government took over the whole country one territory at a time. The authors talk about early uprisings and how even before the 1857 mutiny, Indians fought against the unjust rule of the British. It was interesting to read about the roles of so many leaders like Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, Tantia Tope, and Kunwar Singh.<\/p>\n

Then, we see how events of the world and changes within India acted as the catalyst for a political awakening, the emergence of modern, well-educated leaders, and mass movements like non-cooperation. Eventually, India achieved swaraj. <\/p>\n

I enjoyed how the authors put forward India\u2019s story within the global context. It\u2019s something the history books for kids in our days missed. I also liked the last few pages where the book talks about movements across the world which took inspiration from our Independence struggle. <\/p>\n

I can say it\u2019s a decent read for a person already knowledgeable in Indian history. But I would not recommend it to its target audience \u2014 children. While I understand the challenge of compressing such a huge story into a small book, I think this book will be an information overload for most children. Reading a chapter at a time might not help them either. In many instances, I saw personalities and events being introduced just so they are not left out. I get the authors\u2019 intention, but these mentions often came as speedbumps in the narrative. <\/p>\n

The nostalgia I felt because of the writing style is another weakness of this book. I was kind of a nerd back then. And, \u201chistory\u201d used to mean \u201cboring\u201d for most of my peers. This book doesn\u2019t break that curse and sounds like a textbook at many points. Now books compete with smartphones and engaging storytelling on YouTube. Expectations from a book with \u201cstory\u201d in its title are higher. It needs to be much more engaging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India’s Freedom Story by Ira Saxena and Nilima Sinha Publisher: Harper Collins (2021) I was long overdue in catching up with this part of India\u2019s history. So when presented with a chance to read a short book spanning the whole of it, I took it eagerly. Perhaps it was the language that made me nostalgic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":1275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[277,278,374,462,241,461,460],"class_list":{"0":"post-1274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-childrens-books","8":"tag-ag-blf-childrens-non-fiction","9":"tag-ag-blf-prize-2022","10":"tag-children","11":"tag-freedom","12":"tag-harper-collins","13":"tag-ira-saxena","14":"tag-nilima-sinha"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1276,"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274\/revisions\/1276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attagalatta.com\/booksmart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}