Book Review: Essential Writings of Dharampal (Chapter 5)
In the book, “The Essential Writings of Dharampal” chapter 5 is The Beautiful Tree- Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century . The chapter is an extract of a larger comprehensive book of the same name written by him. The Chapter is a good starting point for people just starting to look into pre–British Indian history. Due to its bridged size, the chapter is not an intimidating read and can easily be read in an hour or so. Dharampal’s language is simple. The beauty of his writing is that it is knowledgeable without the over sense of academic condensation many academic writers have. For long Dharampal’s works had been ignored by mainstream Indian historians. One can only speculate the reason for this snub, but as Indian history is finally outgrowing the idle and predictable lenses of the Marxist perspective, Dharampal’s works are getting the recognition they deserve. A Gandhian thinker, Dharampal’s extensive dive into the British official archives presents s...