Between Love and Freedom

Nikhil Govind is Assistant Professor at the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal University.

‘This book takes a sensitive, sophisticated, and occasionally startling look at select literary representations of the figure of the armed fighter for Indian freedom — a "revolutionary" for us and a "terrorist" for the British. It demonstrates how nationalist political freedom was often seen by Hindi and Bengali novelists as a corollary of private sexual freedom, and deploys the resolutely non-violent and abstinent Gandhi as an admonitory measuring-rod. The book may not always persuade but is no less stimulating for that reason.’ — Harish Trivedi, Department of English, University of Delhi‘[C]learly stated, elegantly presented and closely argued. Within the framework of the Hindi novel, [Govind] traverses varied terrains: the Hindi literary public sphere, and contemporary Indian philosophy and historiography.’ — A. Raghuramaraju, Department of Philosophy, University of Hyderabad‘[A] brilliant and sympathetic study . . . Govind probes the complex inter-relationship of the social, political and the individual in his masterly reading.’ — Apoorvanand, Department of Hindi, University of Delhi

• Foreword Udaya Kumar. The Revolutionary: Introspection and Extrospection. 1. Strands from the Bengali Literary Heritage: The Construction of the Moral Revolutionary 2. Bhagat Singh and Gandhi: Competing Moralities of Revolutionary Sacrifice 3. Jainendra Kumar and the Hindi Novelistic Tradition: The Political Revolutionary in the Social, Filial, and Affective Spheres 4. Agyeya: Enmeshments of Revolutionary Subjectivity 5. Yashpal’s Novels: Revolutionaries, Social Relations, and the Reconsolidation of the Realist Narrative. Conclusion. Bibliography. About the Author. Index