General History Thread - India : News , Updates & Discussions . (2 Viewers)


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Hindu Vivek Kendra​

Dwaraka : The eternal city​

Author:
Publication: Kerala Online
Date: December 4, 2005
URL: http://www.keralaonline.com/storydisplay.asp?folder=TVReviews&file=9_063.xml

In the early eighties an important archaeological site was found in Bharat, at Dwaraka, the site of the legendary city of Lord Krishna. Dwaraka was submerged by the sea right after the death of Lord Krishna. This inscription refers to Dwaraka as the capital of the western coast of Saurashtra and still more important, states that Sri Krishna lived here. The discovery of the legendary city of Dwaraka which is said to have been founded by Sri Krishna, is an important landmark in the history of Bharat. It has set to rest the doubts expressed by historians about the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Dwaraka city. It has greatly narrowed the gap in Indian history by establishing the continuity of the Indian civilization from the Vedic Age to the present day. The towering personality of Lord Krishna Lord Krishna was born at midnight on Friday, July 27, 3112 BCE as per the date and time calculated by astronomers on the basis of the planetary positions on that day recorded by Sage Vyasa. Krishna- the protector of Mathura, the lord of Dwaraka and the reciter of the Bhagwad Gita on the battlefield of Kurukshetra is one of the most enduring legends of Bharat. Are Krishna and Dwar-aka actual historical entities? For a majority of Indians, the answer is an unequivocal yes. Some archaeologists and historians too are now willing to accept that the common man's faith does have a basis in fact. Sri Krishna is a towering personality and it is difficult to separate the human aspect of his life from the divine in Krishna concept. He is a grand mystery and everyone has tried to understand him in his own way, according to his spiritual light or vision. As a fighter he was without rival, as a statesman most shrewd, as a social thinker very liberal, as a teacher the most eloquent, as a friend never failing, and as a householder the most ideal. Dwaraka - the importance of heritageDwaraka has a special importance as one of the major Hindu pilgrim place, known as the capital of Lord Krishna's Kingdom. It was the land of the hunter Ekalavya. Dronacarya had also lived here. Krishna decided to build a new city here and laid the foundation at an auspicious moment. He named the new city Dwaravati. Much later the poet Magha in his Sisupalavadha, sarga2, describes in slokas 31 onwards, the city of Dwaraka, sloka 33 can be translated: "The yellow glitter of the golden fort of the city in the sea throwing yellow light all round looked as if the flames of vadavagni came out tearing asunder the sea." Before the legendary city of Dwaraka was discovered some scholars were of the view that the Mahabharata being only a myth it would be futile to look for the remains of Dwaraka and that too in the sea. Others held that the Mahabharata battle was a family feud exaggerated into a war. Excavations done by Dr. S. R. Rao (One of Bharat's most respected archaeologists) at Dwaraka prove that the descriptions as found in these texts are not to be discarded as fanciful but are to be treated as based on actualities as seen by their authors. The architecture of the old Dwaraka of Shri Krishna is majestic and wonderful. Dwaraka on mainland which was one of the busiest ports of the Mahabharata Period met a sudden end due to the fury of the sea. After the Mahabharata War Krishna lived for 36 years at Dwaraka. At the end, the Vrshnis, Bhojas and Satvatas destroyed themselves in a fratricidal feud at Prabhasa but Krishna did not interfere to save them. The portends of destruction seen by Sri Krishna who advised immediate evacuation of Dwarakaare stated in Bhagavata Purana. Dwaraka abandoned by Hari (Krishna) was swallowed by the sea. The submergence took place immediately after Sri Krishna departed from the world. Construction of DwarakaInteresting descriptions about its construction are found in Puranas : Fearing attack from Jarasangh and Kaalayvan on Mathura, Shri Krishna and Yadavas left Mathura and arrived at the coast of Saurashtra. They decided to build their capital in the coastal region and invoke the Vishwakarma the deity of construction. However, Vishwakarma says that the task can be completed only if Samudradev, the Lord of the sea provided some land. Shri Krishna worshipped Samudradev, who was pleased and gave them land measuring 12 yojans and the Lord vishwakarma build Dwaraka, a "city in gold". This beautiful city was also known as Dwaramati, Dwarawati and Kushsthali. Another story says that at the time of the death of Shri Krishna, who was hit by the arrow of a hunter near Somnath at Bhalka Tirth, Dwaraka disappeared in the sea. The information and material secured through underwater excavation off Dwaraka corroborates with the references to the City of Dwaraka, made in the Great Epic Mahabharata and various other Sanskrit literary works. In Mahabharata, there is a specific account about the submerging of Dwaraka, by the sea which reads thus: "The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. Even as they were all looking, Arjuna saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. Arjuna took a last look at the mansion of Krishna. It was soon covered by the sea. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the beautiful city which had been the favourite haunt of all the Pandavas. Dwaraka was just a name; just a memory." The importance of the discovery of Dwaraka lies not merely in providing archaeological evidence needed for corroborating the traditional account of the submergence of Dwaraka but also indirectly fixing the date of the Mahabharata which is a landmark in Indian history. Identical pottery is found in the submerged city of Dwaraka. Thus the results have proved that the account in Mahabharata as to the existence of a beautiful capital city of Dwaraka of Sri Krishna was not a mere figment of imagination but it did exist. Mahabharata War took place on November 22, 3067 BCE and the Bhagavad Gita was compiled around 500 BCE. Excavations of the submerged citySince 1983 the Marine Archaeology Unit of the National Institute of Oceanography is engaged in the offshore exploration and excavation of the legendary city of Dwaraka in the coastal waters of Dwaraka in Gujarat. The strongest archaeological support comes from the structures discovered under the sea-bed off the coast of Dwaraka in Gujarat by the pioneering team led by Dr S.R. Rao, one of Bharat's most respected archaeologists. Dr. Rao has excavated a large number of Harappan sites including the port city of Lothal in Gujarat. For instance excavations in Bedsa (near Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh) have unearthed the remains of a temple of 300 BC in which Krishna (Vasudeva) and Balarama (Samkarshana) are identified from their flagstaff. Krishna's son Pradyumna, grandson, Aniruddha and another Yadava hero, Satyaki, have also been identified. A more recent historical record, dated 574 AD, occurs in what are called the Palitana plates of Samanta Simhaditya. This inscription ref ers to Dwaraka as the capital of the western coast of Saurashtra and states that Krishna lived here. The foundation of boulders on which the city's walls were erected proves that the land was reclaimed from the sea about 3,600 years ago. The epic has references to such reclamation activity at Dwaraka. Dwaraka - world's first underwater heritage museum Old shipwrecks-like that of the Titanic-which have been lying buried under the sea with their precious treasure along with the submerged city of Dwarka off the Gujarat coast, for centuries, could soon vie for the status of an underwater world cultural heritage site. Over 200 experts from 84 countries, who gathered under the aegis of UNESCO in Paris recently to examine a draft convention on the issue, unanimously agreed that underwater cultural heritage was in urgent need of protection from destruction and pillaging. The submerged city of Dwarka is believed to be an important site having both historical and cultural value for Bharat. Legend has it that the remains-the wall of a city is clearly visible while the rest is yet to be discovered-are in fact, that of the ancient city of Dwarka mentioned in stories of Lord Krishna. The proposed underwater museum at Dwaraka, the first of its kind in the world, and a marine archaeology museum will throw more light on the Indus Valley civilisation and enable researchers to peep into the history of the lost city of the Mahabharata era. The Marine Archaeology Centre and the National Institute of Oceanography have jointly submitted a proposal with technical details for the preservation of the site to the Gujarat government. As per the proposal, marine acrylic tubes would be laid through which visitors could pass and view the remains of the historic city from windows. Acrylic walls could also be made which could be accessed by boats. Dwaraka, the submerged city in the Arabian Sea, off the Gujarat coast, is well connected with the other parts of the country. The entire nation and even foreign countries are anxiously waiting for the preservation of the submerged city, which is not only of historical importance, but also of emotional interest since its founder was Lord Krishna. (Compiled)
 

INDIAN TROOPS ROUT BRITISH​

[td]
INDIAN TROOPS ROUT BRITISH
11[/td] [td]The English confrontation with Indian rockets came in 1780 at the Battle of Guntur. The closely massed, normally unflinching British troops broke and ran when the Indian Army laid down a rocket barrage in their midst. (Reproduced from a painting by Charles Hubbell and presented here courtesy of TRW Inc. and Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio).[/td]
​
 
Screenshot_2025-07-09-15-21-11-96.webp
 
Thread adapted from the works of Shri Anuraag Sanghi.

Facing foreign conquest for the first time in 12th century ad , some people have difficulties in understanding invasion, conquests, territorial expansion and the motive power behind such imperial actions. Equally for the British, the �gain� and �loss� of India happened so quickly, that they cannot accept the loss and they still cannot believe their luck.
1660476440811.png


The Oxford history of the British Empire: Historiography By Robin W. Winks, Alaine M. Low).

For instance, with reluctant admiration, Indians �acknowledge� that the British must have had something special. After all, how could Robert Clive with 400 English soldiers, defeat Siraj-ud-Dowla�s armies of 60,000? This left the ordinary, disbelieving Indian with the second assumption. Indians must have been fighting with bows and arrows, while the English had guns and cannons.

Now both these answers are wrong � because in 1857, Indian had equally good ship-building docks (if not better) and gun smiths. The best steel in the world came from India � as did the raw material for gun-powder, saltpetre.

So.

British ascent as the prime military power started with the eclipse of Spain during The Seven Years War (1756-1763) .

1752140947604.webp
Gunpowder, explosives and the state: a technological history By Brenda J. Buchanan.)


Four elements were essential for this rise to happen.
  1. British naval power.
  2. British access to gunpowder.
  3. British access to financial liquidity.
  4. Increase in British industrial production.
 
A hundred years ago, a perplexed Indian, Taraknath Das, sought to understand the cause of Indian subjugation. He wrote to Tolstoy, the 19th Russian writer. Tolstoy�s very �insightful� answer on Indian independence was
1752141071235.webp
See - https://web.archive.org/web/2013072...AsianStudents/images/das_reply_to_tolstoy.pdf

Wayback Machine

Gandhi made 20,000 copies of this waffling and rambling narrative � and distributed it among the Indian population in South Africa. Tolstoy�s �explanation� is today repeated in Indian schools as a defeatist question, �How could a few thousand people conquer a nation of crores?�
1752141184168.webp
An American Looks at Gandhi: Essays in Satyagraha, Civil Rights, and Peace By James D. Hunt

What was behind the rise of English power � especially, in the Indian sub-continent? After 60 years and a few hundred-crores (or a few billions) of tax-payer funds, Indian academia and historians have failed to answer this question � satisfactorily.

The usual answers trotted out are:-
  • Military superiority (better trained and motivated English soldiers)
  • Technological superiority (Indians had bows and arrows versus English guns and cannons)
  • Political unity (united English vs a divided India)

Historical evidence completely contradicts these three constructs during the 1600-1850 period, the phase of English ascent. For real answers we will need to look somewhere else.

But before that let us look at the key events and developments
 
Cut to India in 1757

Robert Clive�s �genius� lay in cobbling exactly one such cabal. This cabal consisted of Armenian, Indian and English merchants.

The Armenians were represented by Khojah Petrus Nicholas

1752141370968.webp
and Indians were represented by the Jagat Seths, Seth Mahtab Chand,and Seth Swarup Chand, and other seths like Raja Janki Ram, Rai Durlabh, Raja Ramnarain and Raja Manik Chand.
1752141396465.webp
From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India By ekhara Bandyopdhya

The Armenians, and the ill-fated Omichund, a �notorious Calcutta merchant who was later to engineer the Plassey Revolution� played an important part in the Bengal/Bihar saltpetre trade.
1752141693349.webp
The Life of Robert, Lord Clive: Collected from the Family Papers ..., Volume 1 By Sir John Malcolm

1752141719705.webp
The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company: 1660-1760 By K. N. Chaudhu


They were all significant players in the export of saltpetre (potassium nitrate). Also known as niter, saltpetre was a necessary ingredient for gunpowder.

As a battle, observes Panikkar, �Plassey was ridiculous. Mir Jafar, who vacillated during the engagement, came timidly round with congratulations and he was told he was now Nawab.� Plassey thus, was �a transaction, not a battle.
Click to expand...
(See - https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet...85550.The-Making-Of-He-Indian-Nation_djvu.txt )

The �importance� of Plassey is a colonial invention. It is the Battle of Buxar which started off the East India Company. It is conveniently ignored that the East India Company recruited some 18000 sepoys in the next 6 years (1757-1763). It is these 18000 sepoys which clinched the Battle of Buxar for the East India Company.

The coup of Plassey was not a military success, but industrial and economic. Industrially, the English gained global control over saltpetre, an essential component in gunpowder. With Bihar and Bengal being production centres of saltpetre, control over the global gunpowder production system, passed into English hands. Rest of India and the world were cut-off from saltpetre supplies.

Economically, till the grant of Bengal diwanito the East India Company in 1765, after the battle of Buxar (1764) England used to export bullion to make investments in purchase of Indians goods.

After the 1765, diwani , the excess revenue was used to make the purchases � and the English bullion was used to fund expansion, grow armies, et al .
 

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Progressive Writers' Association
Location
Nanking Restaurant
Denmark Street
London, WC2H 8LX
United Kingdom
See map: Google Maps

Other names:
Progressive Writers' Group

All-India Progressive Writers' Association

Date began:
24 Nov 1934
Date ended:
01 Jan 1956
Precise date ended unknown:
Y

About:
The Progressive Writers’ Association was established in London in 1935 by Indian writers and intellectuals, with the encouragement and support of some British literary figures. It was in the Nanking Restaurant in central London that a group of writers, including Mulk Raj Anand, Sajjad Zaheer and Jyotirmaya Ghosh drafted a manifesto which stated their aims and objectives: ‘Radical changes are taking place in Indian society…We believe that the new literature of India must deal with the basic problems of our existence to-day – the problems of hunger and poverty, social backwardness, and political subjection. All that drags us down to passivity, inaction and un-reason we reject as re-actionary. All that arouses in us the critical spirit, which examines institutions and customs in the light of reason, which helps us to act, to organize ourselves, to transform, we accept as progressive’ (Anand, pp. 20-21). Comprising mainly Oxford, Cambridge and London university students, the group met once or twice a month in London to discuss and criticize articles and stories.

The PWA built on the foundation of the controversial collection of stories titled Anghare, published in 1932 and edited by Sajjad Zaheer, with contributions also from Ahmed Ali, Mahmuduzzafar and Rashid Jahan. This volume, which provoked considerable hostility in India and was eventually banned because of its political radicalism and also, according to some, obscenity, was influenced by the radical and literary avant-garde movements in Britain, where both Zaheer and Ali had spent some time studying.

In his memoirs, Zaheer claims the leftist writer Ralph Fox was particularly influential in encouraging the formal organization of the group in London. Anand and Zaheer’s attendance of the International Congress for the Defence of Culture in Paris on 21-6 June 1935, with its emphasis on freedom of expression and the interrelationship between art and society, was also an influence. On the peripheries of this congress, Anand went on to present an address at the Conference of the International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture in London on 19-23 June 1936. The meeting was organized by the International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture which aimed to stimulate translations and seek publication of works which were censored in the country of the author, as well as to set up a foundation for a world award, and fight, through culture, against war and fascism. Anand and Zaheer internalized much of what was said at these congresses which shaped the central issues of concern for the PWA.

In 1935, Zaheer left London for India via Paris taking the beginnings of the organization back to India for development. The All-India Progressive Writers’ Association had its official inaugural meeting in Lucknow on 9-10 April 1936, with the writer Premchand presiding. The organization continued to campaign for independence and advocate social equality through their writings. It was unfortunately riven by tensions between a desire to strengthen the links of the organization with Communism, and an opposition to this. Those in the latter camp, such as Ahmed Ali, voiced the dangers of the reduction of literature to a vehicle for propaganda. The PWA continued after independence but is said to have lost some of its energy in its later years.
Key individuals:
Ahmed Ali
Mulk Raj Anand
Sajjad Zaheer
Key Individuals' Details:
Ahmed Ali (founding member, contributed to Anghare), Mulk Raj Anand (founding member, drafted manifesto), Hajrah Begum, Prem Chand (first President), Ismat Chugtai, Anil D’Silva, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Jyotirmaya Ghosh (founding member, helped to draft manifesto), Rashid Jahan (founding member, contributed to Anghare), Mahmuduzzafar (founding member, contributed to Anghare), Saadat Hasan Manto, Taseer (attended London meetings), Sajjad Zaheer (founding member, edited Anghare and helped to draft manfesto).

Connections:
Suniti Kumar Chatterji, E. M. Forster, Ralph Fox, Attia Hosain, Aldous Huxley, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Herbert Read, John Strachey.

Other related organizations:
Communist Party of Great Britain, International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture.

Involved in events details:
Founding meeting; Nanking Restaurant, London; 24 November 1934.

International Congress for the Defence of Culture, Paris; 21-6 June 1935 (Anand and Zaheer attend; formative to aims of association).

Official inauguration of the All-India Progressive Writers’ Association, Lucknow, April 1936.

Conference of International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture, London; 19-23 June 1936 (Anand presents address).


Published works:
New Indian Literature 1 (London, 1936)

Zaheer, Sajjad (ed.) Anghare (‘Burning Coals’) (1932)

Secondary works:
Anand, Mulk Raj, ‘On the Progressive Writers’ Movement’, in S. Pradhan (ed.) Marxist Cultural Movement in India, Vol. 1 (Calcutta: National Book Agency, 1979)

Coppola, Carlo, ‘The All-India Progressive Writers Association: The European Phase’, in Coppola (ed.) Marxist Influences and South Asian Literature, Vol. 1 (Winter 1974; Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan), pp. 1-34

Gopal, Priyamvada, Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence (London and New York: Routledge, 2005)

Zaheer, Sajjad, The Light: The History of the Movement for Progressive Literature in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)


Example:
Zaheer, Sajjad, ‘Reminiscences’, in S. Pradhan (ed.) Marxist Cultural Movement in India, Vol. 1 (Calcutta: National Book Agency, 1979)

Content:
In this piece, Zaheer recalls the formation and development of the Progressive Writers’ Association.

Extract:
We knew from the beginning that living in London we could neither influence Indian literature nor create any good literature ourselves. Side by side with our realising the advantages of forming the association in London, this feeling was strengthened. A few exiled Indians could do little more than draw up plans among themselves and produce an orphanlike literature under the influence of European culture. The most important thing that we learnt in Europe was that a progressive writers’ movement could bear fruits only when it is propagated in various languages and when the writers of India realise the necessity of this movement and put into practice its aims and objects. The best that the London Association could do was to put us in contact with the progressive literary movements abroad, to represent Indian literature in the West and to interpret for India the thoughts of Western writers and the social problems which were profoundly influencing Western literature.

Relevance:
This passage outlines both the importance and the limitations of the location of the foundation of the PWA in London. London was formative to the Association in so far as the European avant-garde movement encountered there by its protagonists, as well as European political events (i.e., the rise of Fascism), instigated and helped to shape its development. Further, the distance of London from India arguably enabled the articulation of a more radical and critical politics than would have been possible within India. However, Zaheer’s notion of an ‘orphanlike’ literature, or a literature in exile, highlights the problematic detachment of the production in Britain of a socially and politically engaged Indian literature from its key concerns and preoccupations.


Source: https://www5.open.ac.uk/research-projects/making-britain/content/progressive-writers-association
 
@swesh it appears that you have alot of materials on historical things. It's great. I would request you to share resources for the following 2,

1. Pre Sindhu-Saraswati culture along the northern river system.
2. Early humans in the subcontinent.

I was reading on early human movement into the subcontinent and that AASI is the base genetic pool of all people in the subcontinent, developed from a proto-AASI which the first Africans came with and The erectus/heidelbergensis.

The early sapiens moved out of Africa, hugging the coastal Peninsular Arabia, reached Mehrangarh via the Makaran. From their they moved into Gujarat and the southern states.

However once they entered here they didn't proliferated to the entire subcontinent! Or atleast the movement was very limited. They remained hunter gatherers and forager till they interacted with Iranian Neolithic Pastoralist (Zagrosian farmers).

What I want to know is that why generations after generations of humans in the subcontinent never developed any expeditionary prowess or fighting capability? You see the AASI being completely content with life here. The IVC people again living without much weapons. Every other human ancestor was moving and developing rapidly but ours were not. The Sino-Tibetans, Austroasiatics, Neolithic Iranian farmers, Sinthasta/Andronovo Steppe charioteer, Chinese everyone was developing either agriculture or mobility or weapons.

It feels like the same in present day also. We developed because others were developing. There's no urgency to evolve, neither then nor now. Just like how the AASI people stayed, our people do the same now. The Baboon joke is now ancient reality 😭😭.
 
BlackViking said:
@swesh it appears that you have alot of materials on historical things. It's great. I would request you to share resources for the following 2,

1. Pre Sindhu-Saraswati culture along the northern river system.
2. Early humans in the subcontinent.

I was reading on early human movement into the subcontinent and that AASI is the base genetic pool of all people in the subcontinent, developed from a proto-AASI which the first Africans came with and The erectus/heidelbergensis.

The early sapiens moved out of Africa, hugging the coastal Peninsular Arabia, reached Mehrangarh via the Makaran. From their they moved into Gujarat and the southern states.

However once they entered here they didn't proliferated to the entire subcontinent! Or atleast the movement was very limited. They remained hunter gatherers and forager till they interacted with Iranian Neolithic Pastoralist (Zagrosian farmers).

What I want to know is that why generations after generations of humans in the subcontinent never developed any expeditionary prowess or fighting capability? You see the AASI being completely content with life here. The IVC people again living without much weapons. Every other human ancestor was moving and developing rapidly but ours were not. The Sino-Tibetans, Austroasiatics, Neolithic Iranian farmers, Sinthasta/Andronovo Steppe charioteer, Chinese everyone was developing either agriculture or mobility or weapons.

It feels like the same in present day also. We developed because others were developing. There's no urgency to evolve, neither then nor now. Just like how the AASI people stayed, our people do the same now. The Baboon joke is now ancient reality 😭😭.
Click to expand...

First of all this Zagrosian farmer or PPNC ( pre pottery Neolithic Culture) is only so coz remains have been found out there .

What this particular handle states with a good amount of evidence is that there was a continuum as far as the land & people went from North / North West India ( including Paxtan) Afghanistan & the Iranian plateau right upto the Zagros mountains except you'd have to scour through his entire T/L.

The issue is lack of preservation of human remains from pre history / proto history from the Indian sub continent. For eg - the entire DNA sequencing of the Rakhigarhi sample was to have been published after peer reviews in international journals by Dr Niraj Rai somewhere in 2022-23 as per multiple interviews given by him .

It's still not been done leading sceptics to state that Dr Rai is peddling the BJP line of no AIT / AMT though evidence is to the contrary which is the reason he's not publishing the complete findings.

Any way back on topic although Ashish has stopped posting more than 1.5 yrs ago & is an amateur archeo geneticist, I've seen him shut up prominent members of the AIT / AMT including RW supporters of this theory.

However he's not exactly a proponent of OIT. Go thru his T/L & you'd get info on plenty of other handles as well shedding light on this topic for or against his theory. Come back after you've done a deep dive into the matter from his T/L & I'd recommend more.

Good Luck!


x.com

x.com x.com
 
swesh said:
Progressive Writers' Association
Location
Nanking Restaurant
Denmark Street
London, WC2H 8LX
United Kingdom
See map: Google Maps

Other names:
Progressive Writers' Group

All-India Progressive Writers' Association

Date began:
24 Nov 1934
Date ended:
01 Jan 1956
Precise date ended unknown:
Y

About:
The Progressive Writers’ Association was established in London in 1935 by Indian writers and intellectuals, with the encouragement and support of some British literary figures. It was in the Nanking Restaurant in central London that a group of writers, including Mulk Raj Anand, Sajjad Zaheer and Jyotirmaya Ghosh drafted a manifesto which stated their aims and objectives: ‘Radical changes are taking place in Indian society…We believe that the new literature of India must deal with the basic problems of our existence to-day – the problems of hunger and poverty, social backwardness, and political subjection. All that drags us down to passivity, inaction and un-reason we reject as re-actionary. All that arouses in us the critical spirit, which examines institutions and customs in the light of reason, which helps us to act, to organize ourselves, to transform, we accept as progressive’ (Anand, pp. 20-21). Comprising mainly Oxford, Cambridge and London university students, the group met once or twice a month in London to discuss and criticize articles and stories.

The PWA built on the foundation of the controversial collection of stories titled Anghare, published in 1932 and edited by Sajjad Zaheer, with contributions also from Ahmed Ali, Mahmuduzzafar and Rashid Jahan. This volume, which provoked considerable hostility in India and was eventually banned because of its political radicalism and also, according to some, obscenity, was influenced by the radical and literary avant-garde movements in Britain, where both Zaheer and Ali had spent some time studying.

In his memoirs, Zaheer claims the leftist writer Ralph Fox was particularly influential in encouraging the formal organization of the group in London. Anand and Zaheer’s attendance of the International Congress for the Defence of Culture in Paris on 21-6 June 1935, with its emphasis on freedom of expression and the interrelationship between art and society, was also an influence. On the peripheries of this congress, Anand went on to present an address at the Conference of the International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture in London on 19-23 June 1936. The meeting was organized by the International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture which aimed to stimulate translations and seek publication of works which were censored in the country of the author, as well as to set up a foundation for a world award, and fight, through culture, against war and fascism. Anand and Zaheer internalized much of what was said at these congresses which shaped the central issues of concern for the PWA.

In 1935, Zaheer left London for India via Paris taking the beginnings of the organization back to India for development. The All-India Progressive Writers’ Association had its official inaugural meeting in Lucknow on 9-10 April 1936, with the writer Premchand presiding. The organization continued to campaign for independence and advocate social equality through their writings. It was unfortunately riven by tensions between a desire to strengthen the links of the organization with Communism, and an opposition to this. Those in the latter camp, such as Ahmed Ali, voiced the dangers of the reduction of literature to a vehicle for propaganda. The PWA continued after independence but is said to have lost some of its energy in its later years.
Key individuals:
Ahmed Ali
Mulk Raj Anand
Sajjad Zaheer
Key Individuals' Details:
Ahmed Ali (founding member, contributed to Anghare), Mulk Raj Anand (founding member, drafted manifesto), Hajrah Begum, Prem Chand (first President), Ismat Chugtai, Anil D’Silva, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Jyotirmaya Ghosh (founding member, helped to draft manifesto), Rashid Jahan (founding member, contributed to Anghare), Mahmuduzzafar (founding member, contributed to Anghare), Saadat Hasan Manto, Taseer (attended London meetings), Sajjad Zaheer (founding member, edited Anghare and helped to draft manfesto).

Connections:
Suniti Kumar Chatterji, E. M. Forster, Ralph Fox, Attia Hosain, Aldous Huxley, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Herbert Read, John Strachey.

Other related organizations:
Communist Party of Great Britain, International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture.

Involved in events details:
Founding meeting; Nanking Restaurant, London; 24 November 1934.

International Congress for the Defence of Culture, Paris; 21-6 June 1935 (Anand and Zaheer attend; formative to aims of association).

Official inauguration of the All-India Progressive Writers’ Association, Lucknow, April 1936.

Conference of International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture, London; 19-23 June 1936 (Anand presents address).


Published works:
New Indian Literature 1 (London, 1936)

Zaheer, Sajjad (ed.) Anghare (‘Burning Coals’) (1932)

Secondary works:
Anand, Mulk Raj, ‘On the Progressive Writers’ Movement’, in S. Pradhan (ed.) Marxist Cultural Movement in India, Vol. 1 (Calcutta: National Book Agency, 1979)

Coppola, Carlo, ‘The All-India Progressive Writers Association: The European Phase’, in Coppola (ed.) Marxist Influences and South Asian Literature, Vol. 1 (Winter 1974; Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan), pp. 1-34

Gopal, Priyamvada, Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence (London and New York: Routledge, 2005)

Zaheer, Sajjad, The Light: The History of the Movement for Progressive Literature in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)


Example:
Zaheer, Sajjad, ‘Reminiscences’, in S. Pradhan (ed.) Marxist Cultural Movement in India, Vol. 1 (Calcutta: National Book Agency, 1979)

Content:
In this piece, Zaheer recalls the formation and development of the Progressive Writers’ Association.

Extract:
We knew from the beginning that living in London we could neither influence Indian literature nor create any good literature ourselves. Side by side with our realising the advantages of forming the association in London, this feeling was strengthened. A few exiled Indians could do little more than draw up plans among themselves and produce an orphanlike literature under the influence of European culture. The most important thing that we learnt in Europe was that a progressive writers’ movement could bear fruits only when it is propagated in various languages and when the writers of India realise the necessity of this movement and put into practice its aims and objects. The best that the London Association could do was to put us in contact with the progressive literary movements abroad, to represent Indian literature in the West and to interpret for India the thoughts of Western writers and the social problems which were profoundly influencing Western literature.

Relevance:
This passage outlines both the importance and the limitations of the location of the foundation of the PWA in London. London was formative to the Association in so far as the European avant-garde movement encountered there by its protagonists, as well as European political events (i.e., the rise of Fascism), instigated and helped to shape its development. Further, the distance of London from India arguably enabled the articulation of a more radical and critical politics than would have been possible within India. However, Zaheer’s notion of an ‘orphanlike’ literature, or a literature in exile, highlights the problematic detachment of the production in Britain of a socially and politically engaged Indian literature from its key concerns and preoccupations.


Source: https://www5.open.ac.uk/research-projects/making-britain/content/progressive-writers-association
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