With reference to the book "Desher Katha" written by Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar
With reference to the book "Desher Katha" written by Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar during the freedom struggle, consider the following statements:
- It warned against the Colonial State's hypnotic conquest of the mind.
- It inspired the performance of swadeshi street plays and folk songs.
- The use of 'desh' by Deuskar was in the specific context of the region of Bengal.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
- 1 and 2 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 1 and 3 only
- 1, 2 and 3
Answer: D
Explanation
Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar (1869-1912) was a close associate of Sri Aurobindo. He was a Marathi Brahmin who had settled in Bengal. He published a book entitled Desher Katha describing in exhaustive detail the British commercial and industrial exploitation of India. It summarized the work of M. G. Ranade and D. Naoroji in a popular idiom and warned in its concluding chapter against the colonial state's "hypnotic conquest of the mind."
In overwhelming details, he explained the sordid story of foreign exploration leading to India's economic servitude, and this book seems to have had an enormous influence on the young men of Bengal. This book had an immense repercussion in Bengal, captured the mind of young Bengal and assisted more than anything else in the preparation of the Swadeshi movement.
It turned many of them into revolutionaries and prepared them for the Swadeshi movement. Deuskar was the first to bring in the name of Swaraj, and Sri Aurobindo was the first to endow it with its English equivalent, 'Independence.' The Nationalists adopted this word, and Swaraj became the chief item of the fourfold Nationalist programme. The colonial state proscribed the text in 1910, but by then it had sold over 15,000 copies, informed swadeshi street plays and folk songs, and had assumed the status of mandatory reading for an entire generation of swadeshi activists.
- Exam Year: 2020