Of passions and protests

In a first, T.C.A. Raghavan views the story of the independence movement through the prism of friendship, love and loyalty

- MANDIRA NAYAR

In his new book, diplomat-turned-historian T.C.A. Raghavan offers a different view of India's most well-known story-the independence struggle. Till now, notwithstanding the well-known bromances between big leaders, the story of the independence movement has never really been told through the prism of personal friendships. Raghavan does just that in Circles of Freedom: Friendship, Love and Loyalty in the Indian National Struggle.

At its heart, the book is about three men and their friendship with poet Sarojini Naidu-lawyer-politicians Asaf Ali, who became the first Indian ambassador to the United States, and Syed Mahmud, who became deputy minister of external affairs, and journalist Syud Hossain, India's first ambassador to Egypt.

"I don't think anyone was ever was blind to the fact that they were not in the foreground [of the freedom struggle]," says Raghavan. "The question I was asking was not about the big political issue or even about the big Hindu-Muslim issue, because those, of course, are there. The question I ask [is about] people and their personal feelings-love, friendship, loyalty. How was that part of the big political struggle?"

Naidu's feisty, fearless and sometimes even flirty relationship with the men form the circle through which Raghavan views the politics of the time. "Radiant and restless, full of sparkling life and laughter", is how Asaf describes Naidu, a mother of four in her thirties. "They (the men)," says Raghavan, "came from cloistered backgrounds, and nothing in their social experience prepared them to meet someone like her."

Naidu soon became their guide and expanded their world. A fierce proponent of Hindu-Muslim unity, she did more than just preach. "I didn't know the extent to which she invested in her Muslim friends," says Raghavan.