“From the point of view of communists, the question at once arose as to what should be our attitude to the war in the present phase. We had, as seen earlier, opposed the war, which Chamberlain had declared so ‘emotionally’ and which was marking time for several months with British soldiers filling in time making love to French girls; We were opposed to that war on the ground that it was an imperialist war, a war between brigands who had seized the colonial countries and other brigands who wanted a re-division of the colonial loot. It was obvious that we in India could not possibly side with one or the other because we ourselves were a part of the colonial booty over which the war was being fought.”

This is an autobiography of a man who turned into communism after his days in jail-for the swadeshi movement. It traces history of the freedom struggle with mentions of the great minds and ordinary people who made it happen. The print version does not exist anymore and it is now available only in the digitised form.

A S R Chari