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From International Socialism, No.12, Spring 1963, p.30.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Modern India
Sir Percival Griffiths
Ernest Benn. 30s.
The 1962 edition of this book brings the 1957 edition up to date, just before the elections. It is an excellent contribution to the Nations of the Modern World serial picking out for the layman the salient points in the history and modern development of the country. The author’s personal experience in the Indian Civil Service contributes to the general impression of fairness in his judgements on the controversial issues, for example in the struggle for independence, and to the book’s compactness: a great deal of information is packed in without being dull. It also means that, apart from a clear account of Indian religions, he deals almost exclusively with the more constitutional and administrative aspects of the political and economic developments; he neither includes chapters on art, the family etc., nor does be provide accompanying expositions of the basic social content, (class structure, land tenure etc.) to fill in these administrative developments. It is thus not disappointing that, apart from a surprising similarity between his comments on Gandhi (p.73) and current socialist views of the Committee of 100, many of his conclusions are quietly conservative. On the contrary the quality of this book is to inspire in one the frame of gentle humour which accompanies interest in new material at an elementary level. It becomes positively enjoyable to stumble upon the remark:
‘... the rise of the upper middle class may be regarded as one of the most important results of British influence in India. Fairness compels us to record that the result was largely unintended.’
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Last updated on 31.10.2006