A Freethinking Cultural Nationalism

Alaka Atreya Chudal

The Hindi writer Rahul Sankrityayan, who died in 1963, lived a life of shifting identities that have baffled his critics and admirers alike, including those of a Vaishnava sadhu, a Buddhist monk, a Hindi nationalist, a communist and an Arya Samajist. In this book, the academic Alaka Atreya Chudal argues that Sankrityayan’s ambivalence between these roles was a product of the Indian renaissance period in which he lived. Chudal situates the writer’s life and work critically within his context, presenting a multifaceted picture of the man and his times.

Oxford University Press, 340 pages, Rs 950