द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

INTRODUCTION 15 time in bringing a large portion of the country under one rule in the fourteenth century but it was reserved for the Moghul kings to unify the country and usher in a new era of all-round progress. During the sixteenth and seventeenth century under the rule of the Moghul emperors, India once again reached the pinnacle of progress and prosperity. The greatest of them was Akbar, who ruled in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The great merit of Akbar was not only the political unification of the country, but what was perhaps more important, the working out of a new cultural synthesis —in order to reconcile the new stream of culture with the old —and evolve a new culture.¹ The state machinery which he built up was also based on the whole-hearted co-operation of the Hindu and Mohammedan communities. The last great emperor among the Moghuls was Aurangzeb who died in 1707 and after his death the empire began slowly to break up. From the above historical narrative it will be evident that democratic republican forms of government existed in India in the ancient times. They were usually based on a homo- geneous tribe or caste. In the Mahabharata these tribal democracies are known as Ganas.² Besides these full-fledged republics, in monarchical states also, the people enjoyed a large measure of liberty, as the king was virtually a con- stitutional monarch. This fact, which has been consistently ignored by British historians, has now been fully established through the researches of Indian historians. Besides political matters, in other matters also, the people enjoyed a large measure of liberty. Indian literature from the earliest times abounds in references to public bodies called ‘Paura’ and ‘Jānapada.’ The former correspond to our modern municipalities—while the latter probably mean non-urban public bodies of some sort. Moreover, owing to the existence of caste, the people were self-governing in social matters, through a system of ¹ Akbar even attempted to bring about a synthesis of religions. He evolved a new religion on an eclectic basis and called it ‘Din Ilahi.’ He had many supporters during his lifetime but after his death the new religion lost all following. ² As late as 1927 the writer has personally seen such institutions flour- ishing among the Khasi tribe in Assam in North-East India.