Dharampal

- अगर हमारी अग्यानता की जड़ें गहरी व मज़बूत हैं ? -
- तो क्या आगे का पथ सरल व आसान हो सकता है ?
- शुरुआत कहाँ से की जाय ?
——-
१ - किसके लिए ? -
२ - मसीहा या पथ ? -
३ - लक्षण क्या अौर कैसे ? -
४ - आधुनिक, सरल व साधनों के अनुरूप ? -
५ - ग्यान की कमी, साधनों की कमी, या विश्वास की कमी ? -

Chief, SAMANVAYA
www.samanvaya.com
DHARAMPAL’S INDIA: INTRODUCTION AND ORIENTATION TO THE WORK OF
SHRI.DHARAMPAL
Background
For the un-initiated, Dharampal is an Gandhian - Historian who has
researched and brought to the notice of the public at large many new
insights and levels of thinking that were neither professed nor
popularised
by the mainstream historians.

His books on Eighteenth Century Indian Science and Technology, Pre-
British
Indian Education System, Panchayat System in the pre-Colonial era and
others
all have brought about a new method of looking at the past of this
country
and at the archival material available with the various archives,
museums
and libraries on India.

It has been his quest to understand the meaning and life of ordinary
people
of this country, their methods of organising their lives and the tools
and
means they adopt in doing so, their customs and culture and their
aspirations, he has travelled a vast research journey mostly alone
and
documenting scraps of material which incidentally has opened a huge
body of
knowledge for the rest of the world. He maintains, that it is the need
to
convince himself of the meaning behind the events in history and
ascertain
and validate the facts that has driven him in his work. That some of
them
have been published and the publications has inspired many individuals
and
launched institutions is a consequence he probably did not  predict
or
prepare for.

eCourse :
The eCourse - DHARAMPAL’S INDIA would highlight his views, work and
interpretation of historical events. Though by no means this would
claim to
be comprehensive, we have designed this course to be an introduction
and
orientation to his larger works.

SAMANVAYA has had the privilege of working with Dharampalji for over 2
years
now.

The course will be limited to few people who are inclined towards
further
learning / work based on this understanding. The course would consist
of
short capsule of materials selected by people who have worked with
Dharampalji; these would be mailed across followed by a discussion on
the
same. If you are interested to register, please mail
samanv…@vsnl.com with
a note on yourself and why you are interested. The course will be for
a
duration of 3 weeks on-line starting late September.

Latest Book by Dharampalji :
THE BRITISH ORIGIN OF COW-SLAUGHTER IN INDIA
With Some British Documents on the Anti-Kine-Killing Movement
1880-1894 /
Published by: Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas (SIDH) /
To be
released later this month.
More on this book soon at www.samanvaya.com/dharampal

Dear Friends and Associates of Shri Dharampal,

Today (19th February) is the date of birth of Shri. Dharampal. Since his demise, there have been many discussions on how to take his work forward. We at Samanvaya, have done what we know best, put together the material that we have in our collection in the form of a website.

We are happy to announce the new website www.dharampal.net which will be an online repository of Dharampalji’s website. Among its features, it contains a downloadable version of some of his publications, a collection of unpublished archival compilations, his note on possible future work based on them, related initiatives, life sketch, etc.
Currently the site is hosted in the Samanvaya website. Some of the features are not currently available or fully ready yet. This we will have ready in very soon.
We have provided a few snippets of the material in the website at the end of this mail. It is our hope that this Endeavour will be found useful by not just his friends, but, also those who want to embark on a journey of a discovery of India anew.

We welcome your comments and participation. We wish to thank many friends of Dharampal ji for their voluntary interest and association in this effort, without their guidance, this effort would not have been possible.

Warm regards,
Ramasubramanian
Chief, Samanvaya, Chennai

India
chief@samanvaya.com
mob : 9444957781
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Samanvaya - Knowledge Services for Development Sector
www.samanvaya.com
Please Note: Samanvaya New Office Address from 1st March 2007:
Samanvaya, 2nd Floor, Old No. 94, New No. 179, Royapettah High Road,
Mylapore, Chennai - 600004
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Dharampal.Net — Some of the current information include:

Work Ahead :
It may be worth mentioning that, these researches and studies were taken up by Dharampal in his individual capacity, also because he was not considered a scholar or a historian and did not even have a University degree. It may be mentioned that a question about his not having a degree was raised in the Bihar legislature during 1973.

Archival material :
“…The extent to which it has been carried throughout all the irrigated region of the Madras Presidency is truly extraordinary.
An imperfect record of the number of tanks in 14 districts shows them to amount to no less than, 43,000 in repair, and 10,000 out of repair, or 53,000 in all.
It would be a moderate estimate of the length of embankment for each to fix it at half a mile; and the number of masonry works, in sluices of irrigation, waste weirs, & e., would probably be not over-rated at an average of 6.
These data, only assumed to give some definite idea of the extent of the system, would give close upon 30,000 miles of embankments (sufficient ” to put a girdle round the globe” not less than 6 feet thick) and 3,00,000 separate masonry works. The whole of this gigantic machinery of irrigation is of purely native origin …”

India 1947 - 64 : Events and their background - “When I first read President Roosevelt’s advice on India to the British in August 1942 (India: The Transfer of Power, vol 3), I took his statement to imply that the British should “act in such a way that India stays in the western orbit“, quite literally.
It was only years later that I understood that Roosevelt was not thinking in terms of his preference for the West or the USSR, but rather that they, he and the British, “should try to think of some arrangement by which India found its place in the European and American, i.e., western orbit, rather than the Asiatic.”
Quite naturally, Roosevelt and his friends, could not conceive an India, run according to the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi.

Relevance of Dharampal :
… His interest in history or his work on the archives has been according to him, only an incidental outcome of his quest for understanding the reasons why the nation was in the state he found it in.
Perhaps that is why he never sought company among ‘historians’ and always seemed to befriend politicians, activists and such kind. His quest for understanding why things were so was obviously attached with the corollary why can’t things change from this situation…

Dharampal, is a Gandhian thinker, historian and major philosopher from India. He authored The Beautiful Tree, and Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century, among other seminal works. He was born in January 1922 in a rich Jat family of Kandhla, a small town in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. ( rich by Indian post colonial standards, not by American or European wealth and accumulation standards, though )

Among the established Indian historians, Dharampal has yet to find his place compared to the sheer significance of his contributions. His books are based painstakingly, and entirely, on colonial British documents of East India Company, and commissioned surveys, conducted in parts of India, before the annexation of India. His writings are abundantly rich in written references and references, to documents outlining the deliberate colonization agenda of British imperialism. He shows the determination of British civil servants in colonizing India as per set patterns, often referred by Gandhi as “divide and rule” rationale.

Dharampal effectively dispelled colonial myths and facile untruths about Bharat, the deliberate underplaying of civilizational achievements, and at bringing out the real strength, structure and working of the Indian society. His complete works, were published a few years ago by Shri Claude Alvares of Other India Press, Mapusa, Goa, in six volumes.

Another major result of Dharampal’s work among contemporary Indian thinkers, is how he was able to establish the intellectual connection, between Gandhi’s ideas and his politics of non violence. Today, based on Dharampal’s work, Gandhi can be seen as a visionary philosopher, while at the same time, an earthy political man, who understood the compulsions of the British, as well as the strengths of non violence as a strategy, appropriate for mainstream Indian freedom movement.

He passed away on October 24, 2006 at Sevagram (Gandhi’s ashram) near Wardha (Maharashtra).

He is survived by a son and two daughters. His son, David, lives in London and a daughter, Gita, is a professor of history at Heidelberg University of Germany. His wife died in London in 1986.

Shri Dharampal had no formal training in history, but maybe, precisely because of this, he was able to chart a new path in analysis and study of pre colonial Indian history. He effectively dispelled many colonial myths about the state of Indian society pre British, generated by a body of British and British universities trained and influenced Indian historians of recent times. He took the focus away from Marxian and colonial interpretations of Indian history. His body of writings, serve now as a seminal and powerful inspiration, for many foundational reinterpretations and interventions, in Indian society, and its rationale, in contemporary Indian thinking.

Dedicated Dharampal website - maintained by Samanvaya, Chennai - http://www.samanvaya.com/dharampal/

Dharampal - Indian Historian and Gandhian

Discussion group for relevance of Dharampal to contemporary Indian society.

Relevance of Dharampal :
… His interest in history or his work on the archives has been according to him, only an incidental outcome of his quest for understanding the reasons why the Indian nation was in the state he found it in.
Perhaps that is why, he never sought company among ‘historians’ and always seemed to befriend politicians, activists and such kind. His quest for understanding why things were so, was obviously attached with the corollary, why can’t things change from this situation

Ram, Samanvaya, Chennai - India

Dharampal on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharampal 

Dharampal Blog - http://www.dharampal.blogspot.com/