Devanagari (Re: SV: Workshop on Islamicate Culture)

Arun Gupta suvidya at OPTONLINE.NET
Thu Mar 15 04:31:00 UTC 2001


Regarding Lakshmi Srinivas's statement that there is some evidence that Lala
Lajpat Rai never learned Devanagari, here is a notice of the book Lala Lajpat
Rai wrote while in prison around 1921-22.  It is from the "75 years ago"
section of the Tribune.  Since it is short, I'm reproducing it below.  The
question then is what does "in Hindi" and "written by Lala Lajpat Rai"
actually mean ? E.g., did someone transcribe the work to Devanagari ?

-Arun Gupta

http://www.tribuneindia.com/98oct11/edit.htm#4

75 YEARS AGO
Lala Lajpat Rai’s latest publication

HISTORY of Ancient India in Hindi. Price Rs 2-4, cloth-bound Rs 2-12.

The Tribune reviewer writes: It is a deplorable fact that our young men are
quite ignorant of their past history. A nation, which feels no interest or
delight in the glories of its past, cannot be expected to have a bright
future.

Lala Lajpat Rai, in his preface, refers to the apathy of our young men, and
it is with a view to providing useful and necessary information regarding
that period of Indian history that the book has been written. Lalaji has
taken great pains to compile this book. He says that he has gone through
almost all books available on the subject.

The book has a further charm of its own on account of its being written
within the precincts of the jail. There are four illustrations and three maps
in the book. The photo of the author is given in the beginning. There are
four very useful appendices attached to the book. They are full of reliable
and important information.

We have great pleasure in recommending the book to our young men and also to
our nationalist workers because we feel that every Indian must know as to
what his ancestors have done in the past to enrich literature, philosophy and
other branches of the world’s knowledge.

The work is very useful for women and children, affords an interesting as
well as an easy reading and can be introduced as a text book in boys’ and
girls’ schools. We trust that Lalaji’s desire in this direction will be
adequately appreciated. Can be had from Raj Pal, Manager, Saraswati Ashram,
Lahore.





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