Incarnations
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“only common ground”: Nov. 12, 1897, “The Future of India,” Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 3:312.
“No religion on earth”: Aug. 20, 1893, Letters of Swami Vivekananda, p. 41.
“Kali and Kant”: Cited in C. A. Bayly, “Afterword,” Modern Intellectual History 4, no. 1 (April 2007): 166.
“the pure monism of the Vedanta”: Brajendranath Seal, “Swami Vivekananda,” in Prabuddha Bharata (April 1907), reprinted in A. Raghuramaraju, ed., Debating Vivekananda: A Reader (New Delhi, 2014), p. 5.
“booby religion”: May 24, 1894, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 7:453.
“being driven mad with”: George M. Williams, The Quest for Meaning of Swami Vivekananda: A Study of Religious Change (Chico, CA, 1974), p. 38.
“We must travel”: Sept. 20, 1892, Letters of Swami Vivekananda, p. 28.
“a cigar costs eight annas”: Aug. 20, 1893, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 5:21.
“Oh, how my heart ached”: Ibid., 5:23.
“the power of organization and combination”: 1894, Letters of Swami Vivekananda, p. 94.
“I give them spirituality”: March 19, 1894, Letters of Swami Vivekananda, p. 82.
“by means of maps”: Ibid.
“Bring all together”: 1894, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 6:287.
29. Annie Besant: An Indian Tom-tom
“dazed and as in a dream”: Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography (London, 1936), p. 15.
“I shall never forget the feeling”: Annie Besant, An Autobiography (London, 1893), p. 116.
“a mark for ridicule”: Ibid., p. 342.
“land-stealing, piratical policy”: Ibid., p. 175.
“joyously and defiantly”: Ibid., p. 170.
“We came, we saw”: Lata Mani, “Multiple Mediations: Feminist Scholarship in the Age of Multinational Reception,” Feminist Review 35 (Summer 1990): 35.
“pizza-effect”: Agehananda Bharati, “The Hindu Renaissance and Its Apologetic Patterns,” Journal of Asian Studies 29, no. 2 (Feb. 1970): 273–74.
“I felt that here was the key”: Nehru, An Autobiography, p. 15.
“Natural law has been utilised”: Cited in V. Geetha and S. V. Rajadurai, “One Hundred Years of Brahminitude: Arrival of Annie Besant,” Economic and Political Weekly 30, no. 28 (July 15, 1995): 1768.
“I am an Indian tomtom”: Cited in Sir Verney Lovett, A History of the Indian Nationalist Movement (London, 1921), p. 107; also cited in Daniel H. H. Ingalls, “The Heritage of a Fallible Saint: Annie Besant’s Gifts to India,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 109, no. 2 (April 9, 1965): 87.
“You are accustomed to authority”: Jiddu Krishnamurti, “Truth Is a Pathless Land,” speech to the Order of the Star, Aug. 3, 1929, in Mary Lutyens, J. Krishnamurti: A Life (New Delhi, 2005), pp. 278–81.
30. Chidambaram Pillai: Swadeshi Steam
“Long before the World War”: Cited in Stephen Kotkin, Stalin, vol. 1: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 (London, 2014), p. 87.
“Bengal united is a power”: Cited in Sumit Sarkar, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, 2nd ed. (New Delhi, 2010), p. 15.
“Between 1895 and 1916”: David Washbrook, The Emergence of Provincial Politics: The Madras Presidency 1880–1920 (Cambridge, 1976), p. 233.
“made me feel that India”: V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, in S. V. Bapat, ed., Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Lokamanya Tilak, vol. 3 (Poona, 1928), p. 158.
expect to be “shunned”: Pillai, speech on March 7, 1908; reported in Criminal Investigation Department Madras, “History of V. O. Chidambaram Pillai,” G. O. no. 1502 Judicial and Secret (Oct. 3, 1911), p. 391.
“to be held exclusively”: W. H. Coates, The Old “Country Trade” of the East Indies (London, 1911), p. 203.
“dissolute habits”: CID Madras, “History of V. O. Chidambaram Pillai,” p. 373.
“each company lowering its tariff”: From The Hindu, Dec. 10, 1906; cited in R. A. Padmanabhan, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai (New Delhi, 1977), p. 36.
“despicable sinners”: CID Madras, “History of V. O. Chidambaram Pillai,” p. 375.
“If you get swaraj”: Ibid., p. 389.
“Union does not mean”: Ibid., pp. 389–90.
“revolutions always brought good”: Cited in Sumit Sarkar, Modern India: 1886–1947 (Noida, 2014), p. 112.
“if anything goes wrong”: CID Madras, “History of V. O. Chidambaram Pillai,” p. 391.
“The torch is lighted”: Maud Boyton to Mary Ashe; cited in A. R. Venkatachalapathy, “In Search of Ashe,” Economic and Political Weekly 45, no. 2 (Jan. 9, 2010): 41.
“Chidambaram, who once bestowed”: Translated by A. R. Venkatachalapathy, personal communication, May 25, 2015.
31. Srinivasa Ramanujan: The Elbow of Genius
“Dear Sir, I beg to introduce myself”: S. Ramanujan, letter to G. H. Hardy, Jan. 16, 1913; in Bruce C. Berndt and Robert A. Rankin, eds., Ramanujan: Letters and Commentary (Providence, RI, 1995), pp. 21–22.
“Shiver in ecstasy”: Cliff Pickover (@pickover), tweet on March 14, 2015; available at https://twitter.com/pickover/status/576760672886771713.
“My elbow has become rough”: In S. R. Ranganathan, Ramanujan: The Man and the Mathematician (Bombay, 1967), p. 26.
“I did not invent him”: G. H. Hardy, Ramanujan, 3rd ed. (New York, 1978), p. 1; cited in Kanigel, The Man Who Knew Infinity (New York, 1991), p. 207.
“An equation has no meaning”: Reported by Prof. R. Srinivasan; cited in Ranganathan, Ramanujan, p. 88; also cited in Ashis Nandy, Alternative Sciences: Creativity and Authenticity in Two Indian Scientists, 2nd ed. (New Delhi, 2001), p. 137.
“I am extremely sorry”: S. Ramanujan, letter to G. H. Hardy, Jan. 12, 1920; in Berndt and Rankin, eds., Ramanujan: Letters and Commentary, p. 220.
32. Tagore: Unlocking Cages
“The history of the growth of freedom”: Rabindranath Tagore, “The Philosophy of Our People,” in Sisir Kumar Das, ed., The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, vol. 3: A Miscellany (New Delhi, 1996), pp. 559–69.
“the voluntary submission”: Rabindranath Tagore, “Nationalism in the West,” Nationalism (London, 1917), pp. 26–27.
“The sort of language that is admired”: Bertrand Russell to Nimai Chatterji, April 26, 1967; cited in Ray Monk, Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude, 1872–1921 (New York, 1996), p. 281.
“Oriental Croesus”: Charles Dickens, “A Curious Marriage Ceremony,” All the Year Round: A Weekly Journal 154 (April 5, 1862); cited in Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson, Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man (London, 1995), p. 25.
“My mother feared for this”: Rabindranath Tagore, “Streer Patra,” trans. Supriya Chaudhuri, in Fakrul Alam and Radha Chakravarty, eds., The Essential Tagore (Cambridge, MA, 2011), p. 606.
a cage, or khancha: See, e.g., Amit Chaudhuri, On Tagore (New Delhi, 2012), p. 85.
“Hindu ideal of marriage”: Rabindranath Tagore, “The Indian Ideal of Marriage,” Visva-Bharati Quarterly 3, no. 2 (July 1925); reprinted in Hermann Keyserling, ed., The Book of Marriage: A New Interpretation by Twenty-Four Leaders of Contemporary Thought (New York, 1926), p. 104.
“one of the most fruitful sources”: Tagore, “The Indian Ideal of Marriage,” in Keyserling, The Book of Marriage, p. 122.
“the harsh touch of domesticity”: Tagore, “Suchana,” Chokher Bali, reprinted in Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 3 (Kolkata, 1940), p. 283; cited and translated by Supriya Chaudhuri.
“pale stereotypes”: Georg (György) Lukács, “Tagore’s Gandhi Novel,” Die Rote Fahne (1922), in Lukács, Reviews and Articles from “Die Rote Fahne,” trans. Peter Palmer (London, 1983), p. 8.
“Where the mind is without fear”: Tagore, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (London, 1913), p. 27.
“The British Government is not the cause”: Cited in Dutta and Robinson, Rabindranath Tagore, p. 152.
“Those people who have got”: Tagore, “Nationalism in India,” Nationalism (Lond
on, 1917), p. 121.
“a spirit of persecution”: Tagore, “The Call of Truth,” in Das, ed., The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, vol. 3: A Miscellany, p. 419.
“divine chastisement”: Mohandas K. Gandhi, “Bihar and Untouchability,” Harijan, Feb. 2, 1934, in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 57 (Ahmedabad, 1971), p. 87.
“a fundamental source”: Rabindranath Tagore to Gandhi, published in Harijan, Feb. 16, 1934; in Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson, eds., Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore (Cambridge, UK, 1997), p. 537.
33. Visvesvaraya: Extracting Moonbeams from Cucumbers
“promises to extract moonbeams”: Cited in D. V. Gupta, “A Gentleman to the Press Too,” in “M. V.”: Birth Centenary Commemoration Volume (Bangalore, 1960), p. 112.
“Indian in blood and colour”: T. B. Macaulay, Minute on Education, dated Feb. 2, 1835; in H. Sharp, ed., Selections from Educational Records, Part I (1781–1839) (Calcutta, 1920; repr. New Delhi, 1965), pp. 107–17.
“In action he was a great autocrat”: A. P. Srinivasa Murthy, Sir M. Visvesvaraya: His Economic Thoughts and Achievements (Bangalore, 1995), p. 17.
“top to bottom”: Cited in Chandan Gowda, “‘Advance Mysore!’”: The Cultural Logic of a Developmental State,” Economic and Political Weekly 45, no. 29 (July 17, 2010), p. 94.
“By ignoring merit and capacity”: M. Visvesvaraya, Memoirs of My Working Life (Bombay, 1951), p. 87.
“If you feel that by giving”: Cited in P. Rajeswar Rao, The Great Indian Patriots, vol. 1, 2nd rev. ed. (New Delhi, 1991), p. 226.
“Take care of the pieces”: Cited in Pandri Nath, Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya: Life and Work (Bombay, 1987), p. 97.
34. Periyar: Sniper of Sacred Cows
the “stupidity” of Sanskrit epics: A. Arulmozhi, “Relevance of Periyar Feminism,” in K. Veeramani, ed., Periyar Feminism (Thanjavur, 2010), p. 26.
“Have cats ever freed rats?”: Periyar, “Why Did Women Become Enslaved?,” cited in Sarah Hodges, “Revolutionary Family Life and the Self Respect Movement in Tamil South India, 1926–49,” Contributions to Indian Sociology 39, no. 2 (June 2005): 255–56.
“There is no God”: Cited in Vaasanthi, Cut-outs, Caste and Cine Stars: The World of Tamil Politics (New Delhi, 2006), p. 1; and in Gail Omvedt, Dalit Visions: The Anti-caste Movement and the Construction of an Indian Identity, rev. ed. (Hyderabad, 2006), p. 56.
“If you see a snake”: Cited in Marguerite Ross Barnett, The Politics of Cultural Nationalism in South India (Princeton, NJ, 1967, 2015), p. 71; see also Paula Richman, “E. V. Ramasami’s Reading of the Rāmāyaṇa,” in Paula Richman, ed., Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia (Berkeley, CA, 1991), p. 197.
“reaping the reward”: Mahadev Desai, cited in Eleanor Zelliot, From Untouchable to Dalit, 2nd ed. (New Delhi, 1996), p. 161.
“If a son had been born”: Cited in Vijaya Ramaswamy, “Gender and the Writing of South Indian History,” in Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, ed., Approaches to History: Essays in Indian Historiography (New Delhi, 2011), p. 220.
“no god; no religion; no Gandhi”: Periyar, Kudi Arasu, May 2, 1925, cited in Nicholas B. Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India (Princeton, NJ, 2001), p. 259.
“If a wife has to obey”: Periyar, Kudi Arasu, April 7, 1929, cited in Hodges, “Revolutionary Family Life,” p. 266.
35. Iqbal: Death for Falcons
“where the Arab and non-Arab”: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, “A Message to the Mujahidin and the Muslim Ummah in the Month of Ramadan” (2014); available at www.gatestoneinstitute.org/documents/baghdadi-caliph.pdf.
“The earth … is Allah’s”: Ibid.
“though a Brahman’s son”: Muhammad Iqbal, “Persian Psalms,” no. 9, trans. A. J. Arberry, in Collected Poetical Works of Iqbal (Lahore, 2014), p. 231; available at http://www.iqbalcyberlibrary.net/pdf/848.pdf.
“performing artist of conversation”: Muhammad Daud Rahbar, “Glimpses of the Man,” in Hafeez Malik, ed., Iqbal: Poet-Philosopher of Pakistan (New York, 1971), p. 44.
“the colour of his face changed”: Javid Iqbal, “Iqbal: My Father,” in Malik, ed., Iqbal: Poet-Philosopher of Pakistan, p. 59.
“tremendous work”: Cited in Q. M. Haq and M. I. Waley, Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal: Poet-Philosopher of the East (London, 1977), p. 7.
“a man in disagreement with his age”: Cited by R. A. Nicholson, “Introduction,” in Muhammad Iqbal, The Secrets of the Self, rev. ed. (Lahore, 1940), p. xxxi.
“If an effective principle of cooperation”: Muhammad Iqbal, Presidential Address to the Annual Session of the All-India Muslim League, Dec. 29, 1930, in Syed Abdul Vaid, ed., Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal (Lahore, 1964), p. 168.
“sang with impudence”: Rajmohan Gandhi, Eight Lives: A Study of the Hindu-Muslim Encounter (Albany, NY, 1986), p. 70.
“visionary idealist”: Muhammad Iqbal, Presidential Address to the Annual Session of the All-India Muslim Conference, March 21, 1932, cited in Javed Majeed, Muhammad Iqbal: Islam, Aesthetics and Postcolonialism (New Delhi, 2009), p. 83.
“For a falcon”: Muhammad Iqbal, “Conquest of Nature,” trans. Mustansir Mir, in A Message from the East, in Collected Poetical Works of Iqbal, p. 82; available at www.iqbalcyberlibrary.net/pdf/702.pdf.
“Keep desire alive”: Muhammad Iqbal, The Secrets of the Self, trans. R. A. Nicholson, rev. ed. (Lahore, 1940), p. 23.
“Pleasure is the only effect”: Iqbal, “The Message,” translated by M.A.K. Khalil, in The Call of the Marching Bell, in Collected Poetical Works of Iqbal, p. 162; available at www.iqbalcyberlibrary.net/pdf/786.pdf.
“O Western world’s inhabitants”: Iqbal, “Ghazals,” in Khalil, The Call of the Marching Bell, p. 172.
“the greatest danger to modern humanity”: Iqbal, Six Lectures on the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Lahore, 1930), p. 248.
“declined to give absolute obedience”: Iqbal, “Islam as a Moral and Political Ideal,” in Vaid, ed., Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, p. 42.
“bifurcate the unity of man”: Iqbal, Presidential Address to the Annual Session of the All-India Muslim League, Dec. 29, 1930, in Vaid, ed., Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, p. 163.
“Man is a free responsible being”: Iqbal, “Islam as a Moral and Political Ideal,” in Vaid, ed., Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, p. 38.
“There is no mediator”: Ibid.
“As a human being I have a right”: Cited in Atiya Begum, Iqbal, ed. Rauf Parekh (Karachi, 2011), p. 23.
“Iqbal, as I knew him in Europe”: Begum, Iqbal, p. 46.
“Arabian imperialism”: Iqbal, Six Lectures, p. 222.
“Our essence is not bound”: Iqbal, The Mysteries of Selflessness: A Philosophical Poem, trans. A. J. Arberry (London, 1953); cited in Iqbal Singh Sevea, The Political Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal (New York, 2012), p. 126.
“Muslim political constitution”: Iqbal, “Islam as a Moral and Political Ideal,” in Vaid, ed., Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, p. 52.
“absolute equality of all”: Ibid., p. 53.
“best form of Government”: Ibid., p. 51.
“one man from the brain”: Cited in Iqbal Singh, The Ardent Pilgrim: An Introduction to the Life and Work of Mohammed Iqbal (London, 1951), p. 116.
“the law of God”: Muhammad Iqbal, “Islam as a Moral and Political Ideal,” in Vaid, ed., Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, p. 52.
“how the many can become One”: Muhammad Iqbal, Presidential Address to the Annual Session of the All-India Muslim Conference, March 21, 1932, cited in Sevea, The Political Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal, p. 155.
“a social structure regulated”: Muhammad Iqbal, Presidential Address to the Annual Session of the All-India Muslim League, Dec. 29, 1930, in Vaid, ed., Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, p. 162.
“the light of God”: Iqbal, The Mysteries of Selflessness, cited in Majeed, Muhammad Iqbal, p. 72.
“the freedom of Ijtihad�
��: Iqbal, Six Lectures, pp. 219–20.
“each generation, guided but unhampered”: Iqbal, Six Lectures, p. 234.
“Islam itself is Destiny”: Iqbal, Presidential Address to the Annual Session of the All-India Muslim League, Dec. 29, 1930, in Vaid, ed., Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, p. 167.
“sink their respective individualities”: Iqbal, Six Lectures, pp. 240–41.
“the thought that produced Pakistan”: Aakar Patel, “Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz. The List Isn’t Complete,” Mint 9 (June 2012); available at www.livemint.com/Leisure/ldYJBUjDLWYWbmAuN5IuPP/Mir-Ghalib-Iqbal-Faiz-The-list-isn8217t-complete.html.
“When I am rolling”: Muhammad Iqbal, Payam-i Mashriq (Lahore, 1954), p. 150; cited in N. P. Anikeyev, “The Doctrine of Personality,” in Malik, ed., Iqbal: Poet-Philosopher of Pakistan, p. 270.
36. Amrita Sher-Gil: This Is Me
“God please save me”: Amrita Sher-Gil to Victor Egan, Oct. 1933, cited in Yashodhara Dalmia, Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life (New Delhi, 2006), p. 52.
“the queen of Indian art”: M. F. Husain with Khalid Mohamed, Where Art Thou: An Autobiography (Mumbai, 2002), p. xvi.
“Rather self-consciously arty”: Malcolm Muggeridge, Like It Was: The Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge (London 1981), p. 128; cited in Dalmia, Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life, pp. 68–69.
“You will say that I am a self-opinionated monkey”: Amrita Sher-Gil to her mother, Feb. 8, 1934, in Vivan Sundaram, ed., Amrita Sher-Gil: A Self-Portrait in Letters and Writings, 2 vols (New Delhi, 2010), 1:127.
“Poor little bride”: Amrita Sher-Gil, diary entry Aug. 1, 1925, in Sundaram, ed., Amrita Sher-Gil: A Self-Portrait in Letters and Writings, 1:29.
“sentimentalists” lacking “passionate souls”: In Dalmia, Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life, p. 145.
“Pomposity or exhibitionism”: Sher-Gil to Nehru, Nov. 6, 1937, in Jawaharlal Nehru, ed., A Bunch of Old Letters: Being Mostly Written to Jawaharlal Nehru and Some Written by Him, rev. ed. (New Delhi, 2005), p. 257.
“All art, not excluding religious art”: Amrita Sher-Gil to Karl Khandalavala, March 6, 1937, in Sundaram, ed., Amrita Sher-Gil, A Self-Portrait in Letters and Writings, 1:347.
“odious character”: Amrita Sher-Gil to Victor Egan, 1931, cited in Dalmia, Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life, p. 47.