A Historical Appraisal of the Role and Contribution of Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant in the Modern Indian History

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

It is my proud privilege to write the Foreword for this book appropriately titled "A Historical appraisal of the role and contribution of Pandit Govind Balllabh Pant in the Modern Indian History. This book was a Ph.D thesis of my student Dr. Utkarsh kumar which attempted to discuss various dimensions of the life, events and the historical role played by Govind Ballabh Pant while being an administrator and Parliamentarian.

An important feature of this book is that it discuss about an event when Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant was able to bring the British administrators on backfoot in the Provincial and Central legislative assemblies. In the first chapter of the book he tells about the early life of Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant and his role in the development and politics of kumaun. Interestingly the book tells us about his effort to defend the revolutionaries of Kakori conspiracy case. The second chapter discuss about him as a legislator and the debates in the legislative assemblies which showed his caliber as a parliamentrian. Here he demanded to indianise the railway administration to make it more economical.

One of the most important event of his life was when he became the Premier of United Provinces during the provincial elections of 1937. The third chapter tells us how he tried to restore the civil liberties of Indians during the colonial period.

Various data has been used by Dr. Utkarsh kumar for the educational and industrial development when he became the first Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh after the independence. The book also mentions about one of the most revolutionary act of Zamindari abolition and Land reforms in Uttar Pradesh.

The last chapter deals about Govind Ballabh Pant as the Home minister of independent India. It also deals with the issues of concern about the newly independent India like Central Government employees strike, official language problem and states reorganisation in India.

The book may be highly recommended for students, research scholars and even lay readers who are eager to know the history of colonial and post-colonial India.

Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant was one of the most distinguished figures in the Indian struggle for freedom and the politics and administration of colonial and post-colonial India. As an administrator he proved his capability by serving as the Premier of United Provinces, after independence as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as the Home Minister of India.

He was born on 30 August 1887 at the village Khoont in Almora district of Uttarakhand. After completing his school education, he moved to Allahabad for higher education. Allahabad was the place known for education, literature and politics. Here he came in touch with leaders like Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, Pandit Sunderlal, Rajarshree Purusottam Das Tandon & Tej Bahadur Sapru. He was much influenced by the views of these leaders. He was also greatly influenced by the views of Gopal Krishna Gokhale. 5 After Pant participated in the annual session of Congress at Benaras in 1905 presided over by Gokhale, he decided to come forward for the cause of the nation.

After completing his legal studies in Allahabad, Pant reached Kashipur, now in Uttarakhand, Kashipur could not remain unaffected by nationalistic sentiments and Pant became the leader of the youth there. In 1916 he set up Kumaon Parishad for political awakening and solving the problems of Kumaon region like 'coolie, begaar, illiteracy, poverty, forest issues etc.

Pant went to Nagpur session of Congress in 1920 to get the support of Gandhiji against the Coolie Begaar system. Though Gandhiji could not come to Kumaon but with his moral support Pant successfully eradicated the 'Coolie Begaar' system there.

In the early days Pant did not have much faith in the Gandhian way of boycott of legislatures. For him the elected legislature seemed to be the ideal platform for voicing the Indian grievances and agitating for constitutional reforms. He strongly opposed the Simon Commission (1927) which was an all-white commission and he asked for the right of self-determination for Indians.

After the Non-cooperation movement led by Gandhiji, Pant was elected to the United Provinces legislative council as a representative of the Swaraj Party in 1923. Here he was appointed the leader of Swaraj Party and here he raised the problems of Indians in the council."

Pant was also a reputed lawyer. He led the defence in Kakori Conspiracy Case of 1925.