Gentle Setting of the Empire's Sun: Prisons, Prisoners & Forgotten Stories of India's Freedom Struggle

The story of India’s struggle for freedom is one of several shades and forms. By design perhaps, just one, the Gandhian ‘non-violent’ and stayagrahi version came to be ingrained in the nation’s memory and become common historical discourse. As the struggle progressed, the British had come to believe that the more serious threat to their empire was from the other movement which had resulted from a heady mix of patriotism, cultural and spiritual pride. This was represented by the revolutionaries, the secret societies and others like them. This monograph discusses how the British based on threat perceptions had categorized freedom fighters as ‘dangerous’ and ‘less dangerous’. Threat perceptions determined prison conditions and punishments. The Cellular jail (Andaman) and the Lahore Fort Prison that housed leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, Dr. Rammanohar Lohia and V.D. Savarkar were for example a different world when compared with the Naini jail, the Ahmednagar Fort prison, the Yerwada jail and the Agha Khan Palace where senior Congress leaders were usually detained. The monograph also explains how the British managed an exit that was smooth, friendly and free of embarrassment. Lord Mountbatten had attended over 200 farewell events in his about 15 months of stay as Viceroy and Governor General of India in 1947-48. The friendly, informal and personal relations between important British functionaries and senior Congress party leaders in a way diluted the emotion ridden anti British foundational narrative of the freedom movement. Many of India’s problems it is suggested can also be traced to the informal decision making that is a defining feature of the times.

• Publication date: 15 May 2026
• Page count: 159
• Dimensions: Height 230 mm; Width 150 mm
• Publisher: Manohar Publishers and Distributors
• Format: Hardback
• ISBN-13: 9789374518625