HT reviewer Uttaran Das Gupta picks his favourite read of 2025
On a group from the first generation of university-educated young men in India, whose ideas like secularism, freedom of speech, equality, and inclusivity, the author claims, were later adopted by Indian nationalists in the 20th century
The most interesting book that I read this year was Rosinka Chaudhuri’s India’s First Radicals: Young Bengal and the British Empire. Chaudhuri is one of India’s leading scholars of literature and a literary historian, and her latest book returns to subjects she has explored in earlier ones such as Freedom and Beef Steaks: Colonial Calcutta Culture, 2012, and Derozio, Poet of India: The Definitive Edition, 2008, on the remarkable figure of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. On a personal note, I have been trying to write a novel about Derozio and his circle for several years, but with little success. One reason for this is the lack of research on Derozio’s circle, which came to be known as Young Bengal. Having read — and reviewed — Chaudhuri’s book, I feel more confident of returning to my project.
Besides my personal interest in this subject, Chaudhuri’s book is full of contemporary resonances. Through robust archival research, it narrates the story of the first generation of university-educated young men in India. Chaudhuri makes the bold claim that many of the ideas adopted by Indian nationalists in the 20th century, such as secularism, freedom of speech, equality, and inclusivity, can be traced to the writing and speeches of this group. They were, in fact, catalysts of modernity in India, claims Chaudhuri. They often indulged in provocative acts that not only offended their more conservative contemporaries, but also earned them disrepute. For instance, they would openly drink wine and eat beef, both of which were taboo in upper-caste Hindu society.
Although Chaudhuri does not spell it out, I was constantly struck by how often the incidents of the 19th century included in her book were similar to those of our times. Take for instance, the dismissal of Derozio from his position in Hindu College in 1831 for allegedly teaching atheism or accusations of sedition against his students, who were, at times, referred to as “treasonous” or “denationalised”. If Derozio and the members of Young Bengal lived in India, circa 2025, they might have been described as Urban Naxals by their less-liberal compatriots. Chaudhuri’s study revives the Young Bengal movement, revealing struggles over freedom and modernity while inspiring a deeper engagement with India’s overlooked radical past.
Uttaran Das Gupta is a writer, journalist and cultural commentator.