Sachindra Nath Sanyal was born in 1893 in Varanasi and was a co-founder of the Hindustan Republican Army. He was one of the towering figures of the revolutionary strand of India’s independence movement. Uniquely, he was a key part of virtually every generation of the movement from the early Anushilan Samiti phase, through the Ghadarite and Hindustan Republican Association phases, and eventually to the revival during World War II. He died in 1942 in Gorakhpur, unfortunately before India’s Independence. Sanyal was among the first to clearly articulate the vision that postindependence India would be a democratic republic based on universal franchise.

Sanjeev Sanyal is a writer and economist. He currently serves as a member of Prime Minister Modi’s economic advisory council. His best-selling books include, among others, Land of the Seven Rivers, Life over Two Beers, India in the Age of Ideas, Iconic Indians, and Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom.

This book was translated by Maneesha Taneja, an acclaimed translator between three languages— Spanish, English and Hindi. She is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Delhi University. She has translated works of Gabriel García Márquez, Nadine Gordimer, Pablo Neruda and Amitav Ghosh, among others.