Sharma : It has been translated into Hindi.
Chavan : It is an interesting book. The major contribution of the book is that it tries to develop a sort of syntheis between socialism and Gandhism as can be made applicable to the Indian conditions. This was the basis on which he was trying to interpret the historical developments and thought-process.
Sharma : It has been generally said that the young people, who went to jail in 1930, were quite critical of Gandhiji and did not see salvation through the Gandhian method.
Chavan : I do not think that that generalisation is correct. For example, I went to jail under the inspiration of Gandhiji and Nehru and the Congress, general patriotic influence. But we started later on critically examining things. I certainly disagreed with some of the theories of Gandhism. That did not meen that we had became anti-Gandhian as such. I can never accept that.
Sharma : For example, youngmen who came out from Nasik jail in 1933.
Chavan : In 1934, intellectual group which Jayaprakash Narayan had formed – the Congress Socialist Party – I was one of the persons who joined that. They were quite senior people. But I could not remain in that party for more than two years or so. I found that they were too academic, bookish, urban type of people who, really speaking, did not understand the problems of the people. They just criticised and criticised , negative approach. so the Congress socialist Party never made a deep impact on my mind. As an expression of my new awakening to the idea of socialism, I thought this couldoe the party with which I could work. This was not a separate party outside the congress. This was also a point again to be noted. It was a group working within the congress. There was no question of trying to seek an alternative but to give a new orientation to the Congress. This was the idea.
Later on, I joined the Royist group which was also a group within the Congress. I thought It had something much more positive to give than the CSP group. I had heard about Roy in jail in 1932. There were one or two people who used to get his letters from jail. They would show them to us. They used to explain his theory of socialism and constituent assembly and how the struggle of the Indian people should be made more scientific ane redical. There was some sort of remantic effect of it.
