India since independence- from the preamble to the present

These four lectures on "India Since Independence from the Preamble to the Present"-were delivered by me at Luck now in October 1968 under the general auspices of the Motilal Memorial Society, and in memory of the late Acharya Narendra Deva who passed away in 1956 and for whom the Society has a special place in its activities. Narendra Deva was a unique combination of many qualities of head and heart not always found together in the same person. In his public life which he entered early, giving up the profession of law, he was first a Congressman, next a Congress Socialist, and, finally, one of the founders and leaders of the Socialist Party, now the Praja Socialist Party. At the same time he was scholarly writer on Marxism as well as on Buddhism, and also an educationist who presided over two universities, those of Lucknow and Banaras and had a life-long connection with the Kashi Vidyapith. And in his personal life, he was a man of high integrity, great selflessness and unique charm. Altogether, he was one of the great and noble men of recent times in India. I hope that one day an adequate biography of Narendra Deva's will be written; meanwhile it is well that the Motilal Memorial Society is perpetuating his name by the institution of this series of annual lectures, by the organisation of a fine library named after him, and in other ways.