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As the Indian independence movement progressed-from the economic

critique of colonial rule by the early nationalists, to the unequivocal demand

for Purna Swaraj and the immense moral authority of the Mahatma Gandhiled

resistance-the notion of an equal society that ensured dignity to all-

irrespective of caste, class, gender or religion-came to occupy a central

place in it. By the time the Constituent Assembly met in December 1946,

not just civil rights, but the particular rights of women, of minorities, of the

Depressed Classes and the Adivasis were being articulated and demanded,

not as favours but as a matter of course. As the editor of this volume writes in

his brilliant introduction, the effect of the speeches delivered by the leaders

of our national movement was to focus 'political action towards scripting an

ennobling nationalism that would give us a just and equal society'.

Building a Free India brings together these landmark speeches delivered over

roughly a century by the leading lights of the national movement-from

Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee, Bhikaiji Cama, Lajpat Rai and Tilak, to

Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar, Bose, Sarojini Naidu and Maulana Azad-as well

as a range of lesser-known but equally remarkable figures. This unprecedented

collection is not only an invaluable history of our freedom movement but

also of the ideas of universal equality, dignity and justice that are-and must

always remain-at the root of our democracy.