Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

Italy and Freedom movemenl in India 337
Biographies of Italian Nationalists in Other Indian Vernacular Literature
The historkal biographies of Italian nationalist leaders, particularly those of Mazzini and Garibaldi, were also published in other Indian vernacular literatures even after independence. In Punjabi language, a Life of Mazzini and also his Duties of Man , Manukh ka Kartavya were publishedW) in 1912. In Malayalam language a T.N. Gopinathan Nayar wrote a book on Italy, Italy-yile-Kathakaj9S) (The Story of Italy) was published after independence of India in 1952. Kamalakant Bhattacharya, the Assamese poet, wrote nationalistic poetry during the freedom struggle of India giving references to Mazzini and Garibaldi.
Mr. Charan Singh, Ex-Prime Minister of India, while writing about the post - independent Indian condition in the preface of his book Towards Gandhi, published in 1975, wrote When one takes a bird's eye view of the national scene one shudders at the state to which the country has reduced. One is remembered of the anguish of Mazzini, the chief apostle of Italian resurgence in the nineteenth century when on seeing his country develop under Count Cavour's leadership along lines entirely different from what he had envisaged, he exclaimed, "I want to see before dying another Italy, the ideal of my soul and life starting up from her three hundred years grave. This is only the phantom, the mockery of Italy that I see passing before my eyes" .
Conclusion
The main features of these historkal biographies of Italian nationalist leaders in Indian vernacular languages were:
Firsdy, the biographies were knowingly kept brief so as to maintain the interest of the readers and they were not bored with the lengthy descriptions.
Secondly, the preface of these biographies were very important because it contained the ideas and views of the author about the Italian patriots and Italian Risorgimento.
Thirdly, it is interesting that the authors of these biographies were
w> Ibid., voi. Ili, p. 253.
93 Ibid., voi. II, p. 432.
*) CHARAN SINGH, Towards Gandhi, in Hindustan Times (Supplement), New Delhi, August 15, 1977.