With reference to the book “Desher Katha” written by Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar during the freedom struggle, consider the following statements:
1. It warned against the Colonial State’s hypnotic conquest of the mind.
2. It inspired the performance of swadeshi street plays and folk songs.
3. The use of ‘desh’ by Deuskar was in the specific context of the region of Bengal.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Explanation
Statement 1 is correct: In his seminal work *Desher Katha* (1904), Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar popularized the economic drain critique of Dadabhai Naoroji and M.G. Ranade in Bengali idioms, warning explicitly in its concluding chapter against the colonial state’s ‘hypnotic conquest of the mind’ (manaser sammohana).
Statement 2 is correct: The text deeply energized the Swadeshi movement, selling thousands of copies and directly inspiring patriotic literature, street plays (jatra), and popular folk songs in the vernacular.
Statement 3 is incorrect: Deuskar did not use the word ‘desh’ exclusively for the territorial province of Bengal; rather, he used it to encompass the entire Indian nation (Bharatvarsha) suffering unified colonial economic enslavement.
According to the official UPSC answer key, statements 1 and 2 are correct — Option A.