The Long Siege

The Long Siege: 500 Years of India’s Struggle for Technopolitical Freedom offers a strategicevaluation of the technopolitical deficiencies that Bharat faced from 1500 CE onward. Itexplores how by the 1850s the Bharatiya intelligentsia had begun to recognise the complexcolonial entanglements into which the subcontinent had been drawn and how theirsustained struggle over the following century gradually turned the tide.The book examines the systematic suppression of Bharatiya initiatives in land and maritimeexploration the strategic inability to counter the colonial powers’ weaponisation of scienceand technology and the convergence of European financial and naval superiority in theirglobal campaigns. While this incapacity is largely attributed to Bharat’s decliningsocioeconomic prosperity at the time the incoming colonisers capitalised on theseconditions using them to justify their scientific racism and to stifle the subcontinent’sscientific and technological development in every conceivable way.Through stories of both known and forgotten ideologues of the swadeshi and revolutionaryfreedom movements the book highlights how these figures waged a long often overlookedbattle for India’s independence on technopolitical frontiers over five centuries.Beginning with the Battle of Diu in 1509 the narrative traces key milestones and heroicfigures from Bharat’s resilient and often battle-hardened history—many of whose globalcontributions remain under-recognised. It culminates in the formation of India’s atomicprogram in 1945 but it also reminds readers that the struggle for true technopoliticalsovereignty is far from over.