"India is merely a geographically expression. It is no more a single
country than the equator" quipped Winston Churchill. One cannot fault
Churchill for his inability to understand India. As Guha says, he(Churchill) was rarely right
about India. That said, the above quote was inline with the opinion that
a lot of people both within and outside the country had about India in 1947.
A balanced 3rd person narrative of a 50 year void:
Those of us in our 20s and early 30s have grown up being proud of India marching towards becoming a Super power. We have mostly been used to the World looking towards India as an IT/BT hub, with Indians being part of the Intel, Apple, Google, Microsoft..... success stories, of a growing middle class, GDP, international clout etc. And that is what we pride ourselves in. With this as one side of the spectrum, most of the history that we read in our text books stops at 1947, with probably a mention of 1950.
One of the most challenging and interesting legs of our journey as a "Political entity", ie the period from 1947 to around the early 2000's, rarely finds a mention anywhere. A lot of our success and failures today have their genesis and evolution in these important years. And we will be able to appreciate better the vision/sacrifices of our leaders and at the same time learn from their mistakes, with an understanding of this post 1947 journey.
It is this void that Ramachandra Guha's "India after Gandhi" fills.
It is difficult to write about a topic without injecting our biases, especially so about History. But Guha credibly manages to keep the narrative balanced and lets us draw our conclusions. He carries us through the journey through the accounts and records of those who were part of it and in most cases gives us the perception from either sides.
A journey we can be proud of:
In a world of "Instant" everything, most of us, myself inclusive, cannot resist the temptation of "instant opinions." I have come to term this "Facebook Opinion."
Most often than not, this is not based on any informed reading. But a lot of what I believed about Independent India and the reason why I am proud of my country changed during the course of
the journey of this book. "Unity in diversity" might be a much cliched word, but the word itself makes more sense after having read this book.
To say the least, India was supposed to be a Child who would not survive her infantcy. People foresaw, 25 years down the line, a cluster of small independent, if not warring, countries in place of the India of 1947. And this was certainly a possibility, considering the challenges that we faced. Let me just list a few, covered in the look, so that we have an inkling of the same. In the North, we had a war going on, with Pakistan having invaded Kashmir. In the North west, we had one of the largest massacres and migrations happening. This inturn was resulting in the influx of refugees.
We had 500 odd Princely status, many of them extraordinaly eccentric and quite a few wanting to make their kingdom the "switzerland of south Asia"
We had shortage of food grains.
We had cesession movements in the north east, with would last for a long time..
We had the issue of kingdom of Travencore wanting to remain Independent in the south and at one time a few kingdoms within India even threatening to join Pakistan.
...... and on the list goes.
It should fill each of us with pride to contrast these with the India that we know of today. And to this, we owe a lot of the leaders of those times Patel, Nehru, Shastri, Azad, JP, Kamaraj.... and on goes the list.
A study in contrast:
We would be able to appreciate our achievements on the Democratic and Social front better, if we do a comparitive analysis. Whereas we have been able to reconcile and more or less live peacefully, with 22 official languages and many more dialects, a neighbouring country like Sri-Lanka is struggling to reconcile people to just 2 languages (linguistic difference is one of the roots that has torn apart Sri Lanka). When many smaller states have plunged into dictatorships or alternated between democracy and dictatorship, we, except for the emergency, have had an enduring Democratic setup.
When a small country like Nepal is struggling to get together a Constinuent Assembly, leave alone a constitution, we, despite the contrasting pulls, were up with a working constitution in a little more than 2 years post Independence and the same has endured the test of time.
When in countries like Thailand and Ukraine, anti governmental protests seem to be snowballing into a civil war even as we read today, we can pat our back for the way to conducted ourselves during the recent "India Against Corruption" movement..
These and many more reflect on the way we have matured as a democracy.
Take away from the book:
With a sweeping and balanced account of the major social and political movements that have taken place in India, Guha's magnum opus is a must read for all of us who want to appreciate better the position of the India of today and the role that our leaders of yester-years played in that. No doubt they made mistakes. After all they are human. No doubt we have deep fissures and challenges within even today. But what better way to tackle this other than an informed and active Citizenry. As Margaret Mead says "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
I am sure that this book will certainly get us thinking and will temper our views with better reason when compared to the "Instant" opinions we are used to.
With not a dull moment/paragraph the book deserves a 5/5 for the research and the masterly presentation!
Cheers,
Anikethan
A balanced 3rd person narrative of a 50 year void:
Those of us in our 20s and early 30s have grown up being proud of India marching towards becoming a Super power. We have mostly been used to the World looking towards India as an IT/BT hub, with Indians being part of the Intel, Apple, Google, Microsoft..... success stories, of a growing middle class, GDP, international clout etc. And that is what we pride ourselves in. With this as one side of the spectrum, most of the history that we read in our text books stops at 1947, with probably a mention of 1950.
One of the most challenging and interesting legs of our journey as a "Political entity", ie the period from 1947 to around the early 2000's, rarely finds a mention anywhere. A lot of our success and failures today have their genesis and evolution in these important years. And we will be able to appreciate better the vision/sacrifices of our leaders and at the same time learn from their mistakes, with an understanding of this post 1947 journey.
It is this void that Ramachandra Guha's "India after Gandhi" fills.
It is difficult to write about a topic without injecting our biases, especially so about History. But Guha credibly manages to keep the narrative balanced and lets us draw our conclusions. He carries us through the journey through the accounts and records of those who were part of it and in most cases gives us the perception from either sides.
A journey we can be proud of:
In a world of "Instant" everything, most of us, myself inclusive, cannot resist the temptation of "instant opinions." I have come to term this "Facebook Opinion."
Most often than not, this is not based on any informed reading. But a lot of what I believed about Independent India and the reason why I am proud of my country changed during the course of
the journey of this book. "Unity in diversity" might be a much cliched word, but the word itself makes more sense after having read this book.
To say the least, India was supposed to be a Child who would not survive her infantcy. People foresaw, 25 years down the line, a cluster of small independent, if not warring, countries in place of the India of 1947. And this was certainly a possibility, considering the challenges that we faced. Let me just list a few, covered in the look, so that we have an inkling of the same. In the North, we had a war going on, with Pakistan having invaded Kashmir. In the North west, we had one of the largest massacres and migrations happening. This inturn was resulting in the influx of refugees.
We had 500 odd Princely status, many of them extraordinaly eccentric and quite a few wanting to make their kingdom the "switzerland of south Asia"
We had shortage of food grains.
We had cesession movements in the north east, with would last for a long time..
We had the issue of kingdom of Travencore wanting to remain Independent in the south and at one time a few kingdoms within India even threatening to join Pakistan.
...... and on the list goes.
It should fill each of us with pride to contrast these with the India that we know of today. And to this, we owe a lot of the leaders of those times Patel, Nehru, Shastri, Azad, JP, Kamaraj.... and on goes the list.
A study in contrast:
We would be able to appreciate our achievements on the Democratic and Social front better, if we do a comparitive analysis. Whereas we have been able to reconcile and more or less live peacefully, with 22 official languages and many more dialects, a neighbouring country like Sri-Lanka is struggling to reconcile people to just 2 languages (linguistic difference is one of the roots that has torn apart Sri Lanka). When many smaller states have plunged into dictatorships or alternated between democracy and dictatorship, we, except for the emergency, have had an enduring Democratic setup.
When a small country like Nepal is struggling to get together a Constinuent Assembly, leave alone a constitution, we, despite the contrasting pulls, were up with a working constitution in a little more than 2 years post Independence and the same has endured the test of time.
When in countries like Thailand and Ukraine, anti governmental protests seem to be snowballing into a civil war even as we read today, we can pat our back for the way to conducted ourselves during the recent "India Against Corruption" movement..
These and many more reflect on the way we have matured as a democracy.
Take away from the book:
With a sweeping and balanced account of the major social and political movements that have taken place in India, Guha's magnum opus is a must read for all of us who want to appreciate better the position of the India of today and the role that our leaders of yester-years played in that. No doubt they made mistakes. After all they are human. No doubt we have deep fissures and challenges within even today. But what better way to tackle this other than an informed and active Citizenry. As Margaret Mead says "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
I am sure that this book will certainly get us thinking and will temper our views with better reason when compared to the "Instant" opinions we are used to.
With not a dull moment/paragraph the book deserves a 5/5 for the research and the masterly presentation!
Cheers,
Anikethan
