For the past 2 months have been reading this 750 page book by Ramachandra Guha. Extremely well researched, giving a comprehensive history on India from 1948 to 2006, this book is a must read for people fascinated by the idea and uniqueness of India.
The book carries deep insights into most of the events in post independent India. At the end of the book the author dwells into "Why India Survives?". This is one of the questions that baffle me. The last few lines of the book is as follows,
so long as the constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as the citizens can speak and write in the language of their choice, so long as there is an integrated market and a moderately efficient civil service and army and so long as Hindi films are watched and their songs sung, India will survive.
I feel most people of my generation (born post 1980) have a myopic view of leaders like Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Everyone had their own failings but we need to understand them in the context of the time in which they lived. This book lets one take a look at the leaders of India in wholesome and understand their successes and failures.
The book carries deep insights into most of the events in post independent India. At the end of the book the author dwells into "Why India Survives?". This is one of the questions that baffle me. The last few lines of the book is as follows,
so long as the constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as the citizens can speak and write in the language of their choice, so long as there is an integrated market and a moderately efficient civil service and army and so long as Hindi films are watched and their songs sung, India will survive.
I feel most people of my generation (born post 1980) have a myopic view of leaders like Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Everyone had their own failings but we need to understand them in the context of the time in which they lived. This book lets one take a look at the leaders of India in wholesome and understand their successes and failures.
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