INDIA AFTER GANDHI

After a long time I read such a book: number of pages exceeding 800 and much more importantly, a book you never feel like leaving. Such was India After Gandhi, an extremely well-written account of the India`s modern history, beginning with independence. Ending the book on the dawn of the country`s 62nd independence anniversary, I was imbued with true patriotic feelings. Isn`t history supposed to bore me, what I doubted before starting the book and A book with a class of its own, what I uttered after finishing the book. Now having read it and also to some extent propagandize it, I honestly feel it is a must-read for every Indian. One must know what his roots are, what is it that the place on earth he is a part of has witnessed. This is where I distinguish between pre-independence and post-independence history (which is unfortunately not a part of most History books used in school curriculum). Knowing about the thousands of rulers of this land is bound to bore you after a while, what is relevant to every Indian today is what has gone into making the nation as it is today, why things stand as they are and not thousands of other ways they could have been. Answers to all these lie in the recent past and a systematic, interesting tale of that is India after Gandhi. One of the most notable characteristic, maybe a passion, of Guha is to draw analogies between characters, events and situations and he does it elegantly. Another point about the book is that quotes comprise a good fraction of the total text: there are innumerable quotes by historical figures, press and historians (as well as loads of other commentators). Actually, I felt it a need for any book on such lines to be like that as it provides the reader with more of facts than opinions of the author himself. If it simply a narrative, there can be a lot of personal bias creeping in which will pollute the content and defy the very reason of such a book being special. The book obviously focuses mainly on the political evolution of the country, there could have been some other areas a bit more talked about like Indian judiciary, India and the UN etc. There are two places where Guha has been most impressive, showing his intelligence: first, the book is divided into two main narrative styles. The time period of 1947-89 is talked of in good detail chronologically, discussing topics/issues/situations to a great extent as people of those times saw it, particularly the Prime Ministers but the second part 1989-present is talked of in a different context (realm-wise and non-chronologically) and also, less space has been allotted to this section. This ensures, as Guha himself remarks, that he wants to avoid bring in his own sentiments (having been an active citizen of India of this time). Also, it is the events of 50`s and 60`s that people feel as buried and are really looking out of this book. Second, he has not missed to conclude the book well. In line with the prologue (a question on India`s ability to survive: “An unnatural Nation”), the epilogue very beautifully summarizes “Why India survives”: the reader is left with a very healthy feeling about the nation despite having been a witness to the oceans of problems the country has been prone to or attacked by.