| India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy Contributor(s): Guha, Ramachandra (Author) |
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ISBN: 0060958588 ISBN-13: 9780060958589 Publisher: Ecco Press OUR PRICE: $17.99 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2008 * Not available - Not in print at this time *Annotation: Told in lucid and beautiful prose, the story of Indias wild ride since independence is a riveting one. Guha explores the dramatic protests and conflicts that have shaped modern India, but he writes also of the factors that have kept the country together. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - India & South Asia |
| Dewey: 954.04 |
| Physical Information: 1.83" H x 6.03" W x 9.05" (2.16 lbs) 893 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Indian - Chronological Period - 1950-1999 - Chronological Period - 21st Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Born against a background of privation and civil war, divided along lines of caste, class, language and religion, independent India emerged, somehow, as a united and democratic country. This remarkable book tells the full story--the pain and the struggle, the humiliations and the glories--of the world's largest and least likely democracy. Ramachandra Guha writes compellingly of the myriad protests and conflicts that have peppered the history of free India. But he writes also of the factors and processes that have kept the country together (and kept it democratic), defying numerous prophets of doom who believed that its poverty and heterogeneity would force India to break up or come under autocratic rule. Once the Western world looked upon India with a mixture of pity and contempt; now it looks upon India with fear and admiration. Moving between history and biography, this story of modern India is peopled with extraordinary characters. Guha gives fresh insights on the lives and public careers of those long-serving prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. There are vivid sketches of the major "provincial" leaders whose province was as large as a European country: the Kashmiri rebel turned ruler Sheikh Abdullah; the Tamil film actor turned politician M. G. Rama-chandran; the Naga secessionist leader Angami Zapu Phizo; the socialist activist Jayaprakash Narayan. But the book also writes with feeling and sensitivity about lesser known (though not necessarily less important) Indians--peasants, tribals, women, workers and musicians. Massively researched and elegantly written, "India After Gandhi" is at once a magisterial account of India's rebirth and the work of amajor scholar at the height of his powers. |
Contributor Bio(s): Guha, Ramachandra: - Ramachandra Guha has taught at the University of Oslo, Stanford, Yale, and the Indian Institute of Science. His books and essays have been translated into more than twenty languages, and his prizes include the UK Cricket Society's Literary Award and the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History. |