Ben Waber reviewed India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha
An Amazing Page-Turner
5 stars
This is an incredible history (FYI I read the updated version published in 2019), with Guha setting the stage around India's independence and partition, then combining a wide variety of perspectives to study India in the decades since independence. Important historical figures and organizations are examined to reveal their role in shaping different policies and events, while more macro statistics and perspectives are brought in to give a sense of the effects of these policies and changes in regions over time. Guha repeatedly hammers home just how audacious the democratic experiment in India is when compared with other countries, notably the US, and even with the recent rise of authoritarianism there refers back to other dark periods post-independence where a descent into fascism was predicted but never realized. Reading this book gives one profound hope about the future of what will arguably be the world's most important country moving forward …
This is an incredible history (FYI I read the updated version published in 2019), with Guha setting the stage around India's independence and partition, then combining a wide variety of perspectives to study India in the decades since independence. Important historical figures and organizations are examined to reveal their role in shaping different policies and events, while more macro statistics and perspectives are brought in to give a sense of the effects of these policies and changes in regions over time. Guha repeatedly hammers home just how audacious the democratic experiment in India is when compared with other countries, notably the US, and even with the recent rise of authoritarianism there refers back to other dark periods post-independence where a descent into fascism was predicted but never realized. Reading this book gives one profound hope about the future of what will arguably be the world's most important country moving forward and a deeper understanding of the chaotic decades immediately following independence and its emergence as a major global power. Highly recommend