India after Gandhi : the history of the world's largest democracy / Ramachandra Guha.
By: Guha, Ramachandra.
Material type: TextPublisher: Picador c2007Edition: 1st ed.Description: xxvi, 900 p. ill., maps ; 24 cm.ISBN: 9780330396103; 0060198818.Subject(s): India -- History -- 1947-DDC classification: 954.04Item type | Current location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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Fiction and General | Chennai Mathematical Institute Fiction | 954.04 GUH (Browse shelf) | Available | 4932 |
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Includes bibliographical references (p. [765]-857) and index.
Picking up the pieces -- Freedom and parricide -- The logic of division -- Apples in the basket -- A valley bloody and beautiful -- Refugees and the Republic -- Ideas of India -- Nehru's India -- The biggest gamble in history -- Home and the world -- Redr
Born in privation and civil war, divided by 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. Social historian Guha writes of the protests and conflicts that have peppered the history of free India, but also of the factors and processes that have kept the country together (and kept it democratic), defying numerous prophets of doom who believed that it would break up or come under autocratic rule. This story of modern India is peopled with extraordinary characters: Guha gives fresh insights on the lives and public careers of the long-serving prime ministers, but also writes with feeling and sensitivity about the major provincial leaders and other lesser known (though not necessarily less important) Indians--peasants, tribals, women, workers and musicians.--From publisher description.