India after Gandhi : the history of the world's largest democracy / Ramachandra Guha.

Author/creator Guha, Ramachandra
Format Book
Edition1st ed.
Publication InfoNew York : Ecco, ©2007.
Descriptionxviii, 893 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Subjects

Contents 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 -- Redrawing the map -- The conquest of nature -- The law and the prophets -- Securing Kashmir --Tribal trouble -- Shaking the centre -- The southern challenge -- The experience of defeat -- Peace in our time -- Minding the minorities -- The rise of populism -- War and succession -- Leftward turns -- The elixir of victory -- The rivals -- Autumn of the matriarch -- Life without the Congress -- Democracy in disarray -- This son also rises -- A history of events -- Rights -- Riots -- Rulers -- Riches -- A people's entertainments.
Abstract 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.
Local noteLittle-354584--305131033941X
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (p. [765]-857) and index.
LCCN 2006052180
ISBN9780060198817
ISBN0060198818

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks DS480.84 G74 2007 ✔ Available Place Hold