The book is about a law-abiding common man’s journey and what he sees and experiences during his life span, about happenings in various fields like politics, scandal/scams, personalities, sports, achievement/disappointments, Entertainment, and lastly his personal journey. The things are broken into decade-wise chapters. Readers of this book will feel as if it is part of their journey also.
'A fine, lucid book . . . vividly drawn with novel-like touches' Hanif Kureshi At midnight on 14 August 1947, Britain's 350-year-old Indian Empire was broken into three pieces. The greatest mass migration in history began, as Muslims fled north and Hindus fled south, and Britain's role as an imperial power came to an end. Patrick French's vivid and surprising account of the chaotic final years of colonial rule in India has been acclaimed as the definitive book on this subject. Journeying across India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, he brings to life a cast of characters including spies, idealists, freedom fighters and politicians from Churchill to Gandhi. The result is a compelling story of deal-making, missed opportunities, hope and tragedy. 'Extraordinarily able and nuanced . . . a brilliant book on an important subject . . . French is the most impressive Western historian of modern India currently at work' HERALD 'Beautifully written' SUNDAY TIMES 'French is a natural storyteller . . . a delightful tale of intrigue, ham-handedness and just plain blundering' INDIA TODAY
India and the Indians have made some progress in 75 years after Independence. The number of literates has gone up. The Indians have become healthier and their life expectancy at birth has gone up. The proportion of people below the poverty line has also halved. But the shine from the story fades when India is compared with that of the East Asian Tigers and China. It looks good but not good enough. India looks far away from the glory it seeks. This issue forms the core subject matter of this book. It tries to argue why India could not achieve more and what all it could have achieved. It paints a picture of its possible future and highlights the areas that need immediate attention.
An extraordinary history of resistance and the fight for Indian independence—the little-known story of seven foreigners to India who joined the movement fighting for freedom from British colonial rule. Rebels Against the Raj tells the story of seven people who chose to struggle for a country other than their own: foreigners to India who across the late 19th to late 20th century arrived to join the freedom movement fighting for independence from British colonial rule. Of the seven, four were British, two American, and one Irish. Four men, three women. Before and after being jailed or deported they did remarkable and pioneering work in a variety of fields: journalism, social reform, education, the emancipation of women, environmentalism. This book tells their stories, each renegade motivated by idealism and genuine sacrifice; each connected to Gandhi, though some as acolytes where others found endless infuriation in his views; each understanding they would likely face prison sentences for their resistance, and likely live and die in India; each one leaving a profound impact on the region in which they worked, their legacies continuing through the institutions they founded and the generations and individuals they inspired. Through these entwined lives, wonderfully told by one of the world’s finest historians, we reach deep insights into relations between India and the West, and India’s story as a country searching for its identity and liberty beyond British colonial rule.
India today is a vibrant free-market democracy, a nation well on its way to overcoming decades of widespread poverty. The nation’s rise is one of the great international stories of the late twentieth century, and in India Unbound the acclaimed columnist Gurcharan Das offers a sweeping economic history of India from independence to the new millennium. Das shows how India’s policies after 1947 condemned the nation to a hobbled economy until 1991, when the government instituted sweeping reforms that paved the way for extraordinary growth. Das traces these developments and tells the stories of the major players from Nehru through today. As the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, Das offers a unique insider’s perspective and he deftly interweaves memoir with history, creating a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written. Impassioned, erudite, and eminently readable, India Unbound is a must for anyone interested in the global economy and its future.
He was born in a middle-class family in small-town India of the late fifties. His parents chose for him the direction that his life should take. Yet, something was lacking. Was this the path that he was meant to walk? Did he want this? He fought his chosen destiny at every stage of his life. Would he be able to realise his true destiny?
India, that is Bharat, is an entity, an existence and a continuity. India has not only been a civilisational legacy but also a legacy of mankind. The book is a collection of essays written by the author in last few years on different issues concerning religio-cultural and socio-political aspects of Indian state and Indian society. The book would induce questions in the minds of general as well as critical readers. Not only that young job-seekers would find it beneficial for their competitive examinations.
Winner of the Booker prize and twice winner of the Booker of Bookers, Midnight's Children is "one of the most important books to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation" (New York Review of Books). Reissued for the 40th anniversary of the original publication--with a new introduction from the author--Salman Rushdie's widely acclaimed novel is a masterpiece in literature. Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts. This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Midnight’s Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.
On December 28, 1885 the foundation was laid for the establishment of Congress Party in Maharashtra as a means of communication between the British Government and Indian People which soon became a mass movement within a limited period of time. Since then it has been rooted for almost one hundred and twenty five years in India and has seen taking place with so many changes in the development of the party itself. The Congress party has been spread in all territories of India and caused tremendous success in the socio-economic and political development of the country. The work of the party in pre and post- independence period is enlightening. In fact, the history of Congress party is considerably the history of India's freedom movement. If the leaders of the Congress Party are separated from the national leaders, the lack of leadership could be found in Indian history. Therefore the study of Congress Party in Maharashtra is a challenging one.
Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the last decade, India has witnessed, among other things, two general elections; the fall of the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major anti-corruption movement; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; comparative peace in Nagaland but greater discontent in Kashmir than ever before. This tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with seventy years of the country’s independence, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.
