When The Accidental Prime Minister was published in 2014, it created a storm and became the publishing sensation of the year. The Prime Minister’s Office called the book a work of ‘fiction’, the press hailed it as a revelatory account of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first term in UPA. Written by Singh’s media adviser and trusted aide, the book describes Singh’s often troubled relations with his ministers, his cautious equation with Sonia Gandhi and how he handled the big crises from managing the Left to pushing through the nuclear deal. Insightful, acute and packed with political anecdotes, The Accidental Prime Minister is one of the great insider accounts of Indian political life.
P.N. Haksar has been hailed as the most distinguished public servant of his generation, having served as Secretary and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from 1967-73. His book a partial autobiography, distilling the first sixteen years of his life, surveying the history of his ancestors, reconstructing their portraits, looking into their foibles and achievements. Examining his family heritage, Haksar also deftly captures the flavor and charm of early twentieth-century India and its first stirrings under Gandhi and Nehru.
A collection that challenges the binary conception of conservative religion versus progressive secularism by highlighting the existence of multiple secularisms.
Translated by the author 'Tamasdrove the point home that ordinary people want to live in peace' The Guardian Set in a small-town frontier province in 1947, just before Partition, Tamas tells the story of a sweeper named Nathu who is bribed and deceived by a local Muslim politician to kill a pig, ostensibly for a veterinarian. The following morning, the carcass is discovered on the steps of the mosque and the town, already tension-ridden, erupts. Enraged Muslims massacre scores of Hindus and Sikhs, who, in turn, kill every Muslim they can find. Finally, the area's British administrators call out the army to prevent further violence. The killings stop but nothing can erase the awful memories from the minds of the survivors, nor will the various communities ever trust one another again. The events described in Tamas are based on true accounts of the riots of 1947 that Sahni was a witness to in Rawalpindi, and this new and sensitive translation by the author himself resurrects chilling memories of the consequences of communalism which are of immense relevance even today.