Why should you read ‘India After Gandhi’?
If there is one book I wish every Indian read, it is India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha.
History was my favourite subject at school. However, I didn’t learn India’s contemporary history (1947-present) back then because my history teacher taught only till the day of Independence, i.e. 15 August 1947. I didn’t know much of what happened after that. I was born in 1992, and a bit I knew of the period before that was the account of my parents and some stories from old news clippings, magazines and documentaries. I wasn’t satisfied with that information. Many of the current events linked to the past did not give me a deep understanding of those issues. So I was curious to learn more, to know what actually happened in all those preceding decades.
Thankfully, I came across Guha’s book, which chronicles everything that occurred after 1947. I got my hands on the updated and expanded 10th-anniversary edition published in 2017 by Picador India. At 919 pages, it is one of the longest books I’ve read. And what a pleasure it has been to read this account!
These days, everyone I meet, I recommend this book to them. Here are 32 reasons why you should read this book of record -
Once you read the introduction, ‘Prologue: Unnatural Nation’, you will be proud of how despite the conflicts of caste, language, religion, class and gender among our people, we’ve remained a united nation for 73 years and counting.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Freedom and Parricide’, you will admire Bapu Gandhi and not celebrate the one who killed him.
Once you read the chapter, ‘The Logic of Division’, you will not tolerate communal hatred and the politics of division.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Apples in the Basket’, you will appreciate how our founding fathers, notably Sardar Patel, worked hard and sharply to unite us as a country.
Once you read the chapter, ‘A Valley Bloody and Beautiful’, you will be conscious of how complex the Kashmir conflict’s genesis is.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Refugees and the Republic’, you will be empathetic to displaced people everywhere.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Ideas of India’, you will stoutly defend the Constitution of India.
Once you read the chapter, ‘The Biggest Gamble in History’, you will know how the Legislative Assembly and General elections of 1952 moulded India as the world’s largest democracy.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Home and the World’, you will be informed of events related to our brawls with the Portuguese and the French, our initial position in the Cold War and our early plan of action against our neighbours.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Redrawing the Map’, you will never impose any language on anyone, and in fact, you will preserve and protect local cultures.
Once you read the chapter, ‘The Conquest of Nature’, you will perceive India’s sincere efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to boost the economy through agricultural and industrial developments.
Once you read the chapter, ‘The Law and the Prophets’, you will have better arguments for and against the Uniform Civil Code than those who shout on TV.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Securing Kashmir’, you will realise how politicians’ ambitions and egos contributed to the suffering of the populace of Jammu and Kashmir. Not much has changed since.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Tribal Trouble’, you will commiserate for the 1950s horrors the Naga people faced and the neglect of the Jharkhand people’s demands.
Once you read the chapter, ‘The Southern Challenge’, you will know how the leftist Communist Party and the rightist Swatantra Party challenged the centrist Congress in the 1950s, thus began real diversification in independent India’s politics.
Once you read the chapter, ‘The Experience of Defeat’, you will have insight into the reasons for India’s support of the 14th Dalai Lama and the onset of Sino-Indian border conflicts in 1962 that are still unresolved today.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Peace in Our Time’, you will sense a change in Sheikh Abdullah’s diplomacy regarding Kashmir and the country’s overall state in the end days of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Minding the Minorities’, you will notice the Majority’s post-independence continuous social prejudice against Muslims and Dalits but also appreciate the progress made through laws and affirmative action.
Once you read the chapter, ‘War and Succession’, you will be acquainted with Lal Bahadur Shastri’s Premiership, who popularised the slogan of Jai Jawan Jai Kisan (Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer). He led the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and increased budget allocations to agriculture and, upon death, was succeeded by Indira Gandhi.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Leftward Turns’, you will encounter why Indira Gandhi embraced socialism and how Congress (Organisation and Requisitionist) and Communists (CPI, CPI-M and CPI-ML) were divided among themselves.
Once you read the chapter, ‘The Elixir of Victory’, you will laud the endeavours of the Indian Armed Forces that helped Mukti Bahini liberate East Pakistan in 1971 to create Bangladesh.
Once you read the chapter, ‘The Rivals’, you will recognise India’s first successful nuclear bomb test and Sikkim acquisition. You will also comprehend the Centre’s troubles in various states (especially in Bihar against Jayaprakash Narayan) and its interference with the judiciary, all events leading to the Emergency.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Autumn of the Matriarch’, you will know what happened during the Emergency. You will mourn the brief death of O’Cracy, D.E.M., beloved husband of T. Ruth, loving father of L.I. Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justicia, [who] died on June 26.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Life Without the Congress’, you will be familiar with the policies and power struggle (between Morarji Desai and Charan Singh) of the Janata Party and active civil liberties movements, including the emergence of feminist, environmental and civil rights movements throughout the country.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Democracy in Disarray’, you will know the chaotic details of Indira Gandhi’s return to power, Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Mrs Gandhi and the anti-Sikh riots that followed.
Once you read the chapter, ‘This Son also Rises’, you will undergo Rajiv Gandhi’s Premiership journey from winning the 1984 election to losing the 1989 election through the events of the tech and economic advances, Shah Bano case, Ayodhya dispute, fight against LTTE and Bofors scandal.
In the subsequent chapters, Guha states, he moves from ‘history’ to ‘historically informed journalism’ because those events’ processes and impact are still unfolding.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Rights and Riots’, you will be mindful of new open trade policies, the rise of OBC in politics, the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, demolition of the Babri Masjid and the 1993 Bombay bombings through Premierships of V. P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar and P. V. Narasimha Rao.
Once you read the chapter, ‘A Multi-polar Polity’, you will see how the resurgence of identity politics and the rise of coalitions helped Indian democracy evolve (with a steady loss of coherence in public policy). And how Atal Bihari Vajpayee, H. D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral had brief stints as Prime Minister.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Rulers and Riches’, you will be apprised of Vajpayee’s new terms, which oversaw economic liberalisation expansion, IT boom, Pokhran-II tests, Kargil War, 2001 Parliament attack and 2002 Gujarat riots. Also, you will know why Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand received statehoods in 2000.
Once you read the chapter, ‘Progress and its Discontents’, you will see how the economy started mounting up under economist turned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. You will also recollect the significant events from 2004–2011: RTI Act, US nuclear deal, 26/11, Telangana announcement, and 2G spectrum and CWG scams.
Once you read the chapter, ‘The Rise of the BJP Systems’, you will realise how episodes like the 2011 Anna Hazare led India Against Corruption movement and the 2014 Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi contest has BJP replaced Congress as the authoritative party of Indian politics.
Once you read the afterword, ‘Epilogue: A 50–50 Democracy’, you will be intimate with the fact that Indian democracy is a flawed democracy but still a functioning democracy. And we citizens have a lot to do to make it a more perfect union.
Before concluding, I have to say that Guha has tried to keep his own biases and conviction out of the narrative in this book’s writing. He says, ‘I have been driven by curiosity rather than certainty, by the wish to understand rather than the desire to pass judgement’. And that’s how it feels for the majority of the reading experience. Some readers might think he has been harsh on right-wing groups, but let me tell you that he is the same person who straight-up called Indira Gandhi, a dictator for the Emergency. He tells it like it is.
In the current times when some public figures think facts are not facts, it is crucial, more than ever, to read and remember our history supported by……….you guessed it — facts! Guha provides 94 pages of Notes listing thousands of citations to support his scholarly piece of writing.
History tends to repeat itself. Reading this book will help you make sense of everything that has happened, is happening and will soon happen in the country. So I request you to read the book — for the sake of our Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic, and pass it on.
You can buy the book here.
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