Books On India

Here is a listing of some of the best books on India that I remember reading.

1. India: A History - John Keay
2. India After Gandhi - Ramachandra Guha
3. Indira - Katherine Frank
4. City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi - Willam Dalrymple
5. The Last Mughal - William Dalrymple
6. Raj - Lawrence James
7. The Great Uprising: India, 1857 - Pramod K. Nayar
8. The Oxford History of India - Smith and Spear
9. Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People and an Empire - Rajmohan Gandhi

A much awaited book

India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha. Here's a book that attempts to fill the vacuum in modern Indian history writing by covering the post Independence era, and largely succeeds. While most Indians non-fiction writer simply suck - Ramachandra Guha's combination of facts, interpretation, and style is a breath of fresh air. As far as chroniclers of Indian history go, the only other writers I have found truly readable are John Keay and William Dalrymple.

Guha casts a researchers eye over recent Indian history without being either too judgemental or hagiographic, and he avoids the sentimentality of Lapierre & Collins. His coverage of the formative years of the Indian nation makes fascinating reading (I wish he'd go on to write a separate book on this period) as is the account of the gradual decline of Nehru. The amount of research undertaken by Guha is tremendous and the result is a fascinating set of facts and anecdotes peppered throughout the book that make it a very light read indeed (inspite of its size - 770 odd pages). The consistent emphasis on the fact that India survives as a democracy inspite of the odds jars a bit and his attempts at cultural analysis towards the end are a bit weak. Otherwise a fine book.

I reckon this book will become a benchmark for Indian history writing and I suspect there will be quite a few follow-up books on the same subject by others. And, oh, did I say that I got a 20% discount on the harcover version of the book!

The Bush look

Here's an awesome Bush impersonation, with what I suspect is great insight into the man. Takes a stab at Cinton too.

Yama is watching!

Gujjars fighting Meenas in Rajasthan

So there you have it - a shining example of how reservations are leading to rights awareness amongst the 'backward' and how being an ST is truly a sign of having arrived! In reality, a sad state of affairs.

Also on the news today was the Russian mafia cornering real-estate in Goa. The sheer brazenness of it and the obvious and shameless government collusion takes one's breath away. Arundhati could be right about Indian government being decentralized fascism by choice. Which makes me look up the definition of fascism - here's what Mussolini had to say "Anti-individualistic, the fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only insofar as his interests coincide with those of the State....".