India After Gandhi----Ramachandra Guha

“History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.” This quote is by E. L. Doctorow.

The importance of the quote is conveyed by the word it uses at the end, “Myth”. It is very important to remember while reading books of history that it can contain a lot of myth. Some corroborated by the present around you and some dispelled by the mist in your eyes. In either case, it can be an arduous task to read and understand it objectively. But an even more difficult task should be to write about it. It has also been said that history can helps us know as to why we are what we are. Considering the immense demand of the task and the role of subjectivity in presenting a hazy picture, the author of this voluminous book has done an extremely beautiful job.

The book is written in a very lucid and easy-to-digest manner. It reiterates often that history for Indians has stopped at 1947. It has been the general psyche that gaining of independence had ushered in a modern age in India, an eon which rebuffs history as something belonging to black and white era which needs attention only in once-daily class till your seventh standard in school. A significant part of what India is today ( and also what it is not) has been shaped by the decades that followed the 40s. The socialist mindset of the 60s and the revolutionary psyche of the 70s are mentioned with considerable ease in this book. The book can broadly be divided into 3 vital parts.

1. A very objective view about the icons who have played a vital part in Indian History. The book deals a lot with what Nehru, Sardar Patel, Shastri, Indira Gandhi and JP Narayan did. The book stands out in the respect that it accords to various personalities which can find hard to be mentioned during a normal historical discourse. These range from the first Election Commissioner of free India to Mr. P. N. Haksar. These personalities at times formed a confidante coterie which signified some leaders e.g. Mahalanobis for Nehru or Haksar for Indira Gandhi.
2. The sensitive topics like Kashmir issue and the riots that have plagued Indian subcontinent since ages. The author has labored hard here to represent both the sides of each of these issues. The effort that would have gone in this exercise can only be imagined. The book becomes a vital read on these topics as some of the contemporary problems that we face nowadays had their origin in the politics and economies of that time. This is a critical read for any Indian who wants to know the significance of early Congress leaders like Nehru and Shastri in keeping the Indian State a “constitutional” democracy as against the increasingly “populist” approach that is now taken by fascist and pro-majority parties and individuals. The book might stir some controversies in these topics as either side protesting about some “facts” that find a mention in this book, but for any reader with an open mind, this book would be worth an investment not just for his own self but for the future generation who might increasingly find vitiating environment eclipsing the psyche.
3. The third and important contribution of this book is the awareness it can help create about the forbidden orphan states i.e. the states forming the North eastern region of India. The secessionist demands as against the excesses committed by the Indian army, have all been portrayed in a truly dedicated fashion.

The book is definitely a "work of a lifetime". Ramachandra Guha has put in a lot of mental and physical strain to come out with this work. Regular readers of Outlook magazine would definitely relate with the finesse and clarity that he displays in his writings.