… the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
— Walt Whitman
What is a republic? How do markets work? What is the role of society in bringing about change? These may be abstract questions, but they have a concrete impact on all of us.
We, the citizens, live at the intersection of the Indian state, market and society. Yet, many of us are unaware of what these entities stand for, how they interact with each other, and how they touch our lives.
We, The Citizens, by Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane, decodes public policy in the Indian context in a graphical narrative format relatable to readers of all ages. If you want to be an engaged citizen, aspire to be a positive change-maker, or wish to understand our sociopolitical environment, this book is for you.
The idea of India was an audacious dream. The fulfilment of this dream lies upon We, the citizens.
The Great Flap of 1942 is a narrative history of a neglected and scarcely known period—between December 1941 and mid-1942—when all of India was caught in a state of panic. This was largely a result of the British administration’s mistaken belief that Japan was on the verge of launching a full-fledged invasion. It was a time when the Raj became unduly alarmed, when the tongue of rumour wagged wildly about Japanese prowess and British weakness and when there was a huge and largely unmapped exodus (of Indians and Europeans) from both sides of the coastline to ‘safer’ inland regions. This book demonstrates, quite astonishingly, that the Raj cynically encouraged the exodus and contributed to the repeated cycles of rumour, panic and flight. It also reveals how the shadow of the Japanese threat influenced the course of nationalist politics, altered British attitudes towards India and charted the course towards Independence.
The Great Flap of 1942—the title refers to an expression used by British bureaucrats in India—traces a broad narrative arc, starting with the Japanese attacks in South-East Asia. The assault on Malaya, the conquest of Singapore, the bombing and eventual occupation of Burma, and the Japanese Navy’s foray into the Indian Ocean are examined in the light of the tremendous impact they had on India.
आज का भारत किधर जा रहा है? क्या यह इंग्लैंड को पाँचवे पायदान से पछाड़कर आगे वाकई विकास की राह पर है या अपने लाखों-करोड़ों युवाओं को रोजगार देने में नाकामयाब हो रहा है? भारत आज चौराहे पर है। गलाकाट प्रतियोगिता और ऑटोमेशन इसके विनिर्माण क्षेत्र के लिए खतरा बन गए हैं। इस किताब में लेखकद्वय कह रहे हैं कि हम कैसे अपने मानव संसाधन पर ध्यान देकर और अपने मैनुफैक्चरिक सेक्टर को बढ़ाकर देश को तरक्की की राह पर ला सकते हैं। इसके लिए आर्थिक सुधार, संस्थाओं का लोकतांत्रिकरण और विकेंद्रीकरण पर ध्यान देना होगा।
From the author of the Ramnath Goenka Award-winning book, The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India
The establishment of a communist regime in China upended Western plans for the post-WWII Asian order. As the United States of America and Great Britain grappled with the implications of this new China in terms of their strategic and economic interests in the western Pacific, significant divergences also emerged. A newly independent India seeking to define its place and role in the region under conditions of Cold War was hoping to enlist China as partner.
This book, based on archival material, outlines India’s efforts to craft a foreign policy in the context of the Anglo–American competition in the Far East. The roles played by the towering personalities of that era—Jawaharlal Nehru, Zhou Enlai, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles, Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden and Krishna Menon—and the personal chemistry between them are woven into the narrative to paint a picture of the nuts and bolts of Indian diplomacy during the early years of the nation.
‘The length of India, though. Think of that. The magnitude of it takes my breath away, even months later. When next will I get such an opportunity? As the Yatra got going, through its early days in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, that question began to haunt me. Through those early days, the challenge of finding an answer came to mean something to me. Something deep, profound, elemental. The challenge of the walk, yes. But what it helped me articulate for myself, too. The way it dredged up long-ago experiences, reminded me of what they had meant, wrung new meaning from them now, said things about my country, my family, myself. All in all, it helped me decide — if I wasn’t doing the whole trip, there was a next best thing I could do.’
Dilip D’Souza joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra four times. This is the story of that experience. But even more, this is the story of how he found energy, empathy and enthusiasm in the Yatra. How it spoke to him of renewal. How it filled him, and many others, with hope. ‘This was my chance to make my own slice of personal history,’ he writes. ‘That was enough for me.’
आम लोग सुभाष चंद्र बोस के गांधी से मतभेद और जर्मनी व जापान की मदद से द्वितीय विश्वयुद्ध में भारत को आज़ाद करवाने के प्रयासों के बारे में जानते हैं। लेकिन अब जो सूचनाएँ सामने आ रही हैं, वो बताती हैं कि उनके देश भर के क्रांतिकारियों से कैसे संबंध थे और अध्यात्म और खुफिया मिशनों से उनको कितना लगाव था। साथ ही, उन्होंने ब्रिटिश भारतीय सेना में विद्रोह पैदा करवाने के क्या-क्या प्रयास किए थे।
प्रश्न यह है कि क्या बोस वाकई नाजियों से सहानुभूति रखते थे? उन्होंने अपनी राजनीतिक छवि दांव पर क्यों लगाई? ऐसे ही कई सवालों के जवाब सुभाष बाबू नाम की यह पुस्तक देती है।
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys a predominant position in Indian politics today. In its journey from coalition to single-party rule, the BJP has changed as much as India appears to have. Veteran journalist Saba Naqvi tells the story of the party’s journey under two very different prime ministers drawn from the same ideological family. In 1998, the author attended the very modest swearing-in ceremony of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the courtyard of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In 2014, she was at a mega event at the same venue
when Narendra Modi was sworn in.
The Saffron Storm is both a first-person account of racy events as they unfolded in the nation’s history and a work that raises larger analytical points about the BJP’s growth. It examines the role of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh cadre and its equations with elected leaders, the calibration of ideology, the issue of political finance and the social expansion of the party, as also the cults of personality that would emerge around, first, Vajpayee and then, more forcefully, around Modi. The book provides a riveting account of the party’s journey from ‘untouchability’ (when allies were unwilling to join) to its presumed ‘invincibility’ today.
This updated edition also describes the enforcement agencies’ action against the party’s opponents, the increasingly centralized command structure of the BJP and the implications of the delimitation exercise due in 2026. The Saffron Storm is a fascinating and readable dive into the contemporary history of the BJP.
Lt Gen. Satish Dua’s tryst with Kashmir has spanned nearly four decades (from 1980 to 2018), during which, he has observed the changing social, political, security and religious landscape of the region.
In A General Reminisces, he reflects upon this time, his interactions with bureaucrats and experiences about the atmosphere at the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. He mulls the change, the way it has taken over the citizens and the army stationed there—at the same time, he pens his thoughts about how militancy sprung up in the Valley in 1990s and how the Indian Army evolved to respond to it. A counter-terrorism force called Rashtriya Rifles was created to counter the rising threat. Then there was a bold response of creation of Ikhwan, a rehabilitation programme that allowed young Kashmiri men to convert from militancy and work with the Indian Army. This eventually led to a bolder experiment of raising the Territorial Army battalion, comprising of surrendered terrorists.
In these events, Lt Gen. Dua weaves in the context to tell a story of a terrorist-turned-soldier, Nazir Wani, who ended up becoming the very beacon of change that Lt Gen. Dua has witnessed and hopes for.
Nazir, the son of a farmer, was born at a time when teenagers of Kashmir heard strident voices, fiery speeches, and more than occasional gunfire. Nazir strayed on the wrong side as a teenager, starting with running errands for terrorist groups to more. Fortunately for him, Ikhwan was started just then. He joined the programme and proved himself as a cool and confident operative in the field. As an Ikhwan and later as a soldier of Territorial Army (TA) Battalion of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI), Nazir earned his spurs in several operations. He was awarded the Ashok Chakra for his ultimate sacrifice in a daring operation.
An inspiring tale of Nazir’ s operations and valour, this book also goes to the man behind the hero and shows the humble aspirations of a father.
The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was voted to power in the year 2014. That election was to prove to be a consequential one for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and for India. The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc had since declared the 2024 election as the last opportunity to stop the rise of Modi and his idea of India. That project didn’t succeed. The NDA won even though the BJP fell short of the majority mark on its own. The setback hasn’t deterred Prime Minister Modi from proceeding with the BJP’s ideological agenda.
In line with that objective, PM Modi has worked to position Bharat as a ‘Vishwa Guru’—an exemplar of moral righteousness, a pluralistic democracy led by dharma and drawing sustenance from the wellspring of an eternal Hindu universalism. But this shift towards India’s Hindu ethos has forced the Opposition and many allied commentators to fear the rise of a second republic—a ‘Hindu Rajya’—moored to an implacable ultra-nationalist and majoritarian dogma. But is that really the case?
Evocative, anecdotal, argumentative and deeply researched, Modi and India: The Battle for Bharat chronicles the emergence of, and the battle for, a new republic in the making.
The unknown history of economic conservatism in India after independence.
Neoliberalism is routinely characterized as an antidemocratic, expert-driven project aimed at insulating markets from politics, devised in the North Atlantic and projected on the rest of the world. Revising this understanding, Toward a Free Economy shows how economic conservatism emerged and was disseminated in a postcolonial society consistent with the logic of democracy.
Twelve years after the British left India, a Swatantra (“Freedom”) Party came to life. It encouraged Indians to break with the Indian National Congress Party, which spearheaded the anticolonial nationalist movement and now dominated Indian democracy. Rejecting Congress’s heavy-industrial developmental state and the accompanying rhetoric of socialism, Swatantra promised “free economy” through its project of opposition politics.
As it circulated across various genres, “free economy” took on meanings that varied by region and language, caste and class, and won diverse advocates. These articulations, informed by but distinct from neoliberalism, came chiefly from communities in southern and western India as they embraced new forms of entrepreneurial activity. At their core, they connoted anticommunism, unfettered private economic activity, decentralized development, and the defense of private property.
Opposition politics encompassed ideas and practice. Swatantra’s leaders imagined a conservative alternative to a progressive dominant party in a two-party system. They communicated ideas and mobilized people around such issues as inflation, taxation, and property. And they made creative use of India’s institutions to bring checks and balances to the political system.
Democracy’s persistence in India is uncommon among postcolonial societies. By excavating a perspective of how Indians made and understood their own democracy and economy, Aditya Balasubramanian broadens our picture of neoliberalism, democracy, and the postcolonial world.
