After nearly seven decades of its existence, there is a pervasive feeling that India’s democracy is in crisis. But what is the nature of this threat? In this essay, republished now with a new foreword from the author, Pratap Bhanu Mehtareminds us what a bold experiment bringing democracy to a largely illiterate and unpropertied India was. He argues that the sphere of politics has truly created opportunities for people to participate in society. Looking at various facts, he also finds that persistent social inequality on the one hand and a mistaken view of the state’s proper function and organization on the other have modified and hindered the workings of democracy and its effects in innumerable ways. Posting the quest for self-respect as democracy’s deepest aspiration, this essay explores how inequality and the crisis of accountability have together impeded collective action to achieve such an end. To recover this sense of moral well-being and responsibility, Mehta suggests, is the core of the democratic challenge before us.
Optimistic, lively and closely argued, The Burden of Democracy offers a new ideological imagination that throws light on our discontents. By returning to the basics of democracy it serves to illuminate our predicament, even while perceiving the broad contours for change.
Start-ups are the fountainheads of innovation that power this world. However, they lose the plot when they do not have access to timely, contextual and good quality advice based on a deep understanding of the real issues on the ground that comes with experience in the trenches. It is sad to see intrepid and tenacious entrepreneurs fail because of small things. This book is as much about these as it is about some of the more complex navigational skills required to avoid major pitfalls. A practical book for every entrepreneur, Cut the Crap and Jargon will make an interesting read for a global audience.
Indira Gandhi – Tryst with Power is a book that focusses on the life of one of India’s most popular politicians – Indira Gandhi. How did she come to power? Did the nation blossom under her rule? for people who have been pondering on such questions, this book has the answers that they have been looking for. Indira broke the conventional, democratic ruling method that her family had been using and adopted a somewhat authoritarian way of ruling the nation.
The emergency that was declared during her reign is shown in this book to be a means of bringing in her son Sanjay into the political scene as her obvious successor. However, after Sanjay’s death, Rajiv Gandhi entered politics and gained almost immediate popularity. All of these political changes showed just how determined Indira Gandhi was to ensure that her family retained its right to rule.
This book offers unparalleled detailing concerning the personal life and political life of Indira Gandhi from the author, who is her own cousin. Owing to this close family link, the book is filled with accounts that could only be told by a family member who knew the Nehru family for a long time. Indira Gandhi’s highly individualized style of functioning in politics has been spoken about at length in this book, along with the countless changes that took place in the political scene of the nation when it was under her rule.
An in-depth portrayal of the life and times of one of India’s greatest political leaders, Indira Gandhi – Tryst with Power has been published by Penguin India in the year 2012 and is available in paperback.
The basis of Hinduism is dharma or righteousness, incorporating duty, cosmic law and justice. Five thousand years ago, the Vedas showed a clear appreciation of the natural world and its ecology, the importance of the environment and the management of natural resources.
Hinduism and Nature delves into the religion’s deep respect for all life forms, the forests and trees, rivers and lakes, animals and mountains, which are all manifestations of divinity. Nature is venerated all over India: every village has a sacred grove, every temple a sacred garden and sacred tree. In this fascinating book, scholar and environmentalist Nanditha Krishna explores both the classical and the tribal traditions that venerated nature, and convincingly argues that we can save the environment only by seeking answers in ancient wisdom.
The region inhabited by the largest number of Muslims-roughly 500 million-today is South Asia. In the course of the Islamization process that began in the eighth century, the region developed a distinct Indo-Islamic civilization that culminated in the Mughal Empire. In the Gulf, while paying lip service to the power centres, including Mecca and Medina, this civilization cultivated its own variety of Islam, which was based on Sufism.
Over the last fifty years, pan-Islamic ties have intensified between these two regions. Gathering together some of the best specialists on the subject, this volume explores these ideological, educational and spiritual networks, which have gained momentum due to political strategies, migration flows and increased communications. At stake are both the resilience of the civilization that imbued South Asia with a specific identity and the relations between Sunnis and Shias in a region where Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a cultural proxy war. The Islamic Connection investigates the nature and implications of the cultural, spiritual and socio-economic rapprochement between these two Islams.
The courts in India are struggling with a huge backlog of cases. As of 2016, there are 27 million pending cases and close to 90 million people are still waiting for justice.
To the common man, this is just a number. But some cases have impacted the collective conscious of the entire nation. These include the trial of Afzal Guru, the Nirbhaya case, the criminalization of homosexuality, the Parliament attack case, the Babri Masjid demolition and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
There was a lot that happened inside the courts during these trials which has remained hidden from public view. The Dramatic Decade is a collection of these stories. The book gives the reader a ringside view of what happened both inside and outside the courts. What were the arguments made, which lawyers fought the cases, what was the court’s judgment and how did it affect the common man are some of the many questions answered here.
The music’s still playing, fifty years on . . .
It is 1965, and John, Paul, George and Ringo have lost themselves. Beatlemania is at its peak and the boys are overwhelmed by screaming fans, more money than they can count, and fame beyond their dreams. But one day, on the sets of the surreal Help!, George discovers the sitar, starting the boys off on a journey filled with
drug-induced introspection, transnational spirituality and damned fine music.
It is 1968, and John, Paul, George and Ringo have decided to find themselves. Following an eerie series of events, as if devised by fate, the boys are brought to Rishikesh, India, in pursuit of eternal happiness through a secret mantra from Transcendental Meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Hoping to get the better of their personal demons, they seek to break the shackles of stardom even though it begins the unravelling of the band.
Across the Universe etches in lyrical detail a picture of the world’s greatest band torn apart by their inner dissensions yet bursting with creative genius. Full of characters and happenings delightful and evil, of comic excess and dark whimsy, the book traces the path the Beatles took to India and the dramatic denouement
of their sojourn at the Himalayan ashram. It is a modern fairy tale about four people the world has loved like no one else.
In 1963, a human skull was discovered in a pub in Kent in south-east England. A brief handwritten note stuck inside the cavity revealed it to be that of Alum Bheg, an Indian soldier in British service who was executed during the aftermath of the 1857 Uprising. Alum Bheg was blown from a cannon for having allegedly murdered British civilians, and his head was brought back as a grisly war-trophy by an Irish officer present at his execution. The skull is a troublesome relic of both anti-colonial violence and the brutality and spectacle of British retribution.
Kim Wagner presents an intimate and vivid account of life and death in British India in the throes of the largest rebellion of the nineteenth century. Fugitive rebels spent months, even years, hiding in the vastness of the Himalayas before they were eventually hunted down and punished by a vengeful colonial state. Examining the colonial practice of collecting and exhibiting human remains, this book offers a critical assessment of British imperialism that speaks to contemporary debates about the legacies of Empire and the myth of the ‘Mutiny’.
Has democracy in India fulfilled the aspirations of its people? Have institutions delivered? Have public policies succeeded in making substantial differences to living standards? Is the country secure on its external borders? Would the country become an economic powerhouse? And can India be a leading power in the years ahead?
All these and many more questions loom large as India completes seven decades of independence. Major challenges persist on the economic front and in providing adequate and quality healthcare, education, food, sanitation and drinking water. Regulatory preoccupations persist as policymakers continue to search for optimal solutions. The task is made harder by a socio-political environment shaped by various complexities. These include an expanding young workforce, a demanding citizenry, intense social media campaigns and a difficult neighbourhood.
Seven Decades of Independent India, edited by Vinod Rai and Amitendu Palit, reflects on the India of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, by gathering rare and candid insights from some of the most distinguished experts, practitioners and scholars on India. These include D. Subbarao, ex-governor of RBI; Rajiv Kumar, vice-chairman of NITI Aayog; S.Y. Quraishi, former chief election commissioner; Shivshankar Menon, former national security adviser; Ashok Gulati, professor ICRIER and former chairman of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices; Sumit Ganguly, professor of political science, Indiana University; A.K. Shiva Kumar, director, International Centre for Human Development; Poonam Muttreja, executive director, Population Foundation of India; Tan Tai Yong, president and professor (humanities) Yale-NUS College, Singapore; Dipankar Gupta, sociologist and former professor, JNU; Pronab Sen, former chief statistician of India and many others.
Shayara Bano knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court to challenge her husband’s sudden decision of ending their marriage using the three dreaded words: talaq, talaq, talaq.
A 1980s Bollywood movie sparked off a national debate on the validity of instant divorce, which even saw Dawat-a four-page daily published by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind-talking about triple talaq as per the Quran.
For a long time, the battle against instant talaq has garnered public attention. In Till Talaq Do Us Part, Ziya Us Salam, an eminent social commentator and an associate editor at Frontline, presents a holistic view of how divorce works in Islam. Ranging from triple talaq to talaq granted over three months to khula and talaq-e-tafweez, the book also discusses other methods of divorce available to a Muslim couple which go ignored thanks to all the attention on talaq, talaq, talaq.
