yet another

BOOK REVIEW

Group 6

THE GROUPRamesh Kumar Yadav (Coordinator) –

B09Tamanna Sinha – D10Anju Ravikumar – B26

Madhura Roy – C07Vamsidhar T.V. – C25

Vanjulavalli Sridhar – D30Tulsi Das – C33

Shankar Lal Verma – D13Amresh Bahadur Pal – D34

Sanjay Tiwari – B11

INDIA: FROM MIDNIGHT TO THE

MILLENNIUM AND BEYONDPenguin books 2007

INTRODUCTIONThe Author, Overview, Purpose

SHASHI THAROOR Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram

Minister of State at the MHRD

United Nations: 1978 – 2007

Author and columnist

OVERVIEWPHASES OF MODERN INDIAN

HISTORY: 1947 TO 2007

POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

PURPOSE Highly personalized examination of

contemporary India

Descriptive analysis of WHAT has made India WHAT it is today

Holistic journey of the Indian society in this time period

SUMMARYPolitical, Economic & Societal transformations

POLITICS CHANGES• Dynastic - democratic rule to decentralization &

devolution of powers

• Nightmares of nascent decolonized country still haunt the matured democracy

• Indira Gandhi’s emergency policy ?– Criticizes silent spectatorship of intellectuals

• Indian political democracy : performance vs power

“In January 1980, Mrs.Gandhi, having split the Congress once more and unembarrassedly renamed her faction after herself (as Congress-Indira, or “Congress-I), was prime minister of India again.”

“Mrs.Gandhi throughout preferred to rule rather than reinstitutionalize, to control rather than reorient, to subvert rather than balance: she mastered tactics and ignored strategy, ruling the country as its democratically head but doing nothing to help strength then its democracy. The Emergency merely marked the logical culmination of this approach.”

ECONOMIC CHANGES

• Corruption ridden license raj to phase of LPG• Economic policies pre 1991• Hindu rate growth

• Political democracy needs economic content

• LPG: Boon or Bane ? Coca colonization/ Mc Donaldization

“In 1985 he(Rajiv Gandhi) introduced a “new economic policy”, which (rather like the Holy Roman Empire) was neither new nor economic nor a policy; it amounted to little more than relaxation of the old license-permit-quota regulatory system without actually abolishing it.”

“Despite this, overall growth was relatively slow, and not generally better than in the pre-liberalization 1980s.”

SOCIETAL CHANGES• Pluralistic & diverse society that unites in times

of need

• Minority status of EVERY community

“Bombs alone cannot destroy India, because Indians will pick up their way through the rubble and carry on as they have done through out history.”

“..to speak of an Indian identity is really to subsume a number of identities that vary depending upon class, caste, region and language…the singular thing about India is that you can only speak of it in the plural.”

CONTD..• Social transformation in India; Kerala in

particular

• NRIs: Identity crisis & consequences

Never

Relinquished

India

OR

Not really

Indian ?

EVALUATIONStrengths and weaknesses

STRENGTHS• Good language

• Variety of writing styles– Narrative– Assertive– Inquisitive– Descriptive

• Thought provoking

• Interesting anecdotes

WEAKNESS

• Political analysis > people’s thoughts

• Sarcasm

• Repetitions

• Jargon

CONCLUSIONSummary, recommendations

A FINAL NOTE ABOUT INDIA

• Good one-liners & remarks

• Widespread account of events

• Sequence of chapters needs attention

• Need for updation

The Aye’s and Nay’s• Recommended for:–people with general interest in political & social

affairs

• Not for:– people accustomed to this genre – information gatherers

THANK YOU !