The decade 1929-39 saw the steady coalescing of the ‘right’ wing point of view within the Congress leadership. Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad and C. Rajagopalachari were the chief articulators of this position. Originally inspired by Gandhi, the trio developed into an independent coterie as a result of the challenges it faced not only from British imperialism, but also from the ‘left’ wing in the Congress. The ‘left’ wing, represented by Nehru, Bose, the Congress socialists and the commun...

Shashi Tharoor delivers an incisive biography of the great secularist who-alongside his spiritual father, Mahatma Gandhi-led the movement for India’s independence from British rule and ushered his newly independent country into the modern world. The man who would one day help topple British rule and become India’s first prime minister started out as a surprisingly unremarkable student. Born into a wealthy, politically influential Indian family in the waning years of the Raj, Jawaharlal Neh...

**A highly original, stirring book on Mahatma Gandhi that deepens our sense of his achievements and disappointments—his success in seizing India’s imagination and shaping its independence struggle as a mass movement, his recognition late in life that few of his followers paid more than lip service to his ambitious goals of social justice for the country’s minorities, outcasts, and rural poor.“A revelation. . . . Lelyveld has restored human depth to the Mahatma.”—Hari Kunzru, Th...

The definitive and first non-partisan biography of one of the most formidable political figures of the twentieth century (voted Woman of the Millennium in a BBC poll, 2000)Indira Gandhi’s life, from her birth in 1917, through partition and up to her assassination in 1984, was dominated by the politics of her country. Always directly involved in India’s turbulent twentieth-century history, once she accepted the mantle of power, she became one of the world’s most powerful and signifi...

I call myself a Nehruvian Indian [and] I like to think that the term "Nehruvian Indian" captures more than my own c.v.', says Ramachandra Guha in his Introduction to this sparkling collection of essays. His book is a meditation on how a large area of contemporary India's cultural and intellectual life has in fact been fashioned by exceptional individuals who have, in diverse ways, imbibed the spirit of liberalism, secularism, personal integrity and social commitment—values which Guha assoc...

This is the text of the Heras Memorial Lectures delivered in Mumbai in December 1977. They contain: 1. Formative Ideology2. Democracy and Socialism3. Internationalism

Mahatma Gandhi, through his indomitable will and selfless determination, transformed himself into a model of courage and integrity for India's people to emulate in their nonviolent struggle for political power. More than half a century after his death, Gandhi continues to inspire millions throughout the world. Yet modern India seems to have abandoned much of his nonviolent vision, joining the nuclear arms race. Inspired by recent events in India, Stanley Wolpert offers this subtle and prof...

This book examines Gandhi as the creator of a radical style of politics. It argues that whereas politicians garner support by demonising those they oppose, Gandhi resisted such a politics. He asserted that there are always grounds for a fruitful dialogue between opponents. How did Gandhi create this new form of politics? Hardiman shows its basis within Gandhis larger vision of an alternative society based on respect, non-violence, and ecological harmony. His politics in turn constituted on...

Hindu nationalism came to world attention in 1998, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won national elections in India. Although the BJP was defeated nationally in 2004, it continues to govern large Indian states, and the movement it represents remains a major force in the world's largest democracy. This book presents the thought of the founding fathers and key intellectual leaders of Hindu nationalism from the time of the British Raj, through the independence period, t...

Gandhi's is an extraordinary and compelling story. Few individuals in history have made so great a mark upon their times. And yet Gandhi never held high political office, commanded no armies and was not even a compelling orator. His 'power' therefore makes a particularly fascinating subject for investigation. David Arnold explains how and why the shy student and affluent lawyer became one of the most powerful anti-colonial figures Western empires in Asia ever faced and why he aroused such ...

During the time of contemporary India’s most famous anti-dam movement, the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a professor of politics in Pune, Rajendra Vora, wrote a study in Marathi of that movement’s forgotten predecessor. Back in the 1920s, the peasants of Mulshi Peta, near Pune, had protested against the construction of a dam being built with government support by the industrial house of the Tatas. The struggle was led by Pandurang Mahadev ('Senapati') Bapat, a socialist and nationalist who had been...

The Indian constitution seeks to prevent the perpetuation of caste and build a casteless social system. But this has not happened over the fifty-odd years since Indian independence, and shows little sign of happening in the near future. Therefore no understanding of Indian politics is possible without a thorough understanding of the complexities of caste. The aim of this book is to bring about such an understanding. This volume offers state-of-the-art essays on the subject of caste and pol...