Next, Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister of India for 12 long years. Though she initially proved to a be a good politician, whether negotiating a friendship treaty with Russia or supporting the liberation of Bangladesh, very soon her insecurities made her an authoritarian. She declared a state of emergency for 2 years when she started losing on judicial and mass protests. This period is explained very thoroughly, how the freedom struggle party had degraded into a loyalist, corrupt and slow bureaucracy. How her younger son became an extra constitutional power, and how eventually she was voted out.
The epilogue has come out well. How India survived when many other democracies failed. Some very interesting vignettes like when the first few army chiefs in India tried to assert their independent will, Nehru and Patel politely but firmly handled the situation. Or how when nationalist sentiments after independence suggested that ICS (civil service) be disbanded, Patel pushed for their continuity (despite having been jailed multiple times by the same ICS), because he realized a fledgling nation needed an experienced administrator. Or how when jingoist sentiments were baying for English language to be thrown out of the country, our visionary leaders like Rajagopalachari realized it had a binding affect and acceptability given we had scores of our own languages. And that India’s neighbours lost the plot when they tried to impose one common language (Jinnah went to East Pakistan and exhorted everyone to learn urdu, only to unleash an uprising that soon divided their country). The book, through its decade long research, highlights the contribution of so many people and institutions we had not even heard of. One example is the uniting force of the Indian cinema which effortlessly and engagingly pulls together different languages, religion, and castes and “then sends the synthesized product out for appreciation to the other states of the union.”
India continues to be a rising global power. The author has emphasised that India is able to set its own path to rise rather than copy the West. On the other hand, he also says that there is still lots to be achieved and improved in India. He talks of how rules are not followed in the country, which gives rise to corruption. India being a populist democracy also gives rise to right-wing movements that can be unfair to religious minorities. He ends the book by saying that though he has faith in democratic institutions, democracy in itself does not guarantee anything. His closing comment: “So long as the constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as citizens can speak and write in the language of their choosing, so long as there is an integrated market and a moderately efficient civil service and army, and – lest I forget – so long as Hindi films are watched and their songs sung, India will survive.”
Such a vast canvas will have its obvious critics, who are divided whether the author has been totally unbiased or has let his personal admiration of Nehru show in his work. It is a tightrope because everyone will have subjective views.
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