The Idea of India - Hardcover

Khilnani, Sunil

3.84

1,034 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241135737 ISBN 13: 9780241135730

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 1997

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The idea of India developed in 1947, to unite a huge, diverse and poor society and to transform it into a modern state. This book is about the paradoxes and ironies that have surrounded that project in self-fashioning, a project that has given Indians real political freedoms but left most of them in poverty. This analysis provokes and illuminates a fundamental question: can the idea of India survive its own successes?

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Review:

"A splid-and timely-book . . . Spirited, combative and insight-filled . . . Khilnani has woven a rich analysis of contemporary India and its evolution since indepence. I am inclined to agree with [him] on the robustness and staying power of the secular idea of India." --Amartya Sen, The Times Literary Supplement

"A masterful rebuttal to all cultural romantics and religious chauvinists . . . [A] splid book about definitions of the Indian nation." --Ian Buruma, The New York Review of Books

"Especially brilliant is Khilnani's attempt to understand the changing nature of India by studying its urban constructs." --Chitra Divakaruni, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A splendid--and timely--book . . . Spirited, combative and insight-filled . . . Khilnani has woven a rich analysis of contemporary India and its evolution since independence." --Amartya Sen, The Times Literary Supplement

"A masterful rebuttal to all cultural romantics and religious chauvinists . . . [A] splendid book about definitions of the Indian nation." --Ian Buruma, The New York Review of Books

"Khilnani writes with illuminating dexterity, wit and compassion, and India springs to life through his words." --Judith M. Brown, The New York Times Book Review

"[A] short and brilliant book . . . [which] is difficult to praise too highly . . . [It] manages in the space of 200 pages to identify, unravel and explain many of the complexities of modern India." --David Gilmour, The Independent on Sunday

About the Author:

Sunil Khilnani was born in New Delhi, educated at Cambridge and now teaches politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of ARGUING REVOLUTION: THE INTELLECTUAL LEFT IN POSTWAR FRANCE and is writing a biography of Nehru for Hamish Hamilton.

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