Synopsis
The independence of India was a time of hope and uncertainty in equal measure. It was also a time of accelerated history, when every decision whether considered or arbitrary had a lasting effect on its vast and diverse populace. In the decades since, India has evolved into a globally prominent nation of enormous promise and achievement, great contradictions and conflict. In this book, Patrick French, chronicles the epic change. With his superb sense of history and political insight, and an eye for the extraordinary that is as keen as his understanding of the everyday, he builds a compelling narrative of the social and economic revolutions that are transforming India in fundamental ways. Beginning with an account of how the Union was conceived and put together when India took 'a gamble on democracy' he examines the astonishing shift from rigid socialism to unbridled capitalism. Along the way, French also paints revealing portraits of Nehru, Ambedkar, Indira and Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, L.K. Advani and Manmohan Singh. And through his travels across India, he speaks to Maoist revolutionaries, mafia dons, chained quarry workers, technological innovators, cash-rich pimps and self-made billionaire entrepreneurs, trying to answer the central question of the book: 'Why is India like it is today?'
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Review
French combines his lifelong passion, India, with his scholarly interest ... a fascinating anaylsis, revealing a deeper truth. (Salil Tripathi The Independent)
It is a funny, witty book; also dense, gripping, thrilling. What blazes through from each page is French's absolute and uncondescending engagement with India (Neel Mukherjee The Times)
Wide-ranging, clear-sighted, warm-hearted and immensely readable (Nirpal Dhaliwal Evening Standard)
French is a fine reporter, with an appealing fascination for all things Indian ... an accomplished portrait of momentous times in a remarkable country (Economist)
Admirable ... There are many Indias, and Patrick French sets out, with enthusiasm and empathy, to encounter as many as he can find (David Gilmour Spectator)
Mr. French compresses 63 years of post-independence history into 450-odd pages fizzing with wit, insight and infectious curiosity ... a riveting read, and one suspects that Mr. French could not pen a boring passage if he tried. (Sadanand Dhume Wall Street Journal)
About the Author
Patrick French is a writer and historian, born in England in 1966. He is the author of Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer, which won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Royal Society of Literature W. H. Heinemann Prize, Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division , which won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land and, most recently, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Hawthornden Prize. Patrick has also recently created the incredible new website: www.theindiasite.com.
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