Author: M J Akbar
Publisher: UBS Publishers
Year: 1996
Language: English
Pages: 329
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8174760768
Description
This book succeeds in explaining, as no other book has done, the resilient achievements of India’s secular democracy as well as its vulnerability and failures. As such, it makes essential reading for everyone wishing to understand today’s India.
Here M J Akbar, one of India’s most distinguished journalists, discusses the origins and nature of the strains on Indian unity which have deep roots in history. Taking 1947 as his springboard, he provides a full historical, political and cultural survey of the main pressure points, and brings his analysis up to date to include the removal of Farooq Abdullah in Kashmir, an account of his meeting with Bhindranwale, the army operation at the Golden Temple, the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi, and their implications for the future.
Rising fundamentalism, separatism, the consequences of Partition, unease in Kashmir-on every side it seems that India’s democratic unity is continually at risk.
REVIEWS
An excellent account of the movements which have threatened the country’s unity since 1947, by far the best and most accessible explanation of the new Indian crisis to have been published.
-Sunday Times
A thoughtful and well-researched history of the conflict, 2500 years old, between centralizing and separatist forces in the sub-continent. And remarkably, for a work of this kind, it’s concise, elegantly written and entertaining.
-New Statesman
A rare accomplishment indeed, an eminently readable and lovely book, written lucidly and without pedantry, but with passion and economy.
-Frontier
A sheer pleasure, his qualifications for pronouncing on contemporary Indian history are impeccable.
-India Today
Indispensable to anyone seeking an understanding of India and its path.
-The Times Educational Supplement
How geographically and skillfully the real problems are described, the book is likely to have a considerable influence both in Britain and India.
-Michael Foot
Contents
INTRODUCTION
THE BIRTH OF PAKISTAN AND THE SURVIVAL OF INDIA
The Rationale of 1947
Mullah Power in Pakistan
Masters, Not Friends
The Believer
Is the Weather Freezing?
A Home for Gandhi’s Soul
A Rise of the Jailbird
The Man Who Changed the Map of India
The Roll-Call of Honour
The Great River
Past and Future
PUNJAB
The State of a Problem
An Old Fear
A Faith and Two Religions
Punjab versus Delhi: The First Sikh Homeland
The Identity Crisis
Pagri Samhal, Jatta
The Complex Minority
The Bargain Hunters
The Politics of Faith
Searching for Khalistan
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
Punjab: Death of a General
KASHMIR
Democracy in Paradise
Kings and Peasants
The Lion of Kashmir
Raiders of the Lost Cause
Nothing Proved
To Die an Indian
The Second Trial
Guilty till Proved Innocent?
Glory to Mother Bharat
A Phenomenon of Democracy
INDEX