Author: Rajmohan Gandhi
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 463
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0140290451
Description
An original, provocative and compelling reading of the subcontinent's history.
In this remarkable study, well-known biographer Rajmohan Gandhi, underscoring the prominence in the Mahabharta of the revenge impulse, follows its trajectory in South Asian history. Side by side, he traces the role played by reconcilers up to present times, like the Buddha, Mahavira and Asoka.
Encompassing myth and historical fact, the author moves from the circumstances of Drona's death and Parasurama's slaying of the Kshatriyas to the burst of Islam in India and Akbar's success in gaining acceptance for it, the execution of Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Teg Bahadur, and Shivaji's achievement of self-rule.
His explanation of the 1947 division of India identified the role of 1857 Rebellion in shaping Gandhi's thinking and strategy, and reflects on the wounds of Partition. The survey of post-independence India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also touches upon the tragic bereavements of six of their women leaders.
Incisive and finely argued, Revenge and Reconciliation compels us to confront historical and contemporary realities of intolerance, while pointing to p[ossible strategies of mutual accommodation in India and the rest of South Asia at the threshold of the twenty-first century.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
CHAPTER I
The Mahabharata Legacy, and the Gita's Intent
CHAPTER II
A Dissenting Tradition, or the Second Thread
CHAPTER III
The Charge of Islam : Rage, Reflection and Coexistence
CHAPTER IV
Empire and Conscience : Mughals, Sikhs and Marathas
CHAPTER V
Enter Britain : Humiliation, Dazzlement and Trust
CHAPTER VI
To Crush and Conciliate : The Raj and the Sikhs
CHAPTER VII
The 1857 Trauma and its Meaning
CHAPTER VIII
Freedom and Reconciliation? Gandhi's Large Bid
CHAPTER IX
Why Partition Occurred and the Wounds of 1947
CHAPTER X
Two Cheerful Decades : India 1947-67
CHAPTER XI
The Unreasonable Other : South Asia After Independence
CHAPTER XII
The New Century : Strategies for Reconciliation
Notes
Bibliography
Index