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Sto caricando le informazioni... India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (originale 2007; edizione 2008)di Ramachandra Guha (Autore)
Informazioni sull'operaIndia After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy di Ramachandra Guha (2007)
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![]() Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. ![]() ![]() A massive work, well deserving of the "magisterial" tag given by the Financial Times review. The great blessing is that it doesn't try to be cryptic, doesn't use over-long sentences with multiple negatives, and deals with each incident or milestone in a few, elegantly phrased, paragraphs. Thus, you never lose hope that you will be able to read through to the end, as you are guided by a series of easy stages. A bonus is the penultimate chapter on the arts and sports. The treatment is even-handed and objective throughout, and you have the assurance that all the evidence has been weighed and a sober overall assessment made. Best of all, the author ends on an optimistic note, which sounds all the more reassuring because of the wide range and depth of the information accessed. This is a massive work, covering the immensity of India between 1947 and 2015 or 16. When I realized how much territory Dr. Guha had to cover, I was dubious, but this history of India since just before independence manages to elucidate i broad strokes what happened, how it happened and sometimes, why it happened. For example, I understand much better than before the evolution of the impasse over Kashmir, the reasons for India's turn from essentially a centrally planned economy to a more mainstream capitalist one, and how and why Congress lost its hold on power and the BJP came to succeed Congress. Guha carefully explains how the situation of the Congress in 1950, say, differs from that of the BJP in 2015 and indeed, today in the wake of its most recent electoral victory. I have visited India several times and am fascinated by its diversity and history but my understanding of the country has been improved by reading this history. My own view – speaking as a historian rather than citizen – is that as long as Pakistan exists there will be Hindu fundamentalists in India. In times of stability, or when the political leadership is firm, they will be marginal or on the defensive. In times of change, or when the political leadership is irresolute, they will be influential and assertive. This sweeping history was a revelation. I feel as if I was simultaneously dazzled and lost. My chief response was a desire to read more both by Nehru as well as about him. I pondered concepts like communalism all week and made comparisons with other places, other history. Nehru apparently once confessed to Andre Malraux that his greatest challenge was creating and maintaining a secular state in a religious country. It was interesting how in the Nixon biography I recently read much was made about how Nixon felt Nehru and Indira Gandhi looked down upon him, a grocer's son. Little of that surfaced here--which is appropriate when considering the grand grievances of Nixon. People have been predicating the doom of India since its Independence, some are now predicating that half of the nation is becoming California, the other half Chad. The resilient Indian embrace of democracy is the most encouraging, especially as across the world the institution appears to be falling from fashion. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
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