| Title | : | The Idea of India |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9789351184546 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 264 |
| Publication | : | First published July 3, 1997 |
In a new introduction written for this edition, Khilnani reflects on the book's striking relevance to the country's recent developments--from the rise of a new billionaire class to the election of a government with a more exclusivist conception of Indian identity. Throughout, he provokes readers and illuminates a fundamental question as urgent now as ever: Can the original idea of India survive its own successes?
The Idea of India Reviews
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Wow, It took me 13 months to read this book. I knew very little about the book's context and about the ideas explored when I started reading the book (partly because of the allure of the title and partly because It was among the 25 Popular Penguins). During the first 12 months I read the first half of the book, plodding slowly, 2-3 pages once in a while, with a deliberate exercise of will-power, littering the book with marginalia and exclamation marks - amazed at the language and the torrent of ideas and information.
Then, unintentionally, the book was gradually put aside and lost among a growing tide of must-read books. Meanwhile, I read many other books dealing with the same subject matter and discussing many of the same questions, familiarizing myself to some extent with the numerous arguments. Today I picked up Khilnani again to read a few more pages to get a move on (I hate half-completed books on my shelf) and to my surprise, all the plodding was gone and I breezed through the rest of the book.
No more was it an incomprehensible lecture which I should try and capture as much of as I can, it was now a pleasant conversation with enough interesting back-and-forths from both sides that notes and such became unnecessary. The book became more memorable and the reading experience actually improved with this loss of awe.
This is the first mid-book transition for me in which the tone and texture of the book, along with my entire attitude towards it shifts so rapidly. Makes me wonder how much is missed by reading a well written and popular book first without taking the trouble to study the subject first - most of the richness that informed the author in his writing is lost on the reader by the author’s attempt to make the book more readable. It is a necessary tragedy. (Unless the reader takes it on himself to alleviate the collateral damage). Is it?
P.S. About the book itself, it is a very poetic and well written exploration of the question of Indian Identity. While Khilnani doesn't offer much in the form of new theories on what this definition should be, he very evocatively sets forth the many identities that have and continue to define the vast nation. The discussion on Nehru and Gandhi is exceptional in their clarity and the unreserved take on Hindutva deserves to be read with great attention. The last chapter rises to a poetic crescendo with Khilnani offering his own conceptions on how these various identities should be interpreted and accepted. The stunning bibliographic essay which lists close to 200 odd books is a treasure trove and has given me an enormous and intimidating list of books that should be explored. -
A concise yet informative account of independent India's political history
If you have a penchant for political history of independent India, and do not want to read many books, this is 'the' book. The subtlety of argument along with the neutrality of opinions is what makes this book a tour de force. It is said that some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. This book falls in the third category, and hence needs to be thoroughly read - in fact, it should be relished like red wine. Enjoy the long statements, read slowly and let the language flow through your mind. In the end, this book will enable you to develop pessimism of the intellect & optimism of the will. -
Today’s newspaper had this news of a disabled man being abused at a multiplex (verbally with snide remarks) for not standing up during national anthem. Yes, our Supreme Court has this weird obsession towards assertion of patriotism in inappropriate places. Like Amartya Sen rightly expressed: “Indian identity is a combination of internal pluralism and external receptivity”, and efforts to homogenize by coercion leads to perversions like this. The idea of India has been contested and validated over time, and now, we are more interested and invested in who we want to be in this world than who we are. Still, after 20 years of publication, Khilnani’s trenchant analysis on this open, often revised idea of India is germane to our society in many ways.
Sunil Khilnani is an erudite scholar, and it is often reflected in his writing. On levels that it poses strict competition to Veronica Roth in finding jargons for Divergent factions. And language of this book is a bit baroque, if I may use words of his lexicon. Many things were rhetoric and repetitive in that narrative, well, they were hidden so deep in his elegant prose that they rarely came up as irritants. Though written during the time of disillusionment following Nehruvian socialism and emergence of Third Front in politics, it would be wrong to consider this book as rapporteur of things that has happened till then or as an irrelevant journal in light of events happened thereafter. For, the arguments in this book are coherently articulated along the long history of India as a civilization than a nation state.
I have mixed feelings towards this book and obvious disagreements, and a consolidated review is rightly beyond my capacity. Still would love to mention one portion that I enjoyed most -Indian modernity through architectural history of imperial capital. New Delhi was designed in hexagonal grids with housing segments distanced from central acropolis in descending gradient of 'rank', concreting the exclusive tendencies of Indian society. I found this precedence extremely helpful in understanding Gandhian economy and self-determination in villages against Ambedkar’s strong distaste for the same. Gandhi renounced colonial idea of city for village cosmology of Ashrams with his sartorial humility as ‘half naked fakir’ against British imperial pomp. To him, simple Indian occupation of departed English designs didn’t represent true freedom, and Gandhi advocated villages as sanctuary for civilizational powers through democratic dialogue. To Ambedkar, one who had first-hand experience of superstitious oppression, villages were beyond redemption and nothing but a sink of narrow mindedness and communalism.
Nehru on the other hand was more pragmatic in his approach to modernity, where he drew a distinction between inauthentic modernity, represented by colonial city and genuine modernity, that India should be rational not to reject. Khilnani further illustrates this with development of city of Chandigarh, and its intended International appeal by renouncement of both colonial imagery and nationalist monuments in design. Well, the city never achieved the cosmopolitanism it craved for, and it’s something for us readers to contemplate on. And story of Bombay, the foremost modern city of India, construes a centripetal narrative towards parochialism from its cosmopolitan past. Khilnani has a wonderful take on Shiv Sena’s narrow efforts to annex and distribute the benefits of modernity to one closed community against Bombay’s congestion which make it impossible for rich to flee the poor or any other selectivity to sustain in first place. Bombay might not be as cosmopolitan now as we can observe in Manto’s pre-independence stories, but it still isn’t that communal like author feared it would be 20 years back, which to me, is a silver lining.
In this extremely difficult job of consolidating an Idea of India, this reader, like author, also finds solace in tourism board poster caption that paraphrase Tagore, “India is a state of mind”.‘One way of defining diversity for India, is to say what the Irishman is said to have said about trousers. When asked whether trousers were singular or plural, he said, “Singular at the top and plural at the bottom”.’
Khilnani hyphenates this quote by A.K. Ramanujan into his idea of India’s nationalism, which is plural equally at top as well as bottom, like a ‘dothi’ with endless folds (Hear, hear!). -
The book doesn't directly answer the critical question: What is the idea of India? However, it lays bare certain dimensions of the idea that enables the reader to have a reasonably good idea of the idea. A well researched book on what could be the idea of India. Given the complex matrix of Indian history and the present day existence, it is indeed difficult to articulate in black and white such an idea but one can comprehend and perhaps appreciate it as one walks through the pages of the book.
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The most insightful book one can find on a diverse topic of Indian Identity. I so wish the book was written recently with so much going on in the country, to add on to the content Sunil Khilnani has so eloquently put down in this book.
Apart from giving the political and economic history of India and how it shaped the identity of Indians, the author has succeeded in tackling the complex task of putting everything in a box while also treading the path of how the ideology of our 'nationalist heroes' shape the way Indians see themselves.
Chapter on "cities" needs particular mention, as it deals with something I never came across before. How the cities of Bombay, Delhi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad etc took their present form, which we hardly take out time to think about.
Critics of the book claiming it to be very pro-congress probably would have skipped the part where Indira Gandhi was talked about. The role of Nehru in giving an identity to the nation needed emphasis which has rightly been done.
Overall, definitely worth a read! -
Khilnani traces predominantly late colonial and early post-independence Indian history in an effort to discover what it is that defines "being Indian." He is strongly sympathetic to Nehru and promotes a similar idea of nationality that India's former prime minister would have espoused. What he does not manage to do convincingly is communicate from whence this idea of India derives, and why it deserves to be defended. In fact, it becomes abundantly clear through this work how diverse and disparate the groups of India are. Imposing a single nationality on them still continues to ring of colonialism. Good general history, particularly of the 20th century.
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The writer's proximity to the first family is well known;glosses over the excesses of the first family; and governance failures of Nehru;a pro Nehru-Gandhi view of India
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Too biased.
Too much pro Nehru - Gandhi. It would have been better if author had written counter views as well.
Quite a dry read. Editor could have made it little shorter. -
இந்தியாவை படிக்கத்தொடங்கலாம் என்று நினைத்து, நீண்ட நாட்களாக காத்திருப்பு பட்டியலில் இருந்த sunil khilani எழுதிய “Idea of India” என்ற பிரபலமான நூலை வாசித்தேன்.
நூலின் முகப்பில் கூறியது போலவே நூல் முழுக்க நவீன இந்தியாவுக்கு நேருவின் பங்களிப்பையும் அதை தொடர்ந்து நடந்த அரசியல்- சமூக-பொருளாதார மாற்றங்களையும் பதிவுசெய்துள்ளார் நூல் ஆசிரியர். அந்த வகையில் இது நேருவை பற்றி தனிப்பட்ட முறையில��� தெரிந்துகொள்ள அடிப்படையாக அமைந்தது. நேருவை படிக்க வேண்டும் என்ற ஆர்வமும் கூடியுள்ளது.
புத்தகம் நான்கு முக்கியமான விஷயங்களை பற்றி பேசுகிறது. இந்தியாவின் ஜனநாயகம்,பொருளாதாரம், உட்கட்டமைப்பு, மனிதவியல் ஆகிய கூறுகளில் நேருவின் தாக்கத்தையும், அவற்றை காலநிலை மாற்றங்களோடு பிணைத்தும் எழுதியுள்ளார்.
இந்தியாவை பற்றி தாகூர் கூறும்போது "இந்தியா என்பது எல்லைகள் கொண்ட நாடு அல்ல அது ஒரு சிந்தனை" சுருக்கமாக சொன்னால் “India is a state of mind”.
விடுதலைக்கு பிறகு இந்தியாவின் நிலை இது தான், வேறெந்த நாட்டிற்கும் இல்லாத கலாச்சார வேற்றுமை நமக்கு மட்டும் தான் உண்டு. இதை சிறப்பு என்பதா இல்லை சாபம் என்பதா தெரியவில்லை. இப்படி பல்வேறு அடையாளங்களோடு சுற்றிக்கொண்டிருந்த நமக்கு சுதந்திரம் என்றதும் மகிழ்ச்சி கலந்த பேரதிர்ச்சி தான்.
இதில் பாகிஸ்தான் பிரிவினை ஒரு பக்கம் கொழுந்துவிட்டு எரிய, இன்னொருபக்கம் இந்தியா தன்னை பல்வேறு சிந்தனைகளுடன் கட்டமைத்து க்கொண்டிருந்தது. காந்தியமா?, சோசலிசமா?, முதலாளித்துவமா?, ஹிந்து ராஜ்யமா?, மதசார்பற்ற நாடா?, ஜனநாயகமா?, சர்வாதிகாரமா? என்ற குழப்பத்தில் உழன்று கடைசியாக இறையாண்மைமிக்க ஜனநாயக குடிஅரசு என்று முடிவானது. இதில் காந்தியின் படுகொலை, பாகிஸ்தான் பிரிவினை, இந்துத்துவ சிந்தனை என்ற அத்தனை நிகழ்வுகளின் தாக்கமும் நிறைந்திருப்பது வெளிப்படையாக தெரிகிறது.
இந்தியாவின் பொருளாதார கொள்கையை பொறுத்தவரை, திட்டமிட்ட வளர்ச்சி என்று சோசலிச தாக்கம் கொண்ட பொருளாதார பாதையை தேர்ந்தெடுத்தார் நேரு. அப்போதிருந்தே இந்தியாவை சூறையாட முதலாளித்துவ கூட்டம் தயாராக இருந்தது என்று வரலாறு பதிவுசெய்கிறது. 40 ஆண்டு தாக்கிப்பிடித்ததே பெரும்பாடு.
இந்தியாவின் உள்கட்டமைப்பு குழப்பம் நிறைந்த ஒன்று, சுதந்திரத்திற்கு பிறகு நகரங்களை நவீன படுத்தவேண்டும் என்ற கட்டாயம் ஏற்ப்பட்டது, ஆனால் மேற்கிந்திய பாங்கில் கட்டமைப்பதா அல்லது இந்தியா முறையை என்று வரும்போது இரண்டின் கலவையிலும் தான் பல நகரங்கள் உருவாக்கப்பட்டன. பஞ்சாப் மாநிலத்தில் உள்ள சண்டிகர் நகரம் அதற்கு எடுத்துக்காட்டாக கூறப்படுகிறது.
அடுத்தது இந்தியாவில் சுதந்திரத்திற்கு பிறகு நடந்த அரசியல் இயங்கியலை, அதில் ஜனநாயகத்தின் பங்கையும் விவரிக்கிறது. இந்தியாவின் அடிக்கட்டமைப்பே பன்முகத்தன்மையும் , கலாச்சார வேற்றுமையும் தான், என்றைக்கு அந்த கருத்தியல் சிதைக்க பட்டு ‘ஒற்றை’ அடையாளத்திற்குள் அடைக்கும் முயற்சி தொடங்குகிறதோ அன்றைக்கு இந்தியா தனது ஒற்றுமையை இழக்கும்.
புத்தகம் வெளிவந்த சமயத்தில்(1997) பாஜக ஆட்சி, பாபர் மசூதி இடிப்பு விவகாரம், மண்டல் கமிஷன் என அத்தனை புற காரணிகளை வைத்து முடிவுரை எழுதியுள்ளார். இந்துத்துவ சக்திகளால் ஜனநாயகத்திற்கு ஆபத்து, என்ற தொனியில் புத்தகத்தை முடிப்பார். அவர் எழுதிய முடிவுரை இன்னும் வீரியங்களுடன் மாற்றம்பெற்று இன்றைய தேவையாக அமைகிறது.
இதை எல்லாம் தாண்டி விமர்சனமாக வைக்கவேண்டுமானால், தென்னிந்தியா முழுக்க முழுக்க புறக்கணிக்க பட்டுள்ளது. பெயருக்கு பெங்களூரும், ராஜிவ் படுகொலைக்காக சென்னையும் இடம்பெற்றுள்ளதே தவிர தென்னிந்தியா பற்றிய செய்திகள் குறைவு தான். குறைந்தபட்ச்சம் உள்கட்டமைப்பு பற்றியாவது பதிவுசெய்திருக்கலாம். அதே போல நவீன இந்திய ஜனநாயகத்தில் பெரிய அளவில் தாக்கத்தை உண்டு செய்த அம்பேத்கரின் பெயர் முற்றிலும் புறக்கணிக்க பட்டதாக தான் தெரிகிறது. அம்பேத்கரின் நூற்றாண்டுக்கு பிறகு வெளிவந்த நூலுக்கே இந்த நிலை என்றால் அதற்கு முன்பான வரலாற்று நூல்களின் உண்மைத்தன்மையை ஆய்வுக்குட்படுத்துவது அவசியமாகிறது. இந்த விமர்சனங்கள் எல்லாம் "idea of india” என்று பெயர் வைத்ததால் மட்டும் தான் எழுகிறது சொல்ல போனால் இதன் பெயர் “Nehru’s idea of north india” என்று வைத்திருக்கலாமோ என்று தான் தோன்றுகிறது.
விமர்சனங்களை எல்லாம் தாண்டி இந்நூல் இந்தியாவின் தோற்றத்தை உங்களுக்கு அடையாளம் கண்டுகொடுக்கும், அதன் வரலாறு நமக்கான பாடம். அன்றைக்கு அவர்கள் அடைந்த அச்சங்கள் எல்லாம் இன்றைக்கு நேரில் நடந்தேறி கொண்டிருக்கும் இக்கட்டான சூழலில் இந்த வாசிப்பு அவசியமாகிறது. இந்த மழைக்காட்டின் வாழ்வும் சாவும் எதிர்கால தலைமுறையானா நமது அணுகுமுறையில் தான் உள்ளது.
BOOK: The Idea of India
AUTHOR: sunil khilani
#do_read
#india
#democracy
#diversity -
The book is primarily written for Nehru-Gandhi (not MK gandhi) loyalists and quite evidently he(author) himself is one of them. I didn't know about him before coming across the book and nor do i bother to find more now but as per my understanding, i found the book to be too shady and biased. Ideologically inclined towards the "first" family and presented utopian view of their era. What i expected was a comment on what India was, is and what it should be, ideally. Although, I didn't find anything like that, the language was technical and political with being calculative at the same time. The text got extremely boring without presenting anything concrete. It was an analytical essay which manages to send you into a slump after few pages. It just didn't workout for me.
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It was alright.
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The mere compression of the idea of India into such a thin book as this is audacious.
What's even more stunning is, the author succeeds in it. I am unable to claim with a clear conscience that the idea, as it were, made itself plain to me, in any realistic sense of the word. However, the exploration of the idea in this manner lends an air of legitimacy that, depending on who you are, might be the thing that India needs the most. Or just a rhetoric philandering of words.
There are valuable insights into ideas and policies that most people, if not all, tend to brush away in abstracted labels.
The author upholds the importance of analysing the details, not to merely specialise in them, but to derive an outlook, one that is strongly grounded to reality, yet, offers a stunning bird eye's view. Must re-read. -
This book took a really long time to finish for a 200-odd pages book. I have mixed opinions about the book. This is a book about the ideals on which India was formed and bolstered.
To use Khilani's own words, this book is written in "the purplest of the late Victorian prose". The language used by the author is a bit impenetrable and sometimes I had to read each line thrice in order to make sense of it. And even after all this work, I felt like I have not retained or made sense of most of the material presented in the book. When we unlock the content for what it is, it even feels repetitive at times.
The book is divided into four chapters - Democracy, Temples of the Future, Cities, Who is Indian?
In my opinion the last two chapters were sheer brilliance. In fact, the last chapter, "Who is Indian?" should have been the first one in order to give the readers a good takeoff. Chapter Three on the growth, shaping and sculpting of different cities of India in the paranthetic period around British Raj departure is quite engrossing.
This book is more like a supplementary read to "Discovery of India" (which I plan to read soon), and the author is a clear worshipper of Jawahar Lal Nehru. No doubt, he also managed to ignite in me a deep sense of veneration for our first prime minister who no doubt is the architect of modern India.
Khilani quotes Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, which to me is the perfect definition of India:
India is an ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been written previously
I would soon give this book a read again because it is filled with pearls which I am sure I didn't mine hard enough in the first go. -
It took me a while to read this book. Too many interruptions. And other stuff. But only just now finished it and spurred on by a forthcoming visit to India starting in about one month's time. I'm glad I read this book as it provides an in-depth description of India from the point of view of its democracy, spirituality, urban development and and Indians themselves. It helped me to appreciate how until its independence, India wasn't a country as it was a loose collection of peoples and their cultures. I recommend this book for those who want to learn more about India.
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What is your own thought on this?
I have contested the idea of India - Why?
What I understand - India, as a concept, was borrowed from the West.
It was top-down, where elites from Congress Party had shared a vision. This was not shared by grass-root level Indian, villagers.
India is an ongoing unique political experiment.
On Unity of India:
In Tamil Nadu, when families would not allow marriages to happen between people who live next streets - Why? Caste.
When they are not ready to mix together, then, how could India as an entire political entity be united?
What in modern India, brings them together?
a) Cricket brings all Indians together
b) Movies might bring all Indians together.
Other than that, what thread runs among all Indians? And so, they would care for each other.
Most of the time, It's "us vs them." with linguistic labels, caste labels, regionalism, city labels, state labels.
How much time would it take to read this?
About 4 hours. A Train Ride, Airplane Ride, Commute would suffice for this book.
Why should I read this book?
If you are interested in history of India.
If you want a condensed narrative of India from Independence.
Why did I read this book?
I grew up in Tamil Nadu. I have met people from other parts of India. When I am with them, I am not considered Indian. I am Tamil to them.
My Impressions:
a) I am not looked equally
b) People inject stereotypes
c) People self-sort in India based on linguistic lines
d) People are strongly insular within regions
Therefore, I was curious to hear about idea of India.
What is the summary of the book?
Outline:
A-Idea of India:
A.1-Democracy
A.2- Temples of Future
A.3- Cities
A.4-Who is Indian?
The Book is written in an exploratory narrative, where the author explores the idea of India through various lenses. He does not give a conclusion.
In, Chapter One — Democracy:
Sunil, the author gives condensed history of India from Independence, focusing on Congress Party, Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Constitution of India, Regional Political Parties.
In Chapter Two — Temples of Future:
Most of this chapter deals with Political economy. From British Raj to Economic Liberalization in 1990s, he condenses and gives a summary of interest groups, political parties.
The highlight of this chapter is - Mahalanobis. He is a famous statistician. I wasn’t surprised to see his name. I recall, during last century, Bengal has produced many notable names in the field of science and humanities. Mahalanobis was recruited in Planning Commission. Currently, It is called as NITI Aayog. People like Mahalanobis are located in IISC in modern India.
Mahalanobis was a statistician by training. He was culturally and literary literate that he was recruited to write, Oxford Book of Bengali Verse. However, it was abandoned. Nehru was quick to include scientific opinion on planned economy. Since 1990s, Center started to concede power to regional parties to form economic policies.
Chapter Three — Cities:
The author starts with ports of Madras, Calcutta and Bombay, which were established during arrival of English East India Company. This was quite interesting to read. I was meandering into Real-Estate Market in New Delhi, Bombay. I discovered about the famous, "Malabar Hill." Most of the properties are in the range, 10C -30C - Would you gift me one?
He gives a quick economic history of Ahmedabad. He says, Ahmedabad had a long history of being self-generated prosperity. In my own understanding, I was relating Ahmedabad with Chennai. They both seem to be at the same level economically, population wise.
The entire chapter deals about cities —New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bombay, Chandigarh, Bangalore. Bangalore, the city where most Western educated Indians are located.
Chapter Four — Who is Indian?
Sunil, the author explores narratives by different people.
This Chapter is the meat of the book. Sadly, I didn't discover anything new to expand my understanding, knowledge. In India, there is no fixed unity that brings people together across communities, linguistic divisions.
The substance of the Indian past was so diverse, so discontinuous, and often so downright contradictory that present desire, far from an embarrassing intrusion, was actually essential to discerning a pattern and order that could show it to be a ‘history’.
This is embarrassing. Many Indians would feel shamed irked, angry. Worry not, we admit the truth, we learn and write things honestly, accurately.
In writings of Robert Caldwell, scholar-missionary in Tamil Nadu, he could not find out undisputed sources for writing History of Tirunelveli. He said, when asked to local people, they quote Hindu myths, fables, legends.
It seems when writing History in India, Politics gets into the way. People re-write to create legitimacy for their political power. It is highly difficult to come to accurate, honest picture.
For Gandhi on the idea of India, the answer was in folklore, religious tradition. He was an admirer of Villages. He often retreated into his ashram located in Village.
Gandhi says, “‘I believe,’ he wrote, ‘that a nation is happy that has no history.”
My own response to this quote: Dear Gandhi, without a past, people would be confused, lost without an identity, sorry I disagree with you, Can you forget about your family history, ancestor history?
During late 17th century and early 18th century, Orientalists like William Jones and others sought out to know about Hindoos, India. They admired Sanskrit. They learnt Hindu literature with pandits and respected old myths and stories. In other works based on my reading, the first generation of Orientalist were fond of Hindoos and India. They had become Indianized.
The tide of opinion changed around mid 19th century. James Mill, a Scottish Historian worked for English India Company. Mill is the Father of famous, John Stuart Mill, known for his writings in utilitarianism.
When the History of British India written by James Mill was published, It changed opinion from admiring Hindoos and India into looking down on Hindoos and India.
His Chapter, 'Of the Hindus' was single source for change of attitude on Hindus. Mill says, the Hindoos were "dissembling, treacherous, mendacious."
My Own response:
Mill was apparently unaware of cross-cultural differences. I have come across this in many writings from the West and East. Currently, Jackson Wu has published many works in this. Although he writes from religious tradition, his work is accurate and honest on cultural nuances.
Adding the anthropological framework of honor/shame, fear/power, guilt/law would be the right way to interpret people groups, culture and society.
In honor-shame society - Most people don't want to lose face.
They would say things, which might not be true. This it is to protect their face. It does not mean they are lying. From guilt/law perspective, this seems to be a blatant lie, but that's not how people in honor-shame operate. Sadly, Mill never learnt basics in anthropology, looked just outward appearances.
The Meat of difference -- lie in examining values of people groups.
So, his observation on Hindoos is moot.
The Hindu Nationalist disputed English Writings. This can be seen through lens of Ayodhya Ram Mandir dispute. Hindu Nationalist wrote a counter narrative to British History. Their narrative lies in works of Sarvarkar. Sarvarkar, he wrote history: a counter narrative of what the British termed the Mutiny of 1857, which Savarkar recounted as The Indian War of Independence, 1857; and, in 1923, Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?
Finally, Nehru’s answer to question of Indianness. In his work, Discovery of India, He does not try to unite them. He falls in love with India.
Nehru says, “Four hundred million separate individual men and women, each differing from the other, each living in a private universe of thought and feeling. Unity cannot be brought about by enacting a law that all shall be one. "
The bilingual, bicultural idea of an Indian identity, the idea that animated the nationalist movement, is fragmenting into three cultural segments: a small but powerful anglicized metropolitan élite; a loose, huge group of Hindi-speaking urban middle classes and lower castes; and the vernacular regional cultures. The lines of political connection now run across and among these fragments, and are producing an intricate tessellation of identities.
In Epilogue: Modernity
Many Indians discovered India through the West. Annanya, a scholar brahmin who was in Chicago became obsessed with India. Nehru, studied in England, and during his imprisonment, he wrote Discovery of India, which captured his love for India. Many others had similar path for India.
Bibliographical Essay:
This contains all the sources and references. This was exhaustive.
I would highly recommend keeping this book. This is to get sources for this topic.
The Book does not have a flow and organization. The Author could have used sub-headings to help readers follow his work.
I would recommend reading this work instead,
India - Cross-Cultural Conversations by Gurpreet Mahajan
Deus Vult,
Gottfried -
Plenty of things have already written about idea of India. Most books have placed it in the context of debate between India of Nehru as liberal, modern, free from colonial/feudal vs. India of a conservative version glorifying ancient culture. This book too not an exception. It placed the idea of India in this trajectory of ancient vs. modern. To that respect, to the best of my knowledge many books have been born of that line. Ram Guha's book particularly India After Gandhi,, Shashi Tharoor's recent books, are just to mention few. This book's merit is in the power of analysis of the events following Independence. After Independence, India has seen as book narrated that many issues that followed in the five decades of democracy was born of the contradiction in which India was born. This contradiction will certainly continue. And books like this will be written again. It is a good read.
It was useful for writing the firs chapter of my book Lovescape. -
Fresh perspective
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2.5/5 This "classic" was written in 1997. Around that time, as a child I remember asking my parents/teachers a question - "If all our leaders were so great, why is India such a poor country ?".
I didnt find "The Idea of India" in the book. It was more of a selective (in more ways than one) history and hagiography of Nehru. The "visionary" whose "visions" visibly failed. Except for the Hindu personal law reforms, for which I really respect him.
The book is divided into 4 chapters and lets take each in turn :-
a) Democracy - The author remarks that Nehru was uncompromising in adherence to constitutional principles. Has he read about the First Amendment ? The only thing that works about Indian democracy is elections with universal suffrage. We had those with Nehru and we have those 57 years after him.
b) Economics - I dont even want to comment on his failures.
c) Cities - This was more of a history of cities from the British era.
d) Who is an Indian - Savarkar's and Nehru's visions were presented. Needless to say, in the author's opinion, Nehru's vision was great but then the author himself wonders why it fell apart in the 1980s ! Well, I have said it for long that India needs a "Truth and Reconciliation" commission urgently. For long, left-liberals controlled the flow of information and history but in this information age, lies will be found out. Just as Mr.Khilnani is being found out.
Having said that, some insights were truly refreshing. And if you can ignore the fanboy stuff, it is readable. But, with lies, mistakes and biases that one must be on the lookout for. -
The Idea of India by Sunil Khinani is a book about the concept of Indian-ness studied from three lenses of sociology, history and polity.
➡️The book is about the various thoughts which dominated the Indian public sphere of deliberation from post independence, through partition and up untill the liberalisation reforms. During these tumultuous decades the world saw the rise of a liberal democratic polity which was rife with contradictions yet stable.
➡️ Khilnani talks about these very contradictions and schools of thought like Nehru's vision of a liberal order, rise of Hindu nationalism, the ebb and flows of the strength of the federal order, emboldening of the bureaucracy, economic malfunctions, rise of cosmopolitan cities etc.
➡️This is a great book to have if you'd like to know more about the concept and idea of India as envisioned by out forefathers and as implemented by their successors. The multifaceted nature of Khilnani's research makes for a very engaging and satisfying read. One also cannot help but notice that the origins of our modern fault lines can be more often than not be traced to very specific policy decisions taken earlier and that makes for great perspective. Recommend it -
Interestingly, the book never tries to answer what is the idea of india, and with good reason. It traces the journey of independent India (47-96) and lays out the background of how certain policies/events came about. It’s well researched, can be tiring as it’s language wasn’t simple. Reading this book underlines how utterly fascinating is the mere existence of a democratic undivided India, almost 75 years after democracy was suddenly thrust upon a population which had a faint understanding of it.
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I finished reading Sunil Khilnani's book "The Idea of India" yesterday, although I felt there was scope for it to be renamed by prefacing the title with the word "Defending", and adding "Nehruvian" after the definite article.
In fact, I'd suggest a renaming of the chapters to succinctly capture their intent and message:
Chapter 1:DemocracyA Portrait of Nehru as the Father of the Nation
Chapter 2:Temples of the FutureHow India's Economy Went bust
Chapter 3:CitiesErasing all of India's pasts to force Indians into Modernity
Chapter 4:Who is an Indian?India is not Hindu.
As one would expect given the author's stature, the book is incredibly articulate and "combative" (in Amartya Sen's words) albeit ideologically narrow. It is a classic work from the liberal school which believes it is protecting everything by suffocating all individual things. I quote the author here:Just at the English language placed all Indians, at least in principle, at a disadvantage of equal unfamiliarity, so, too Chandigarh could not be seized or possessed by any one group.
Throughout the book, one gets the sense that this ideological censor that the Nehruvian idea places on the citizens of this country (which the author seems to accept as essential) is what holds India together. Without it, there would be only anarchy and bloodlust, and a brutal suppression of human rights. But no evidence is provided to support such a flimsy theory.
In fact, the author contrasts India's abysmal average 3% annual growth (between 1950 and 1991) against the rapid advancement of the Asian Tigers - China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. That post-independence India's social, economic and political structures may be in disagreement with the needs of its people causing this slothfulness comes up momentarily, but the author is quick to pour cold water on any alternative ideas of India that may help aid the emancipation of the masses. "Liberal" democracy (of the colonial tradition) at all costs, with the state performing a missionary-like role of a societal reformer, is the only solution offered. Hundreds of millions of Indians have the wrong world view, a handful of experts have got it right.
The author however succeeds in painting a picture of the 1950s India in which Nehru found validation in the theories of expert economists like Mahalanobis, and tried to centrally plan India's growth - by making heavy industries and defence public sector undertakings, tightly controlling imports and exports, and regulating free-market capitalism in select sectors through a licence-raj. He also shows the limitations of the Congress in driving change at the local levels, and the futile history of land reforms in India. Later in the Indira Gandhi period, appeasement politics further drains India's money reserves, leaving it on the brink of bankruptcy in 1991. Apart from jokingly citing the disparaging phrase "Hindu rate of growth" as a cause of India's crawling development, the author refuses to put our leaders' erstwhile policies under further scrutiny. Instead, he moves on to speak about India's history and culture.
In this part, it is interesting how the author skips the Islamic period of Indian history completely while bringing out the three main "wrongs" in modern India: one from the pre-Islamic Hindu period - Caste; another created by colonialism - the great rift between urban and rural India; and the final one from post-Independence India - Hindu nationalism or Hindutva. The word "proselytization" doesn't occur once in the entire book. The author further goes on to explain how Muslims lost trust in India's ability to protect them, which in turn led to the creation of Pakistan. Can India protect Kashmir's muslims, he asks (the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits is not mentioned).
One understands the author's theory as follows: it is the duty of every citizen who identifies with a numerical majority to downplay their cultural distinctiveness and beliefs, and hold them as secondary to Nehru's (Khilnani's) Idea of India. Simultaneously, it is the right of all individuals who identify with a numerical minority of any kind to assert themselves and their cultural distinctiveness, so that the state can be perceived as pluralistic. And both these principles are embedded in the paternalistic attitude of a state that thinks it knows best.
This book could only have been written by someone of Indian (more specifically, Hindu elite) origin who is thoroughly educated in the western tradition, until those are the only filters through which their mind processes reality.
The author is therefore able to assume the position of the "real Indian", re-describing processes and events until it supports their ideal of the world. Further, the position assumed by the author enables him to think of the "other" (SCs, Dalits, Muslims, Christians) like a saviour; it is precisely this position that allows the author to rationalize all actions, including acts of violent extremism, of the "other", and condemn majority Hindus whenever any self-assertion begins, an intellectual self-flagellation.
The book in its entirety is a masterpiece of intellectual colonialism. It is limited in its understanding of democracy (anything against the author's views is called "majoritarianism"), and of liberty (as it is only a specific type of freedom that the author supports). In some ways, it is similar to what James Mill may have written about India if he was living in 1998.Mill's History of British India begins with a remarkable preface. He says that his never having been to India and knowing none of the native languages are an advantage, and a guarantee of his objectivity. But, far from being objective, his is, as he says, a 'critical, or judging history' whose judgements on Hindu customs and practices are particularly harsh. He denounces their 'rude' and 'backward' culture for its ignorance, superstition, and mistreatment of women, and leaves no doubt that he favours a thoroughgoing reform of Indian institutions and practices.
The few constructive points of the book are empirical, not ideological, in nature. India's transition from the first two decades after independence into the emergency under Indira Gandhi, and later into the caste- and regional- politics on the 80s and 90s is well brought out. The aspirations and limitations of the leaders at various points are also explained. In fact, the book has much to offer in terms of political and economic analysis, but sadly chooses to approach every aspect through a narrow ideological framework.
I understand that the book was written a few years after the Babri Masjid demolition, and the author may have intended this book as a rebuttal of certain ideas that were capturing Indian minds. But he goes to the extent of saying that "to Hindu nationalists, Ayodhya has telescoped into a single narrative otherwise unrelated events: the birth of Ram 9,00,000 years ago, the entry of the Mughals into India in 1526, and the rise of the BJP to correct wrongs of the past..." In 1998, there was no Supreme Court judgement on the Ram Mandir, but to say that there was no original temple in Ayodhya that was destroyed with so much conviction points to the fundamental dangers of the author's ideology.
I'd like to summarize the book in two lines: This is the author's limited understanding of India, that does little to help the reader understand the process or prepare a way forward into the future. It is a narrative of India that is confused, helpless and ashamed of itself. -
I picked this book after reading Khilnani's "Incarnations: A History of India in 50 Lives." I would recommend that unless you are familiar with Indian history and politics, that you read "Incarnations" first (or another book that gives extensive background), because "The Idea of India" assumes such knowledge. I would have been a bit lost without it.
I have been impressed in both books with Khilnani's lyrical writing and philosophic style. There are passages that are breathtaking in their beauty. They are meditations on messy, complex, multi-layered socio-historical phenomena. This is not an easy read, but I think far less torturous than some reviewers seem to imply.
Simply, the book focuses on the creation of the independent Indian state, the partition between India and Pakistan in 1947, and the aftermath, asking the questions of how democracy, economy, the development of cities, and the concept of what it means to be Indian, have been developed and contested during this period until the late 1990s. For me, as a non-expert, what I took away was the gradual erosion of an expansive Nehru-driven vision of the Indian state, under which multiple identities and cultures could co-exist while traditional hierarchies of caste were dismantled, to a state wherein the claims of individual interest groups (religious, ethnic, etc.) now have primacy, and thus Hindu nationalists push for homogenizing the state, and appeals have to be made to such interest groups as such. "Reservations" for marginalized groups were meant to be temporary, but instead became a way to push for more entitlement, away from a sense of equal citizenship.
Some favorite snips: "Dreams of partition and domestic purity are animated by the fantasy that all problems begin at the order; they do not. There is no ideological or cultural guarantee for a nation to hold together." (pg. 207).
"it does not require to much historical delving to demonstrate the fictive, spurious character of all nations." (203).
"It is impossible to sever these twisted bonds of mutual knowingness and ignorance: the plunder is constant, and neither side can retreat into a luxurious cultural hermeticism." (197, describing the relationship between the "West" and India.) -
A difficult one to review for me as I found this a difficult read. I had expected the book to flow easily but in fact the language turned out to be a little more political and technical for my liking. It is book you would read while studying political science.
I respect the author highly and a big fan of his work. But this book went a little slow for me. The central idea of the book is to explore ‘what is India’. This is not an easy subject to explore. India is an anomaly in this world where its diversity is immense and still is a part of the Indianess. The idea of India can be attributed to the British empire.
If understanding India’s political topography is your interest area then do give this one a read. -
Not an easy read but comprehensive. Portrays what excatly India stands for and the need for us to preserve this idea. A better and easy read would be India after Gandhi which is an expanded version of this book.
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It's hard to cover a history of India as there's so much to say. But Khilnani has done a great job highlighting the challenges and advances of modern India.
This book may be a bit hard to digest if you have no prior background to the topic of Indian History.
