
Ramachandra Guha's magisterial 900-page chronicle reveals India's turbulent democratic journey since independence. Praised by the Washington Post as "rich and well-paced," it boldly examines how the world's largest democracy faces its fourth major crisis under Modi's leadership.
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When British rule ended in 1947, few believed India could survive as a unified nation. Western observers pointed to its extraordinary diversity-hundreds of princely states, dozens of languages, multiple religions, and a rigid caste system-as proof that fragmentation was inevitable. Sir John Strachey, a retired British official, had confidently declared that "India" was merely a convenient label for "a great region including a multitude of different countries." The trauma of Partition had left deep wounds, with communal violence claiming hundreds of thousands of lives as Hindus and Muslims fled across hastily drawn borders. Yet against these overwhelming odds, India embarked on what Jawaharlal Nehru called its "tryst with destiny." While Gandhi provided moral leadership, Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel tackled the practical challenges of governance. The fundamental story of modern India became one of ongoing social conflicts along four principal axes: caste (defining marriage and association for many Indians); language (with 22 official languages); religion (a Hindu majority alongside the world's second-largest Muslim population); and class (encompassing both fabulously wealthy entrepreneurs and hundreds of millions below the poverty line). What Winston Churchill had dismissed as a land destined for "barbarism and privation" would instead become what The Economist called "a bridge of effervescent liberty" in Asia - a democratic experiment that continues to defy conventional wisdom about what holds nations together.