A remarkable book by one of India’s foremost writers, covering wide range of subjects of contemporary relevance, including politics and culture, social trends, and profiles! ‘I am a person of moderate views’, writes Ramachandra Guha, ‘these sometimes expressed in extreme fashion’. In this wide-ranging and wonderfully readable collection of essays, Guha defends the liberal centre against the dogmas of left and right, and does so with style, depth, and polemical verve. Patriots and Partisans begins with a brilliant overview of the major threats to the Indian Republic. Other essays turn a critical eye on Hindutva, the Communist left, and the dynasty-obsessed Congress party. Guha then explores the contemporary relevance of Gandhi’s religious pluralism, and analyzes the fall in Jawaharlal Nehru’s reputation after his death.
The essays in Part 11 of this book focus on writers and scholars. Guha explains why bilingual intellectuals, once so dominant in India, are now thin on the ground. He presents sensitive portraits of a magazine editor, a bookshop owner, a great publishing house and a famous historical archive. Whether writing about politics or culture, whether profiling individuals or analyzing social trends, Ramachandra Guha displays a masterly touch, confirming his standing as India’s most admired historian and public intellectual.
About The Author:
Born and raised in Dehradun, Ramachandra Guha studied at the Delhi School of Economics and at the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, where he wrote a doctoral dissertation on the Chipko movement. He has pioneered three distinct fields of historical inquiry: environmental history (as in The Unquiet Woods, 1989), the social history of sport (A Corner of a Foreign Field, 2002), and contemporary history (India after Gandhi, 2007). His other books include Savaging the Civilized: Verrier Elwin, His Tribals, and India (1999), soon to appear in a new edition from Penguin.
He is now working on a major biography of Mahatma Gandhi, the first volume of which will be published by Penguin towards the end of 2013. Guha’s awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the U. K. Cricket Society Prize, the Malcolm Adiseshaiah Prize for Excellence in Social Science, the Sahitya Akademi Award, and the Padma Bhushan. His books and essays have been translated into more than twenty languages.
