yet another BOOK REVIEW

1. yet anotherBOOK REVIEW Group 6

2. the group Ramesh Kumar Yadav (Coordinator) – B09 TamannaSinha– D10 AnjuRavikumar– B26 Madhura Roy – C07 Vamsidhar T.V. – C25 Vanjulavalli Sridhar – D30 Tulsi Das – C33 Shankar LalVerma– D13 AmreshBahadur Pal – D34 Sanjay Tiwari– B11

3. Penguin books 2007 India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond

4. The Author, Overview, Purpose introduction

5. ShashiTharoor • Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram • Minister of State at the MHRD • United Nations: 1978 – 2007 • Author and columnist

6. Overview • Phases of modern Indian history: 1947 to 2007 • Political, economic and social transformation

7. Purpose • Highly personalized examination of contemporary India • Descriptive analysis of WHAT has made India WHAT it is today • Holistic journey of the Indian society in this time period

8. Political, Economic & Societal transformations summary

9. Politicschanges • Dynastic - democratic rule to decentralization & devolution of powers • Nightmares of nascent decolonized country still haunt the matured democracy • Indira Gandhi’s emergency policy ? • Criticizes silent spectatorship of intellectuals • Indian political democracy : performance vs power

10. “In January 1980, Mrs.Gandhi, having split the Congress once more and unembarrassedly renamed her faction after herself (as Congress-Indira, or “Congress-I), was prime minister of India again.” “Mrs.Gandhi throughout preferred to rule rather than reinstitutionalize, to control rather than reorient, to subvert rather than balance: she mastered tactics and ignored strategy, ruling the country as its democratically head but doing nothing to help strength then its democracy. The Emergency merely marked the logical culmination of this approach.”

11. Economic changes • Corruption ridden license raj to phase of LPG • Economic policies pre 1991 • Hindu rate growth • Political democracy needs economic content • LPG: Boon or Bane ? • Coca colonization/ McDonaldization

12. “In 1985 he(Rajiv Gandhi) introduced a “new economic policy”, which (rather like the Holy Roman Empire) was neither new nor economic nor a policy; it amounted to little more than relaxation of the old license-permit-quota regulatory system without actually abolishing it.” “Despite this, overall growth was relatively slow, and not generally better than in the pre-liberalization 1980s.”

13. Societal changes • Pluralistic & diverse society that unites in times of need • Minority status of EVERY community

14. “Bombs alone cannot destroy India, because Indians will pick up their way through the rubble and carry on as they have done through out history.” “..to speak of an Indian identity is really to subsume a number of identities that vary depending upon class, caste, region and language…the singular thing about India is that you can only speak of it in the plural.”

15. contd.. • Social transformation in India; Kerala in particular • NRIs: Identity crisis & consequences Never Relinquished India OR Not really Indian ?

16. Strengths and weaknesses evaluation

17. Strengths • Good language • Variety of writing styles • Narrative • Assertive • Inquisitive • Descriptive • Thought provoking • Interesting anecdotes

18. Weakness • Political analysis > people’s thoughts • Sarcasm • Repetitions • Jargon

19. Summary, recommendations conclusion

20. A final note about INDIA • Good one-liners & remarks • Widespread account of events • Sequence of chapters needs attention • Need for updation

21. The Aye’s and Nay’s • Recommended for: • people with general interest in political & social affairs • Not for: • people accustomed to this genre • information gatherers

22. THANK YOU !