I have heard some good things about a new book by Ramachandra Guha called "India after Gandhi - the history of the worlds largest democracy" ... Has anybody read it?
On 5/29/07, Divya Sampath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I still recommend the book. Highly readable. YMMV, obviously. Cheers Divya Sent from BlackBerry(r) on Airtel -----Original Message----- From: Kiran Jonnalagadda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 13:06:32 To:silklist@lists.hserus.net Subject: Re: [silk] Indian Economy's list of best Indian books. On 29-May-07, at 11:40 AM, Divya wrote: > - India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond - Shashi Tharoor Is Shashi Tharoor any good? His book's received a sound thrashing from Amazon's reviewers, who point out that Tharoor is unable to distinguish between his own life and the growth of the country. http://www.amazon.com/India-Midnight-Millennium-Shashi-Tharoor/dp/ 0060977531/ For example: > Well, Taroor got one thing right. When he says in the introduction > that this is a "personal account" rather than an objective attempt > at a modern history of India, that should have set the alarm bells > ringing. > "From Midnight to the Millennium" is a very long book about India's > first 50 years of independent existence. The chapters are laid out > by theme: caste, politics, economics, religion, future prospects > and so on. > But in fact, every chapter covers the same topic: Shashi Taroor. > Shashi Taroor the country boy made good, Shashi Taroor the > precocious child sage, Shashi Taroor the intellectual with too much > insight to relate to his boorish countrymen. When you notice that > the book starts with an account of a 19 year-old Shashi's brief > meeting as a student reporter with Indira Gandhi, you know what's > coming. A 400-page monologue from a guy who's been so flattered as > a genius all his life that he's forgotten what it feels like to > have to LISTEN. The two most irritating manifestations of Taroor's > ego are the repetition (if he's proud of an idea he shows it off > again and again, re-wording it each time) and the occasional clever- > clever turns of phrase that sometimes even upstage little old India. > "From Midnight to the Millennium" is twice too long. > But don't get me wrong. There's interesting material on economic > liberalisation, the Hindutva movement and political stagnation in > this book. You just have to read a lot of Shashi Taroor to find it. > Economics: > - India Unbound - Gurucharan Das With this, too, the reader is suggested similar caution.
