However, at the age of 35, she gave up a lucrative job overseas to enter public life in India by joining the Congress. After reviewing his political career over the past decade, I wrote: ‘The nicest thing one can say about Mr Rahul Gandhi is that he is [...], I visit Delhi half a dozen times a year. . So did very many unlettered peasants, who were attracted as much to the while turning the Indian National Congress into a mass-based political party by focusing on the peasantry. If India was to be fit for self-rule, he went on, then the Hindus in particular had to rid themselves of the execresence of Left wing extremism, "the biggest internal threat", tops Guha's list of 10 hurdles that India has to confront. great leader as to the organization he represented. Rather than lobby for a Rajya Sabha seat - the preferred pathway for well-educated professionals who join politics - she first fought, and won, an Assembly seat, before fighting, and winning, a Lok Sabha seat. I was, as it were, whistling in the dark, and Sonia Gandhi chose her son to front the 2014 campaign, to disastrous effect. Video. Biography presents word-portraits of a range of fascinating or forgotten individuals in India and beyond. profess - all they stand for is personal advancement. On 13th December 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly of India. According to Ramachandra Guha in our March 2015 cover story, the current government could have patronised scholars with research papers or books to their name, but that alternative was not available, because while India is currently governed by a right-wing party, there are very few right-wing intellectuals. Found insideThrough this collection of essays, Ajay Gudavarthy focuses exclusively on Indian democracy after Narendra Modi took over as the prime minister in 2014. "For the next 15 or 20 years, I think, the BJP will be the hegemonic, determining force in Indian politics," Guha said in the interview. and his eccentric ideas on sex and marriage. Elst, Koenraad (2012). Naturally, all my conversations, with friends and strangers alike, were about their party preferences in the [...], In the year 1970, Rajni Kothari published a major book with the straightforward title, Politics in India. His thesis was on the social impact of forestry laws, and he has also written several books on ecology. Like them, he left the party because he felt that his personal growth prospects were better in the BJP. On graduating, she joined JP Morgan Chase, where she worked for a decade in New York and London. Read more about Project Nitish as UPA face to save party, Ramachandra Guha advises Congress on Business Standard. The case of the Congress is different. The most shocking result, however, was in Kerala - where, despite Rahul Gandhi himself being an MP from the state, for the first time in half-a-century, power did not alternate between the Communists and the Congress. naturally in the vanguard - but the Congress had a reach and presence in north and south India as well. Sandeep Balakrishna, Gandhi was a Heterodox Hindu: Ramachandra Guha; Nevertheless, these quarrels aside, we have to admit that Prof. Ramachadra Guha is an Indian patriot and, in a real sense, a Hindu. In a blunt and outspoken interview that will shake the Congress party whilst surprising the BJP, well-known historian and political commentator Ramachandra Guha has says "the . I'll return to this trio later, but let me first draw attention to two women politicians whose contrasting careers are equally illustrative of the death wish that the Indian National Congress is apparently possessed with. It has a lineage and record of achievement comparable to that of the Labour Party in Great Britain, the Social Democratic Party in Germany and the Democratic The continuing decline of the Congress under the Nehru-Gandhis should matter to every Indian who stands against the hateful and divisive politics of Hindutva, and who seeks a restoration of the social, economic and institutional fabric of the Republic, which have been so ravaged by the Modi regime. 'More generally, we can say that the leaders of the BJP as a political party (who were in a governing coalition with twenty-three partners) for reasons . On their part, the smaller, regional and sectarian parties have no ideology to formations, I chose to focus my anger on the Congressman instead. She could have lived on in a great Western city, rising up the corporate ladder. integrity. On 15th August 1947, after a nationalist struggle that lasted three decades, colonial India divided and became two nations - modern India and Pakistan. implemented political systems. In this excerpt from that article . In a subsequent column, I shall Modern India is the world's largest democracy, a sprawling, polyglot nation containing one-sixth of all humankind. Here, Guha presents an anthology of Indian social and political thought. Dec 26, 2019 Ramachandra Guha This year, as the world marked the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth, Indian voters repudiated his legacy by re-electing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his paean to the violence marred independent India, he presents the political complexities As the argument grew more heated, Founded on activism Ramachandra Guha | Dec 13, 2005, 00:00 IST. Why had I been less harsh on the other fellows? (Afterwards, one prominent West Bengal Congressman commented that elections are not won on Twitter.) Politics and Current Affairs reproduces writings on secularism, majoritarianism, diversity, and other contentious themes in contemporary India. The encouragement of political debate in the vernacular allowed the Congress to expand its base beyond the middle classes in the Presidency cities. Its best leaders had a universalist vision. Political Parties As Family Firms. This proclaimed that the soon-to-be-free nation would be an 'Independent Sovereign Republic'. Ramachandra Guha's "India after Gandhi" is a masterpiece of modern history, writes John West. This tenth anniversary edition, published to coincide with seventy years of India’s independence, is revised and expanded to bring the narrative up to the present. As speculation grows about a possible elevation for the MP from Amethi, in the form of a place in the Union cabinet . Highlighting diverse thinker-politicians rather than billionaire businessmen, Makers of Modern Asia presents eleven leaders who theorized and organized anticolonial movements, strategized and directed military campaigns, and designed and ... The shortage became strikingly apparent last August, when Y Sudershan Rao was appointed the chairman of the Indian Council of Historical . Ramachandra Guha: All entities - whether they are individuals, institutions, political parties, businesses, or cricket teams - rise and fall. A short history of the Chipko movement in India, one of the world's most famous examples of a grassroots environmental protest movement. This is a revised and expanded edition of a widely-reviewed book originally published in 1990. Steven I. Wilkinson explores how India has succeeded in keeping the military out of politics, when so many other countries have failed. I continued: 'Realists or cynics will say the measure I propose is too radical for Ms [Sonia] Gandhi to contemplate. cities. As the sister of the incumbent Congress President and with both her parents having been Congress Presidents too, there was no question - the Congress being what it is - of Priyanka Gandhi ever having to prove herself as an ordinary party worker before being assigned wider responsibilities. He's been particularly interested in Spratt, who was sent to India by the British Communist Party but who ended up staying on in India, abandoning communism and working with C . Hence the It is his lack of political focus and political judgment, his inability to speak Hindi fluently after three terms as an MP from UP, and the debilitating baggage he carries as a fifth-generation dynast, that are the problem. Some months ago, I found myself in a panel discussion with three politicians - a Congress member of parliament, a Bharatiya Janata Party MP and the president of one Whatever the theory, however, in practice Gandhi did a great deal for women's emancipation. India After Gandhi Revised and Updated Edition: The History of the World's Largest Democracy - Kindle edition by Guha, Ramachandra. This was the party that led the movement for freedom, the party that united India and brought people of different religions and Ramachandra Guha: Absolutely, Narendra Modi is now a force of nature, a considerable figure, a man of enormous energy and ambition, and a popular leader across large parts of India. 8 threats to freedom of expression in India: Ramachandra Guha [Book extract] No creative person should be so foolish or mistaken as to mortgage his or her conscience to a political party. In the recent Assembly elections in West Bengal, Moitra assiduously campaigned in many constituencies, playing her part in the TMC's resounding victory. Those who wish for a change of government in 2024 must surely recognize that the Congress is at present by far the weakest link in the Opposition. speak of its contributions to the nation in the decades following the British withdrawal from the subcontinent. Guha, quoting British writer Phillip Spratt from 1939, wrote: "Gujarat, though economically advanced, is culturally a backward province… . And even if popular among sections of the Anglophone Twitterati, Rahul is a proven failure at the hustings, and commands little respect among the leaders of those regional parties whose support shall be vital to the success of any Federal or United Front. Nothing would suit the ruling party better than if, for the third time in a row, Rahul Gandhi is offered as the presumed alternative to Narendra Modi. Incentives for wildlife-friendly land use? Believers in fresh air. Written by Ramachandra Guha | Updated: June 24, 2015 1:05:37 pm Can India undergo another Emergency? Found insideMan's history is being shaped according to the difficulties it encounters. . The BJP vs Congress debate: Ramachandra Guha speaks. and atheists - as its defence of Varun Gandhi's hate speech has recently demonstrated. Parsis and Sikhs within its ambit. It had many imitators - Troubling tales: Ramachandra Guha and selective outrage. I hold no brief for either politician, and view with dismay their overnight conversion to Hindutva, but the fact remains that the Congress lost Assam to the BJP in good part because they could not keep Sarma, and lost MP to the BJP largely because they could not keep Scindia. That, says Ramachandra Guha, explains why he is particularly angry with it. I noted here that the 'country's greatest political party is in steady decline', and that this was 'connected to the declining charisma of its first family'. It may have been because The Essays Pertain To People And Places And Literature And Life-Includes Essays On Gandhi, Nehru, Rajaji, B.P. Koirala And Many Others. — Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) June 11, 2020 Guha insists he had no political axe to grind in his tweet and adds he often posts unusual quotes that he comes across. The former had resulted in pillage Ramachandra Guha's positive reading of the mid-1950s legislation that made up the Hindu Code is a simple, feel-good, nationalist telling that is trite, conventional and utterly misleading. Despite what it has done to itself in recent years, history should still remember the Indian National Congress as one of the great political parties of the modern world. The commentary on the departure of Jitin Prasada from the Congress has tended to club him with two previous defectors, Himanta Biswa . "Because they are so many and so various, the people of India are also divided", according to Guha. Yet it may be the only way to rescue India's oldest party from irrelevance ....'. 4. For many years focused on her family and children, it was only in March 2019 that Priyanka formally joined the Congress, in the elevated post of General Secretary. The Telangana prophecy: Will more states mean more conflict. For the other parties in the debate had no history to honour, no ideals to live up to or to betray. In A Short History of Congress Chamchagiri, it is this word that Ramachandra Guha focuses on when he talks about Congress while mentioning instances he witnessed first-hand, charting the transition of the Indian National Congress: From a ... by. Even when they did not mimic its name or its methods, anti-colonial nationalists remained in thrall to it (thus a great admirer of Gandhi and company was the . With two years to go before the next general election, I wrote that 'the prospects for the Congress appear dismal. of rival leaders like B R Ambedkar and M A Jinnah. Denied a shot at the Chief Ministership of Assam, the ambitious Sarma moved over to a party he had attacked all his life, eventually being rewarded with the post he had so desperately wanted. Nehru's political vision. I was talking to a friend from tamil nadu couple of years back and he said that the elders in his village still believe MGR is alive and is running the party. Whether writing about politics or culture, whether profiling individuals or analyzing a social trend, Ramachandra Guha displays a masterly touch, confirming his standing as India's . To his credit, Rahul Gandhi chose to resign, but the effect of that honourable decision was immediately nullified by his mother taking over as 'acting' President, a position she retains 22 months later, passively watching as her party loses a series of elections and leaders to other parties too. Want to Read. With their sophisticated intellectual cultures, Bengal and Maharashtra were  •  Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy is a vast work, about 750 pages of detailed narrative on the political, economic, and cultural history of India from 1947 to roughly 2006. This person could then lead the Congress into the general election, sending a message 'that competence is valued above genes or loyalty.' It was also Gandhi who did the most to bring women into public life and the nationalist movement. #NewsofIndia.Historian Ramachandra Guha said that the party will survive only after the Gandhi family leaves the Congress. Success is not pre-ordained or permanent for anyone. Its own greatest enemy India is an "unnatural nation", according to Guha. Perhaps sensing that the party was going nowhere, she moved to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), where she has since done extremely well, her rise enabled by her own intelligence, commitment, and oratory. 07/08/2017. This modern-day read highlights how the country is still under the influence of bygone ideologies and where this is likely to take the country. Far more than other Congress leaders, he alerted the nationalists to the deep To know how and why the Congress finds itself in the sorry state it is, one need only contrast Mahua Moitra's political journey with that of Priyanka Gandhi's. Feminists have taken issue with his ambivalence about women's work Seventy years on, India is home to over one billion people, the largest, most vibrant democracy in the world. Ramachandra Guha On C.Rajagopalachari - Part 1. On the 10 year anniversary of his infamous book "India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy", Guha stated that the 'terminal decline' of the Congress party can only . Ramachandra "Ram" Guha (born 29 April 1958) is an Indian historian, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history, and the field of economics. If the Congress sought to represent India, he argued, then it had to work overtime to incorporate Muslims, Christians, Why Ramachandra Guha And Other Usual Suspects Are Coveted By Even Private Liberal Varsities by R Jagannathan - Jul 31, 2020 09:51 AM Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Ramachandra Guha. The main purpose of this rather pointed intervention in the Indian debate over corruption and the role of the so called civil society activism spawned by the like of Dr Kiran Bedi . The Telegraph (India) — Like all other Indians, I grew up thinking of August 15 as the day when, back in 1947, the first government of independent India was sworn into office. PTI. Ramachandra Guha / June 22, 2012. Want to Read. "The ten political and social challenges that India has to deal with it are . Ramachandra Guha. Migrant women find moving up is still hard, For Kerala's small-scale fishers, a stark choice, Higher funding alone doesn't improve services, Churning our minds on India’s development, An 'institutions' model of development is needed. This book, written shortly after Nehru’s death, is full of invaluable first hand observations about the man and his politics. focused leaders - among them those great Bengalis, Surendranath Banerjee and Bipin Chandra Pal. The Gutting Of Indian Democracy By Modi-Shah - by Ramachandra Guha. " Told in prose that is at once intimate and panoramic, and threaded through with Sanskrit as central metaphor and chorus, this is a hugely ambitious and important book, alive to all the commotion of the last forty years but never losing ... The chances are slim, in part because the prime minister and law minister of the Janata government undid the Emergency-era amendments to the Constitution, and in part because it is far harder now to suppress the media — especially social media. In The Past and Future of the Indian Left, Ramachandra Guha examines the Marxist ideology and talks about what it means for India by deeming it as a religious doctrine having scriptures and deities, going into the details of how the ... In an interview with Charmy Harikrishnan in Delhi, he talks about how the BJP will be the determining force in Indian politics and what that means for the country. He contended that people, especially younger Indians find it unacceptable that a fifth-generation dynast was appointed as President of India's oldest political party only because whose son . popularity original publication year title average rating number of pages. In 2008 Foreign Policy magazine, with the British political monthly Prospect, ranked Ramachandra Guha at 44 th place amongst those whom they considered to be the top 100 public intellectuals of the world — the highest ranking Indian apart from Amartya Sen (who was ranked 16 th).This is one marker of the esteem with which Guha, who has described himself as a sociologist‐turned‐historian . The Other Liberal Light . In Verdicts on Nehru: The Rise and Fall of a Reputation, Ramachandra Guha explains these instances and talks about how one can still find it difficult to be a Nehru supporter in current times. The millenia-old texts and interpretations of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Muslim, agnostic, and atheistic Indian thought demonstrate, Sen reminds us, ancient and well-respected rules for conducting debates and disputations, and for appreciating ... The departure of Himanta Biswa Sarma and Jyotiraditya Scindia (less so Jitin Prasada) is another manifestation of the political incompetence of the Gandhi family. That would be a juxtaposition that all those who oppose the BJP should seek to avoid. Based on research, interviews and the author's own experiences, this book is invaluable for its insight into the inner workings of politics, political parties and what really makes for a winning election campaign. Found inside – Page 227All other errors, however, were the deliberate handiwork of the political party concerned'. Ramchandra Guha, 'Truths about the Tricolour', The Hindu. 01 March 2015. . India lacks thinking politicians: Ramachandra Guha; India lacks thinking politicians: Ramachandra Guha "India may be unique in having a long tradition of original political and reflective thinking that has been both continuous and continuously of high quality and touched every aspect of the human condition," Ramachandra Guha said. and the conversion of political parties into family firms. Withal, despite its failures and its inconsistencies, the Congress that brought India freedom was a party of distinction and achievement. When confronted with the Congress of today, an Indian who knows some history cannot but be struck by the chasm between the past and the present. Success is not pre-ordained or permanent for anyone. I believed him that it is a possibility i. I was introduced to him through his cricket writings, and gradually was also exposed to his other writings (eg. 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