Makers of Modern India

by Ramachandra Guha (Editor)

Overview

Modern India is the world's largest democracy, a sprawling, polyglot nation containing one-sixth of all humankind. The existence of such a complex and distinctive democratic regime qualifies as one of the world's bona fide political miracles. Furthermore, India's leading political thinkers have often served as its most influential political actors—think of Gandhi, whose collected works run to more than ninety volumes, or Ambedkar, or Nehru, who recorded their most eloquent theoretical reflections at the same time as they strove to set the delicate machinery of Indian democracy on a coherent and just path.

Out of the speeches and writings of these thinker-activists, Ramachandra Guha has built the first major anthology of Indian social and political thought. Makers of Modern India collects the work of nineteen of India's foremost generators of political sentiment, from those whose names command instant global recognition to pioneering subaltern and feminist thinkers whose works have until now remained obscure and inaccessible. Ranging across manifold languages and cultures, and addressing every crucial theme of modern Indian history—race, religion, language, caste, gender, colonialism, nationalism, economic development, violence, and nonviolence—Makers of Modern India provides an invaluable roadmap to Indian political debate.

An extensive introduction, biographical sketches of each figure, and guides to further reading make this work a rich resource for anyone interested in India and the ways its leading political minds have grappled with the problems that have increasingly come to define the modern world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674725966
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/14/2013
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Ramachandra Guha is a leading historian of modern India, living in Bangalore. His books include Gandhi Before India and India After Gandhi.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Thinking through India 1

Part 1 The Opening of the Indian Mind

Introduction to Part One 23

1 The First Liberal: Rammohan Roy 26

Relations between Men and Women 30

The Freedom of the Press 33

The Need for Modern Education 40

Part 2 Reformers and Radicals

Introduction to Part Two 47

2 The Muslim Modernist: Syed Ahmad Khan 53

Educating the Muslims 56

A Modern Curriculum 61

The Two Eyes of India 65

Politics and Discord 66

3 The Agrarian Radical: Jotirao Phule 71

Educating the Masses 74

The Condition of the Peasantry 80

4 The Liberal Reformer: G. K. Gokhale 92

Elevating the Depressed Classes 94

On Hindu-Muslim Co-operation 98

A Call to Service 103

5 The Militant Nationalist: Bal Gangadhar Tilak 107

The Need for a National Hero 110

The Necessity for a Militant Nationalism 112

6 The Subaltern Feminist: Tarabai Shinde 119

A Comparison of Men and Women 121

Part 3 Nurturing a Nation

Introduction to Part Three 131

7 The Multiple Agendas of M. K. Gandhi 136

The Power of Non-violence 139

'Non-co-operation' with the British Raj 144

The Abolition of Untouchability 148

Hindu-Muslim Unity and Inter-faith Dialogue 157

The Position of Women 165

8 The Rooted Cosmopolitan: Rabindranath Tagore 170

India and the West 172

The Excesses of Nationalism 177

The Problem with Non-co-operation 183

9 The Annihilator of Caste: B. R. Ambedkar 187

The Revolution against Caste 190

How to Annihilate Caste 195

Why the Untouchables Distrust Gandhi 201

10 The Muslim Separatist: Muhammad Ali Jinnah 209

The Steps towards a Muslim Nation 212

11 The Radical Reformer: E. V. Ramaswami 222

The Fraud of Religion 224

On the Rights of Widows 233

The Case for Contraception 237

The Constraints of Marriage 238

12 The Socialist Feminist: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay 241

The Women's Movement in Perspective 243

A Socialist View of the Communal Question 251

13 The Renewed Agendas of M. K. Gandhi 257

Re-visiting Nationalism 258

Re-visiting Caste 260

Re-visiting Hindu-Muslim Co-operation 265

Village Renewal and Political Decentralisation 276

Part 4 Debating Democracy

Introduction to Part Four 283

14 The Wise Democrat: B. R. Ambedkar 287

The Indian Constitution Defended and Interpreted 288

15 The Multiple Agendas of Jawaharlal Nehru 299

The Treatment of Minorities 301

On Planning and Economic Policy 308

Asia Redux 312

India in the World 318

The Conflict with China 324

The Rights of Women 331

16 The Hindu Supremacist: M. S. Golwalkar 338

The Hindu Nation and Its Enemies 341

The Muslim Threat 344

Not Socialism but Hindurashtra 346

17 The Indigenous Socialist: Rammanohar Lohia 351

Caste and Class 353

Banish English 363

18 The Grassroots Socialist: Jayaprakash Narayan 368

A Plea for Political Decentralisation 371

The Tragedy of Tibet 378

A Fair Deal for Kashmir 386

The Question of Nagaland 389

19 The Gandhian Liberal: C. Rajagopalachari 394

Our Democracy 397

Wanted: Independent Thinking 401

The Case for the Swatantra Party 405

Reforming the System of Elections in India 409

Freeing the Economy 413

Assisting the Backward 416

Why We Need English 418

The India We Want 422

20 The Defender of the Tribals: Verrier Elwin 425

Freedom for the Tribals 427

Neither Isolation nor Assimilation 434

Part 5 A Tradition Re-Affirmed

Introduction to Part Five 441

21 The Last Modernist: Hamid Dalwai 444

The Burden of History 446

The Challenge of Secularism 450

For a United Front of Liberals 453

Epilogue: India in the World 457

Guide to Further Reading 477

Acknowledgements 489

Index 491

What People are Saying About This

Sunil Khilnani

Guha has produced a pioneering anthology that provides an indispensable introduction to the rich diversity of Indian political argument and a testament to the intellectual ferment out of which India emerged. While interest in the contours of India's democracy grows, there is little high-quality material available on the political traditions that have constituted it. Makers of Modern India admirably fills this gap and goes further, offering a map of modern Indian political debate.

— Sunil Khilnani, Johns Hopkins University

Editorial Reviews

Makers of Modern India will be a valuable resource for all who seek to understand modern India.

Choice - R. N. Sharma

A treasure for every thinking Indian and for the world which is increasingly curious about this country and its people.

The Tribune

One of the aims of the book, as Guha points out, is to ‘make the Indian experience more central to global debates.’ Another is to acquaint Indians with the rich political tradition of their comparative recent past. Makers of Modern India does both of these very well.

Times of India

A highly readable volume… [A] perfect bedside book.

The Telegraph

In Makers of Modern India, the first major anthology of Indian social and political thought, Ramachandra Guha, an established historian, brings together writings and speeches from 19 key political figures of the 19th and 20th centuries to highlight the range and diversity of ideas about the forming nation… Makers of Modern India begins with an extensive introduction and includes biographical sketches of each figure and guides for further reading. Guha is a learned historian whose writing and subject matter do not fail to captivate.

Indian American - Visi Tilak

[A] stimulating work… Incisive and informative.

The New Indian Express

India has been fortunate in the abundance of thinkers who wrote extensively, and often evocatively, on the fundamental issues raised by the task of forging a modern nation from a severely fragmented and backward colony. Guha presents well-chosen excerpts, expertly contextualized by insightful introductions, from the writings and speeches of nineteen such thinker-activists who reflected, often in conflict with each other, on the critical dilemmas of their time: colonialism, religion, language, caste and Untouchability, the status of women, grass-roots governance, electoral systems, regional discord and India’s engagement with the world… Makers of Modern India is not meant to be closed-ended, but it effectively brings together the great arguers, fiercely independent in thought and action, from whose disputatious but educated debate emerged the political traditions and compromises that underpin India’s complex reality.

Times Literary Supplement - Navtej Sarna

Readers in the west will find some familiar personalities here, including Gandhi himself, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s secular and liberal-minded first prime minister, and Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet and Nobel laureate. But they will also encounter much less well-known and equally distinguished figures, such as BR Ambedkar, the articulate spokesman of formerly untouchable Hindus, or Dalits, and the main architect of India’s extraordinary constitution that in 1949 bestowed equal rights upon all its citizens. As an anthology of Indian political debates, Makers of Modern India makes for instructive reading.

Financial Times - Pankaj Mishra

[A]n extremely readable and accessible collection.

India Today

Guha has produced a pioneering anthology that provides an indispensable introduction to the rich diversity of Indian political argument and a testament to the intellectual ferment out of which India emerged. While interest in the contours of India’s democracy grows, there is little high-quality material available on the political traditions that have constituted it. Makers of Modern India admirably fills this gap and goes further, offering a map of modern Indian political debate.

Sunil Khilnani

Guha’s prose is compelling. He has collected the writings and speeches of a range of influential personalities in the struggle to free India from its colonial yoke and set it on a new path as a modern nation. His introductory remarks are short, informative and enlightening without being intrusive or overwhelming. The result is a skillfully edited collection that will serve as an erudite introduction to the foundations of modern India.

The Australian - Ramesh Thakur

One of the aims of the book, as Guha points out, is to ‘make the Indian experience more central to global debates.’ Another is to acquaint Indians with the rich political tradition of their comparative recent past. Makers of Modern India does both of these very well.

The Times of India

"The striking thing about modern India is that the men and women who made its history also wrote most authoritatively about it." So begins one of the first major anthologies of Indian political writing, impressively annotated by Guha (India After Gandhi). The book recovers and elucidates obscure political writings that "had a defining impact on the formation of the Indian Republic" and demonstrate the diversity of India. A variety of rhetorical styles adds to the complexity and liveliness of the collection: Syed Ahmad Kahn's blunt political rhetoric on Muslim separatism abuts Rammohan Roy's elegant articulations on gender inequality. Though providing a wide gamut of political, religious, and regional writings, the collection is marred by a paucity of female voices—only two women are included. An indulgent focus on Gandhi is punctuated by welcome excerpts by other gifted writers: Jayaprakash Narayan and his incisive critique of Indian political apathy toward Tibet in the earlier stages of Chinese annexation, and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay's excerpt on communalism and the class underpinnings of partition. Despite the vastness of the material and the limitations imposed by its structure (organized by individual not by theme or chronology), the book is an engaging and illuminating read, and brings to the fore both the diversity of India and the relevance of its modern political origins. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

In Makers of Modern India, the first major anthology of Indian social and political thought, Ramachandra Guha, an established historian, brings together writings and speeches from 19 key political figures of the 19th and 20th centuries to highlight the range and diversity of ideas about the forming nation...Makers of Modern India begins with an extensive introduction and includes biographical sketches of each figure and guides for further reading. Guha is a learned historian whose writing and subject matter do not fail to captivate.
— Visi Tilak

Indian American

Makers of Modern India will be a valuable resource for all who seek to understand modern India.
— R. N. Sharma

Choice

India has been fortunate in the abundance of thinkers who wrote extensively, and often evocatively, on the fundamental issues raised by the task of forging a modern nation from a severely fragmented and backward colony. Guha presents well-chosen excerpts, expertly contextualized by insightful introductions, from the writings and speeches of nineteen such thinker-activists who reflected, often in conflict with each other, on the critical dilemmas of their time: colonialism, religion, language, caste and Untouchability, the status of women, grass-roots governance, electoral systems, regional discord and India's engagement with the world...Makers of Modern India is not meant to be closed-ended, but it effectively brings together the great arguers, fiercely independent in thought and action, from whose disputatious but educated debate emerged the political traditions and compromises that underpin India's complex reality.
— Navtej Sarna

Times Literary Supplement

Guha's prose is compelling. He has collected the writings and speeches of a range of influential personalities in the struggle to free India from its colonial yoke and set it on a new path as a modern nation. His introductory remarks are short, informative and enlightening without being intrusive or overwhelming. The result is a skillfully edited collection that will serve as an erudite introduction to the foundations of modern India.
— Ramesh Thakur

The Australian

Readers in the west will find some familiar personalities here, including Gandhi himself, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's secular and liberal-minded first prime minister, and Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet and Nobel laureate. But they will also encounter much less well-known and equally distinguished figures, such as BR Ambedkar, the articulate spokesman of formerly untouchable Hindus, or Dalits, and the main architect of India's extraordinary constitution that in 1949 bestowed equal rights upon all its citizens. As an anthology of Indian political debates, Makers of Modern India makes for instructive reading.
— Pankaj Mishra

Financial Times

Historian Guha (India After Gandhi) writes in his prolog that "the men and women who made [India's] history also write most authoritatively about it." This anthology contains excerpts from writings and speeches spanning nearly two centuries by 19 reformers, radicals, political thinkers, activists, and feminists. The book's chronologically arranged reprinted pieces are divided into five groupings starting with reformer Rammohan Roy, who advocated greater rights for women and a free press in 1818, and extending to selections from Muslim Politics in India (1968) by Hamid Dalwai, an obscure Muslim from the state of Maharashtra. In between are selections ranging from the writings of Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Rabindranath Tagore to internationally lesser-known politicians such as Ram Manohar Lohia, feminists such as Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Tarabai Shinde, and tribal anthropologist and advocate Verrier Elwin. All selections were either originally written in English or previously translated into English. The editor's introductory notes are a bonus. VERDICT This is recommended to relevant research collections and readers studying South Asia's history.—Ravi Shenoy, Naperville P.L., IL

Library Journal