India After Gandhi

‘Finally, here is a history of democratic India that is every bit as sweeping as the country itself . . .

[A] magisterial work’ Financial Times ‘Guha has given democratic India the rich, well-paced history it deserves’ Washington Post ‘An insightful, spirited and elegantly crafted account of India since 1947’ Times Literary Supplement ‘A magnificently told history of the world’s largest democracy’ India Today Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the years since the publication of the book’s tenth anniversary edition, India has witnessed, among other things, demonetization and a devastating pandemic; Narendra Modi’s re-election as Prime Minister; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; the abrogation of Kashmir’s autonomous status; large-scale citizens’ protests and unprecedented state crackdown on dissent.

This third edition, revised and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with the seventy-fifth anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.