The Idea of India is a ‘non fiction’ book written by Prof. Sunil Khilnani. The book touches the various aspects of Indian History, polity and society with a special focus on the state of politics and democracy in post independence India. The book is divided into 4 chapters with each particular chapter discussing a particular facet of India’s history, polity or the state of economy.
The book is very lucid and intellectually stimulating to read. The writer uses many catchy lines to put up his points which puts an imprint of the readers’ minds. For example: while discussing about the Brahmanical order in ancient Indian society writer writes; ‘By renouncing political power, the Brahminic order created a self-coercing, self-disciplining society founded on a vision of a moral order. This society was easy to rule but difficult to change: a new ruler had merely to capture the symbolic seat of power and go on ruling as those before him had done.’ Similarly in the second chapter viz: ‘Temples of the Future’ the writer starts with the sentence: India in the 1950s fell in love with the idea of concrete.
Perhaps the best chapter in the book is chapter 3 ‘Cities’. The chapter discusses at length about Delhi a city built built by britishers and Chandigarh a city built to showcase the vision of independent India. Writer discusses at length how Nehru wanted Chandigarh to be the first Indian city showing the aspirations of Independent and progressive India.
The book ‘The Idea if India’ is a must read for those who want to understand the history of post independent India especially the Nehruvian phase and India’s experiment with ‘democratic socialism’. The book takes you through the journey of Indian state in from the initial days of independence to one becoming a nuclear power.
Rating: 4.6/5