Ramachandra Guha is a writer who knows how to write books that can sell. 'The Makers Of Modern India' is a very good book though this book is not "written" by him in a strictly technical sense. This book is perhaps better than "India After Gandhi".
In 'The Makers Of Modern India', Guha talks about 19 great Indians who played a key role in nation building. Although he has missed some great names like Sardar Patel, Bhagat Singh, Subhas Chandra Bose, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad etc yet the truncated list is a worthy list. He writes a brief biography of these 19 Indians and then produces excerpts from their major speeches and works. These 19 Indians are (not in any order) - Raja Rammohan Roy, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, C. Rajagopalachari, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lokmanya Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Verrier Elwin, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Hamid Dalwai, Tarabai Shinde, M. S. Golwalkar, Jotirao Phule, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, E. V. Ramaswami, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore.
I have not read before in detail about Jayaprakash Narayan, Rajaji, Verrier Elwin and Hamid Dalwai, so their writings and thoughts have been a revelation to me. These three Indians were much ahead of their times, JP was uncompromising democrat, advocate of decentralization and defender of human rights, Rajaji was perhaps the first advocate of free economy and electoral reforms, Verrier Elwin was defender of tribals against the encroachment of "modern civilization" and Hamid Dalwai was perhaps the first uncompromising secular leader after 1947. Well i knew JP and Rajaji before but this book introduced Kamaladevi, Tarabai, Hamid Dalwai and Verrier Elwin to me and for this i thank Guhaji.This book is a must read for everyone and i regret why i have not read this book before.
Highly Recommended (9/10)
2 comments:
well even i missed this one neeraj thank u dear for suggesting this gem
You are welcome Dagar Saheb :)
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