india after gandhi the history of the world's largest democracy

india after gandhi the history of the world

Guha tells us what happened elegantly, sometimes doggedly: but it's by constantly implying what might have, while disavowing it with the professional historian's gesture, that he brings his copious material to life. Since 1947, the possibility of disaster has taken the form of certain questions and crises: 'What if India were to disintegrate or to become a totalitarian society or a military dictatorship or a Hindu state?' All these are scenarios that appeared plausible, at one time or another, to both the Indian and foreign observer. Similarly, a 'What if?' animates Guha's reconstruction of the past 60 years of Indian history.

Both the American film-maker embarking on the new second world war movie and the Englishwoman wearing a poppy are thinking, yet again, of events that took place many years ago, but also, in some hidden but urgent way, of the world that might have come into existence had the other side won. Yet it is precisely the possibility of what might have happened but didn't that gives an immediate but inexhaustible magic to some of the 20th century's most triumphal historical narratives. Guha reminds us, more than once, that it's the historian's job to tell us what happened, and not spend too much time speculating on what might have. Historical narrative, too, depends on familiarity enlivened by interpretative freshness and the surprise of new archival research but there's also, at times, something else.

OL21180359W Page_number_confidence 95.64 Pages 970 Partner Innodata Pdf_module_version 0.0.18 Ppi 360 Rcs_key 24143 Republisher_date 20220712061155 Republisher_operator Republisher_time 511 Scandate 20220708192843 Scanner Scanningcenter cebu Scribe3_search_catalog isbn Scribe3_search_id 9780330396103 Tts_version 5.In mythic retelling, it is repetition itself, accompanied by improvisatory flourishes, that transfixes the audience by returning it to known terrain. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 08:01:12 Autocrop_version 0.0.14_books-20220331-0.2 Bookplateleaf 0010 Boxid IA40597616 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

India after gandhi the history of the world's largest democracy