Overview

This book is a collection of nine reflective essays on post-independence India. Based on memory, both historical and personal, these provide a critical and truthful account of an average citizen's life and the society. It covers issues in governance, education, science, religion, culture, etc. as seen during the last five decades. These issues are not discussed in isolation but with an eye over the colonial past. Here the past and the present, the self and the society, the local and the universal seem to merge. Beginning with the depiction of life in a moffusil town, this book moves on to examine closely the social issues like caste, communalism, and the growing religiosity. Corruption that plagues our polity and economy and the challenges of development are also dealt with. Written with rare verve and wit, and by using the lens of personal experiences, these essays explore the complexities of contemporary politics and society in India. This should be found interesting and useful not only by the students and scholars of social sciences and humanities but also by lawyers, doctors, teachers, media persons and other professionals.

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9780199461530

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Moving from the personal to the general, examining issues of caste, religion, governance, education, science, culture and much else, Kumar comments on these contested themes through his lens of personal memories. He portrays contemporary India as a nation in a limbo, neither this nor that. Like the mythological king Trishanku, stuck between different worlds, it exists in a liminal space, antariksha, a suitable image for modern India(ns), plagued by the three Cs or monsters of corruption, casteism and communalism and the three heroic Ds, the forces of development, democracy and diversity...One puts this book down feeling somewhat overwhelmed by this portrayal of current challenges at both individual and collective levels. * Devapriya Sanyal, JNU, New Delhi, South Asia Research * It is for this reason that this Book is eminently readable for scholars intending to see History from a different lens often offered by textbooks and insider accounts and biographies in Contemporary Indian History * Ashish Gosain, PhD Scholar at Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences-1, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, Journal of Scientometric Research *

It is for this reason that this Book is eminently readable for scholars intending to see History from a different lens often offered by textbooks and insider accounts and biographies in Contemporary Indian History * Ashish Gosain, PhD Scholar at Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences-1, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, Journal of Scientometric Research * Moving from the personal to the general, examining issues of caste, religion, governance, education, science, culture and much else, Kumar comments on these contested themes through his lens of personal memories. He portrays contemporary India as a nation in a limbo, neither this nor that. Like the mythological king Trishanku, stuck between different worlds, it exists in a liminal space, antariksha, a suitable image for modern India(ns), plagued by the three Cs or monsters of corruption, casteism and communalism and the three heroic Ds, the forces of development, democracy and diversity...One puts this book down feeling somewhat overwhelmed by this portrayal of current challenges at both individual and collective levels. * Devapriya Sanyal, JNU, New Delhi, South Asia Research *

It is for this reason that this Book is eminently readable for scholars intending to see History from a different lens often offered by textbooks and insider accounts and biographies in Contemporary Indian History * Ashish Gosain, PhD Scholar at Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences-1, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, Journal of Scientometric Research * Moving from the personal to the general, examining issues of caste, religion, governance, education, science, culture and much else, Kumar comments on these contested themes through his lens of personal memories. He portrays contemporary India as a nation in a limbo, neither this nor that. Like the mythological king Trishanku, stuck between different worlds, it exists in a liminal space, antariksha, a suitable image for modern India(ns), plagued by the three Cs or monsters of corruption, casteism and communalism and the three heroic Ds, the forces of development, democracy and diversity...One puts this book down feeling somewhat overwhelmed by this portrayal of current challenges at both individual and collective levels. * Devapriya Sanyal, JNU, New Delhi, South Asia Research *

It is for this reason that this Book is eminently readable for scholars intending to see History from a different lens often offered by textbooks and insider accounts and biographies in Contemporary Indian History * Ashish Gosain, PhD Scholar at Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences-1, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, Journal of Scientometric Research *

Author Information

Deepak Kumar is Professor, Z.H.Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

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