Makers of Modern India

of a range of influential personalities in the struggle to free India from its colonial yoke and set it on a new path as a modern nation. His introductory remarks are short, informative and enlightening without being intrusive or overwhelming. The result is a skillfully edited collection that will serve as an erudite introduction to the foundations of modern India. -- Ramesh Thakur The Australian 20110601 India has been fortunate in the abundance of thinkers who wrote extensively, and often evocatively, on the fundamental issues raised by the task of forging a modern nation from a severely fragmented and backward colony. Guha presents well-chosen excerpts, expertly contextualized by insightful introductions, from the writings and speeches of nineteen such thinker-activists who reflected, often in conflict with each other, on the critical dilemmas of their time: colonialism, religion, language, caste and Untouchability, the status of women, grass-roots governance, electoral systems, regional discord and India's engagement with the world...Makers of Modern India is not meant to be closed-ended, but it effectively brings together the great arguers, fiercely independent in thought and action, from whose disputatious but educated debate emerged the political traditions and compromises that underpin India's complex reality. -- Navtej Sarna Times Literary Supplement 20110624 Makers of Modern India will be a valuable resource for all who seek to understand modern India. -- R. N. Sharma Choice 20110901 In Makers of Modern India, the first major anthology of Indian social and political thought, Ramachandra Guha, an established historian, brings together writings and speeches from 19 key political figures of the 19th and 20th centuries to highlight the range and diversity of ideas about the forming nation...Makers of Modern India begins with an extensive introduction and includes biographical sketches of each figure and guides for further reading. Guha is a learned historian whose writing and subject matter do not fail to captivate. -- Visi Tilak Indian American 20110501