The makers of modern India

Modern India is the world's largest democracy, a sprawling, polyglot nation containing one-sixth of all humankind. The existence of such a complex and distinctive democratic regime qualifies as one of the world's bona fide political miracles. Furthermore, India's leading political thinkers have often served as its most influential political actorsÑthink of Gandhi, whose collected works run to more than ninety volumes, or Ambedkar, or Nehru, who recorded their most eloquent theoretical reflections at the same time as they strove to set the delicate machinery of Indian democracy on a coherent and just path. Out of the speeches and writings of these thinker-activists, Ramachandra Guha has built the first major anthology of Indian social and political thought. Makers of Modern India collects the work of nineteen of India's foremost generators of political sentiment, from those whose names command instant global recognition to pioneering subaltern and feminist thinkers whose works have until now remained obscure and inaccessible. Ranging across manifold languages and cultures, and addressing every crucial theme of modern Indian historyÑrace, religion, language, caste, gender, colonialism, nationalism, economic development, violence, and nonviolenceÑMakers of Modern India provides an invaluable roadmap to Indian political debate. An extensive introduction, biographical sketches of each figure, and guides to further reading make this work a rich resource for anyone interested in India and the ways its leading political minds have grappled with the problems that have increasingly come to define the modern world. Modern India is the world's largest democracy, a sprawling, polyglot nation containing one-sixth of all humankind. The existence of such a complex and distinctive democratic regime qualifies as one of the world's bona fide political miracles. Furthermore, India's leading political thinkers have often served as its most influential political actorsthink of Gandhi, whose collected works run to more than ninety volumes, or Ambedkar, or Nehru, who recorded their most eloquent theoretical reflections at the same time as they strove to set the delicate machinery of Indian democracy on a coherent and just path. Out of the speeches and writings of these thinker-activists, Ramachandra Guha has built the first major anthology of Indian social and political thought. Makers of Modern India collects the work of nineteen of India's foremost generators of political sentiment, from those whose names command instant global recognition to pioneering subaltern and feminist thinkers whose works have until now remained obscure and inaccessible. Ranging across manifold languages and cultures, and addressing every crucial theme of modern Indian historyrace, religion, language, caste, gender, colonialism, nationalism, economic development, violence, and nonviolence Makers of Modern India provides an invaluable roadmap to Indian political debate. An extensive introduction, biographical sketches of each figure, and guides to further reading make this work a rich resource for anyone interested in India and the ways its leading political minds have grappled with the problems that have increasingly come to define the modern world. The first liberal : Rammohun Roy -- The Muslim modernist : Syed Ahmad Khan -- The agrarian radical : Jotirau Phule -- The liberal reformer : G.K. Gokhale -- The militant nationalist : Bal Gangadhar Tilak -- The subaltern feminist : Tarabai Shinde -- The multiple agendas of M.K. Gandhi -- The rooted cosmopolitan : Rabindranath Tagore -- The annihilator of caste : B.R. Ambedkar -- The Muslim separatist : M.A. Jinnah -- The radical reformer : E.V. Ramaswamy -- The socialist feminist : Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay -- The renewed agendas of M.K. Gandhi -- The wise democrat : B.R. Ambedkar -- The multiple agendas of Jawaharlal Nehru -- The Hindu supremacist : M.S. Golwalkar -- The indigenous socialist : Rammanohar Lohia -- The grassroots socialist : Jayaprakash Narayan -- The Gandhian liberal : C. Rajagopalachari -- The defender of the triblas : Verrier Elwin -- The last modernist : Hamid Dalwai -- Epilogue : India in the world The first liberal : Rammohun Roy The Muslim modernist : Syed Ahmad Khan The agrarian radical : Jotirau Phule The liberal reformer : G. K. Gokhale The militant nationalist : B. G. Tilak The subaltern feminist : Tarabai Shinde The multiple agendas of M. K. Gandhi The rooted cosmopolitan : Rabindranath Tagore The annihilator of caste : B. R. Ambedkar The Muslim separatist : M. A. Jinnah The radical reformer : E. V. Ramaswamy The socialist feminist : Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay The renewed agendas of M. K. Gandhi The wise democrat : B. R. Ambedkar The multiple agendas of Jawaharlal Nehru The Hindu supremacist : M. S. Golwalkar The indigenous socialist : Rammanohar Lohia The grassroots socialist : Jayaprakash Narayan The Gandhian liberal : C. Rajagopalachari The defender of the triblas : Verrier Elwin The last modernist : Hamid Dalwai Epilogue : India in the world. Modern India is the world's largest democracy, a sprawling, polyglot nation containing one-sixth of all humankind. __Makers of Modern India__ collects for the first time the writings of nineteen of India's foremost thinker-activists, ranging from legends like Gandhi and Nehru to pioneering subaltern and feminist thinkers.