The Idea Of India - Softcover

"A splid-and timely-book . . . Spirited, combative and insight-filled . . . Khilnani has woven a rich analysis of contemporary India and its evolution since indepence. I am inclined to agree with [him] on the robustness and staying power of the secular idea of India." --Amartya Sen, "The Times Literary Supplement" "A masterful rebuttal to all cultural romantics and religious chauvinists . . . [A] splid book about definitions of the Indian nation." --Ian Buruma, "The New York Review of Books" "Especially brilliant is Khilnani's attempt to understand the changing nature of India by studying its urban constructs." --Chitra Divakaruni, "Los Angeles Times Book Review"

The idea of India developed in 1947, to unite a huge, diverse and poor society and to transform it into a modern state. This book is about the paradoxes and ironies that have surrounded that project in self-fashioning, a project that has given Indians real political freedoms but left most of them in poverty. This analysis provokes and illuminates a fundamental question: can the idea of India survive its own successes? 'Many books about India will be published this year; I doubt if any will be wiser and more illuminating about its modern condition than this' Ian Jack, Observer