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Books

million sepoys/combat- ranks, and, effectively
ants, non-combatants and being the only viable na- MALEVOLENT REPUBLIC: A
professionals from rural tional political option for SHORT HISTORY OF THE NEW
and urban India to distant millions of voters. INDIA
theatres of the Great War However, while Kothari K.S. Komireddi
involved massive logistics was intrigued by the HURST
of mobility and commu- operation of the Congress Rs.314 Pages 224
nication. Das sensitively as a party, he was also
investigates the lives of acutely aware of how the
families left behind, entire dominance he referred
villages denuded of males, to was extended to other because of its almost fun-
some of whom never areas as well. In the 1960s damentalist commitment This book explains
returned and others who the Congress, the self- to the idea of a secular how the cracks in
returned traumatised. appointed heir to the India. This commitment the scaffolding of
For the general reader, mantle of governance after was the prime factor that the Indian state were
this work of unconven- independence, also influ- shielded the Congress identified and used to
tional history and original enced the framing of the from harsh criticism from build the BJP system
socio-economic research Constitution, built institu- liberals.
highlights loss and mourn- tions, staffed them with This book is a cata-
ing, anger and pride, yes-men, initiated coercive logue of what went wrong decades of being forced to
patriotism and nationalist counter-insurgency in in India under Congress follow a concept that only
fervour by foreground- areas which saw local re- rule and how that paved college-educated gradu-
ing colour, religion and sistance, annexed Sikkim, the way for the mephitic ates understood, this po-
ethnicity embedded in the Goa, Hyderabad and man- political institutionalisa- litical expression of baser
heart of India during the aged to arm twist the ruler tion of the BJP. Komireddi ascriptive instincts became
WWI era and its after- of Kashmir, Hari Singh, writes: ‘They (Congress something that mobilised
math. This reinvention of into signing the Instru- politicians) thought of core constituencies in the
war writing poses a chal- ment of Accession which themselves as modern Hindi heartland.
lenge to traditional Anglo- legally bound Kashmir to democrats, but oligarchy Attempts to inspis-
European histories of the India. The party reneged was the condition of their sate hindutva ideology
past several centuries. on promises of plebiscites supremacy. Only strong- brought repeated rounds
JAYATI GUPTA in Kashmir and Nagaland men, the British had of communal violence.
and didn’t think twice suggested, could bring If Congress was squarely
about strafe bombing order to India. Congress to blame for the 1984
Decline & fall Aizawl to defeat the Mizo internalised that lesson.” anti-Sikh riots, demolition
However, the BJP
National Front. It won
of the Babri mosque in
elegy election after election, got alternative doesn’t have 1992, post-Godhra riots in
embroiled in numerous
Gujarat in 2002, the riots
any redeeming features. If
scams, imposed the Emer- Congress was tied to secu- in Muzaffarnagar in 2013
gency, rewarded compli- larism, which Komireddi and the seemingly otiose
N 1964, RAJNI Kothari ant men and women, and argues is a non-negotiable and sporadic lynchings,
wrote about the unique played around with the essential condition for the are all part of a pattern
Inature of the Indian Presidency and President’s unity of India, the BJP’s to dominate the public
party system describing Rule. reactionary alternative has sphere and saturate the
it as a “one-party domi- And yet, the Indian moved as far away as pos- minds of Hindus with
nance” characterised by public repeatedly re- sible from that ideal. ill-placed pride, and infuse
the existence of a multi- warded it. Why? Kapil It argues that secular- the minds of non-Hindus
party system dominated Komireddi’s book Ma- ism was inserted into the with well-placed fear.
by one party, the Indian levolent Republic: A Short preamble without debate, The boffo performance
National Congress. It was History of the New India how minorities could of the BJP in 2014 and
an umbrella organisation is an eye-opener. He be- live in fear not as equals again in 2019, its complete
extending its ideology to lieves that one reason the but only if they acknowl- dominance of institutions
other parties, internalis- Congress was vehemently edge the superiority and of state and public and its
ing and absorbing dissent defended and propped up dominance of the majority control over the Indian
within and without its by public intellectuals was Hindu community. After media stand testimony to

94 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2020