The Idea of India

by Sunil Khilnani

A very intellectual book, written to mark the 50th anniversary of independence. It’s a Nehruvian book, with the idea of the synthesis of Hindu and Muslim, the urban cities and the countryside and whether the idea is sustainable. Nehru was a socialist, really Fabian society, Labour party, with a kind of keeping-it-all-together secularism. I think India has proved that these ideas are sustainable. The traditions of agitation and peaceful process are all still strong. This is a summary of the intellectual process of development.