The essays in Because India Comes First discuss a range of issues that are at the heart of contemporary debates in India: democracy as the responsibility of the head of state, rule of law, peace and public order, Mahatma Gandhi and Gandhism, Ambedkar's ideals, empowerment of women, Indian judiciary, the Ram Janmabhoomi case, abrogation of Article 370, the legacies of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Arun Jaitley, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's learnings in governance. This book also delves into the decisions made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government over the last few years, diplomatic relations with India's neighbours and the confrontations with China. Madhav analyses India's history of policymaking and asserts that, going ahead, it must put India first. He calls out liberal fascism, deconstructs our understanding of terrorism in India, argues that opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is intellectually dishonest, explores how learnings from Black Lives Matter can be applied in the Indian sphere and explains why protests should be rooted in Martin Luther King Jr's non-violent approach and not anarchy. These essays weave a broad tapestry of India's growth into a soft power, and predict how it will shape up over the next few decades. A must-read for those who believe in the new idea of India, and for those who accept that there are two sides to every debate.

Second in the series of Dr Madhav's musings, The Indian Reality: Changing Narratives, Shifting Perceptions is the story of the new reality that has overtaken countries and populations. The diversified agendas of altered societies call for newer understanding and discourses. This has also enthused a new wave of excitement in India too. The last decade was witness to a tectonic transformation in almost every walk of national life. Dr Madhav, through his essays on the new agendas of society, contemporary Hindutva, lessons from history, the idea of good governance and India's outreach with the world, not only maps the journey of change but paints a forward-looking canvas of a society on the move. The Indian Reality is a must-read for those who want to get a bird's eye view of what will interest the world as the twenty-first century paces ahead.

Long plagued by poverty, India's recent economic growth has vaulted it into the ranks of the world's emerging powers-but what kind of power it wants to be remains a mystery. Cautious Superpower explains why India behaves the way it does, and the role it is likely to play globally as its prominence grows. --

Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the last decade, India has witnessed, among other things, two general elections; the fall of the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major anti-corruption movement; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; comparative peace in Nagaland but greater discontent in Kashmir than ever before. This tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with seventy years of the country’s independence, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.

Here is the first volume of a magisterial biography of Mohandas Gandhi that gives us the most illuminating portrait we have had of the life, the work and the historical context of one of the most abidingly influential—and controversial—men in modern history. Ramachandra Guha—hailed by Time as “Indian democracy’s preeminent chronicler”—takes us from Gandhi’s birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, his two years as a student in London and his two decades as a lawyer and community organizer in South Africa. Guha has uncovered myriad previously untapped documents, including private papers of Gandhi’s contemporaries and co-workers; contemporary newspapers and court documents; the writings of Gandhi’s children; and secret files kept by British Empire functionaries. Using this wealth of material in an exuberant, brilliantly nuanced and detailed narrative, Guha describes the social, political and personal worlds inside of which Gandhi began the journey that would earn him the honorific Mahatma: “Great Soul.” And, more clearly than ever before, he elucidates how Gandhi’s work in South Africa—far from being a mere prelude to his accomplishments in India—was profoundly influential in his evolution as a family man, political thinker, social reformer and, ultimately, beloved leader. In 1893, when Gandhi set sail for South Africa, he was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer who had failed to establish himself in India. In this remarkable biography, the author makes clear the fundamental ways in which Gandhi’s ideas were shaped before his return to India in 1915. It was during his years in England and South Africa, Guha shows us, that Gandhi came to understand the nature of imperialism and racism; and in South Africa that he forged the philosophy and techniques that would undermine and eventually overthrow the British Raj. Gandhi Before India gives us equally vivid portraits of the man and the world he lived in: a world of sharp contrasts among the coastal culture of his birthplace, High Victorian London, and colonial South Africa. It explores in abundant detail Gandhi’s experiments with dissident cults such as the Tolstoyans; his friendships with radical Jews, heterodox Christians and devout Muslims; his enmities and rivalries; and his often overlooked failures as a husband and father. It tells the dramatic, profoundly moving story of how Gandhi inspired the devotion of thousands of followers in South Africa as he mobilized a cross-class and inter-religious coalition, pledged to non-violence in their battle against a brutally racist regime. Researched with unequaled depth and breadth, and written with extraordinary grace and clarity, Gandhi Before India is, on every level, fully commensurate with its subject. It will radically alter our understanding and appreciation of twentieth-century India’s greatest man.

The decade from the 2008 global financial crisis to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has seen a real transformation of the world order. The very nature of international relations and its rules are changing before our eyes. For India, this means optimal relationships with all the major powers to best advance its goals. It also requires a bolder and non-reciprocal approach to its neighbourhood. A global footprint is now in the making that leverages India's greater capability and relevance, as well as its unique diaspora. This era of global upheaval entails greater expectations from India, putting it on the path to becoming a leading power. In The India Way, S. Jaishankar, India's Minister of External Affairs, analyses these challenges and spells out possible policy responses. He places this thinking in the context of history and tradition, appropriate for a civilizational power that seeks to reclaim its place on the world stage.

Seven decades ago, a new global order emerged. However, changing global dynamics have put those older ways of being under unprecedented stress. A new world order is taking shape-one defined by new agenda items alongside the traditional ones such as trade, commerce and defence. In a post-pandemic world, these are being edged out by issues like climate change, holistic healthcare, education for innovation and creativity, as well as the management of frontier technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain and big data. Human dignity and human rights have become critical issues in this modern reality. To represent these altered actualities of the twenty-first century, global governance needs fresh ideas and novel institutions. More than five decades ago, Deendayal Upadhyaya articulated a coherent economic philosophy, at the core of which was human-centric development. In The Hindutva Paradigm, author and thinker Ram Madhav provides clarifying insights into the reasoning of a philosopher who has remained an enigma through the decades. At the crossroads where we stand, this refreshing and stimulating philosophy could be the answer to managing the new world order.