People living on the Indian subcontinent have been a sharply divided lot for a very long time in spite of belonging to the same established respected older civilization. Our divisiveness resulted in inviting repeated assaults by uncivilized Arabs and savages from other parts of Asia. This led to foreign subjugation for a millennium first by Islamic invaders and looters; then by Europeans who came as traders but became rulers. The entry of aliens led to unabashed proselytizing into their newer religions. It may not be wrong to say that 99 percent of Muslims and Christians living on the subcontinent are converts from Hinduism (that has been more a way of life rather than a watertight religion for two millennia or more). This means todays inhabitants are from the same civilization and culturally speaking Hindustanis. However, a proliferation of alien religions did aggravate and compound divisiveness. The British ruled the country for two centuries or so, and did the maximum damage to our character, morale and psyche. After the First War of Independence the British promulgated pretty stiff laws especially the Police Act of 1861 to keep their slaves under tight leash. Worse still they introduced Macaulay system of education in English to wean us away from our cultural moorings, heritage, literature, moral values and our own Sanskrit language. Indian social religious and educational reformers Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Sahjanand, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Swami Dayanand Sarasvati, Swami Vivekananda and Rishi Aurobindo Ghosh as well as the likes of them brought back the pride of our civilization and culture. Their influence was apparent from the beginning of 19th century in the fields of politics, public administration, and education, as well as strengthening Hinduism. This first awakening from slumber or hibernation ignited the minds of revolutionaries who selflessly and untiringly worked hard on the soils of the subcontinent and the foreign lands culminating in throwing out deeply entrenched British lock, stock and barrel. Not so nationalistic but opportunistic Congress party led by their self-serving trio of stalwarts Gandhi, his adopted son Nehru and lieutenant Patel got the subcontinent partitioned and formed government in divided India. Congress party ruled but NOT served Hindustan for 90 percent of the time since independence by strictly following British Divide and Rule policy to perfection without changing/improving archaic British laws. Being communal, Congress aggravated the divisiveness thus bringing untold misery to the masses in the form of communal strife and Hindu-Muslim riots repeatedly. The prolonged misrule by those corrupt inept rudderless politicians including the decade under its economist dummy PM heading the most corrupt and arrogant government ever in the history of independent country brought in lawlessness, fragile environment, grossly inadequate infrastructure, increasing terrorism and Maoism/Naxalism, ever mounting inflation, sky-rocketing corruption, gargantuan scams, bankrupt economy, policy paralysis, stalling of reforms, and what not. The absolute number of the poor today is far more than total population of newly born country in 1947. This grave crisis-like situation warranted a second awakening in 21st century. Expectedly Hindustanis rose to the occasion once again, decimated the corrupt Congress and voted for a change by electing a visionary, strong, and honest PM from BJP with a thumping majority. This gentleman is a dynamic, focused, highly optimistic, staunchly nationalistic real leader unlike the pygmies of Congress. The task ahead is dauntingly stupendous. Modi started showing promise during his first 60 days. The damage done in 60 years may take ten years, if not more, to repair and actual proper turnaround thus placing this once great country on track to reclaim its lost genuine glory. Although independence was ushered in 67 years ago yet freedom is still awaited. That will require imminent electoral, intellectual, judicial, police, political and social reforms together with building moral character and bringing meritocracy in every appointment by doing away with the Congress policy of favours, quotas and reservations for the undeserving. Very much like Narendra Modi, the first PM to be born after independence and heading the youngest India-educated ministry, all of us have to remain optimistic and vigilant. We must perform our duties diligently as law-abiding faithful but demanding citizens alive to the times!

Giving a bird’s eye view of the of the circumstances leading to the present scenario impacting my people and also to showcase some of the numerous burning problems we face today in Hindustan even 71 years after attaining ‘independence’ from Britain although the real freedom from mental slavery is yet to be attained.

India is a lumbering, elephantine State that cannot be expected to pivot around its heels, irrespective of the capability, intentions and skills of its present mahout. That may explain why it took 67 long years to resurrect prime minister-ship by electing for the first time a deserving astute down to earth eminently-suited politician who had tasted poverty and hard work and seems to be the one to relate to citizens’ aspirations and needs. He possesses vision and necessary will to transform a fledgling country into a mega economy and world power. Narendra Modi, as a truly nationalistic politician, may be taller than Nehru. He became the first ever PM to visit INA Memorial in Singapore. And the first Indian in four centuries to inspect a ‘Guard of Honor’ from the British Army in London! However, thanks to Congress party’s dirty politics, he inherited a deeply divisive polity, rusted three pillars of democracy muddled with long-nurtured anti-nationalistic media. Modi earned kudos whichever nation he visited. His maiden American trip four months after taking over was a raving success hitherto not achieved by any of his predecessors that included three trips each by Nehru and Indira and double that number by Modi’s incompetent and ineffectual immediate predecessor – a puppet in the hands of his Italy-born white Catholic lady boss! During the 18 months, Modi has been showing promise by undoubtedly raising the stature of the country globally. Back home, deeply and widely pervading corruption, divisiveness, illiteracy and lack of nationalism are sinister and life-threatening ailments needing drastic cure. We are corrupt and, therefore, elect corrupt politicians. The latest is Bihar's humongous mandate on communal lines: First-time MLA sons of a convicted (for corruption) politician become ministers – the ninth class-fail deputy CM and 12th class as health minister. Till the time we become dutiful, nationalistic and sincere the status quo is not going to change. We must ‘educate’ our masses in general but our youngsters who are the future custodians of the country in particular but not up to the mark in many ways. The generations born after independence have to understand the true account/value of the hard-won freedom and imbibe our civilization and culture. Only then the misconceptions on created ‘fictional’ heroes can be rectified. Only then our younger folks can appreciate the importance of their duties to their motherland. Our politicians must become Hindustanis first and foremost, start working for the benefit of their compatriots rather their own families. They must forthwith stop eschew vote-bank politics. Only when all of us are patriotic enough we can offer a united front against biggest threat to us from terrorism incited and inflicted by Pakistan for decades; aided and abetted by so many anti-nationalistic political parties who also will have to mend their nasty ways and allow the parliament to function smoothly so that agenda on economic reforms can move forward. All of us have to contribute whole-heartedly for progress and development. Every citizen irrespective of caste/creed must exhibit an apparent firm and free will to work towards the betterment of the land. We must weed out the mindset where people live here but their loyalty lies elsewhere as dictated by the leaders of their faith. No religious law can take priority over the national law. There has to be common civil code so that everyone is treated equally. The way things stand today, we are only going down and down. This will continue unless we correct our mindset and course radically! Hindus’ extreme tolerance during last millennium led to rise of intolerant Islam aided and abetted by Congress and its cronies and like-minded parties. Hindustan has been looted and marauded by foreigners and bled high and dry of its richness and natural resources. Alas! This loot continued after independence by parties in power. Modi has somehow disturbed the looters’ political thought process by challenging it with their ideology and hence has been declared 'Intolerable' since they see no future if Modi continues the good work for his motherland. I do hope that our people wake unitedly to become truly democratically independent nation. Our paid, purchased and partisan media will have to become neutral, non-biased and nationalistic. If not contained, our electronic media, left liberals and pseudo-seculars wil ruin the country. The anti-nationalistic politicians must shun their derogatory practices of belittling the country in every forum and seriously consider their duty and debt to their motherland as their primary function. Otherwise, we are not far from our doomsday. Thus it is now or never for us Hindustanis to rise and stand erect steadfast!

This edited volume examines the cases of four African military leaders who had enormous impact on the continent and beyond. These military officers, and later heads of state -- Jerry Rawlings of Ghana; Moammar Gaddafi of Libya; Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso; and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt – were provocative and polarizing figures, beloved domestically but mostly viewed with suspicion and hostility by foreign governments. This volume studies these leaders as a group, engaging in a critical but systematic examination of their personalities, leadership styles, official performance, legacies, and their continuing impact on the future and political destiny of the continent. Providing a survey of controversial but important African political figures, this volume will be of use to scholars and students in the social sciences, especially those interested in African history, African studies, military science, Black studies, political science, leadership studies, and the politics of developing nations.

Nowhere does the ceaseless struggle to maintain democracy in the face of political corruption come more alive than in Paul Preston’s magisterial history of modern Spain. The culmination of a half-century of historical investigation, A People Betrayed is not only a definitive history of modern Spain but also a compelling narrative that becomes a lens for understanding the challenges that virtually all democracies have faced in the modern world. Whereas so many twentieth-century Spanish histories begin with Franco and the devastating Civil War, Paul Preston’s magisterial work begins in the late nineteenth century with Spain’s collapse as a global power, especially reflected in its humiliating defeat in 1898 at the hands of the United States and its loss of colonial territory. This loss hung over Spain in the early years of the twentieth century, its agrarian economic base standing in stark contrast to the emergence of England, Germany, and France as industrial powers. Looking back to the years prior to 1923, Preston demonstrates how electoral corruption infiltrated almost every sector of Spanish life, thus excluding the masses from organized politics and giving them a bitter choice between apathetic acceptance of a decrepit government or violent revolution. So ineffective was the Republic—which had been launched in 1873—that it paved the way for a military coup and dictatorship, led by Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1923, exacerbating widespread profiteering and fraud. When Rivera was forced to resign in 1930, his fall brought forth a succession of feeble governments, stoking rancorous tensions that culminated in the tragic Spanish Civil War. With astonishing detail, Preston describes the ravages that rent Spain in half between 1936 and 1939. Tracing the frightening rise of Francisco Franco, Preston recounts how Franco grew into Spain’s most powerful military leader during the Civil War and how, after the war, he became a fascistic dictator who not only terrorized the Spanish population through systematic oppression and murder but also enriched corrupt officials who profited from severe economic plunder of Spain’s working class. The dictatorship lasted through World War II—during which Spain sided with Mussolini and Hitler—and only ended decades later, in 1975, when Franco’s death was followed by a painful yet bloodless transition to republican democracy. Yet, as Preston reveals, corruption and political incompetence continued to have a corrosive effect on social cohesion into the twenty-first century, as economic crises, Catalan independence struggles, and financial scandals persist in dividing the country. Filled with vivid portraits of politicians and army officers, revolutionaries and reformers, and written in the “absorbing” (Economist) style for which Preston is so revered, A People Betrayed is the first historical work to examine the continuities of political unrest and national anxiety in Spain up until the present, providing a chilling reminder of just how fragile democracy remains in the twenty-first century.

First published in 1986, Military Power and Politics in Black Africa explores many themes that concerned military power and politics in sub-Saharan Africa at the time of publication. Adopting a thematic approach, the book considers the nature of both intervention and disengagement and looks at the relationship between civilian and military institutions. The final chapters put forward arguments for the importance of foreign intervention in the politics and civil-military relations of African states.

Political trust – in government, parliament, or political parties – has taken centre stage in political science for more than half a century, reflecting ongoing concerns with the legitimacy and functioning of representative democracy. To provide scholars, students and policy makers with a tool to navigate through the complexity of causes and consequences of political trust, this Handbook offers an excellent overview of the conceptual, theoretical, methodological and empirical state of the art, complemented by accounts of regional particularities, and authored by international experts in this field.