This volume, a sequel to the best-selling India's Struggle for Independence, analyses the challenges India has faced and the successes it has achieved over the last five decades, in the light of its colonial legacy and the century-long struggle for freedom. The book describes how the Constitution was framed, as also how the Nehruvian political and economic agenda and basics of foreign policy were evolved and developed.

Independent India is an exploration of India’s national history from independence in 1947 to the end of the twentieth century. Wendy Singer charts the rapid development of this emerging world power by following a series of different narratives crucial to the history of post-independence India: national integrations, the ongoing development of arts and culture, social movements, and political change. In telling the broader history of political movements and cultural transformations from different perspectives, this book provides key examples that demonstrate the experiences of women and men from the many classes and cultures that comprise modern India. In keeping with the series as a whole, this text also provides a range of primary source documents both to illuminate that history and to show the rich resources and unique challenges involved in writing contemporary history. Key features include: Thematic chapters within a chronological structure, incorporating different approaches to the study of history A varied range of primary sources, demonstrating the diversity of material available In-depth social, cultural and political analysis, including the study of regional identities, film, literature, gender, politics and economic change Investigating India’s recent national history from a range of angles, this new Seminar Studies volume is an essential introduction for anyone who wishes to learn more about the important place that India, the world’s largest democracy, has in our global age. .

INDEX CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2 : THE COLONIAL LEGACY CHAPTER 3 : THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT AND ITS LEGACY CHAPTER 4 : THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONSTITUTION AND MAIN PROVISIONS CHAPTER 5 : THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONSTITUTION : BASIC FEATURES AND INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER 6 : THE INITIAL YEARS CHAPTER 7 : CONSOLIDATION OF INDIA AS A NATION(I) CHAPTER 8 : CONSOLIDATION OF INDIA AS A NATION (II) : THE LINGUISTIC REORGANISATION OF THE STATES CHAPTER 9 : CONSOLIDATION OF INDIA AS A NATION (III): INTEGRATION OF THE TRIBALS CHAPTER 10 : CONSOLIDATION OF INDIA AS A NATION(IV) : REGIONALISM AND REGIONAL INEQUALITY CHAPTER 11 : THE YEARS OF HOPE AND ACHIEVEMENT, 1951–1964 CHAPTER 12 : FOREIGN POLICY : THE NEHRU ERA CHAPTER 13 : JAWAHARLAL NEHRU IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE CHAPTER 14 : POLITICAL PARTIES, 1947–1964: THE CONGRESS CHAPTER 15 : POLITICAL PARTIES,1947–1965: THE OPPOSITION CHAPTER 16 : FROM SHASTRI TO INDIRA GANDHI,1964–1969 CHAPTER 17 : THE INDIRA YEARS, 1969–1973 CHAPTER 18 : THE JP MOVEMENT AND THE EMERGENCY : INDIAN DEMOCRACY TESTED CHAPTER 19 : THE JANATA INTERREGNUM AND INDIRA GANDHI’S SECOND COMING, 1977–1984 CHAPTER 20 : THE RAJIV YEARS CHAPTER 21 : RUN-UP TO THE NEW MILLENNIUM AND AFTER CHAPTER 22: POLITICS IN THE STATES (I): TAMIL NADU, ANDHRA PRADESH AND ASSAM CHAPTER 23 : POLITICS IN THE STATES (II): WEST BENGAL AND JAMMU AND KASHMIR CHAPTER 24 : THE PUNJAB CRISIS CHAPTER 25 : INDIAN ECONOMY, 1947–1965: THE NEHRUVIAN LEGACY CHAPTER 26 : INDIAN ECONOMY, 1965–1991 CHAPTER 27 : ECONOMIC REFORMS SINCE 1991 CHAPTER 28 : THE INDIAN ECONOMY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM CHAPTER 29 : LAND REFORMS (I): COLONIAL IMPACT AND THE LEGACY OF THE NATIONAL AND PEASANT MOVEMENTS CHAPTER 30 : LAND REFORMS(II): ZAMINDARI ABOLITION AND TENANCY REFORMS CHAPTER 31 : LAND REFORMS (III): CEILING AND THE BHOODAN MOVEMENT CHAPTER 32 : COOPERATIVES AND AN OVERVIEW OF LAND REFORMS CHAPTER 33 :AGRICULTURAL GROWTH AND THE GREEN REVOLUTION CHAPTER 34 : AGRARIAN STRUGGLES SINCE INDEPENDENCE CHAPTER 35 : REVIVAL AND GROWTH OF COMMUNALISM CHAPTER 36: COMMUNALISM AND THE USE OF THE STATE POWER CHAPTER 37 : CASTE, UNTOUCHABILITY, ANTI-CASTE POLITICS AND STRATEGIES CHAPTER 38: INDIAN WOMEN SINCE INDEPENDENCE CHAPTER 39 : POST-COLONIAL INDIAN STATE AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEVELOPMENT: AN OVERVIEW CHAPTER 40 : DISARRAY IN INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNANCE CHAPTER 41 : DAWN OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM: ACHIEVEMENTS, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

India today is a vibrant free-market democracy, a nation well on its way to overcoming decades of widespread poverty. The nation’s rise is one of the great international stories of the late twentieth century, and in India Unbound the acclaimed columnist Gurcharan Das offers a sweeping economic history of India from independence to the new millennium. Das shows how India’s policies after 1947 condemned the nation to a hobbled economy until 1991, when the government instituted sweeping reforms that paved the way for extraordinary growth. Das traces these developments and tells the stories of the major players from Nehru through today. As the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, Das offers a unique insider’s perspective and he deftly interweaves memoir with history, creating a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written. Impassioned, erudite, and eminently readable, India Unbound is a must for anyone interested in the global economy and its future.

The International Bestseller 'Barney White-Spunner's book stands out for its judicious and unsparing look at events from a British perspective.' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Review 'This book is at its most powerful in its month-by-month narrative of how Partition tore apart northern and eastern India, with the new state of Pakistan carved out of communities who had lived together for the past millennium.' Zareer Masani BBC History Magazine 'A highly readable account . . .' Times Literary Review Between January and August 1947 the conflicting political, religious and social tensions in India culminated in independence from Britain and the creation of Pakistan. Those months saw the end of ninety years of the British Raj, and the effective power of the Maharajahs, as the Congress Party established itself commanding a democratic government in Delhi. They also witnessed the rushed creation of Pakistan as a country in two halves whose capitals were two thousand kilometers apart. From September to December 1947 the euphoria surrounding the realization of the dream of independence dissipated into shame and incrimination; nearly 1 million people died and countless more lost their homes and their livelihoods as partition was realized. The events of those months would dictate the history of South Asia for the next seventy years, leading to three wars, countless acts of terrorism, polarization around the Cold War powers and to two nations with millions living in poverty spending disproportionate amounts on their military. The roots of much of the violence in the region today, and worldwide, are in the decisions taken that year. Not only were those decisions controversial but the people who made them were themselves to become some of the most enduring characters of the twentieth century. Gandhi and Nehru enjoyed almost saint like status in India, and still do, whilst Jinnah is lionized in Pakistan. The British cast, from Churchill to Attlee and Mountbatten, find their contribution praised and damned in equal measure. Yet it is not only the national players whose stories fascinate. Many of those ordinary people who witnessed the events of that year are still alive. Although most were, predictably, only children, there are still some in their late eighties and nineties who have a clear recollection of the excitement and the horror. Illustrating the story of 1947 with their experiences and what independence and partition meant to the farmers of the Punjab, those living in Lahore and Calcutta, or what it felt like to be a soldier in a divided and largely passive army, makes the story real. Partition will bring to life this terrible era for the Indian Sub Continent.

The Most Comprehensive Compendium On Post-1947 India This Definitive Guide To Independent India Takes Us Through The Events And Personalities That Have Shaped India In The Sixty Years Since 1947. Starting With Independence Day, It Covers The Decades In Which The Subcontinent Saw The Rise Of Democracy, Its Metamorphosis From An Economy Driven By Self-Sufficiency To One Propelled By The Economic Reforms Of The 1990S, And The Concurrent Liberalization, Privatization And Globalization That Boosted India S Growth Rate. It Also Marks The Transition From The Era Of Single-Party Dominance To That Of Coalition Politics. Arranged Chronologically, India Since 1947 Covers A Wide Range Of Topics, From The Coming Into Being Of The Indian Dominion, India S First Elections, The Green Revolution, The Five-Year Plans, And The Infamous Emergency (Soon Reversed By The Democratic Process) To The Beginning Of Television In India And The Launch Of Its Space And Nuclear Programmes. Among Some Of The Other Events Covered In The Book Are: The Discovery Of The Cholera Toxin Asia S First-Ever Heart Transplant In Bombay The Beginning Of The Manufacture Of Bread In Delhi And Bombay The Hijacking Of Flight Ic 814 The Setting Up Of The Bombay Stock Exchange The Establishment Of An All-Woman Hospital In Hyderabad A Separate Listing Of The Events Leading Up To Independence, Interesting Factoids On Various Aspects Of Modern India, And A Detailed Index Further Enhance The Appeal Of The Book.