Book Recommendation!
I am aware that this is not the first time I am talking about books. I have a connection to them like no other. To be honest, I don't know what else I can talk about, so I am going to talk about books until my last breath.
Hello from the other side!
Since it's one day after our 74th Independence Day, I will talk about books related to India and it's favourite religion amongst many other, Politics. But before we start I want to say that even though I am a big fan of fiction because anything can happen in them, reading these books made me realise how much non-fiction is important. Not just to have our experiences documented by it; even if we read it years later the experience will be no different.
Let's begin, shall we?
I know some of you might be thinking, you already suffered a lot while all that was happening in India and don't want to read about it all over again. And some of you have read the name of the book and already stopped reading this, and that's okay.
Shaheen Bagh: From a Protest to a Movement is a moving tale of the brave women of Shaheen Bagh—patient, persevering and unbelievable peaceniks—who raised their voice for the deprived and the discriminated. Initially starting out like a cry of anguish against the allegedly discriminatory laws of the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens, it soon became a modern-day Gandhian movement for equal rights for all citizens.
Shaheen Bagh and the Idea of India examines how the sit-in by a small group of Muslim women—many of whom had stepped out of their homes alone for the first time—united millions of Indians of different faiths and ideologies in defence of the principles of liberty, equality and secularism enshrined in our Constitution. It also throws up many important questions: Can the Shaheen Bagh protests reverse the damage done to our democracy in recent years? How did the non-violent movement sustain itself despite vilification, threats and persecution by the establishment? Is this movement the beginning of new solidarities in our society? Will it survive the aftermath of the communal violence that devastated northeast Delhi in February 2020, and the witch-hunt that was launched under cover of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown?
This book is a compilation of essays by people with experience in their respective fields. The 25 chapters covering various subjects ranging from ‘Security challenges’, ‘India in a Globalized World’, ‘India’s Elections and Reforms’, down to the one on ‘Skill Development’ are standalone pillars; they are not integrated, nor grouped together in a meaningful way. Mostly, they are reflections and do not amount to an assessment of our past record.
The book narrates this compelling data story in a layman's language. Even where data is wrong it leaves behind a tell-tale mark of anomalies, which trips the economy sooner than later. Fudged, incorrect or lazily collected data is worse than genuine but unimpressive data as you do not know what to correct. India Emerging thus captures this dialogue on the pros and cons of economic and political decisions that can be understood by the common voter who is neither an economist nor an academician.
Indira Gandhi made unorthodox use of power and possessed a highly individual style of functioning. In this book, Nayantara Sahgal persuasively argues that authoritarianism was the inevitable outcome of Indira's personality and temperament. Her leadership marked a drastic break with the democratic tradition of her family and Indian politics. During her regime, the political landscape of India underwent profound changes. The Emergency of 1975 - 77 was used to promote her son Sanjay as her ultimate successor. The entry of her elder son, Rajiv, into politics after Sanjay's death, and his immediate political prominence showcased Indira's essential belief in her family's right to rule.
Vaishnav makes a convincing case by telling tales from the campaign trail, analyzing the conditions that breed crime and corruption, and probing survey data that reveal that voters who are particularly focused on their ethnic identities are more willing than others to vote for candidates charged with crimes. His study reinforces the growing consensus that healthy democracies require strong institutions not only of accountability (such as elections) but also of governance, and he concludes with a robust set of recommendations for how to clean up Indian politics.
The Saffron Tide, as the title suggests, has taken a look at the larger picture through the prism of right-wing religious parties that together threw up the BJP to take on Congress at the national scale.
If the issues miring both demand and supply in the job market are not addressed urgently, we are looking at an economy in which over 20 crore people will be in ‘bad jobs’ or even without jobs by 2025. Why are Indian companies not creating enough jobs? Why do small companies remain small? Will bots take over today’s jobs, from the shop floor to the back office? What will salaries of the future look like? Why have successive governments failed in their promises to create more jobs that pay well?
There you have it, a non-fiction book recommendation. I hope you all enjoy reading these books as much as I did. The link to the full review of each book is on the first few words of each paragraph. Do check it out, people have written a great review for these books.
If there is something you want me to talk about, let me know in the comments.
Have you read any of these books? How do you like them?
Love, Athena.
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Thank you for the recommendations, really excited to read them.
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