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The Struggle for India's Soul: Nationalism and the Fate of Democracy - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

The Struggle for India's Soul: Nationalism and the Fate of Democracy

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Over a billion Indians are alive today. But are some more Indian than others? To answer this question, central to the identity of all who belong to modern India, Shashi Tharoor explores hotly contested notions of nationalism, patriotism, citizenship and belonging. Two opposing ideas of India have emerged: ethno-religious nationalism, versus civic nationalism. This struggle for India's soul now threatens to hollow out and destroy the remarkable concepts bestowed upon the nation at Independence: pluralism, secularism, inclusive nationhood. The Constitution is under siege; institutions are being undermined; mythical pasts propagated; universities assailed; minorities demonized, and worse. Tharoor shows how these new attacks threaten the ideals India has long been admired for, as authoritarian leaders and their supporters push the country towards illiberalism and intolerance. If they succeed, millions will be stripped of their identity, and bogus theories of Indianness will take root in the soil of the subcontinent. However, all is not yet lost. This erudite, lucid book, taking a long view of India's existential crisis, shows what needs to be done to save everything that is unique and valuable about India.

ISBN-13: 9781787385597

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Hurst

Publication Date: 11-15-2021

Pages: 356

Product Dimensions: 9.54(w) x 6.49(h) x 1.48(d)

Shashi Tharoor is a former UN under-secretary-general, a Congress MP in India, the author of twenty-three books, and the recipient of literary awards including a Commonwealth Writers" Prize. His Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Financial Times Book of the Year

Table of Contents

Prologue: A Congenital Indian Nationalist xi

Part 1 The Idea of Nationalism

1 The Emergence of Nationalism 3

2 A Very Recent Idea 11

3 The Significance of Culture 17

4 The Prism of Identity 25

5 What Makes Patriotism Different 39

6 Janus-Faced Nationalism 49

7 The Era of Globalization 55

8 The Better Nationalism 61

9 A Sense of Belonging 69

Part 2 The Idea of India

10 The Basics 75

11 The Challenge of Definition 83

12 We Are All Minorities in India 91

13 The Constitution and Indian Nationhood 97

14 A Living Document 103

15 "Indie Civilization" and Indianness 111

Part 3 The Hindutva Idea of India

16 The Doctrine of Hindutva 125

17 Hindu Rashtra Updated 133

18 A "Hindu Pakistan" 141

19 The Fabrication of History 143

20 Bharat Mata ki Jai 153

Part 4 The Ongoing Struggle for India's Soul

21 A Partition in the Indian Soul 163

22 Where We Are, and How We Got Here 167

23 The Renewed Modi-fication of India 177

24 The Etiolation of Democratic Institutions 183

25 The Assertion of Hindi 197

26 The Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Registry of Citizens 203

27 Kashmir and the End of Autonomy 219

28 Soft-signalling Bigotry 227

29 Ayodhya: Enshrining Hindu Rashtra 231

Part 5 The Anxiety of Nationhood

30 Gandhi's Hinduism vs Hindutva 237

31 Bharat vs India 243

32 Bending the Constitution 249

33 Beatitudes of Belonging 261

34 The North-South Divide 279

35 Reaffirming Civic Nationalism and Patriotism 287

Part 6 Reclaiming India's Soul

36 Where Do We Go from Here? 301

37 Fighting Back 309

38 Liberal Constitutionalism and Patriotism 313

Epilogue: Winning the Struggle for India's Soul 323

Notes 327

Acknowledgements 351

Bibliography 353

Index 365