Synopses & Reviews
At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, a new nation was born. It has seventeen major languages and 22,000 distinct dialects. It has over a billion individuals of every ethnic extraction known to humanity. It has a population that is 32 percent illiterate, but also one of the worlds largest pools of trained scientists and engineers. Its ageless civilization is the birthplace of four major religions, a dozen different traditions of classical dance, and three hundred ways of cooking a potato. Shashi Tharoors India is a fascinating portrait of one of the worlds most interesting countriesits politics, its mentality, and its cultural riches. An eloquent argument for the importance of India to the future of America and the industrialized world, the book flows with the energy and erudition that distinguished his prize-winning novels. A New York Times Notable Book, this work of remarkable depth and startling originality combines elements of political scholarship, personal reflection, memoir, fiction, and polemic, all illuminated in vivid and compelling prose.
Synopsis
Tharoor explores the birth of a modern nation from the wreckage of empire, its beguiling diversity and its troubled path to becoming the world's largest democracy.
About the Author
Shashi Tharoor was born in London and brought up in Bombay and Calcutta. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Times of India, and Foreign Affairs. A human rights activist and winner of a Commonwealth Writers Prize, he is currently a member of the Indian Parliament and lives in New Dehli, India.