Book Review: Patriots & Partisans

The book Patriots & Partisans by eminent historian Ramachandra Guha is a great combination of various essays on democracy, politics, people and sociology. The essays are divided into two parts: Part I named Debating Democracy comprises of 9 essays covering a wide range of topics related to politics and democracy; Part II names The World and The World has 6 essays that highlight personalities and people who have contributed to enriching intellectualism in India. 

Guha starts his preface with the interesting line : "I am a person of moderate views, these sometimes expressed in extreme fashion" probably because he has always felt that the moderate intellectuals in India need to be more strong and effective in putting forward their views. The author feels there are three prominent ideological enemies of the idea of India: the demand of a Hindu fundamentalism, communist dictatorship and ethnic separatism. The idea of India has always been plural and inclusive, fundamentalism, separatism and dictatorship lack the power to engulf the diversity and difference that the country stands for. Guha also believes three more mundane challenges have been added to this list recently- inequality, corruption and environmental degradation. 

In the first part on the book, the essays on Congress Chamchagiri, Hindutva Hate Mail and An Asian Clash of Civilizations deserves special mention. The essay on Congress Chamchagiri highlights how loyalty is given priority over calibre and qualification in  the party. Moreover, with examples, Guha had opined that this culture has engulfed many other regional parties across India. The essay on Hindutva Hate Mail has interesting reproduction of mails received by Guha by fundamentalists. Some of the mail reflect how hounding are some fundamentalists, some elements of them are associated with some Hindu organizations. The essay An Asian Clash of Civilizations revisits India China war, its causes and consequence. In the last chapter of part I, the beauty of compromise, Guha has expressed his views on possible solutions of Kashmir and Nagaland issues. He believes that both central government and rebellious groups in these states must be flexible and flexible enough to arrive a win-win situation rather than resorting to a rigid and strong stand which may come in between the way of negotiations. 

Out of the essays in part II of the book, The Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual and Pluralism in Indian University focus on two interesting dimensions of Indian society. There was a time when many intellectuals used to learn multiple languages with reasonable fluency and their ability to translate the best of literary creations to other languages helped in percolating ideas from one set of people to others. Guha points out that the number of such intellects are going down with time as the new age writers stick to only language. The essay on Pluralism in Indian University highlights ways and methods to encourage diversity in age, social class, nationality etc. in Indian university. 

This book definitely helps you to decode some of the complexities associated with the idea of India. Guha's lucid writing style makes it an easy and smooth read.