Quotes from Ramachandra Guha

Naturally, national unity and linguistic diversity have not always been seen to be compatible. Indians speaking one tongue have fought with Indians who speak another.

The history of the twentieth century, he pointed out, is replete with instances of the tragedy that overtakes democracy when a leader who has risen to power on the crest of a popular wave or with the support of a democratic organisation becomes a victim of political narcissism and is egged on by a coterie of unscrupulous sycophants who use corruption and terror to silence opposition and attempt to make public opinion an echo of authority.

Rabindranath Tagore used the phrase in a letter to a friend in 1921, writing that '…the idea of India is against the intense consciousness of the separateness of one's own people from others, which inevitably leads to ceaseless conflicts.

So the UCRW commandeered a bunch of film projectors from Delhi, and set them up in Kurukshetra. Among the movies shown were Disney specials featuring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. With large cloth screens allowing for two-way projection, crowds of up to 15,000 could watch a single show. This 'two-hour break from reality', commented a social worker, 'was a lifesaver. The refugees forgot their shock experiences and misery for two golden hours of laughter.

Instrument of Accession

nobody in India will love me for the award about the Punjab and Bengal and there will be roughly 80 million people with a grievance who will begin looking for me. I do not want them to find me . . .

and Bengali literature – in sum, 'an awesome polyglot, the

What is a democratic Central Government to do with a Communist state?' he asked. 'What would the American administration do if California or Wisconsin suddenly – and I admit, somewhat unexpectedly – turned Communist? And again, how is a Communist government itself to behave with democratic overlords sitting on its neck?

The Madras journal, for its part, responded by printing a lyrical paean to the union of Kashmir with India. 'The blood of many a brave Tamilian, Andhra, Malayalee and Coorgi', it said, 'has soaked into the fertile soil of Kashmir and mixed with the blood of the Kashmiri patriots, cementing for ever the unity of the North and the South.

If we had to accept the principle of numerical superiority while selecting our national bird, the choice would have fallen not on the peacock but on the common crow.'13

From his home in New Delhi, Atal Behari Vajpayee spoke by satellite to tribals in Kashipur, whose kinsmen had died after eating mango kernel because their crops had failed. 'It is extremely unfortunate that in today's world people die by eating poisonous material', said the head of a government that could speak to its citizens by videophone, yet not supply them with wholesome food.

remarkable achievement', then went on to say that 'both Union and democracy are under increasing strain these days, with the future of both in doubt'.66 However, most Indians were by now comfortable with the diversity within. They could see what bound the varied religions, races and regions:

promoting concord in the place of discord

History is really a record of every interruption of the even working of love or of the soul.

Millions of refugees from East and West Pakistan had to be found homes and gainful employment. An undeclared war was taking place in Kashmir. A new constitution had to be decided upon. Elections had to be scheduled, economic policies framed and executed.

India incorporates a greater variety of religions (whether born in its soil or imported) than any other nation in human history.

By 1888 the British were so solidly established in India that they could anticipate, if not a thousand-year Raj, at least a rule that extended well beyond their own lifetimes.

It is in the nature of democracies, perhaps, that while visionaries are sometimes necessary to make them, once made they can be managed by mediocrities.

What is now in the past was once in the future