To a generation born around 1947, Independence Day was a beacon of hope, sparkling with excitement at the idea of building a modern nation-state, freed from the shackles of colonialism. The stalwarts of the National Movement had spent long years in prisons and had had the opportunity to reflect and hone clear-cut ideas about how the newly-independent India that is Bharat was to be shaped. Traumatized by the blows dealt by Partition, they were determined to build a secular, democratic Republic, governed by a Constitution which would ensure freedom, equality, justice and dignity for all; to hit at the roots of casteism, communalism, fissiparous tendencies and other divisive forces within the body politic. And so it began: on the midnight of August 14, 1947, ‘India awoke to life and freedom’.
Three quarters of a century as a modern nation-state with ups and downs, challenges and problems, provide a broad canvas to take stock of the polity, economy, society, and how far we have succeeded in giving shape to the uplifting ideas of freedom fighters and members of the Constituent Assembly, enshrined in the Constitution of India. 75 years are the blink of an eye for a millennia-old civilization that India is. However, these years have witnessed a sea-change in the DNA of the country. Electoral politics, ideological shifts and social and economic factors have all contributed to transforming India from a poverty-stricken nation at Independence to a player on the global stage. However, the opening up of the economy, the IT revolution, private entrepreneurship which have contributed to an upward mobility among the masses, are also offset by a sense of a loss of innocence and idealism which imbued the nation in the decade following Independence. The idea of India as a civilization where religions and communities co-existed is being increasingly challenged, and potentially replaced by a majoritarian vision.
In part, this is the scenario the world over in the new millennium replacing the aspirations of movements for civil rights and social justice in the last century. If politically, countries are veering from the Left to the Right, economically, in the race for maximization of profits and market ideology the gap between the rich and the poor is growing into a chasm. The end of the Cold War, instead of contributing to a more wholesome international order, has opened up scenarios which resemble nothing short of an anarchical society. Wars and violence are being unleashed with impunity while world bodies look on helplessly, mouthing platitudes. Mass migrations are a natural fallout which are adding to the chaos, physical and psychological trauma of homelessness and displacement of entire populations. Added to this are the challenges of global warming which threaten the very existence of human civilization.
However, it is in the natural schema of the unquenchable human spirit to strive towards creating order out of chaos. Racism in the West confronts Black Lives Matter moments, Shaheen Bagh stands as a shining example of hope and resilience, and civil society everywhere is standing up to be counted. The Bhagavad Gita teaches us that there is an in-built corrective mechanism in the national psyche which kicks in at the darkest hour before dawn. It is faith in this belief which has prompted us to showcase the history of the last 75 years through book reviews and articles in three special issues of The Book Review.
The Book Review, founded twenty-nine years into freedom, celebrates India @75 by bringing to our readers critical analyses of a vast array of books across genres in July, August, and September 2022. The reviews in every issue will cover Language and Literature, Art & Culture, History, Economic Studies, Sociology and Anthropology, International Relations, Politics, Children’s Books, Migration and more. The August 2022 issue has a special focus on International Relations, and includes sections on Gandhiana, Migration, Partition, History, Economics and Literature. Shivshankar Menon’s article, a grand sweep of narration of India’s Foreign Policy since Independence, sets the stage by asking, ‘How did we do?’: ‘Looking back, how did Indian foreign policy do in the constant churn and crosscurrents of the international system? It did well, after some learning, would be my answer.’ Sucharita Segupta’s article on climate change focuses on one of the most urgent foreign policy challenges India faces, and brings to the fore the untold story of the role of the domestic constituencies: ‘…a more nuanced understanding reveals that it would be inaccurate to discount the domestic story altogether’, says Sengupta.
One of the major achievements for India’s foreign policy has been that we have achieved nuclear deterrence, as Kiran Doshi says, and this has been made possible because ‘our search for nuclear deterrence was driven not by our political leaders, as in other countries, but by our nuclear scientists, starting with the great Homi Bhabha.’ While due attention has been paid to the regions adjoining India and the impact of bilateral relations between India and other countries in the selections of books for review, it is China which looms large on India’s foreign policy horizon, as the article by TCA Rangachari and reviews by several scholars highlight. ‘The ancient civilizations of India and China made an unparalleled contribution to human values and thought through philosophy, religion, culture and literature’, says TCA Rangachari. But now, as Doshi says, ‘China views India as an obstacle to whatever it is striving to get in Asia and beyond.’ ‘However much we may value our common past, it is the present that we live in and the present that determines how we deal with each other’, which is what will underscore whether the 21st century is an Asian century. We also bring to our readers an article on Sri Lanka by N Manoharan which paints the India-Sri Lanka relations on a broad canvas.
Earlier this year, the editorial team of The Book Review went on a Goodwill Hunting Mission which has paid great dividends. We would like to thank all the publishers for taking advertisement space in the pages of the three special issues to show solidarity for the journal which is now reaching its half century mark. We would also like to thank some of the donors who have contributed generously to the corpus of The Book Review Literary Trust during the last financial year: Kishore Mariwala, Nandan Nilekani, Shyam Diwan, Cyrus Guzder, Kiriti Sengupta; sponsors who underwrote the cost of publishing special issues in 2021-22, Sugat Jain of Primus Books, the Tata Trusts, Romila Thapar, Rajani and Shirish Patel and Nabanipa Bhattacharjee.
The newly revamped website of The Book Review Literary Trust became operational in September 2021. A special feature on this site is the Archives of TBR from 1976 to the current issue. We owe a special thanks to Dr Mallika Joseph, former Executive Director of RCSS, Colombo and former Director of the Institute of Conflict Studies, New Delhi, and members of the Digital Empowerment Foundation, New Delhi, for making this happen in record time. We are happy to record that between September 2021 and March 2022 the website received close to 3.5 million hits (3,444,250), averaging half a million hits (492,035) a month. Increased visibility translates into wider dissemination of the journal and upward trend in subscribers to the print and digital editions.
The Book Review is what its reviewers make it and we are singularly fortunate in the inexhaustible fund of goodwill we enjoy from them. In India and abroad, an email elicits invariably a positive response, deadlines are met without fail, and so we have gone to press every month on schedule for the last 45 years and more. So, a big thank you to all of them. A special thanks to Sucharita Sengupta for guest editing this special issue.
Chandra Chari Uma Iyengar