How To Judge A Biography
T.C.A. Srinivasa Raghavan
HALF LION: HOW P.V. NARASIMHA RAO TRANSFORMED INDIA by By Vinay Sitapati Penguin Viking, New Delhi, 2016, 391 pp., 700.00
September 2016, volume 40, No 9

How do you judge a good biography, especially in a country where the tradition of writing them is virtually nonexistent and where even the few that do get written, tend to be hagiographies? It is hard to say but Vinay Sitapati’s biography of P.V. Narasimha Rao, a former Prime Minister of India, fulfils the five criteria that could be applied, namely, length, style, research, new information and novel interpretation.

Last year, Daman Singh, Manmohan Singh’s daughter wrote her father’s biography but it failed on three of the above five counts: research, new information and novel interpretation. It was an interesting read but added little to what was not already known.

In contrast, Sitapati who is a journalist, lawyer, academic and Ph.D candidate, provides a huge amount of hitherto unknown detail, such as it was Rajiv Gandhi’s friend, Satish Sharma, to whom Rao first turned for advice when he heard he might become the next President of the Congress after Rajiv’s assassination and therefore, electorate willing, Prime Minister.

Sitapati’s style, however, is a bit confusing as well. He writes like a journalist but footnotes like an academic. He cites sources in the text as well as in the notes and references at the back—all 75 pages of them. He keeps you riveted but disappoints often with his tentativeness.

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