num_pages: 384
description: A clear look into Indias political social and economic history unobstructed by decades of agenda-driven narratives that sought to muddy the waters of our civilisational truths.- Nirmala Sitharaman Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Government of IndiaIndia suffers from political scientists who slavishly recommend that India follow in the footsteps of their counterparts in the United States and frame its policies around ethnic groups rather than around individuals and their fundamental rights. Rajeev and Harsh two brilliant young authors confront these political scientists head on with a fabulous book.-Jagdish Bhagwati University Professor Columbia UniversityIt has become fashionable to suggest that the Indian right has no intellectuals. Rajeev and Harsh set about disproving this in their well-researched and fluently written book. Though there is much I disagree with in both their premises and their conclusions it is a pleasure to engage with their ideas and find much common ground in the defence of free speech economic freedom government reform and individual liberty.-Shashi Tharoor MP and authorWe need our own understanding to build a new idea of India. An idea of India that is actually connected to the real India. An idea of India that works. A good first step to build that is to read this wonderful book by these two young intellectuals.-Amish Tripathi Director The Nehru Centre and authorFor the better part of seven decades after independence the Nehruvian idea of India held sway in India's polity even if it was not always in consonance with the views of Jawaharlal Nehru himself. Three key features constituted the crux of the Nehruvian way: socialism which in practice devolved to corruption and stagnation; secularism which boxed citizens into group membership and diluted individual identity; and non-alignment which effectively placed India in the Communist camp.In the early nineties India started a gradual withdrawal from this path. But it was only in 2019 with Narendra Modis second successive win in the general elections that this philosophy is finally being replaced by a worldview that acknowledges India as an ancient civilisation even if a young republic and that sees citizens as equal for developmental and other purposes. A New Idea of India constructs and expounds on a new framework beyond the rough and tumble of partisan politics.Lucid in its laying out of ideas and policies while taking a novel position this book is illuminated by years of research and the authors first-hand experiences as citizens entrepreneurs and investors of the vagaries and challenges of India.
language: English
title: A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State
publisher: Westland