India: A Portrait

Patrick French

Penguin Books India,

448 pages, Rs 699

Beginning with an account of how the Indian Union was conceived and put together, French examines the astonishing shift from rigid socialism to unbridled capitalism, the continuing empowerment of the Dalit and lower castes, the anxieties of secular India’s large Muslim minority and the rise of violence in the conduct of the State and among those it neglects or suppresses. The result is a richly detailed, wide-ranging and hugely rewarding portrait of modern India.