Meghnad Desai
Penguin India
512 pages, Rs 699
What makes India a nation? What has held its many disparate societies with their diverse, sometimes conflicting, narratives together for more than 60 years? In this magisterial analysis of the last 500 years of Indian history, Meghnad Desai looks at India’s colonial past, its struggle for independence and its many contemporary conundrums, to discover answers to questions that have confronted India-watchers for decades.