The Life and Times of George Fernandes


Book Description

The Militant Trade Union Leader. The Dauntless Political Rebel. The Passionate Socialist Dreamer. This is a biography of India's George Fernandes. George Fernandes (1930-2019)-a firebrand trade union leader, socialist politician and incredibly powerful orator-is popularly known for leading the All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) in May 1974 and calling upon its approximately 1.7 million employees to strike, which brought India to a halt for twenty days. Often described as a rebel, he pursued every cause he took up with passionate devotion, heedless of the many ups and downs in his life. From the early years of fighting for the rights of dock and municipal workers of Bombay (now Mumbai) through the Emergency, which he resisted by going underground, to his last private decade as a bed-ridden Alzheimer's patient, his fights were always persistent and single-handed. George could call Bombay to be shut down and rose from its streets to become India's Defence Minister. The Life and Times of George Fernandes chronicles the story of George, who rose from the streets of Bombay to stride the corridors of power. In this extraordinary biography, Rahul Ramagundam opens a window to George's political evolution and traces the course of the Socialist Party in India from its inception in 1930s to its dissolution into the Janata Party in the late 1970s. In the process, this book explores the trail of India's opposition parties that worked to displace the long-ruling Congress Party from its preeminent position. Comprehensive, evocative and fascinating, this first definitive biography of George Fernandes is an unputdownable tour de force.




George Fernandes Speaks


Book Description

Selected writings and speeches of an Indian politician, chiefly on Indian politics, 1964-1989.







Twenty Tumultuous Years, Insights Into Indian Polity, 1973-1994


Book Description

In two volumes the reliable work proves to be the contemporary chronicle of the major political events and political movements referred to as the history of modern Indian politics, and the personalities enacting events and movements, with top analysis and perspective to shape an insight to the most important years of Indian politics, norms trends and political truths ranks an excellence.




Viewpoint


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Forging Power


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This volume looks at the evolution of coalition politics in India, both at the national and provincial levels. It investigates the processes that led to coalition governments. It explores the formation of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Janata Party experiment, and the Third Front experiments. The book highlights the growing importance of regional parties in national politics and argues that the very notion of representation in terms of ‘national’ and ‘local’ is being redefined in the context of the emerging significance of coalition politics. It also examines the role of cultural synergy and political expediency in coalition politics and discusses the inevitability of coalition government in India.




Prism Me a Lie Tell Me A Truth: Tehelka as Metaphor


Book Description

In March 2001, the website Tehelka broke Operation West End, the biggest undercover news story in Indian journalism. Using spycams and masquerading as arms dealers, Tehelka's reporters infiltrated the Indian government, bribed army officers, gave money to the president of the ruling party and the defence minister's close colleague right in the defence minister's residence. This eventually forced both the ministers'resignations. In a rigorously researched and searing authentic account of the Tehelka expose and its aftermath, Madhu Trehan does a forensic study of the imperatives at the root of it, the characters and heroes and villains of the story, and of how the system got back: by obfuscating, by attempting to destroy the investors without leaving any footprints. In the style of Rashomon, the story is related by numerous participants of the same incidents and, of course, none of the stories tally. With exhaustive personal interviews, this is a must-read for anybody who wants to understand modern India - or even better, modern international journalism.




There's Something in the Air


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There I Was! : Media Musings


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Living through dramatic times as one of the first woman political journalists in the broadcast media in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh when private television channels breezed through the regional landscape in the mid-nineties, Aruna Ravikumar witnessed momentous developments and historical events frozen in time. ‘There I Was’! Media Musings'’ is a compelling read about her foray into journalism which unwittingly began with her listening to interesting news discussions by fellow morning walkers when she accompanied her grandfather to Hyderabad’s famous tank bund, culminating in her moderating political debates in television studios. Political intrigues, destruction of cities, caste conflicts, faction politics, and naxalite violence are part of the mosaic of experiences chronicled here with historical perspective and personal observation. Sketches of select celebrities from hundreds of interviews over decades will inspire awe and admiration in a world woefully lacking role-models. The book essays learnings from the media taking in its sweep, crowning successes and glaring failures and a wide gamut of issues in between.




Claiming Citizenship and Nation


Book Description

The book provides insight into the changing nature of Muslim politics and the ideas of citizenship in independent India. It studies the electoral mobilization of minority groups across North India, particularly in Uttar Pradesh where Muslims have been demographically dominant in various constituencies. The volume discusses themes such as the making and unmaking of the ‘Congress heartland’ and the threat of revival of ‘Muslim communalism’, alongside issues of representation, property, language politics, rehabilitation and citizenship, politics of Waqf, personal law and Hindu counter-mobilization. The author utilizes previously unused government and institutional files, private archives, interviews and oral resources to address questions central to Indian politics and society. An important intervention, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of politics, Indian history, minority studies, law, political studies, nationalism, electoral politics, partition studies, political sociology, sociology and South Asian Studies.