India after Independence: 8 books that explore history, identity and freedom

For grownupsIndia After Gandhi Pan MacmillanWhat history does India have to tell since its freedom from the British rule Ramachandra Guha examines this in his masterpiece From the celebration of the first ldquoIndependence Dayrdquo in 1930 to the events that led to the partition linguistic reorganisation of states in the new nation the fight of the Nagas for selfdetermination and tensions in the Kashmir Valley communal conflicts and regionalism in the 1960s the declaration of Emergency castebased violence Guha chronicles all that has shaped the worldrsquos largest democracyThe Other Side of Silence PenguinThe Independence Day narrative is incomplete without reflecting on the impact of Partition on the lives of people on the two sides of the border Through personal interviews author and publisher Urvashi Butalia assembles pieces of a harrowing history from the testimonies of those who survived She argues that apart from literary and political representations the way to understand Partition is to learn how people remember the facts and that Partition is not a thing of the past Its echoes are heard even todayMidnightrsquos Children VintageBooker Prizewinning author Salman Rushdiersquos pathbreaking work in postcolonial writing traces the life of Saleem Sinai born ldquoon the stroke of midnightrdquo on August 15 1947 in the city of Bombay now Mumbai As a result of the timing of his birth he and other midnightrsquos children are bestowed with special powers Using magical realism Rushdie explores a changing India that witnessed an identity crisis migration wars and emergencyConstitution is My Home HarperCollinsIn her new memoir one of the leading legal minds of the country Indira Jaising reflects on the primacy of the constitution of India and draws a map of the crucial legal battles she led in her fivedecadelong career This gives us a peek into a part of the legal history of India years after independence especially the realities of gender inequality and institutional neglect Her conversation with Ritu Menon for instance includes elaboration on cases like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy compensation case the triple talaq ban case Sabarmati entry case domestic violence reforms among others Pair it with Assembling Indian Constitution by Rohit De and Ornit ShaniFor young readersWarriors of NonViolence HarperCollinsWhile plenty of books highlight the contribution of the wellknown freedom fighters of the nation few throw light on the unsung heroes Ira Saxenarsquos book is a great introduction to some of the lesserknown fighters who played a significant role in the freedom struggle through nonviolence From the story of Hashmat Ali Khan in Meerut to that of Sarla Jagmohan in Rann of Kutch readers meet ordinary people with immense grit The Train to Tanjore DuckbillThe Quit India Movement saw its early beginnings at a Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee but one is rarely made privy to its history in the southern parts of the emerging nation Tanjore was one such city In Devika Rangacharirsquos novel through Thambirsquos life we get a peek into it As stations begin to get vandalized and leaflets are being circulated young Thambi tries to make sense of it all and picks up pieces of courage to do the right thing in tense times Hands that Wrote History PuffinPrem Behari Narain Raizada learnt the art of calligraphy under the guidance of his grandfather As he practiced every day to perfect his art his Os began to curl like lsquotwisting vinesrsquo and his Ss began to curve like slithering snakes the way his Dadajirsquos did Soon news of his calligraphy skills spread and he became the official calligrapher of the Constitution of India This book written by Mamta Nainy and illustrated by Priyankar Gupta captures his journey perfectlyIndia in Triangles PuffinHow was India mapped Shruthi Rao and Meera Iyer take young readers through a surveyorrsquos journey among forests hills and rain to tell the story of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India They depict how the map of India was made through the use of an interesting technique called triangulation which uses length of a side and two angles from a point The book is an adventurous ride that introduces readers to history through maps and math1997The year Arundhati Roy became the first Booker Prize winner from Independent IndiaAvailable At leading bookstores and estores