INDIA: Shedding the Past, Embracing the Future (1906-2017) (Hardcover)

By Arun Bhatnagar

On the Seventieth Anniversary, in the year 2017, of the Partition of India, this Book is among the latest writings on that horrific saga which became a defining moment in Asian history. Its repercussions and after-effects are in evidence to the present day.

With the blame-game for tragedies such as the Partition and the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, the Kashmir and Tibet questions, the China policy, the economic scenario, the social and ethnic challenges, communal strife and gender violence having gone on and on, an attempt is made to suggest answers.

Issues pertaining to governance and administration and of foreign policy are addressed at some length.

In several ways, the seeds of the troubles and difficulties that have confronted the new India were sown in August, 1947 itself. The run-up to Independence also witnessed the growth of the Hindutva Movement through the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS and, at a later date, the birth of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). The BJP of today, with Narendra Modi at the helm, is an outcome thereof.

This comprehensive and lucidly-written book traces and analyses the journey of the emergence of Independent India and the roots of many of the basic issues and seemingly insoluble problems. It exhorts the future to study the past and learn from experiences and mistakes.

ARUN BHATNAGAR, a career civil servant, retired as Secretary in the Government of India after being in the IAS for close to four decades. He was associated with the National Advisory Council (NAC) between 2004-08 and was Chairman, Prasar Bharati for a year. During 1992-94, he functioned as Joint Secretary to the President of India (Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma) and, later, as Minister (Economic) in the Indian High Commission, London.

Bhatnagar attended St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and has contributed to English dailies and magazines, such as the Illustrated Weekly of India, Times of India, Sunday Guardian and Dawn (Pakistan) on historical and political subjects, bureaucracy and civil service and science policy.

His grandfather was the eminent scientist and educationist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, architect of the chain of National Laboratories in the country and first Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

You can buy the book on Amazon India or Flipkart