Arguing for India: Essays on Democracy

Ramachandra Guha (2016) Democrats and Dissenters, Penguin Allen Lane, pp. 316

This book, as the author points out in the beginning, is the fourth in the series of political history and commentary on the career of Republic of India. Beginning with India After Gandhi, Makers of Modern India, Patriots and Partisans, we have the fourth in the series, a collection of essays like its immediate predecessor. This book  speaks of political events as well as the protagonists who shaped the contours of modern India. Guha succeeds in bringing out the nuances in understanding the twists and turns, the largest democracy in the world has taken. Of sketching the personal eccentricities of the varied personalities especially scholars like Dharmanand Kosambi and Eric Hobsbawm, Guha is tender and delicate. It is in these deeply intimate portrayals of the scholar and his work, that Guha is non pareil.

Guha begins with an unerring analysis on the imminent death of the Indian National Congress and compares it in context with other emerging political alternatives. Conceding the life these popular alternatives are likely to take on in the contemporary history, Guha laments the value that an inclusive, nationalistic, secular political front had in safe keeping some of the cherished ideals of the Indian Constitution- namely democratic political order, equality and freedom of expression, political liberalism and secularism. He ruminates on the nature of Indian Constitution, its elements of idealism as well as caution in the wake of independence when the foundation of the democracy was threatened by extremism from the left and the right. The essays in the first part deal with the political evolution from the birth of independent India, through the contours of differences that people and political movements shaped, in the country. An important value of this work lies in the rich comparative perspective with South Asia with India’s Kashmir problem, Sri Lanka’s Tamil Nationalism and Pakistan’s fight with terrorism.

Nothing is more evocative than the author’s tender portrayal of people. The intellectual and intimate portrayals of ideologues in the second half cover the celebrated debate with Amartya Sen as much as a sensitive account of his contemporary Andre Béteille. The arguments Guha picks with these personalities are also arguments on and about India. The debaters are fierce defenders of democracy and within its rich pluralistic tradition, they argue, dissent and concede with fiery logic but with utmost dignity.

These essays are delightful to read and ruminate on. The book throws light on a fascinating array of new information patiently researched and poignantly written by one of India’s foremost historian and tenacious researcher. More importantly, the work is an invitation to dialogue on some of the searching problems that modern Indian democracy faces- from citizen rights to freedom of expression, from equality and dignity to dissent in the democratic tradition.

The Mountain Girl

The Black Hill, Mamang Dai, Aleph, pp.295

Every hour was a preparation and prayer to bid farewell to the grounds and leaves. Tidy the place and pack things to be elsewhere. Both Father Crick, the Missionary from France imbued with the original passion of his vocation and Gimur, the Abor woman longing to explore the mountains share this thirst for an adventure.   ‘A fire draws people together’, say the elders of the tribe and it was a curious fire that lay in the pit of their spirit that kept stoking them to wander away in search of new meanings.

This novel is a fictionalized account of Father Nicholas Crick the nineteenth century missionary from the Missions Étrangères de Paris to Tibet to spread the word of God. But Tibet, like a Holy Grail, remains unattainable to him. Throwing himself to the fate, the padre has to depend on the kindness of strangers and tribesmen for safe passage to the forbidden land that Tibet was. He makes his way through the treacherous mountains of North Eastern India, being the messenger and the medicine man, healing bodies and souls. His strange alter ego is Gimur the wild woman, breaker of all taboos, mother and daughter, who is prodded into an all or nothing passion to save the people she loves.

Set in the backdrop of Colonial India where the British were guarded in their approach of the tribesmen of north eastern India, the coming of Father Crick is an omen. He becomes the unwitting part of a dramatic war between the British and the ferociously territorial people, as they fight for their land, gods and livelihood. And the two people who are peace makers, nomads and believers of peace are thrown into the pit of deceit from which there is no safe passage.

Intensely researched and evocatively written, Mamang Dai’s novel is a superb and thrilling account of an adventure. As it narrates the compelling story of politics, faith and struggle for land, the story sheds light on the history of the Abor and Mishmee peoples in Colonial India. By tracing the history, the story also gives a possible direction for the future political course that the claim for land and belonging would take.

Mamang Dai is a writer with great sympathy for her characters and understanding of the complex historical context she seeks to explore. Her prose flows like the rivers that shape the contours of her story. I found the writer as a gift from a dear friend from Assam and cherish the discovery. Dai is one of the promising writers to look out for in Indian writing in English.