I was reading the news of Kashmir issues.
It touched my heart and soon remembered the sentence, “His passing away meant
the end of a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue.” This was published by
Pakistani newspaper on Nehru’s death. I had read it in Guha’s ‘India after
Gandhi’. It took a flashback of the consequences mentioned in the book. And so,
I started writing a review on the book…
“Abdullah proceeded to Muzaffarabad, a
town he had not seen since Kashmir was divided in 1947. He had no idea of how
the Kashmiris this side of the ceasefire line would react to his proposals.
Before he could find out, news reach him that, back in Delhi, Nehru had died.
Abdullah at once ‘broke into tears and sobbed.’ In a muffled voice told the
reporters gathered around him, ‘he is dead, I can’t meet him.’ When asked for
more reactions he retired to a room, to be alone in his grief.” This paragraph
states, Sheikh Abdullah had predicted that the issue of Kashmir is difficult to
solve after the death of Nehruji. One more sentence in the book states similar
thoughts. “For whoever succeeded Nehru would not have the stature, courage and
political support necessary to go against the highly emotional tide of public
opinion in India favoring a status quo in Kashmir.” And really now Kashmir
issue has become the most unanswered issue for both the countries, for people
of both the countries and mainly for the people of Kashmir who are suffering
from both sides since last 68 years.
This book is the reconstruction of the past
six decades of the Indian history. It lists events, struggles, glories,
conflicts, miseries, solutions and disputes of the India, along with roles and
action of few important personalities in India.
Two most beautiful parts described in the
book are Nehruji’s era as a Prime Minister and 1951’s general elections.
Description of general elections states how difficult it is to conduct any
administrative event in the country like India (World’s Largest Democracy).
This book covers variety of topics of an
Indian history after independence. Integration of Princely states, Mahatma
Gandhi’s fast at Kolkata during partition, meetings for The Constitution and
Ambedkar’s views, all general elections, Kashmir disputes, Khalisthan disputes,
river disputes, war with China, all three wars with Pakistan, Liberation of
Bangladesh, JP’s movement, Indira Gandhi’s emergency, LTTE issues, operation
Blue Star, State wise conflicts, demolition of Babri Masjid, serial bomb blasts
at Mumbai and many important events are covered in the book.
After reading the book one can figure out
the chain of events interlinked with each other. It also indicates that how and
who triggered some destructive events in India. Book also contains few old
pictures which speak a lot.
All
these qualities make the book one of the best non-fictions in its time.
Pratik
Umbarkar (Nirman 6)
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