This definitive guide to independent India takes us through the events and personalities that have shaped India in the sixty years since 1947. Starting with Independence Day, it covers the decades in which the subcontinent saw the rise of democracy, its metamorphosis from an economy driven by self-sufficiency to one propelled by the economic reforms of the 1990s, and the concurrent liberalization, privatization and globalization that boosted India’s growth rate. It also marks the transition from the era of single party dominance to that of coalition politics. Arranged chronologically, India Since 1947 covers a wide range of topics, from the coming into being of the Indian dominion, India’s first elections, the green revolution, the Five-Year Plans, and the infamous emergency (soon reversed by the democratic process) to the beginning of television in India and the launch of its space and nuclear programmes. Among the other events covered in the book are: The discovery of the cholera toxin, Asia’s first-ever heart transplant in Bombay, The beginning of the manufacture of bread in Delhi and Bombay, The hijacking of flight IC 814, The setting up of the Bombay stock exchange, The establishment of an all-woman hospital in Hyderabad. A separate listing of the events leading up to independence, interesting factoids on various aspects of modern India, and a detailed index further enhance the appeal of the book.
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