Customer Reviews

India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality (Critical Histories)

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"India against itself" is a scholarly book written by a person who has witnessed, felt and seen first hand what is happening in north-eastern India and he feels passionately about it. The author himself is aware of this and wonders "whether eliminating the personal refereces whould necessarily enrich the text". The struggle of the author trying to stay objective and detached is apparent in many sections of the book. However his personal passion and pain is equally transparent, especially in the end of chapter seven he refers to a song by Bhupen Hazarika " There is neither joy or sorrow.." He makes a case for changing the basic political structure in India, empowering the states more. His belief that a loose system of federalism will work in a country like India can be argued for he offers an utopian view what he and many of us would like to see happen but does not offer many suggestions how to get there. If read superfically, one can easily make the erroneus assumption that the author is advocating for autonomy of Assam and that his sympathies lie with the insurgents. Read carefully one can feel the pathos and his hope for a better India with a stronger democracy rather than a fractured nation. It is not a easy book to read for a person unfamiliar with the academic side of political science which essentially limits the number of readers. Regardless of whether it is an entirely objective view, it offers food for thought and a forum for serious debate about the current state of our "nation-state".

Baruah has written an excellent monograph on the political turmoil in Assam and other parts of Northeast India. He clearly explains the political, cultural, religious, economic, and ethnic roots of the insurgencies. I learned a great deal about the socio-economic history of Assam and how the current political strife developed out of this history and the relationship - or lack of relationship one could say - between Assam and the rest of India. Beyond historiography, Baruah explains how state policies have fostered the separatist movements and how different policies may have produced a different outcome. And while this is an academic approach to the topic, it is very readable and very well organized.