India's first decade

Book review of 'A Republic In The Making'

A REPUBLIC IN THE MAKING 

India in the 1950s

Gyanesh Kudaisya

Oxford University Press

232 pages; Rs 595

The title of this book is unmistakably that of a MPhil or PhD dissertation that separates a decade in the life of a nation, political party or movement. But given the methodology and tools the author uses, India in the 1950s is not a dull academic account of a significant period in the evolution of the Indian republic. Engagingly written, the book revisits well-known episodes in the nation’s history but with fresh perspective on the immense task that the builders of modern