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Incarnations : a history of India in fifty lives / Sunil Khilnani.

by Khilnani, Sunil, 1960-

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.

India -- Biography.

India -- History.

9780141981437 (Penquin Books pbk. ed. 2017)

9780374175498 (hc.)

First American edition.

ix, 449 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

"Originally published, in somewhat different form, in 2016 by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, Great Britain"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [401]-426) and index.

The Buddha : waking India up -- Mahavira : soldier of non-violence -- Panini : catching the ocean in a cow's hoofprint -- Kautilya : the ring of power -- Ashoka : power as persuasion -- Charaka : on not violating good judgment -- Aryabhata : the boat of intellect -- Adi Shankara : a god without qualities -- Rajaraja Chola : cosmos, temple, and territory -- Basava : a voice in the air -- Amir Khusrau : the parrot of India -- Kabir : "Hey, you!" -- Guru Nanak : the discipline of deeds -- Krishnadevaraya : "kingship is strange" -- Mirabai : I go the other way -- Akbar : the world and the bridge -- Malik Ambar : the dark-fated one -- Dara Shikoh : the meeting-place of the two oceans -- Shivaji : dreaming big -- Nainsukh : owner transfixed by goose -- William Jones : enlightenment Mughal -- Rammohun Roy : "humanity in general" -- Lakshmi Bai, Rani of Jhansi : bad-ass queen -- Jyotirao Phule : the open well -- Deen Daya : courtier with a camera -- Birsa Munda : "have you been to Chalkad?" -- Jamsetji Tata : making India -- Vivekananda : bring all together -- Annie Besant : an Indian tom-tom -- Chidambaram Pillai : Swadeshi steam -- Srinivasa Ramanujan : the elbow of genius -- Tagore : unlocking cages -- Visvesvaraya : extracting moonbeams from cucumbers -- Periyar : sniper of sacred cows -- Iqbal : death for falcons -- Amrita Sher-Gil : this is me -- Subhas Chandra Bose : a touch of the abnormal -- Gandhi : "in the palm of our hands" -- Jinnah : the chess player -- Manto : the unsentimentalist -- Ambedkar : building palaces on dung heaps -- Raj Kapoor : the politics of love -- Sheikh Abdullah : chains of gold -- V.K. Krishna Menon : somber porcupine -- Subbulakshmi : opening rosebuds -- Indira Gandhi : the center of everything -- Satyajit Ray : India without elephants -- Charan Singh : a common cause -- M.F. Husain : "Hindustan is free" -- Dhirubhai Ambani : fins.

"An entertaining and provocative account of India's past, written by one of the country's leading thinkers. For all of India's myths, its sea of stories and moral epics, Indian history remains a curiously unpeopled place. In Incarnations, Sunil Khilnani fills that space, recapturing the human dimension of how the world's largest democracy came to be. His trenchant portraits of emperors, warriors, philosophers, film stars, and corporate titans - some famous, some unjustly forgotten - bring feeling, wry humor, and uncommon insight to dilemmas that extend from ancient times to our own. As he journeys across the country and through its past, Khilnani uncovers more than just history. In rocket launches and ayurvedic call centers, in slum temples and Bollywood studios, in California communes and grimy ports, he examines the continued, and often surprising, relevance of the men and women who have made India what it is. We encounter the Buddha, 'the first human personality'; the ancient Sanskrit linguist who inspires computer programmers today; the wit and guile of India's Machiavelli; and the medieval poets who mocked rituals and caste. In the twentieth century, Khilnani sets Gandhi and other political icons of the independence era next to actresses, photographers, and entrepreneurs. An introduction to India - and a provocative and sophisticated reinterpretation of its history"--Provided by publisher.

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