Foreword by Sanjeev Sanyal
A clear look into India's political, social and economic history
unobstructed by decades of agenda-driven narratives that sought to
muddy the waters of our civilisational truths.'
-Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs,
Government of India.
For the better part of seven decades after independence, the Nehruvian
idea of India held sway in India's polity, even if it was not always in
consonance with the views of Jawaharlal Nehru himself. Three key
features constituted the crux of the Nehruvian way: socialism, which
in practice devolved to corruption and stagnation; secularism, which
boxed citizens into group membership and diluted individual identity;
and non-alignment, which effectively placed India in the Communist
camp.
In the early nineties, India started a gradual withdrawal from this path.
But it was only in 2019, with Narendra Modi's second successive win in
the general elections, that this philosophy is finally being replaced by a
worldview that acknowledges India as an ancient civilisation, even if a
young republic, and that sees citizens as equal for developmental and
other purposes. A New Idea of India constructs and expounds on a new
framework beyond the rough and tumble of partisan politics.
Lucid in its laying out of ideas and policies while taking a novel position,
this book is illuminated by years of research and the authors' first-hand
experiences, as citizens, entrepreneurs and investors, of the vagaries
and challenges of India.