Nitish Kumar and the Rise of Bihar

by Arun Sinha

The conventional wisdom in Bihar s political circles was that development did not win votes. Nitish Kumar challenged that assumption and changed the face of the state. Born into a humble family in Bakhtiyarpur, Nitish joined the Lohiaite Socialist Party and built his constituency, literally day by day, forgoing a stable job to travel to distant villages, suffering both financial hardship and ridicule for the eight years it took him to win people s confidence.

Veteran journalist Arun Sinha tells the story of Nitish Kumar s rise against the larger canvas of social and political upheaval in Bihar, exploring the emergent desire for equality that drove progressive movements from late 1960s onwards and brought about a regime change by the 1990s. After an initial association with Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar rejected identity politics, recognizing that Bihar had to transcend caste if it was to grow.

Nitish Kumar and the Rise of Bihar is a clear-sighted study of Indian electoral politics that unfolds with the pace of a political drama, offering hard facts and an incisive analysis of the state s turbulent trajectory. Sinha steers the narrative deftly through the complex groupings of Bihar s political arena to reveal Nitish Kumar s acumen in bringing law and order, roads, education and health to the fore of governance. From feudal politics to caste identities, and finally to development Bihar could prove to be the model for India s post-Independence journey.

Genres: Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

given that I had gone to Bihar for the project and spoken to ministers and peasants and biharis in general about the new regine and the difference between lalu and nitish regime, the book was literally echoing what I had heard from them. I am impressed by the diligent efforts made by nitish despite all odds. the book otherwise is verbose and given that is an Indian author even I could feel the need of a better punctuation system in it :-) sometimes you loose track of time in it because he jumps from 2009 to say 2004 or 1970 and you wonder why did he do that! However it is a good attempt to put the achievements of nitish in 500 pages! I would definitely recommend readers to invest their money in this book for it would be worth a good asset in the long run in the library!

[Piyush · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book to read if you want to know about the politics of Bihar and how it has shaped up since JP movement days. Although the book has been written with Nitish Kumar as the protagonist, we get to see different shades of Lalu as well. None of the stories about Bihar can be complete without Lalu. The book talks about how Nitish Kumar has changed the caste based politics of Bihar to caste based development politics :P. It has a feel of projecting Nitish Kumar as the emancipator.But,we end up seeing Nitish Kumar as one of the most intelligent politicians of his time.
Overall a good read...:)

[Abhishek Upadhayay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good presentation of Politics in Bihar and how Nitish Kumar could bring change. Although caste politics still remains the core issue in Bihar.

[Praharsh Suryadevara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is rather, for the lack of a better word, jarring when it comes to language. The Content however offers an insight into the workings of Bihari Politics for an outsider who wants to understand aspects of Bihari Politics