What do you think?
Rate this book
We, the Nation: the Lost Decades
A book for all persons and all seasons indeed. Each topic is illuminated with sensitivity and sunlight-clear exposition. Public memories are irresponsibly short and selective, and this book, spanning as it does the panorama of the last ten tumultuous years, becomes essential reading - the history that must be1 read so that we are not condemned to repeating it. India, the sleeping giant of an economy in the words of Lee Kuan Yew is, at last, slowly stirring from its long night of slumber, drugged as it has been for decades with the opiate of socialism. This amazing subcontinent with its mosaic of colours, cultures, contrasts and maddening contradictions, always has, thanks to vast quantities of its own indigenously manufactured red tape and venal politicians, been held in thrall for so long. It is only now, and that too hesitantly, that India is moving to take its rightful place in the community of nations of the world. What ails India, what its potential is, how magnificent its heritage is, how richly endowed it is by both history and nature, are all highlighted in this book.
332 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
30 people are currently reading
700 people want to read
About the author
Nani Palkhivala
7 books73 followersNanabhoy "Nani" Ardeshir Palkhivala was an Indian Jurist and Economist. His name is a byword in India's legal world. A man of many and varied parts, he has crossed with ease the law's narrow confines and has gone beyond into numerous other fields. His life's work, as evidenced by history, and his several writings and speeches, bears testimony to his passionate commitment to public causes. He has given generously and unsparingly of himself and his talents to the nation whenever the occasion demanded - most particularly in defence of the rights and liberties of the common man, so that the well-springs of democracy may remain undefiled.
Nani Palkhivala was born in 1920 in Bombay to blue collar, middle-class Parsi parents. His family name derives from the profession of his forefathers (a common practice among Parsis), who had been manufacturers of palanquins ("palkhis").
He was educated at Masters Tutorial High School, and later at St. Xavier's College, both in Bombay. He was a dedicated scholar and excelled even though he was hampered by a bad stammer. At college, he earned a master's degree in English literature. He overcame his speech impediment.
Upon graduating, Palkhivala applied for a position as lecturer at Bombay University, but was not awarded the post. Soon found himself trying to obtain admission to institutions of higher learning to further his academic career. It being late in the term, most courses were closed, and he enrolled at Government Law College, Bombay, where he discovered that he had a gift for unravelling the intricacies of jurisprudence.
He was called to the bar in 1944 and served in the chambers of the legendary Sir Jamshedji Behramji Kanga in Bombay. He quickly gained a reputation as an eloquent and articulate barrister, and was often the center of attention in court, where students of law and younger members of the bar association would flock to watch him. His excellent court craft and an extraordinary ability to recall barely known facts rendered him an irresistible force.
N Palkhivala initial forté was commercial and tax law. Together with Sir Jamshedji, he authored what was then and still is today an authoritative work: The Law and Practice of Income Tax. Palkhivala was 30 years old at the time of the first printing. Sir Jamshedji later admitted that the credit for this work belonged exclusively to Nani.
Palkhivala first participation in a case of constitutional significance occurred in 1951, where he served as junior counsel in the case Nusserwanji Balsara vs. State of Bombay [(1951) Bom 210], assisting the esteemed Sir Noshirwan Engineer in challenging several provisions of the Bombay Prohibition Act. Before the year was out, Palkhivala was arguing cases himself, but his first case of constitutional importance (a challenge of the validity of land requisition acts) was lost before the Bombay High Court.
By 1954 however, barely 10 years after his admission to the bar, Palkhivala was arguing before the Supreme Court. It was in this, his first, case before that court (concerning the interpretation of Article 29(2) and Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, which regulate the rights of religious minorities) that he first articulated his (later) famous statements on the inviolate nature of the constitution.
The laudatio from Princeton called him "... Defender of constitutional liberties, champion of human rights ...", and stated, "he has courageously advanced his conviction that expediency in the name of progress, at the cost of freedom, is no progress at all, but retrogression. Lawyer, teacher, author, and economic developer, he brings to us as Ambassador of India intelligence, good humour, experience, and vision for international understanding...."
Nani Palkhivala was born in 1920 in Bombay to blue collar, middle-class Parsi parents. His family name derives from the profession of his forefathers (a common practice among Parsis), who had been manufacturers of palanquins ("palkhis").
He was educated at Masters Tutorial High School, and later at St. Xavier's College, both in Bombay. He was a dedicated scholar and excelled even though he was hampered by a bad stammer. At college, he earned a master's degree in English literature. He overcame his speech impediment.
Upon graduating, Palkhivala applied for a position as lecturer at Bombay University, but was not awarded the post. Soon found himself trying to obtain admission to institutions of higher learning to further his academic career. It being late in the term, most courses were closed, and he enrolled at Government Law College, Bombay, where he discovered that he had a gift for unravelling the intricacies of jurisprudence.
He was called to the bar in 1944 and served in the chambers of the legendary Sir Jamshedji Behramji Kanga in Bombay. He quickly gained a reputation as an eloquent and articulate barrister, and was often the center of attention in court, where students of law and younger members of the bar association would flock to watch him. His excellent court craft and an extraordinary ability to recall barely known facts rendered him an irresistible force.
N Palkhivala initial forté was commercial and tax law. Together with Sir Jamshedji, he authored what was then and still is today an authoritative work: The Law and Practice of Income Tax. Palkhivala was 30 years old at the time of the first printing. Sir Jamshedji later admitted that the credit for this work belonged exclusively to Nani.
Palkhivala first participation in a case of constitutional significance occurred in 1951, where he served as junior counsel in the case Nusserwanji Balsara vs. State of Bombay [(1951) Bom 210], assisting the esteemed Sir Noshirwan Engineer in challenging several provisions of the Bombay Prohibition Act. Before the year was out, Palkhivala was arguing cases himself, but his first case of constitutional importance (a challenge of the validity of land requisition acts) was lost before the Bombay High Court.
By 1954 however, barely 10 years after his admission to the bar, Palkhivala was arguing before the Supreme Court. It was in this, his first, case before that court (concerning the interpretation of Article 29(2) and Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, which regulate the rights of religious minorities) that he first articulated his (later) famous statements on the inviolate nature of the constitution.
The laudatio from Princeton called him "... Defender of constitutional liberties, champion of human rights ...", and stated, "he has courageously advanced his conviction that expediency in the name of progress, at the cost of freedom, is no progress at all, but retrogression. Lawyer, teacher, author, and economic developer, he brings to us as Ambassador of India intelligence, good humour, experience, and vision for international understanding...."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 18, 2017
Read this ma ny years ago but very distinctively remember, "there can be no 'pro'gress with 'con'gress".
April 10, 2019
You know you are reading a Nani Palkhivala when you see statements like:
"A nation which cannot remember its past is condemned to repeat it"
" Education requires a great deal of personal participation. You don't just cultivate your mind and skills just to offer it as a commodity for sale in the marketplace"
" Just like man needs memory to maintain sanity, a nation needs its culture and traditions to maintain the same"
The most admirable quality of Mr. Palkhivala here is that he always talks about nation as a whole. India isn't worth a name given to a mere collection of communities, it's much more than that. We often tend to believe that its really difficult to change the system or the honest and hardworking don't have any place in the system but we also tend to forget that system is something which only exists in our collective imagination only. We are the ones who turn the system and if we feel that its not worth taking a risk to fight the system, you are not fighting actually you are just facing resistance from certain people who are the representatives of this system. There are 2 types of people: one who expect the government to spawn humanity and care and the other just practices humanity and care and gives birth to a system out of it
As a lawyer, he has also pointed out a lot of constitutional potholes that exist and are rarely publicized. I personally liked the bit about article 84 the most. It basically says that a person who wants to contest an election is not required to have any criteria based on education or any other parameter for that matter unless a statute has been explicitly provided by the parliament regarding it. This loosely translates to this: A person, who gets elected and becomes a legislator(only few become politico-executives), who is responsible for formulating laws which can affect 134 crore people isn't required to be educated at all. This is very alarming don't you think?
Another one which caught my attention was the one which happened in 1989-1990. Mr. V. P Singh was the Prime Minister then. He introduced an administrative incentive scheme back then for the tax officials. In this scheme, if the tax officials did find that there some or the other tax evasion by an assessee, 5% of the amount of case that they will build against the same will be their incentive no matter what the result of that case may turn out to. The monumental scam of this scheme was the one where tax officials built a case against ITC in which ITC was alleged to have evaded excise duty of worth Rs 806 cr. To bring matters into perspective, profits for that year for ITC were Rs 70 cr whereas the share of those tax officials were Rs 40 cr worth of taxpayers money!!
I would like to implore youi my friends to read his book in order to understand what all has been done and try to draw the context to understand what has been going on especially in today's world of electoral bonds and finance bill 2017. Happy reading
"A nation which cannot remember its past is condemned to repeat it"
" Education requires a great deal of personal participation. You don't just cultivate your mind and skills just to offer it as a commodity for sale in the marketplace"
" Just like man needs memory to maintain sanity, a nation needs its culture and traditions to maintain the same"
The most admirable quality of Mr. Palkhivala here is that he always talks about nation as a whole. India isn't worth a name given to a mere collection of communities, it's much more than that. We often tend to believe that its really difficult to change the system or the honest and hardworking don't have any place in the system but we also tend to forget that system is something which only exists in our collective imagination only. We are the ones who turn the system and if we feel that its not worth taking a risk to fight the system, you are not fighting actually you are just facing resistance from certain people who are the representatives of this system. There are 2 types of people: one who expect the government to spawn humanity and care and the other just practices humanity and care and gives birth to a system out of it
As a lawyer, he has also pointed out a lot of constitutional potholes that exist and are rarely publicized. I personally liked the bit about article 84 the most. It basically says that a person who wants to contest an election is not required to have any criteria based on education or any other parameter for that matter unless a statute has been explicitly provided by the parliament regarding it. This loosely translates to this: A person, who gets elected and becomes a legislator(only few become politico-executives), who is responsible for formulating laws which can affect 134 crore people isn't required to be educated at all. This is very alarming don't you think?
Another one which caught my attention was the one which happened in 1989-1990. Mr. V. P Singh was the Prime Minister then. He introduced an administrative incentive scheme back then for the tax officials. In this scheme, if the tax officials did find that there some or the other tax evasion by an assessee, 5% of the amount of case that they will build against the same will be their incentive no matter what the result of that case may turn out to. The monumental scam of this scheme was the one where tax officials built a case against ITC in which ITC was alleged to have evaded excise duty of worth Rs 806 cr. To bring matters into perspective, profits for that year for ITC were Rs 70 cr whereas the share of those tax officials were Rs 40 cr worth of taxpayers money!!
I would like to implore youi my friends to read his book in order to understand what all has been done and try to draw the context to understand what has been going on especially in today's world of electoral bonds and finance bill 2017. Happy reading
April 19, 2021
We, the Nation is a collection of essays and speeches by Nani Palkhivala, an eminent jurist and economist from India.
Nani Palkhivala is an unabashed classical liberal, with strong pro-market views on the economic front. Much of the book is dedicated to bemoaning the state of the Indian economy and policy-making of the 20th century: the infamous Nehruvian/Hindu rate of growth of those years.
The author rightly identfies the revolutionary potential of the 1985 and 1991 budgets. Alas, the former never really took off, thanks to intra-party conflicts in the Indian National Congress. There's also a good chapter on the impact of Parsis on India. The Parsis could be called the Jews of India. Tiny in number, but huge in impact.
A highly recommended read to understand the India of 1970s to 1990s.
Some fascinating quotes for the readers enjoyment:
1. You would not be far wrong if you called India the world’s leading expert in the art of perpetuating poverty.
2. Truly, we Indians are a “low arousal” people We endure injustice and unfairness with feudalistic servility and fatalistic resignation. The poor of India endure inhuman conditions which would lead to a bloody revolution in any other country.
3. In a free market a product moves forward at the command of the consumer.
4. But it has been found that, like prohibition, socialism is a good idea which does not work in practice.
5. O, the years we waste, and the tears we waste! We have got used to a comfortable time-lag of years and years intervening between the consciousness that a certain thing is required to be done and a serious attempt to do it
6. In a country where time is of no consequence and the word kal is used in the national language to denote both yesterday and tomorrow.
7. A departmental store which is wholly preoccupied with prevention of shoplifting is a sure candidate for stagnation. (regarding tax evasion)
8. The Economist (of London) noted a case at the Karnataka High Court which had been dragging on for 38 years The litigant was a bachelor when it began, today he is an old man with ten grandchildren, some of whom might well have to carry on the legal battle after he is dead
9.To Sardar Patel, the unity and integrity of India was of paramount importance He shared the view of the Indian thinker who, when he was told that the British divide and rule, gave the profound response, “No, it is not the British who divide and rule It is we who divide and they rule ”
10. To Dr Ambedkar the unit of society was the individual, never the caste or the village. He wholly disbelieved in the glib claptrap about the glories of the Panchayat Raj and observed: “ ..these village republics have been the ruination of India What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrowmindedness and communalism I am glad that the draft constitution has discarded the village and adopted the individual as the unit ”
Nani Palkhivala is an unabashed classical liberal, with strong pro-market views on the economic front. Much of the book is dedicated to bemoaning the state of the Indian economy and policy-making of the 20th century: the infamous Nehruvian/Hindu rate of growth of those years.
The author rightly identfies the revolutionary potential of the 1985 and 1991 budgets. Alas, the former never really took off, thanks to intra-party conflicts in the Indian National Congress. There's also a good chapter on the impact of Parsis on India. The Parsis could be called the Jews of India. Tiny in number, but huge in impact.
A highly recommended read to understand the India of 1970s to 1990s.
Some fascinating quotes for the readers enjoyment:
1. You would not be far wrong if you called India the world’s leading expert in the art of perpetuating poverty.
2. Truly, we Indians are a “low arousal” people We endure injustice and unfairness with feudalistic servility and fatalistic resignation. The poor of India endure inhuman conditions which would lead to a bloody revolution in any other country.
3. In a free market a product moves forward at the command of the consumer.
4. But it has been found that, like prohibition, socialism is a good idea which does not work in practice.
5. O, the years we waste, and the tears we waste! We have got used to a comfortable time-lag of years and years intervening between the consciousness that a certain thing is required to be done and a serious attempt to do it
6. In a country where time is of no consequence and the word kal is used in the national language to denote both yesterday and tomorrow.
7. A departmental store which is wholly preoccupied with prevention of shoplifting is a sure candidate for stagnation. (regarding tax evasion)
8. The Economist (of London) noted a case at the Karnataka High Court which had been dragging on for 38 years The litigant was a bachelor when it began, today he is an old man with ten grandchildren, some of whom might well have to carry on the legal battle after he is dead
9.To Sardar Patel, the unity and integrity of India was of paramount importance He shared the view of the Indian thinker who, when he was told that the British divide and rule, gave the profound response, “No, it is not the British who divide and rule It is we who divide and they rule ”
10. To Dr Ambedkar the unit of society was the individual, never the caste or the village. He wholly disbelieved in the glib claptrap about the glories of the Panchayat Raj and observed: “ ..these village republics have been the ruination of India What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrowmindedness and communalism I am glad that the draft constitution has discarded the village and adopted the individual as the unit ”
June 30, 2015
Beautiful articulation of thoughts from India's finest lawyer. It's amazing how his ideas are relevant even in today's world.
August 3, 2018
A collection of speeches and articles by the great Nani Palkhiwala. What stands out in this book is his outstanding clarity on many legal, economic and political issues - and his outspoken nature.
A liberal dose of quotes and references in every essay means you are introduced into a world of information through his writings.
A very good read!
A liberal dose of quotes and references in every essay means you are introduced into a world of information through his writings.
A very good read!
October 17, 2013
Except talking about general morality and other fine things, there is no positive suggestion. It was disappointing.
June 23, 2014
awesome!!!!
September 27, 2015
informative!
June 11, 2020
True education can begin only after you have left school or college. All that a school lor college can do is to arouse intellectual curiosity and prepare you for lifelong education later.
This book is a compilation of speeches made by Nani Palkhiwala and are like stories, stories told at different times during the lifetime of this man. There are some stories about leaders who laid the foundations of present day India which the youth of today need to know, I personally liked to know, but the history books have hardly spoken anything of this sort.
In the words of Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel," We seem to devote too much time to things that hardly mater and too little to those that count. We talk, while the paramount need is that of action. We are critical of other people's exertions, but lack the will to contribute our own. We are trying to overtake others by giant strides while we have hardly learnt to walk."
These words spoken by Patel in 1950 stand true even today.
More than building statues, I think their words need to be spoken again to re-look and reflect on our conscience, to build a strong conscience of the nation itself.
This book introduced to me people in the past who made significant contributions to the formation of modern India, by rising above their times and picturizing the India of the future. Although, things might not have hapened the way they imagined, yet the core and the goal to strive for remains the same.
A quote from the book itself helps be sum up my take away from it. There are two types of people in this world - those who expect the political system to produce humanity and care, and those who practise humantiy and care knowing that one distant day it will produce the system.
This book speaks about several such people who practised their principles with the belief that one day it'll create the system. In times when one looks around for inspiration to work hard with honesty, this book inspires us to work harder better and more to make this nation a better place.
This book is a compilation of speeches made by Nani Palkhiwala and are like stories, stories told at different times during the lifetime of this man. There are some stories about leaders who laid the foundations of present day India which the youth of today need to know, I personally liked to know, but the history books have hardly spoken anything of this sort.
In the words of Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel," We seem to devote too much time to things that hardly mater and too little to those that count. We talk, while the paramount need is that of action. We are critical of other people's exertions, but lack the will to contribute our own. We are trying to overtake others by giant strides while we have hardly learnt to walk."
These words spoken by Patel in 1950 stand true even today.
More than building statues, I think their words need to be spoken again to re-look and reflect on our conscience, to build a strong conscience of the nation itself.
This book introduced to me people in the past who made significant contributions to the formation of modern India, by rising above their times and picturizing the India of the future. Although, things might not have hapened the way they imagined, yet the core and the goal to strive for remains the same.
A quote from the book itself helps be sum up my take away from it. There are two types of people in this world - those who expect the political system to produce humanity and care, and those who practise humantiy and care knowing that one distant day it will produce the system.
This book speaks about several such people who practised their principles with the belief that one day it'll create the system. In times when one looks around for inspiration to work hard with honesty, this book inspires us to work harder better and more to make this nation a better place.
July 14, 2020
Must read for every Indian!
August 18, 2022
Only the chapter on Sardar Patel impressed me. Otherwise very average book where the author seems to be taking sides in almost all chapters. "I know all" syndrome can be sensed throu out the book.
Want to read
September 16, 2018This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews