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Incarnations: India in 50 Lives
One of the world's most ancient cultures, India can be understood and explained in as many ways as humans can possibly devise. To make sense of this astonishing turmoil of ideas, Sunil Khilnani has created a remarkably simple and attractive solution. In this book (which accompanies a major Radio 4 series which he is narrating) he takes the lives of 50 Indians, starting with the Buddha, some very famous, some more obscure, from the earliest records to the present day, and in a series of short chapters describes what makes them so surprising, curious or important. These are not simply history lessons, but stories rooted in today's India, as Khilnani goes on a quest across contemporary India to find the living traces of these extraordinary individuals.
484 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 23, 2016
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About the author
Sunil Khilnani
16 books82 followersSunil Khilnani is holder of the Avantha Chair and Director of the India Institute, which he established at King’s in 2011.
Born in New Delhi, he grew up in India, Africa, and Europe. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he took a first in Social and Political Sciences, and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he gained his PhD in Social and Political Sciences.
Prior to becoming Director of the King’s India Institute he was, from 2001 to 2011, the Starr Foundation Professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C., and Director of South Asia Studies at SAIS, a program that he established in 2002.
Sunil Khilnani was formerly Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has been a visiting professor of politics at Seikei University, Tokyo, and was elected a Research Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. He has also held a Leverhulme Fellowship, and has been a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin.
His publications include: Arguing Revolution: The Intellectual Left in Postwar France (1993); The Idea of India (7th edn. 2016); with Sudipta Kaviraj, Civil Society: History and Possibilities (2000); with Nandan Nilekani, Pratap Mehta etc al., NonAlignment 2.0: a Foreign Policy for India in the 21st Century (2013); with Arun Thiruvengadam and Vikram Raghavan, Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia (2013);
His most recent book is Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (2016), which accompanies his 50-part podcast and radio series broadcast on BBC Radio4 in 2015-2016.
Sunil Khilnani’s research interests lie at the intersection of various fields: intellectual history and the study of political thought, the history of modern India, democratic theory in relation to its recent non-Western experiences, the politics of contemporary India, and strategic thought in the definition of India’s place in the world. His is regular contributor to the Indian and international media.
Born in New Delhi, he grew up in India, Africa, and Europe. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he took a first in Social and Political Sciences, and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he gained his PhD in Social and Political Sciences.
Prior to becoming Director of the King’s India Institute he was, from 2001 to 2011, the Starr Foundation Professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C., and Director of South Asia Studies at SAIS, a program that he established in 2002.
Sunil Khilnani was formerly Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has been a visiting professor of politics at Seikei University, Tokyo, and was elected a Research Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. He has also held a Leverhulme Fellowship, and has been a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin.
His publications include: Arguing Revolution: The Intellectual Left in Postwar France (1993); The Idea of India (7th edn. 2016); with Sudipta Kaviraj, Civil Society: History and Possibilities (2000); with Nandan Nilekani, Pratap Mehta etc al., NonAlignment 2.0: a Foreign Policy for India in the 21st Century (2013); with Arun Thiruvengadam and Vikram Raghavan, Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia (2013);
His most recent book is Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (2016), which accompanies his 50-part podcast and radio series broadcast on BBC Radio4 in 2015-2016.
Sunil Khilnani’s research interests lie at the intersection of various fields: intellectual history and the study of political thought, the history of modern India, democratic theory in relation to its recent non-Western experiences, the politics of contemporary India, and strategic thought in the definition of India’s place in the world. His is regular contributor to the Indian and international media.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews
September 5, 2017
I spent the last week on a lightning trip around India, covering seven cities in seven days and attempting to absorb, in the brief intervals between dragging my bags on and off an endless series of SpiceJet Bombardiers, some sense of my surroundings. So this book, which darts with similar impulsiveness around India's vast historical and geographical expanse, was a welcome travel companion.
The format really appealed to me: a history of the country in fifty brief biographies, from Buddha to the Bombay billionaires. Khilnani dedicates seven or eight pages to each person – enough to introduce you to people you aren't familiar with and to review the importance of those you are, but short enough that no one outstays their welcome. And his writing is suitably snappy and idiomatic, sometimes almost to a fault (he sees an ‘Instagram-like familiarity’ to Nainsukh's miniatures, for example).
Many of the figures he turns up throw fascinating sidelights on Indian history – like Malik Ambar, one of the main resistors of Mughal expansion into the south in the early seventeenth century, who, as an Ethiopian slave, does not fit into any of the usual narratives of Hindu v. Muslim v. European.
Malik Ambar's head being shot by the Emperor Jahangir
My favourite, though, was the extraordinary social reformer Periyar, whom I hadn't previously been aware of at all. A fierce activist against the caste system, religious authority and traditional gender roles, he went everywhere with a scruffy little dog (‘to scare away Brahmins, who consider dogs unclean’) and was in the habit of opening his speeches with an unbelievable diatribe against religion, a sort of anti-shahada:
This is in India! In the 1920s and '30s! Periyar also took a combative stance on women, arguing that they should be responsible for their own sexuality and reproduction and telling the women in his audiences that they must seize their freedoms instead of waiting for men to emancipate them. ‘Have cats ever freed rats?’ he asked. ‘Have foxes ever liberated goats or chickens? Have whites ever enriched Indians? Have Brahmins even given non-Brahmins justice? We can be confident that women will never be emancipated by men.’
This is one of the themes that Khilnani follows throughout the book and about which he clearly feels strongly. ‘It's sobering to see what a tripling of India's GDP since 2000 has not done for its women,’ he concludes, and there has obviously been an effort to see that women are well represented in the subjects he's chosen. I was particularly pleased to get a good introduction to Amrita Sher-Gil, the great Indian painter who died at 28, apparently from a botched private abortion. ‘[A]ll art, not excluding religious art, has come into being because of sensuality,’ Sher-Gil said, a line that could have come straight out of Camille Paglia.
Amrita Sher-Gil, Sleeping Woman, 1933
Another artist that allows Khilnani to expatiate on India's problems is MF Husain, who, as a Muslim who chose to paint Hindu deities and religious symbols, became more or less persona non grata in his own country and died in exile in London. Indeed his friends and family have not even been able to bring his body back to be buried. ‘Whoever has insulted Bharat Mata [Mother India], who has shown her naked – we will never allow him even six feet of her soil,’ says one of Khilnani's interviewees from the regional Hindu party Shiv Sena. So, you know, fuck that guy.
MF Husain, Bharat Mata, 2006
Occasionally you feel that he hasn't quite got the measure of his subject – clearly (if understandably) he doesn't have much of a grasp on Ramanujan's work, for instance. But most of the time he's very good, getting to the heart of what makes these people so representative of their time and place. He has a knack for summarising complex arguments in pithy phrases, pointing out, for instance, that when it came to independence, ‘there was no Indian Lenin,’ a fascinating throwaway remark that could take you off in all kinds of directions. Similarly on the significance of Gandhi:
As jumping-off points, these précis are excellent. When he comes to his final entry, the dodgy slumdog-turned-billionaire Dhirubhai Ambani, he writes piercingly that the tycoon had ‘a gift for maximising and monetising inequality’ – and indeed, reflecting on the meaning of Ambani's story after the figures that have come before, Khilnani does seem somewhat downbeat. ‘Indians came to hunger less for equality,’ he concludes resignedly, ‘than for growth.’
The format really appealed to me: a history of the country in fifty brief biographies, from Buddha to the Bombay billionaires. Khilnani dedicates seven or eight pages to each person – enough to introduce you to people you aren't familiar with and to review the importance of those you are, but short enough that no one outstays their welcome. And his writing is suitably snappy and idiomatic, sometimes almost to a fault (he sees an ‘Instagram-like familiarity’ to Nainsukh's miniatures, for example).
Many of the figures he turns up throw fascinating sidelights on Indian history – like Malik Ambar, one of the main resistors of Mughal expansion into the south in the early seventeenth century, who, as an Ethiopian slave, does not fit into any of the usual narratives of Hindu v. Muslim v. European.
Malik Ambar's head being shot by the Emperor Jahangir
My favourite, though, was the extraordinary social reformer Periyar, whom I hadn't previously been aware of at all. A fierce activist against the caste system, religious authority and traditional gender roles, he went everywhere with a scruffy little dog (‘to scare away Brahmins, who consider dogs unclean’) and was in the habit of opening his speeches with an unbelievable diatribe against religion, a sort of anti-shahada:
There is no God. There is no God.
There is no God at all.
He who invented God is a fool.
He who propagates God is a scoundrel.
He who worships God is a barbarian.
This is in India! In the 1920s and '30s! Periyar also took a combative stance on women, arguing that they should be responsible for their own sexuality and reproduction and telling the women in his audiences that they must seize their freedoms instead of waiting for men to emancipate them. ‘Have cats ever freed rats?’ he asked. ‘Have foxes ever liberated goats or chickens? Have whites ever enriched Indians? Have Brahmins even given non-Brahmins justice? We can be confident that women will never be emancipated by men.’
This is one of the themes that Khilnani follows throughout the book and about which he clearly feels strongly. ‘It's sobering to see what a tripling of India's GDP since 2000 has not done for its women,’ he concludes, and there has obviously been an effort to see that women are well represented in the subjects he's chosen. I was particularly pleased to get a good introduction to Amrita Sher-Gil, the great Indian painter who died at 28, apparently from a botched private abortion. ‘[A]ll art, not excluding religious art, has come into being because of sensuality,’ Sher-Gil said, a line that could have come straight out of Camille Paglia.
Amrita Sher-Gil, Sleeping Woman, 1933
Another artist that allows Khilnani to expatiate on India's problems is MF Husain, who, as a Muslim who chose to paint Hindu deities and religious symbols, became more or less persona non grata in his own country and died in exile in London. Indeed his friends and family have not even been able to bring his body back to be buried. ‘Whoever has insulted Bharat Mata [Mother India], who has shown her naked – we will never allow him even six feet of her soil,’ says one of Khilnani's interviewees from the regional Hindu party Shiv Sena. So, you know, fuck that guy.
MF Husain, Bharat Mata, 2006
Occasionally you feel that he hasn't quite got the measure of his subject – clearly (if understandably) he doesn't have much of a grasp on Ramanujan's work, for instance. But most of the time he's very good, getting to the heart of what makes these people so representative of their time and place. He has a knack for summarising complex arguments in pithy phrases, pointing out, for instance, that when it came to independence, ‘there was no Indian Lenin,’ a fascinating throwaway remark that could take you off in all kinds of directions. Similarly on the significance of Gandhi:
Unlike a Stalin or a Mao, who tried to change the imagination of their people by wielding state power, Gandhi used imagination to try to change the nature of power and the state.
As jumping-off points, these précis are excellent. When he comes to his final entry, the dodgy slumdog-turned-billionaire Dhirubhai Ambani, he writes piercingly that the tycoon had ‘a gift for maximising and monetising inequality’ – and indeed, reflecting on the meaning of Ambani's story after the figures that have come before, Khilnani does seem somewhat downbeat. ‘Indians came to hunger less for equality,’ he concludes resignedly, ‘than for growth.’
Read
February 20, 2021Revelatory.
I am embarrassingly ignorant of Indian history, which may be related to the fact that I studied history in England up to the age of 18 without, as far as I recall, the word 'India' or 'empire' ever being mentioned, still less 'colonialism'. (Or 'slavery' but that's another story.) It's a pretty massive topic to start learning about--you feel a bit like the sharks hopelessly failing to eat the giant peach in the Roald Dahl book--and this is a fantastic way in. Fifty lives, from ancient times to 20th century, covering artists, politicians, philosophers, writers, rulers, rebels, scientists, businessmen. As befits the global nature of Indian history there's a couple of Brits and an Ethiopian former slave turned guerrilla turned ruler (Malik Ambar, amazing story).
It's a great way to get, if not a full overview which would be impossible, a sense of shape, and of culture and society. There's a lot of themes pulled out--religion, the position of women, caste issues, the pernicious influence of the British. It's distinctly weighted towards the twentieth century and politicians (and, indeed, men, which the author is very conscious of).
A really excellent book, highly readable, which has left me with a lot of films I want to watch and biographies I'd like to get hold of. Strongly recommended.
I am embarrassingly ignorant of Indian history, which may be related to the fact that I studied history in England up to the age of 18 without, as far as I recall, the word 'India' or 'empire' ever being mentioned, still less 'colonialism'. (Or 'slavery' but that's another story.) It's a pretty massive topic to start learning about--you feel a bit like the sharks hopelessly failing to eat the giant peach in the Roald Dahl book--and this is a fantastic way in. Fifty lives, from ancient times to 20th century, covering artists, politicians, philosophers, writers, rulers, rebels, scientists, businessmen. As befits the global nature of Indian history there's a couple of Brits and an Ethiopian former slave turned guerrilla turned ruler (Malik Ambar, amazing story).
It's a great way to get, if not a full overview which would be impossible, a sense of shape, and of culture and society. There's a lot of themes pulled out--religion, the position of women, caste issues, the pernicious influence of the British. It's distinctly weighted towards the twentieth century and politicians (and, indeed, men, which the author is very conscious of).
A really excellent book, highly readable, which has left me with a lot of films I want to watch and biographies I'd like to get hold of. Strongly recommended.
July 30, 2019
This book attempts to tell the history of India in 50 portraits of its prominent people starting from Buddha and finishing with the stars of Bollywood and the newly rich. This strategy is only partly successful as it is fragmentary by definition and it is difficult to get any coherent historical narrative out of the book or even a general impression about India’s history. Additionally, the individual essays are understandably brief, especially when it comes to the well known people like Buddha, Gandhi or Jinnah.
However, I found out about a few extremely interesting personalities I’ve never heard before. The most memorable are:
Annie Besant - the rebel, courageous woman, who propagated the birth control in the Victorian time and self determination for both Ireland and India. After meeting Blavatsky she has become a proponent of theosophy and moved to India for good. There she participated in establishing National Congress and trying to promote education. Her life seems to be very interesting and unorthodox. It is a shame I cannot find a good biography of her. It seems she is forgotten now.
Wiki page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie...
Saadat Hasan Manto - a short stories writer who wrote in Urdu and moved to Lahore from Mumbai after the partition. He wrote about Bollywood, the life in Mumbai and the horrors of the partition. Being a Muslim he was tried 6 times for so-called obscenity in his stories. He was an alcoholic and died at 42. Since finding out about him, I’ve read a few extracts from his fiction and essays. What a powerful talent! I would compare his partition’s stories to Isaac Babel’s stories of pogroms in Odessa.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saada...
Subhas Chandra Bose - Indian nationalist and its only military leader of the time who tried to get rid of British rule during the World War II through the alliance with Nazi Germany and Japan. He is definitely a controversial figure, but his destiny shows that the perspective from the colonies on the war was not necessary the same as from the centre.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subha...
Overall, it is a worthwhile read with a lot of interesting personalities. But it would not be a replacement for more traditional history book about India.
However, I found out about a few extremely interesting personalities I’ve never heard before. The most memorable are:
Annie Besant - the rebel, courageous woman, who propagated the birth control in the Victorian time and self determination for both Ireland and India. After meeting Blavatsky she has become a proponent of theosophy and moved to India for good. There she participated in establishing National Congress and trying to promote education. Her life seems to be very interesting and unorthodox. It is a shame I cannot find a good biography of her. It seems she is forgotten now.
Wiki page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie...
Saadat Hasan Manto - a short stories writer who wrote in Urdu and moved to Lahore from Mumbai after the partition. He wrote about Bollywood, the life in Mumbai and the horrors of the partition. Being a Muslim he was tried 6 times for so-called obscenity in his stories. He was an alcoholic and died at 42. Since finding out about him, I’ve read a few extracts from his fiction and essays. What a powerful talent! I would compare his partition’s stories to Isaac Babel’s stories of pogroms in Odessa.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saada...
Subhas Chandra Bose - Indian nationalist and its only military leader of the time who tried to get rid of British rule during the World War II through the alliance with Nazi Germany and Japan. He is definitely a controversial figure, but his destiny shows that the perspective from the colonies on the war was not necessary the same as from the centre.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subha...
Overall, it is a worthwhile read with a lot of interesting personalities. But it would not be a replacement for more traditional history book about India.
March 24, 2016
Wonderful read. Covers profiles of Indians from Buddha who renounced his kingdom and wealth to Dhirubai Ambani who spent his life accumulating wealth. The accompanying portraits, photographs and illustrations are stunning.
March 9, 2019
Reading this book felt like being offered brief glimpses (under 10 pages each) into the lives of these important figures drawn from Indian history (from art to business to religion to politics), but without the benefit of knowing anything about the historical/political moment, and needing to discern that background from a few clues offered in the text hinting at the broader landscape. On the one hand, such an approach is freeing because you can focus on the individual and wait for Khilnani to hint at the interrelationships among them, the patterns that emerge. On the other, at times I was frustrated as Khilnani would glibly throw in references to events or other people completely without context, leaving my scrambling around google to try to piece together what I was missing.
Overall I found this a very enjoyable read, Khilnani's writing style can be deceptively beautiful, and he does a fine job of presenting vast scopes of history (from the time of Buddha to the early 2000s) in a way that feels manageable and that keeps one interested in the next character to emerge in the story. His choice of characters is diverse, but one criticism I have of these choices is that he only presents the "good guys" of Indian history. Surely, history and culture is also moved by those who are not so progressive or forward-thinking. Another feature I would have enjoyed would have been appendices with more maps, as he frequently references places that once again left me seeking out information online.
Overall I found this a very enjoyable read, Khilnani's writing style can be deceptively beautiful, and he does a fine job of presenting vast scopes of history (from the time of Buddha to the early 2000s) in a way that feels manageable and that keeps one interested in the next character to emerge in the story. His choice of characters is diverse, but one criticism I have of these choices is that he only presents the "good guys" of Indian history. Surely, history and culture is also moved by those who are not so progressive or forward-thinking. Another feature I would have enjoyed would have been appendices with more maps, as he frequently references places that once again left me seeking out information online.
November 20, 2016
How do you choose 50 lives to illustrate the evolution of the palimpsest that is India? Khilnani, whose book The Idea of India, remains one of my favourites, attempts this without too much of a heavy hand. These are 50 short biographical sketches - most very obvious (Buddha, Akbar, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Jinnah, Indira Gandhi, Bose) and some surprisingly obscure (Malik Ambar, Dara Shikoh, Nainsukh, Basava, Birsa Munda, Deen Dayal). It is a mix of religious, political, scientific and cultural personalities - but you can see that each has influenced what India is today, in some key way. Khilnani is at pains to eschew hagiography - and each sketch is an exercise in depicting the person objectively, warts and all. And each gives you tantalizing glimpses into personalities you want to go exploring deeper. A keeper.
October 3, 2020
I had always complained how most of the history books are boring as they fail to establish the connection between what happened then and what is happening now. The fundamental reason of reading history, in my opinion, is to find the connection between then and now. Without that connection, there won't be any difference between history, and a story of fiction or fantasy.
Sunil Khilnani's ambitious attempt to narrate the history of India through the lives of 50 luminaries, doesn't make that mistake what other such books do. Thought provokingly and rather beautifully, Khilnani narrates each of these historical figures in the context of today - what each of them did then and how our world has changed because of that and most importantly, how their contributions are still impactful now. So each chapter of 8-10 pages, that narrates the lives and times of these 50 figures, also connects them to what's happening in present day India. This makes this book highly relatable and superbly readable.
The reason, I used the word 'ambitious' to describe this attempt by the author, because, it is impossible to confine the vast history of India spanning several millenniums through the lives of only 50 people. How could someone choose the 50 in the vast array of towering personalities that have changed the course of Indian history when they appeared in the timeline? So don't get disheartened or even critical, that some names that you would think would feature in those 50, that are missing. A sequel coming? Who knows? I won't be surprised, if that's in the mind of the author, as I believe, the author could absolutely have several sequels, without running out of personalities.
Khilnani tries to select these 50 personalities from various fields that impact human life - religious reformers, emperors, intellectuals, writers and poets, social reformers, freedom fighters, mathematicians, artists, movie makers, actors, painters, industrialists and some leaders of modern India. Many familiar names, some unknown. But whether you know them or not, I guarantee, reading about their lives through the author's point of view would be fascinating experience. I am sure, some hard-core historians might discover some of the facts that could be distorted here, knowingly and unknowingly. But, hey, show me a history book, that is not biased or 100% accurate. Rather I like that the author in this book has not made any of these heroes as God.
I would urge the author to write the sequel to this book as soon as possible, featuring some of the people that I miss in this edition, some new regional figures, that I am unaware of, and hopefully some more women (6 out of 50 is skewed ratio).
Sunil Khilnani's ambitious attempt to narrate the history of India through the lives of 50 luminaries, doesn't make that mistake what other such books do. Thought provokingly and rather beautifully, Khilnani narrates each of these historical figures in the context of today - what each of them did then and how our world has changed because of that and most importantly, how their contributions are still impactful now. So each chapter of 8-10 pages, that narrates the lives and times of these 50 figures, also connects them to what's happening in present day India. This makes this book highly relatable and superbly readable.
The reason, I used the word 'ambitious' to describe this attempt by the author, because, it is impossible to confine the vast history of India spanning several millenniums through the lives of only 50 people. How could someone choose the 50 in the vast array of towering personalities that have changed the course of Indian history when they appeared in the timeline? So don't get disheartened or even critical, that some names that you would think would feature in those 50, that are missing. A sequel coming? Who knows? I won't be surprised, if that's in the mind of the author, as I believe, the author could absolutely have several sequels, without running out of personalities.
Khilnani tries to select these 50 personalities from various fields that impact human life - religious reformers, emperors, intellectuals, writers and poets, social reformers, freedom fighters, mathematicians, artists, movie makers, actors, painters, industrialists and some leaders of modern India. Many familiar names, some unknown. But whether you know them or not, I guarantee, reading about their lives through the author's point of view would be fascinating experience. I am sure, some hard-core historians might discover some of the facts that could be distorted here, knowingly and unknowingly. But, hey, show me a history book, that is not biased or 100% accurate. Rather I like that the author in this book has not made any of these heroes as God.
I would urge the author to write the sequel to this book as soon as possible, featuring some of the people that I miss in this edition, some new regional figures, that I am unaware of, and hopefully some more women (6 out of 50 is skewed ratio).
December 17, 2020
4.5 stars.
Liked - The idea of telling Indian history through the lives of 50 people the author has chosen.
Didn't like - some of the people that he had chosen, just IMHO. and some people that he left out, such as Patel.
Liked - I learned a lot even about people who we, Indians, know in general from our student days like Annie Besant, Rajaram Mohan Roy.
Didn't like - some unfavorable/gossipy tidbits in the personal life of these people. Knowing those tidbits humanize them, true. But these tidbits also reduce the value of their contributions. For example, Annie Besant's leaning over brahmins and choosing brahmin scholars only for higher education in England as she believed they would be the future pillars of Indian society. The information is probably true, still.... And tidbits from the personal life of MS Subbulakshmi....
I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. HIghly recommended.
Liked - The idea of telling Indian history through the lives of 50 people the author has chosen.
Didn't like - some of the people that he had chosen, just IMHO. and some people that he left out, such as Patel.
Liked - I learned a lot even about people who we, Indians, know in general from our student days like Annie Besant, Rajaram Mohan Roy.
Didn't like - some unfavorable/gossipy tidbits in the personal life of these people. Knowing those tidbits humanize them, true. But these tidbits also reduce the value of their contributions. For example, Annie Besant's leaning over brahmins and choosing brahmin scholars only for higher education in England as she believed they would be the future pillars of Indian society. The information is probably true, still.... And tidbits from the personal life of MS Subbulakshmi....
I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. HIghly recommended.
February 21, 2025
|| Review written on 2022 ||
One often outgrows the books one reads. This is definitely one of those that I enjoyed when I read it but has definitely outgrown. The questions that made me down-vote this book is "Are the 50 figures chosen in this book really represent India?" and "Who chooses them? Who gets chosen? and who are those that are left?".
Also, India needs more historians from marginalized castes/ communities/ class. Then, our heroes might also be different, and the history we're told to be remembered would also be.
-----------------------------------
|| Review written on 2016 ||
This is one gem of a book. A breath of new hope. History that could make one to look at India differently and make us ask questions regarding our own period of civilization. Through each of the fifty personalities life, India takes shape and makes one wonder how diversified the contribution of various persons in bringing alive this country. The prose is well-structured and takes us along the course of various periods. When you finish this book, you would want to relive these pages again.
A treasure trove.
One often outgrows the books one reads. This is definitely one of those that I enjoyed when I read it but has definitely outgrown. The questions that made me down-vote this book is "Are the 50 figures chosen in this book really represent India?" and "Who chooses them? Who gets chosen? and who are those that are left?".
Also, India needs more historians from marginalized castes/ communities/ class. Then, our heroes might also be different, and the history we're told to be remembered would also be.
-----------------------------------
|| Review written on 2016 ||
This is one gem of a book. A breath of new hope. History that could make one to look at India differently and make us ask questions regarding our own period of civilization. Through each of the fifty personalities life, India takes shape and makes one wonder how diversified the contribution of various persons in bringing alive this country. The prose is well-structured and takes us along the course of various periods. When you finish this book, you would want to relive these pages again.
A treasure trove.
March 1, 2016
Read it while hurdling over decades and centuries only to reach the end and flip back to start over.
That good.
That good.
June 28, 2021
Incarnations was a good read on an interesting set of characters chosen from India's history (antiquity to late 1980s)
The author is usually objective when judging these people, talking about many unknown facets of their life. Some examples like Ashoka burning alive women who disliked him or MS Subbulakshmi's libertine lifestyle early in life were interesting. These are parts of their lives people rarely talk about. Ashoka is the epitome of non-violence while Subbulakshmi, the ultimate devotee.
The guest speakers almost always belong to the Marxist school of history. Struggle against brahminical traditions and other evils is a recurring theme in almost all the chapters.
It's a shame that I discovered people like Pāṇini so late in life. Was I not paying enough attention in the class, or are they simply not covered? Better late than never. Incarnations is ultimately about the stories people tell themselves and their children. That is the real history. And this real history is rarely true, always a deification or a villanization.
This book is highly recommended (if you are not turned off by the occasional Marxist rhetoric).
Listened to the BBC radio 4 radio show on the book. Excellent production values and highly recommended (free on Spotify).
The author is usually objective when judging these people, talking about many unknown facets of their life. Some examples like Ashoka burning alive women who disliked him or MS Subbulakshmi's libertine lifestyle early in life were interesting. These are parts of their lives people rarely talk about. Ashoka is the epitome of non-violence while Subbulakshmi, the ultimate devotee.
The guest speakers almost always belong to the Marxist school of history. Struggle against brahminical traditions and other evils is a recurring theme in almost all the chapters.
It's a shame that I discovered people like Pāṇini so late in life. Was I not paying enough attention in the class, or are they simply not covered? Better late than never. Incarnations is ultimately about the stories people tell themselves and their children. That is the real history. And this real history is rarely true, always a deification or a villanization.
This book is highly recommended (if you are not turned off by the occasional Marxist rhetoric).
Listened to the BBC radio 4 radio show on the book. Excellent production values and highly recommended (free on Spotify).
April 28, 2016
There is a growing tendency in India whereby groups claim the legacy of historical figures and appropriate them. These figures are then used to serve contemporary goals, often so narrow that probably they would have been disowned by these big shots of history. It is as if Indian society which looks one on the surface is divided into many societies, with their own heroes and own interests, quite detached from the ‘other’ and often at loggerheads with one another.
Incarnations by Sunil Khilnani is a panoramic, not without faults though, view of Indian history which puts these historical big shots at the center; and it reminds us that our narrow and self-serving appropriation of these figures do not exhaust all that needs to be said about them; rather to understand them in whole, we will have to understand the rich and diverse civilization that made them possible.
While reading Incarnations one is often reminded of Nietzsche’s warning that it is dangerous to be an heir. In our case it is particularly so because as Khilanni’s selection of 50 lives shows, we have a legacy of historical figures who stood for mutually incompatible ideas: conservation and radicalism; materialism and asceticism; individualism and socialism and so forth. What India’s encounter with modernity has done is that it has and is gradually breaking down traditional cultural and power controls on assertion of rights. And this breakdown is unleashing a fury which brewed under the lid of tradition. Recent Dalit identity assertion, women’s right movements, LGBT right movement etc. are manifestations of this. And because historical validation enhances the claim, contemporary movements try to find some trace for their origin in our history; and such is our history, that it rarely disappoints. For instance LGBT right activist and their opponents both cite references in tradition.
One big positive about the book is that it connects the lives of these figures to present day India. For instance, the chapter on Dhirubhai Ambani is a particularly subtle take on Indian version of capitalism. A version which does not rely on core ideas of innovation and competition but on gaming the system in your favor.
Khilnani’s selection of 50 lives can be debated endlessly. But by his own admission, the selection does not rank individuals in terms of their influence or importance. So on that account, one cannot hold it against the book. But there are few things that diminish the book.
First, in essays on painters like Amrita Shergil and M.F. Hussain, there is only one painting of each in illustrations. Not that there was a lack of space because Khilnani offers often a page long explanation of some of the famous work of these figures. Why not put the painting itself there instead of describing it for the reader. These essays do not grant a basic intelligence to reader; so there is a trace of condescension and patronization towards the reader.
Secondly, at some points the book peddles the same illusions that detract our liberal intelligentsia today. For instance, in essay over M.F. Hussian, Khilnani laments the dearth of artistic freedom in India. The argument is that by painting Saraswati nude, Hussain was just taking inspiration from erotic and sensual traditions of India; but opponents of his work are too puritanical to fully appreciate the land of Kamasutra. The basic fallacy of this argument is that nobody opposed the eroticism and nudeness per se; the opposition was to painting Saraswati nude. Now of course no one can justify vandalism and vigilantism; but again a liberal culture of ‘‘Anything-Goes’’ is too wishy-washy to hold a society together. No liberal freedom can be allowed to belittle other’s faith in what they hold sacred; for being human means having an profound impulse for transcendence. If we take that away in the name of reason, we will not only destroy human possibilities but also risk the individual-restraint and social-stability.
These lacking notwithstanding, Incarnations is a truly enjoyable, accessible and wide-ranging book. It is by no means a deep sea dive into lives of these individuals. But it will introduce you to many forgotten names and many celebrated ones. Perhaps just as everyone else in India, you too might find your own hero from history and use him or her to deal with the present. And such is Indian history, it will not disappoint you !!
Incarnations by Sunil Khilnani is a panoramic, not without faults though, view of Indian history which puts these historical big shots at the center; and it reminds us that our narrow and self-serving appropriation of these figures do not exhaust all that needs to be said about them; rather to understand them in whole, we will have to understand the rich and diverse civilization that made them possible.
While reading Incarnations one is often reminded of Nietzsche’s warning that it is dangerous to be an heir. In our case it is particularly so because as Khilanni’s selection of 50 lives shows, we have a legacy of historical figures who stood for mutually incompatible ideas: conservation and radicalism; materialism and asceticism; individualism and socialism and so forth. What India’s encounter with modernity has done is that it has and is gradually breaking down traditional cultural and power controls on assertion of rights. And this breakdown is unleashing a fury which brewed under the lid of tradition. Recent Dalit identity assertion, women’s right movements, LGBT right movement etc. are manifestations of this. And because historical validation enhances the claim, contemporary movements try to find some trace for their origin in our history; and such is our history, that it rarely disappoints. For instance LGBT right activist and their opponents both cite references in tradition.
One big positive about the book is that it connects the lives of these figures to present day India. For instance, the chapter on Dhirubhai Ambani is a particularly subtle take on Indian version of capitalism. A version which does not rely on core ideas of innovation and competition but on gaming the system in your favor.
Khilnani’s selection of 50 lives can be debated endlessly. But by his own admission, the selection does not rank individuals in terms of their influence or importance. So on that account, one cannot hold it against the book. But there are few things that diminish the book.
First, in essays on painters like Amrita Shergil and M.F. Hussain, there is only one painting of each in illustrations. Not that there was a lack of space because Khilnani offers often a page long explanation of some of the famous work of these figures. Why not put the painting itself there instead of describing it for the reader. These essays do not grant a basic intelligence to reader; so there is a trace of condescension and patronization towards the reader.
Secondly, at some points the book peddles the same illusions that detract our liberal intelligentsia today. For instance, in essay over M.F. Hussian, Khilnani laments the dearth of artistic freedom in India. The argument is that by painting Saraswati nude, Hussain was just taking inspiration from erotic and sensual traditions of India; but opponents of his work are too puritanical to fully appreciate the land of Kamasutra. The basic fallacy of this argument is that nobody opposed the eroticism and nudeness per se; the opposition was to painting Saraswati nude. Now of course no one can justify vandalism and vigilantism; but again a liberal culture of ‘‘Anything-Goes’’ is too wishy-washy to hold a society together. No liberal freedom can be allowed to belittle other’s faith in what they hold sacred; for being human means having an profound impulse for transcendence. If we take that away in the name of reason, we will not only destroy human possibilities but also risk the individual-restraint and social-stability.
These lacking notwithstanding, Incarnations is a truly enjoyable, accessible and wide-ranging book. It is by no means a deep sea dive into lives of these individuals. But it will introduce you to many forgotten names and many celebrated ones. Perhaps just as everyone else in India, you too might find your own hero from history and use him or her to deal with the present. And such is Indian history, it will not disappoint you !!
August 28, 2017
’A society , almost necessarily, begins every success story with the chapter that most advantages itself,’ the American public intellectual Ta-Nehisi Coates recently argued regarding mythic constructions of liberation all over the world. ‘Chapters are almost always rendered as the singular action of exceptional individuals.’
So begins the chapter in this book that talks about the life and times of Bhimrao Ambedkar who played a pivotal part in the history of India and also in redrawing the socio-political map of India according to the lines of caste and religion. Ambedkar is one among the 50 individuals who Sunil Khilnani has picked to sketch a rough timeline of India’s history. Starting with the Buddha and ending with Dhirubhai Ambani, the selection of Individuals is widely varied and traverses across all boundaries of linguistics, caste, religion and state boundaries. There are saints, mystics, kings, queens, emperors, fanatics, poets, actors, vagabonds, politicians, firebrand social reformers and also business magnates who form a few of the foundation stones on which India now stands. While the selection is by no means complete, it certainly makes for superb reading for Khilnani treats the well-known and not-so-popular with equal importance.
Considering that the subject matter of the book deals with lives of individuals which have been subjects of individual books before, the author goes for a capsule based approach. Each life is summarized with their key contributions in the space of three or four pages and then Khilnani analyses on how this one person has influenced the India of today. An interesting point to note is that when he talks of early history of India and deals with Buddha, Mahavira, Panini, Rajaraja Chola et al the chapters are smaller in size when compared to the lives of individuals who have lived in more recent times (Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Periyar etc). One reason could be that there is a great deal of information about the later Indians than one can find about the historical figures whose lives are surrounded more by myth than actual historic information.
For me as a reader, the more fulfilling parts were on the lives of the people who are not superstars of history like – Amir Khusrau, Krishnadevaraya, Malik Ambar, Jytohirao Phule, Deen Dayal, Birsa Munda and Chidambaram Pillai who have done their own contributions to the nation’s growth and over the ages have slightly vanished over the horizon. Khilnani also gives an overview into how the writings, actions, speeches and work of these men and women have metamorphosed into sometimes unrecognizable forms over time. In some cases these changes happen with time alone but in other cases these changes are the result of a deliberate action taken by individuals or organizations to gain more mileage to the groups they represent.
There are a lot of interesting anecdotes to be picked up from the book. Foremost among these to me was that the one person who contributed most to the philology of Indian languages was an Englishman !
This book serves to be a reminder that history is not just built by individuals alone. There are circumstances, situations and scenarios that all lead to a certain action being taken or having a certain man or woman being thrust to the forefront. Hindsight and wishful thinking helped with heaps of imagination have led to some of these men and women achieving cult status over the years. Behind every such hero there are always truths that must be known to fully comprehend history.
Recommended !
So begins the chapter in this book that talks about the life and times of Bhimrao Ambedkar who played a pivotal part in the history of India and also in redrawing the socio-political map of India according to the lines of caste and religion. Ambedkar is one among the 50 individuals who Sunil Khilnani has picked to sketch a rough timeline of India’s history. Starting with the Buddha and ending with Dhirubhai Ambani, the selection of Individuals is widely varied and traverses across all boundaries of linguistics, caste, religion and state boundaries. There are saints, mystics, kings, queens, emperors, fanatics, poets, actors, vagabonds, politicians, firebrand social reformers and also business magnates who form a few of the foundation stones on which India now stands. While the selection is by no means complete, it certainly makes for superb reading for Khilnani treats the well-known and not-so-popular with equal importance.
Considering that the subject matter of the book deals with lives of individuals which have been subjects of individual books before, the author goes for a capsule based approach. Each life is summarized with their key contributions in the space of three or four pages and then Khilnani analyses on how this one person has influenced the India of today. An interesting point to note is that when he talks of early history of India and deals with Buddha, Mahavira, Panini, Rajaraja Chola et al the chapters are smaller in size when compared to the lives of individuals who have lived in more recent times (Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Periyar etc). One reason could be that there is a great deal of information about the later Indians than one can find about the historical figures whose lives are surrounded more by myth than actual historic information.
For me as a reader, the more fulfilling parts were on the lives of the people who are not superstars of history like – Amir Khusrau, Krishnadevaraya, Malik Ambar, Jytohirao Phule, Deen Dayal, Birsa Munda and Chidambaram Pillai who have done their own contributions to the nation’s growth and over the ages have slightly vanished over the horizon. Khilnani also gives an overview into how the writings, actions, speeches and work of these men and women have metamorphosed into sometimes unrecognizable forms over time. In some cases these changes happen with time alone but in other cases these changes are the result of a deliberate action taken by individuals or organizations to gain more mileage to the groups they represent.
There are a lot of interesting anecdotes to be picked up from the book. Foremost among these to me was that the one person who contributed most to the philology of Indian languages was an Englishman !
This book serves to be a reminder that history is not just built by individuals alone. There are circumstances, situations and scenarios that all lead to a certain action being taken or having a certain man or woman being thrust to the forefront. Hindsight and wishful thinking helped with heaps of imagination have led to some of these men and women achieving cult status over the years. Behind every such hero there are always truths that must be known to fully comprehend history.
Recommended !
December 13, 2017
All in all a disappointment. It's a good concept, but executed poorly. The book's main problem is that it attempts to be two things at once, a set of biographies of important historical figures from India and an attempt to unlock some of the current troubles of India. The latter unfortunately distracts from the former and comes across as hopelessly naïve. It almost seems that the writer thinks that the conservative elements in India need simply to be shown examples of how cosmopolitan the past was in order to recognise their foolishness and embrace cosmopolitanism in the present.
Each mini biography was a little formulaic, the descriptions often surface deep and usually crowded out by the frequent and ham fisted references to the present day.
Each mini biography was a little formulaic, the descriptions often surface deep and usually crowded out by the frequent and ham fisted references to the present day.
Read
September 21, 2016A fascinating take on how India came to be, which Khilnani tells using fifty figures throughout the country’s history. From emperors and warriors to film stars and corporate titans, Incarnations is a smart, wry look at the myths that shaped India and the people that influence the stories and history told today. Highly informative and entertaining!
Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/listen/shows/allt...
Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/listen/shows/allt...
September 23, 2019
Very disappointed with the content.
The 50 people chosen are good and quite representative. I agree it is hard to come to a set of 50 people who would be termed most influential, but this set of 50 is a good set.
Currently reading the book, and counting the errors as I go. I will post a more detailed note later, after I completely read the book. But given that I found so many errors in 10 lives, I am not sure how the entire experience will turn out to be.
The 50 people chosen are good and quite representative. I agree it is hard to come to a set of 50 people who would be termed most influential, but this set of 50 is a good set.
Currently reading the book, and counting the errors as I go. I will post a more detailed note later, after I completely read the book. But given that I found so many errors in 10 lives, I am not sure how the entire experience will turn out to be.
July 3, 2018
Too many absurdly abstract ascetics. 50 bios = very short bios. It was just ok.
October 30, 2018
This is a fascinating account of the history of India including culture and the arts. Extremely informative.
May 18, 2018
A book that provides short yet deep profiles of fifty figures from history who,in the author's opinion,made India. The following excerpt provides one quote about every historical figure featured in the book.
Buddha
To several of the fathers of the modern nation, the Buddha provided a rational faith that could be weaponized against the hierarchies that still warp Indian society.
Mahavira
The Jain analysis of reality was largely founded on anekantavada,the doctrine of many-sidedness,with it's inherent critique of the limitations of human understanding. On what basis,then, could Mahavira and his philosophy claim to speak from a position of omniscience?
Panini
So awesome was Panini's ability to articulate and compress the rules of Sanskrit that it was said he had managed to capture the ocean in a cow's hoofprint.
Kautilya
The ancient manuscript of Arthashastra would help Indian nationalists imagine a realpolitik for an aspiring India of the 20th century. Here was a self-help manual for a start-up nation.
Ashoka
His message,of moderation and restraint,remains in equal parts an admonition and an inspiration to Indians today.
Charaka
People turn to Ayurveda because it seems to promise them more recognition as individuals. Perhaps it does- but only in the quite specific sense of placing on each one of us a greater responsibility for our health,enjoining us to live as Charaka teaches : with a little more judgement.
Aryabhata
The Aryabhatiya also holds out the tantalizing promise that we are merely at the threshold of our understanding of early Indian scientific thought.
Adi Shankara
At the heart of Shankara's interpretation of Hinduism is an idea that remains as powerful as it is paradoxical - nirguna Brahman, a god without qualities.
Rajaraja Chola
Did he invent this cult of the leader in the Tamil lands ,or had he tapped into a current that was already,quietly,coursing through them?
Basava
'I''ll sing as I love':no high language,just an open invitation to all - including the unlettered. This informal,almost spoken quality,is why the twelfth-century guru speaks so powerfully to many writers in India today.
Amir Khusrau
The world of cultural amalgamation and mixing that some think Khusrau inspired can seem illusory,even unnecessary,to many people in power today.
Kabir
It's as important as ever to reject reverent incarnations of Kabir and recognize the edgier social critic and sceptic - the one whose verses are rightly woven into the long,rich,often-endangered tradition of dissent in Indian life.
Guru Nanak
Martyrdom is a current that runs deep in the Sikh tradition,as does a powerful sense of justice. But there's also that recognition of needing to return from the mountain realm of sages and purist visions : to live down here,in the world.
Krishnadevaraya :
Krishnadevaraya was a successful warrior ruling in a brutal age- a fact that lent itself to an unsentimental,tactical and flexible approach to politics.
Mirabai
Is Mira a passionate religious inspiration ? An emblem of caste blindness and inter-caste friendship ? A potent symbol of feminism and self-transformation-a one-woman protest movement as much as a saint? History can't quite decide.
Akbar
He stands out in the global context of his times - questioning,doubting and reinventing faith in an age when many rulers stayed steadfast in their beliefs.
Malik Ambar
A persistent tormentor and nemesis of the Vast Mughal empire to the north, he helped set the contours of power in the subcontinent in the century before the dawn of the colonial era.
Dara Shikoh
What if Dara had not translated the Upanishads and other Sanskrit works? He might have been a more successful prince,even become emperor. But our minds would be narrower places today.
Shivaji
Some Indians likened him to the Italian Garibaldi. Others saw him as a saintly figure in the Bhakti tradition. For Hindus well beyond Maharashtra,he remains an important champion, and in Maharashtra,there's still no figure from history more beloved.
Nainsukh
Instead of the static brightness of the earlier Pahari style,we find intimacy and warmth,mystery and sly humour - individuality.
William Jones
He was an Orientalist in this more positive sense : a man who arrived in India and studied it's culture with humility,and then sought to awaken the West to it's riches. The irony is that he also awakened the East.
Rammohun Roy
Roy showed how, in dreaming up a past better than the fallen present, Indians might aspire to a fairer future.
Lakshmi Bai, Rani of Jhansi
What's troubling is that women who manage to excel in a largely male-dominated society are seldom construed as human,as examples capable of emulation. Instead,they's ascribed extra-human powers. Supposedly, this celebrates them,but in fact it denies the reality and thus the relevance of their experience.
Jyotirao Phule
The irony is that,if it were not for the usurping East India company and the new order it established, one of the 19th century's great radical humanists might have been just another unknown vegetable supplier.
Deen Dayal
Without him,we wouldn't understand so powerfully the moment when India was the world's exotic,wondrous playground for the wealthy- before the modern world got in the way.
Birsa Munda
His was a firework of a life - he was dead by the age of 25- but the embers of his struggle still burn.
Jamshetji Tata
He showcased an entrepreneurial art in short supply lately - the ability to balance short-term,private interest with a far-sighted sense of public purpose.
Vivekananda
In what amounted to a novel and radical argument,he insisted that Hinduism's moral force rested on its capacity to meet society's practical needs.
Annie Besant
Through her writings,action and politics, Besant groomed an elite and created,in skeletal form, a much wider basis for political mobilization of those elites than had existed previously.
Chidambaram Pillai
Pillai came closer than most Swadeshi Movement leaders to bridge the fault lines of Indian society -until he encountered the other element that ensured the movement's failure : the retaliatory hand of the British.
Srinivasa Ramanujan
I think that even for Ramanujan himself,his process and purposes remained a mystery-so many motes of blown chalk,suddenly forming constellations to those gifted enough to see them.
Tagore
In a nationalist age when many of his compatriots were preoccupied with independence, Tagore preferred to speak of freedom.
Visvesaraya
Austere to the point of dourness,but audaciously hopeful, he sought to frog-march India into modernity.
Periyar
The more I learn about this gruff idol-breaker with a stiletto tongue and a furnace of a brain, the more I wonder : if only other regions of India had had similar legacies, would our Democratic Republic of Indian Females be in better fighting shape today?
Muhammad Iqbal
Against fascist discourses of racial and national superiority, he advocated submission to a far higher power.
Amrita Sher-Gil
She survived what are often the most arduous years for a woman artist-finding her identity as a young woman in a patriarchal art world,and then achieving some stability in her family life-but failed to reach the sustained period of focused creativity that the second half of a woman's artistic life often allows.
Subhas Chandra Bose
His decision to partner with two of the titanic powers of his time- with the Soviets seemingly next - helped entrench a post-independence resistance to military pacts and great-power alliances.
Gandhi
Unlike a Stalin or a Mano, who tried to change the imagination of their people by wielding state power,Gandhi used imagination to try to change the nature of power and the state.
Jinnah
He articulated one powerful strand in the dreams of modern nationalism : for homogeneity. But to pursue homogeneity is to enter an endless life of purging,secession and self-destructive violence.
Saadat Hasan Manto
His visceral response to experience matched a historical moment that needed it.
Ambedkar
Alone of all India's founders, he recognized the importance of fraternity as fundamental to the creation of a political community. Without fraternity,Ambedkar reminded his fellow Indians,'equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint.'
Raj Kapoor
The solutions he posited to a collective,post-1947 let-down had little to do with politics,and a lot to do with love.
Sheikh Abdullah
The treatment of Kashmir was 'an open book',he said,hardly hidden to history. 'Let every Indian search his own heart.'
V.K.Krishna Menon
Isaiah Berlin decided Nehru was the T.S.Eliot to Menon's Ezra Pound- ''The same beliefs at much lower tension,milder,more compatible with respectable life,but deriving from the same constellation of values; gently,tolerantly,decently anti-Western.''
M.S.Subbulakshmi
As in many other stories of exceptional,hard-working women,their own ambition is denied a role in their achievement.
Indira Gandhi
Being able to vote so dominant a leader out of office in 1977 gave voters a sense of the power they now held-and in subsequent decades,Indians participated in elections and politics at higher rates than ever before.
Satyajit Ray
"It's the truth in a situation that attracts me", he told his actors."And if I've been able to show it,that's enough for me."
Charan Singh
While Russia produced more than a dozen agrarian intellectuals, and China produced a few, Singh may have been independent India's one and only.
M.F.Husain
It's gutting to consider that,by present standards, exile may have been a lucky fate for Husain. Today,India's writers and intellectuals are being murdered for their beliefs.
Dhirubhai Ambani
One reason we no longer have much suspicion of excess and inequality,or those who facilitate it, is because,when compared to men like Gandhi or Ambedkar, Dhirubhai Ambani was just as he'd claimed to be- the bigger shark.
Buddha
To several of the fathers of the modern nation, the Buddha provided a rational faith that could be weaponized against the hierarchies that still warp Indian society.
Mahavira
The Jain analysis of reality was largely founded on anekantavada,the doctrine of many-sidedness,with it's inherent critique of the limitations of human understanding. On what basis,then, could Mahavira and his philosophy claim to speak from a position of omniscience?
Panini
So awesome was Panini's ability to articulate and compress the rules of Sanskrit that it was said he had managed to capture the ocean in a cow's hoofprint.
Kautilya
The ancient manuscript of Arthashastra would help Indian nationalists imagine a realpolitik for an aspiring India of the 20th century. Here was a self-help manual for a start-up nation.
Ashoka
His message,of moderation and restraint,remains in equal parts an admonition and an inspiration to Indians today.
Charaka
People turn to Ayurveda because it seems to promise them more recognition as individuals. Perhaps it does- but only in the quite specific sense of placing on each one of us a greater responsibility for our health,enjoining us to live as Charaka teaches : with a little more judgement.
Aryabhata
The Aryabhatiya also holds out the tantalizing promise that we are merely at the threshold of our understanding of early Indian scientific thought.
Adi Shankara
At the heart of Shankara's interpretation of Hinduism is an idea that remains as powerful as it is paradoxical - nirguna Brahman, a god without qualities.
Rajaraja Chola
Did he invent this cult of the leader in the Tamil lands ,or had he tapped into a current that was already,quietly,coursing through them?
Basava
'I''ll sing as I love':no high language,just an open invitation to all - including the unlettered. This informal,almost spoken quality,is why the twelfth-century guru speaks so powerfully to many writers in India today.
Amir Khusrau
The world of cultural amalgamation and mixing that some think Khusrau inspired can seem illusory,even unnecessary,to many people in power today.
Kabir
It's as important as ever to reject reverent incarnations of Kabir and recognize the edgier social critic and sceptic - the one whose verses are rightly woven into the long,rich,often-endangered tradition of dissent in Indian life.
Guru Nanak
Martyrdom is a current that runs deep in the Sikh tradition,as does a powerful sense of justice. But there's also that recognition of needing to return from the mountain realm of sages and purist visions : to live down here,in the world.
Krishnadevaraya :
Krishnadevaraya was a successful warrior ruling in a brutal age- a fact that lent itself to an unsentimental,tactical and flexible approach to politics.
Mirabai
Is Mira a passionate religious inspiration ? An emblem of caste blindness and inter-caste friendship ? A potent symbol of feminism and self-transformation-a one-woman protest movement as much as a saint? History can't quite decide.
Akbar
He stands out in the global context of his times - questioning,doubting and reinventing faith in an age when many rulers stayed steadfast in their beliefs.
Malik Ambar
A persistent tormentor and nemesis of the Vast Mughal empire to the north, he helped set the contours of power in the subcontinent in the century before the dawn of the colonial era.
Dara Shikoh
What if Dara had not translated the Upanishads and other Sanskrit works? He might have been a more successful prince,even become emperor. But our minds would be narrower places today.
Shivaji
Some Indians likened him to the Italian Garibaldi. Others saw him as a saintly figure in the Bhakti tradition. For Hindus well beyond Maharashtra,he remains an important champion, and in Maharashtra,there's still no figure from history more beloved.
Nainsukh
Instead of the static brightness of the earlier Pahari style,we find intimacy and warmth,mystery and sly humour - individuality.
William Jones
He was an Orientalist in this more positive sense : a man who arrived in India and studied it's culture with humility,and then sought to awaken the West to it's riches. The irony is that he also awakened the East.
Rammohun Roy
Roy showed how, in dreaming up a past better than the fallen present, Indians might aspire to a fairer future.
Lakshmi Bai, Rani of Jhansi
What's troubling is that women who manage to excel in a largely male-dominated society are seldom construed as human,as examples capable of emulation. Instead,they's ascribed extra-human powers. Supposedly, this celebrates them,but in fact it denies the reality and thus the relevance of their experience.
Jyotirao Phule
The irony is that,if it were not for the usurping East India company and the new order it established, one of the 19th century's great radical humanists might have been just another unknown vegetable supplier.
Deen Dayal
Without him,we wouldn't understand so powerfully the moment when India was the world's exotic,wondrous playground for the wealthy- before the modern world got in the way.
Birsa Munda
His was a firework of a life - he was dead by the age of 25- but the embers of his struggle still burn.
Jamshetji Tata
He showcased an entrepreneurial art in short supply lately - the ability to balance short-term,private interest with a far-sighted sense of public purpose.
Vivekananda
In what amounted to a novel and radical argument,he insisted that Hinduism's moral force rested on its capacity to meet society's practical needs.
Annie Besant
Through her writings,action and politics, Besant groomed an elite and created,in skeletal form, a much wider basis for political mobilization of those elites than had existed previously.
Chidambaram Pillai
Pillai came closer than most Swadeshi Movement leaders to bridge the fault lines of Indian society -until he encountered the other element that ensured the movement's failure : the retaliatory hand of the British.
Srinivasa Ramanujan
I think that even for Ramanujan himself,his process and purposes remained a mystery-so many motes of blown chalk,suddenly forming constellations to those gifted enough to see them.
Tagore
In a nationalist age when many of his compatriots were preoccupied with independence, Tagore preferred to speak of freedom.
Visvesaraya
Austere to the point of dourness,but audaciously hopeful, he sought to frog-march India into modernity.
Periyar
The more I learn about this gruff idol-breaker with a stiletto tongue and a furnace of a brain, the more I wonder : if only other regions of India had had similar legacies, would our Democratic Republic of Indian Females be in better fighting shape today?
Muhammad Iqbal
Against fascist discourses of racial and national superiority, he advocated submission to a far higher power.
Amrita Sher-Gil
She survived what are often the most arduous years for a woman artist-finding her identity as a young woman in a patriarchal art world,and then achieving some stability in her family life-but failed to reach the sustained period of focused creativity that the second half of a woman's artistic life often allows.
Subhas Chandra Bose
His decision to partner with two of the titanic powers of his time- with the Soviets seemingly next - helped entrench a post-independence resistance to military pacts and great-power alliances.
Gandhi
Unlike a Stalin or a Mano, who tried to change the imagination of their people by wielding state power,Gandhi used imagination to try to change the nature of power and the state.
Jinnah
He articulated one powerful strand in the dreams of modern nationalism : for homogeneity. But to pursue homogeneity is to enter an endless life of purging,secession and self-destructive violence.
Saadat Hasan Manto
His visceral response to experience matched a historical moment that needed it.
Ambedkar
Alone of all India's founders, he recognized the importance of fraternity as fundamental to the creation of a political community. Without fraternity,Ambedkar reminded his fellow Indians,'equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint.'
Raj Kapoor
The solutions he posited to a collective,post-1947 let-down had little to do with politics,and a lot to do with love.
Sheikh Abdullah
The treatment of Kashmir was 'an open book',he said,hardly hidden to history. 'Let every Indian search his own heart.'
V.K.Krishna Menon
Isaiah Berlin decided Nehru was the T.S.Eliot to Menon's Ezra Pound- ''The same beliefs at much lower tension,milder,more compatible with respectable life,but deriving from the same constellation of values; gently,tolerantly,decently anti-Western.''
M.S.Subbulakshmi
As in many other stories of exceptional,hard-working women,their own ambition is denied a role in their achievement.
Indira Gandhi
Being able to vote so dominant a leader out of office in 1977 gave voters a sense of the power they now held-and in subsequent decades,Indians participated in elections and politics at higher rates than ever before.
Satyajit Ray
"It's the truth in a situation that attracts me", he told his actors."And if I've been able to show it,that's enough for me."
Charan Singh
While Russia produced more than a dozen agrarian intellectuals, and China produced a few, Singh may have been independent India's one and only.
M.F.Husain
It's gutting to consider that,by present standards, exile may have been a lucky fate for Husain. Today,India's writers and intellectuals are being murdered for their beliefs.
Dhirubhai Ambani
One reason we no longer have much suspicion of excess and inequality,or those who facilitate it, is because,when compared to men like Gandhi or Ambedkar, Dhirubhai Ambani was just as he'd claimed to be- the bigger shark.
December 5, 2017
A fascinating collection of 50 profiles of personalities who influenced Indian history. A good mix of usual suspects and somewhat unknown people, each profile is 8-10 pages long and packed with interesting detail. What's most interesting about this book is that each profile has some connection to other profiles in the book. Strongly recommend.
June 22, 2016
'India isn’t really a country, It is a sub-continent composed of nationalities, Hindus and Muslims being the two major nations.'
This was Jinnah. He was the man who would be complicit in the partition of India, along with his Indian counterparts, in what would turn out to be one of the bloodiest events in the history of the world. But when reading anything that is related to India, we are taught of eras and empires and kingdoms. Rarely is an individual talked about much in the larger context, as a means of history. One of the reasons might be that it is so vast that even an individual can cover only a fairly small time scale. Perhaps Nehru, if the centerpiece, can tell us a bit about Modern India. But he will be spending much of that time in the northern part of the subcontinent and outside India itself, and very little in the southern parts of it. The geography plays against a single individual influencing anything close to complete cover of India. Perhaps because of this, there has never been history, told in way of individuals. Sunil Khilnani chooses to rectify this.
He admits to the caveats of this approach and doesn't shy away from admitting that his approach might be flawed. He has the thankless job of selecting individuals, often disproportionate number for a particular period, from among thousands of possible candidates. He has to make sure a particular region is not ignored. And to the best of my limited knowledge about India, he has done an excellent job. I must admit I hadn't heard of some people in this book, and heard some very different things about those who I did know a bit about.
Khilnani has no holy cows. There is no mystification of hero worship or glorification. Even Vivekanandha, whom I used to admire to an inordinate amount, is deconstructed with a surgeon's precision. Gandhi is not portrayed as a saint. He is the masterful politician. Mahavira and Buddha get their places too, at the very beginning. Nor do you miss the Bhakti Movement. Interestingly, Manto figures too. As does the unglamorous portrait of Jamsetji Tata. There is a touch of flint stones and flying sparks and there is also a red hot touchstone against which every individual marked is tested.
The 'history' is often woefully short. But this is not a work that is the history of individuals. Much less and much more than that. Eclecticism shines through. From the rebel natured Annie Besant to J. Phule to Jinnah to Manto, there is a collection of rich characters that symbolize the colourfulness of this nation's extraordinary history. Ramanujan is pitted here too. There is a short story, brutally trimmed here, of Manto. A tear rolls down when we read it. There is an euphoria reading pages that detail individuals like Satyajit Ray. Periyar and VOC bat for south India. Jharkhand brings Birsa Munda. Pakistan sends Jinnah and Iqbal. Khilnani does justice to the undertaking and deserves rich laurels.
Must read.
This was Jinnah. He was the man who would be complicit in the partition of India, along with his Indian counterparts, in what would turn out to be one of the bloodiest events in the history of the world. But when reading anything that is related to India, we are taught of eras and empires and kingdoms. Rarely is an individual talked about much in the larger context, as a means of history. One of the reasons might be that it is so vast that even an individual can cover only a fairly small time scale. Perhaps Nehru, if the centerpiece, can tell us a bit about Modern India. But he will be spending much of that time in the northern part of the subcontinent and outside India itself, and very little in the southern parts of it. The geography plays against a single individual influencing anything close to complete cover of India. Perhaps because of this, there has never been history, told in way of individuals. Sunil Khilnani chooses to rectify this.
He admits to the caveats of this approach and doesn't shy away from admitting that his approach might be flawed. He has the thankless job of selecting individuals, often disproportionate number for a particular period, from among thousands of possible candidates. He has to make sure a particular region is not ignored. And to the best of my limited knowledge about India, he has done an excellent job. I must admit I hadn't heard of some people in this book, and heard some very different things about those who I did know a bit about.
Khilnani has no holy cows. There is no mystification of hero worship or glorification. Even Vivekanandha, whom I used to admire to an inordinate amount, is deconstructed with a surgeon's precision. Gandhi is not portrayed as a saint. He is the masterful politician. Mahavira and Buddha get their places too, at the very beginning. Nor do you miss the Bhakti Movement. Interestingly, Manto figures too. As does the unglamorous portrait of Jamsetji Tata. There is a touch of flint stones and flying sparks and there is also a red hot touchstone against which every individual marked is tested.
The 'history' is often woefully short. But this is not a work that is the history of individuals. Much less and much more than that. Eclecticism shines through. From the rebel natured Annie Besant to J. Phule to Jinnah to Manto, there is a collection of rich characters that symbolize the colourfulness of this nation's extraordinary history. Ramanujan is pitted here too. There is a short story, brutally trimmed here, of Manto. A tear rolls down when we read it. There is an euphoria reading pages that detail individuals like Satyajit Ray. Periyar and VOC bat for south India. Jharkhand brings Birsa Munda. Pakistan sends Jinnah and Iqbal. Khilnani does justice to the undertaking and deserves rich laurels.
Must read.
April 14, 2018
Read this book if you want to go on a tour spanning centuries, covering states and individuals.
Sunil Khilnani, (to borrow his phrase) has ability to withhold judgement, yet comment on limitations of ideologies and individuals at the time.
It attempts to take an objective view of life journey of people who created religions, kingdoms, social/political/cultural movements, discoveries, institutions, artwork and corporations, contributions of which far outsize their individual lifespans. These entities have shaped Indian psyche and reality and will continue to do so. He tours the lives and circumstances of the people whose contributions are so deeply embedded in current worldview that it's easy to take them for granted.
Sunil Khilnani, (to borrow his phrase) has ability to withhold judgement, yet comment on limitations of ideologies and individuals at the time.
It attempts to take an objective view of life journey of people who created religions, kingdoms, social/political/cultural movements, discoveries, institutions, artwork and corporations, contributions of which far outsize their individual lifespans. These entities have shaped Indian psyche and reality and will continue to do so. He tours the lives and circumstances of the people whose contributions are so deeply embedded in current worldview that it's easy to take them for granted.
August 17, 2020
Incarnation, A history of India in 50 lives - Sunil Khilnani
“To pursue homogeneity is to enter an endless life of purging, secession and self-destructive violence”
How wealthy does a developing country have to become before it has a distinct class know as the poor?
Incarnations is one of the best book to understand the social history of India, the idea of telling history through lives of 50 important people of India in chronological order is the crux of this book. There are many dimensions of history, however this book deals with the social dimension in detail. The variety in selection of personalities are very interesting, it ranges from artist, politicians, kings, social activists, spiritual leaders, thinkers, businessmen etc.... it starts with The Buddha and ends with Ambani. The undercurrent of the narration is social view of the personalities, which focuses on the their stand in social justice. Whenever possible social discrimination and oppression were addressed clearly. Out of these 50 persons, my pick of 10 personalities are
1. The Buddha
The Buddha provided the modern leaders, a rational faith that could be weaponised against the hierarchies that still warp Indian society - from the book
The placement of Buddha in the beginning of the book is not only for chronological purpose I believe. Since he is probably the first personality who wants to build a egalitarian society, through religious preaching without any discrimination among the subjects. He is also against the ritual practices which exploits the ignorance of the people, down the line many people follow the same footsteps of his preaching, not intentionally, like Mahavir. The idea of Buddha and his Dhamma is revolutionary. Scientific evidences (From reference of the book called ‘Early Indians’) also says that the fall of Buddhism coincides with the mobilisation of caste system.
2. Ashoka
Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion and Condemns others with the thought ‘let me glorify my own religion’ only harms is own religion. - Ashoka’s ROCK EDICT XII
Ashoka, the name will be remembered as a king who planted trees along the highways. That is probably the least to remember. He laid roads for 2000 kilometres stretching from today’s Pakistan to Patna. Which was a phenomenal task to achieve in BCE. He sensed the prevailing egalitarian views of Buddha were very fresh and much needed for the society and he almost become an authoritarian of spreading Buddhism throughout Asia.
3. Basava
You are a blacksmith if you heat the iron,
A washer man if you wash clothes
A weaver if you lay the warp
A Brahmin if you read the Vedas.
False, utterly false, are the stories of divine birth.
The higher type of man is the man
Who knows himself - Basava
Basava, prominent person of 12th century , renowned poet, social activist, emerged as a reformist through simple words (called Vachanas). Born in present day Karnataka, criticised brahminical dominance and their oppression. The idea of cascading his thought through vachanas in regional language reaches more people and the verses are very simple and colloquial in nature. He went on to promote inter-caste marriage, and while exercising such practices, violent reactions among upper caste people scattered the movement. However Basava’s followers continued treading his path and later they are called Lingayat.
4. Shivaji
Shivaji is the person whom I admire from my school days. The way he ascending the throne was heroic. The saddening fact I come to know about the coronation ritual, to get acceptance of the priests he supposedly bribe them. Capturing the throne is not sufficient, he had to pay a price ( 15 kg of Vishnu idol made of gold) to get the caste legitimacy. Over 1000 priests were performed the coronation rituals.
5. Jyotirao phule
Without education, wisdom was lost; without morals, development was lost; without development, wealth was lost; without wealth, shudras were ruined.
- Jyotirao phule
In a recent Tamil movie called ‘Pariyerum Perumal’, there is a heartbreaking sequence in which protagonist attend the wedding, where he was beaten for his low caste identity. One such incident happened in Jyotirao phule’s life which changes his mind towards social discrimination. While observing privileged elites, he felt that they are exploiting the ignorance of low caste people, and decided to educate them. He went on to open school for unprivileged students, especially girls school, in which Savithri bai wife of Jyotirao phule took care of girls education against all odds she faced while walking to school.
6. Jamsetji Tata
Though he was a beneficiary of British raj in establishing his foothold in businesses, his entrepreneurial revolution is worth look into. His care for the employees and considering their growth as a part of their policy was laudable.
7. Periyar
Have cats ever freed rats? Have foxes ever liberated goats? Have whites ever enriched Indians? Have Brahmins ever given non-Brahmins justice? We can be confident that women will never be emancipated by men - Periyar
All the time people of this generation associate the name Periyar with atheism and anti- brahminical stance. However he had achieved beyond those identities. The main thing about his social activism was raising the voice for representation of the oppressed in political arena, eventually achieved through Dravidian movement. Which changed the composition of bureaucracy. Though he didn’t participate directly in electoral politics, his ideologies decided the manifesto of election campaign and even after 6 decades his statue is stoned, that shows the need of his ideologies. His name will be in rounds until oppression of any kind prevails.
8. Manto
Manto well known for his hard hitting stories of Bombay streets. His literary contribution is commanding. He never fail to register dark side of partition in his stories. After reading his part in this book, pushed me to read some of his stories, which made an indelible impact. Stories like ‘Ten rupees’ and ‘khol do’ are must read. Mere 4 page story ‘Khol do’ conveys the pain of women faced during partition.
9. Ambedkar
The Higher is anxious to get rid of the highest but does not wish to combine with the high, the Low would not make a common cause with the lower, each class being privileged, every class is interested in maintaining the system - Dr. Ambedkar
Observing today’s politics shows that every party, from extreme right to extreme left wants to appropriate his influence among common public because the reach of his benevolence among the oppressed is indelible. He changed the fate of many people single handedly... His ground work was phenomenal. Many persons fought for egalitarianism spiritually and ideally however Ambedkar did the same constitutionally. Besides all this the best way of understanding Ambedkar is through his writings. Better start reading his works.
10. Satyajit ray
There is nothing irrelevant or haphazard in his cinematographic technique - Akira Kurosawa about ray
Martin Scorsese is one of my all time favourite director, watching him lauding Satyajit ray pushed me to watch the movie trilogy called ‘Pather Panchali’. Anybody can realise his greatness, through his works.
“To pursue homogeneity is to enter an endless life of purging, secession and self-destructive violence”
How wealthy does a developing country have to become before it has a distinct class know as the poor?
Incarnations is one of the best book to understand the social history of India, the idea of telling history through lives of 50 important people of India in chronological order is the crux of this book. There are many dimensions of history, however this book deals with the social dimension in detail. The variety in selection of personalities are very interesting, it ranges from artist, politicians, kings, social activists, spiritual leaders, thinkers, businessmen etc.... it starts with The Buddha and ends with Ambani. The undercurrent of the narration is social view of the personalities, which focuses on the their stand in social justice. Whenever possible social discrimination and oppression were addressed clearly. Out of these 50 persons, my pick of 10 personalities are
1. The Buddha
The Buddha provided the modern leaders, a rational faith that could be weaponised against the hierarchies that still warp Indian society - from the book
The placement of Buddha in the beginning of the book is not only for chronological purpose I believe. Since he is probably the first personality who wants to build a egalitarian society, through religious preaching without any discrimination among the subjects. He is also against the ritual practices which exploits the ignorance of the people, down the line many people follow the same footsteps of his preaching, not intentionally, like Mahavir. The idea of Buddha and his Dhamma is revolutionary. Scientific evidences (From reference of the book called ‘Early Indians’) also says that the fall of Buddhism coincides with the mobilisation of caste system.
2. Ashoka
Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion and Condemns others with the thought ‘let me glorify my own religion’ only harms is own religion. - Ashoka’s ROCK EDICT XII
Ashoka, the name will be remembered as a king who planted trees along the highways. That is probably the least to remember. He laid roads for 2000 kilometres stretching from today’s Pakistan to Patna. Which was a phenomenal task to achieve in BCE. He sensed the prevailing egalitarian views of Buddha were very fresh and much needed for the society and he almost become an authoritarian of spreading Buddhism throughout Asia.
3. Basava
You are a blacksmith if you heat the iron,
A washer man if you wash clothes
A weaver if you lay the warp
A Brahmin if you read the Vedas.
False, utterly false, are the stories of divine birth.
The higher type of man is the man
Who knows himself - Basava
Basava, prominent person of 12th century , renowned poet, social activist, emerged as a reformist through simple words (called Vachanas). Born in present day Karnataka, criticised brahminical dominance and their oppression. The idea of cascading his thought through vachanas in regional language reaches more people and the verses are very simple and colloquial in nature. He went on to promote inter-caste marriage, and while exercising such practices, violent reactions among upper caste people scattered the movement. However Basava’s followers continued treading his path and later they are called Lingayat.
4. Shivaji
Shivaji is the person whom I admire from my school days. The way he ascending the throne was heroic. The saddening fact I come to know about the coronation ritual, to get acceptance of the priests he supposedly bribe them. Capturing the throne is not sufficient, he had to pay a price ( 15 kg of Vishnu idol made of gold) to get the caste legitimacy. Over 1000 priests were performed the coronation rituals.
5. Jyotirao phule
Without education, wisdom was lost; without morals, development was lost; without development, wealth was lost; without wealth, shudras were ruined.
- Jyotirao phule
In a recent Tamil movie called ‘Pariyerum Perumal’, there is a heartbreaking sequence in which protagonist attend the wedding, where he was beaten for his low caste identity. One such incident happened in Jyotirao phule’s life which changes his mind towards social discrimination. While observing privileged elites, he felt that they are exploiting the ignorance of low caste people, and decided to educate them. He went on to open school for unprivileged students, especially girls school, in which Savithri bai wife of Jyotirao phule took care of girls education against all odds she faced while walking to school.
6. Jamsetji Tata
Though he was a beneficiary of British raj in establishing his foothold in businesses, his entrepreneurial revolution is worth look into. His care for the employees and considering their growth as a part of their policy was laudable.
7. Periyar
Have cats ever freed rats? Have foxes ever liberated goats? Have whites ever enriched Indians? Have Brahmins ever given non-Brahmins justice? We can be confident that women will never be emancipated by men - Periyar
All the time people of this generation associate the name Periyar with atheism and anti- brahminical stance. However he had achieved beyond those identities. The main thing about his social activism was raising the voice for representation of the oppressed in political arena, eventually achieved through Dravidian movement. Which changed the composition of bureaucracy. Though he didn’t participate directly in electoral politics, his ideologies decided the manifesto of election campaign and even after 6 decades his statue is stoned, that shows the need of his ideologies. His name will be in rounds until oppression of any kind prevails.
8. Manto
Manto well known for his hard hitting stories of Bombay streets. His literary contribution is commanding. He never fail to register dark side of partition in his stories. After reading his part in this book, pushed me to read some of his stories, which made an indelible impact. Stories like ‘Ten rupees’ and ‘khol do’ are must read. Mere 4 page story ‘Khol do’ conveys the pain of women faced during partition.
9. Ambedkar
The Higher is anxious to get rid of the highest but does not wish to combine with the high, the Low would not make a common cause with the lower, each class being privileged, every class is interested in maintaining the system - Dr. Ambedkar
Observing today’s politics shows that every party, from extreme right to extreme left wants to appropriate his influence among common public because the reach of his benevolence among the oppressed is indelible. He changed the fate of many people single handedly... His ground work was phenomenal. Many persons fought for egalitarianism spiritually and ideally however Ambedkar did the same constitutionally. Besides all this the best way of understanding Ambedkar is through his writings. Better start reading his works.
10. Satyajit ray
There is nothing irrelevant or haphazard in his cinematographic technique - Akira Kurosawa about ray
Martin Scorsese is one of my all time favourite director, watching him lauding Satyajit ray pushed me to watch the movie trilogy called ‘Pather Panchali’. Anybody can realise his greatness, through his works.
April 4, 2018
A different approach to history - it’s not linear, or contiguous and does not talk of the great historical
Moments. Through the lives of 50 Indians, Khilanani has etched the flow of thought and the evolution of India as it is today. And to achieve this the lives are not dealt with as biographies - there is scant reference to the lives themselves - but in the context of their philosophy, achievements and contribution to the idea of India. While each sketch is but a few pages long, they reflect deep scholarship and erudition - not easy to achieve for 50 lives as disparate Buddha and Satyajit Ray, Panini and Ambani. I would love to know the reaction to the book, of someone who is not familiar with Indian history though! It is well written, easy to read and enjoyable for a lay reader
Moments. Through the lives of 50 Indians, Khilanani has etched the flow of thought and the evolution of India as it is today. And to achieve this the lives are not dealt with as biographies - there is scant reference to the lives themselves - but in the context of their philosophy, achievements and contribution to the idea of India. While each sketch is but a few pages long, they reflect deep scholarship and erudition - not easy to achieve for 50 lives as disparate Buddha and Satyajit Ray, Panini and Ambani. I would love to know the reaction to the book, of someone who is not familiar with Indian history though! It is well written, easy to read and enjoyable for a lay reader
March 19, 2016
With ‘Incarnations’, Sunil Khilnani the author of the acclaimed ‘Idea of India’, tells the stories of 50 Indians. He delves into India’s past seeking out those who have influenced India’s religious, social, economic and political thinking. The result is a compendium ranging from Buddha and Mahavira to Raj Kapoor and Dhirubhai Ambani. Khilnani’s argument is that these men and women, long since dead, are often resurrected to provide new meaning (and sometimes distorted inspirations) to contemporary India. He asserts that “a civilization able to produce a Mahavira, a Mirabai, a Malik Ambar, a Muhammad Iqbal, and a Mohandas Gandhi is a place open to radical experiments with self-definition”. And that is the value of the book - helping readers redefine for themselves the idea of India.
Each of these 50 lives is a corruscation illuminating a facet of India which we do not know of or do not want to know of. For example, the essay about the Ethiopian slave Malik Ambar who rose to challenge the might of the Mughals from the Deccan Sultanate makes you think about our own racial prejudices and preconceived notions towards others - especially Africans.The tribal leader Birsa Munda who died at the age of 25 at the hands of the British, is a haunting reminder of how the struggle of India’s tribals continues to be the same today as it was more than a century ago. Visvesvaraya’s scientific engineering feats and his conflicts with social engineering resonates with contemporary socio-economic challenges. Gandhi’s nationalism and superstition is juxtaposed with the global and rational outlook of Tagore - a dialectic that we continue to see in present-day India. The ideologies and struggles of these men and women are voices calling out to the present, still shaping, moulding and tugging a nation of more than a billion.
Given Khilnani’s purpose of showing how these lives have influenced and continues to influence India, it is surprising that Khilnani has left out people like Nehru and Patel whose policies have indisputably changed the fortunes of this country; and whose legacies are hotly debated even today. To my mind the essays also seemed brief and left me wanting to know more.But these are relatively minor quibbles in an otherwise thought-provoking anthology.
For those interested in delving deeper into the lives of those who thought, wrote and argued their way into defining the idea of India, then Ramachandra Guha’s “Makers of Modern India” will be of indispensable value.
Each of these 50 lives is a corruscation illuminating a facet of India which we do not know of or do not want to know of. For example, the essay about the Ethiopian slave Malik Ambar who rose to challenge the might of the Mughals from the Deccan Sultanate makes you think about our own racial prejudices and preconceived notions towards others - especially Africans.The tribal leader Birsa Munda who died at the age of 25 at the hands of the British, is a haunting reminder of how the struggle of India’s tribals continues to be the same today as it was more than a century ago. Visvesvaraya’s scientific engineering feats and his conflicts with social engineering resonates with contemporary socio-economic challenges. Gandhi’s nationalism and superstition is juxtaposed with the global and rational outlook of Tagore - a dialectic that we continue to see in present-day India. The ideologies and struggles of these men and women are voices calling out to the present, still shaping, moulding and tugging a nation of more than a billion.
Given Khilnani’s purpose of showing how these lives have influenced and continues to influence India, it is surprising that Khilnani has left out people like Nehru and Patel whose policies have indisputably changed the fortunes of this country; and whose legacies are hotly debated even today. To my mind the essays also seemed brief and left me wanting to know more.But these are relatively minor quibbles in an otherwise thought-provoking anthology.
For those interested in delving deeper into the lives of those who thought, wrote and argued their way into defining the idea of India, then Ramachandra Guha’s “Makers of Modern India” will be of indispensable value.
May 20, 2016
In ‘Incarnations’, Sunil Khilnani tells the stories of 50 Indians, some of whom are very well known and a few are obscure. There are people whom we have forgotten about to people who are not very well known despite their achievements. He digs into the history of India to select those who have shaped our country’s future in many spheres of life, ranging from Buddha and Ashoka to Dhirubhai Ambani and Raj Kapoor. The ideologies, achievements and struggles of these men and women are inspiring and enlightening. Most of the people profiled in this book have a deep political or religious impact on our society. The thread running through these essays is that all of these people challenged the prevalent conventions of their times. The short essays and the pictures are weaved into the history of India skilfully by the author. In these troubled times, this book shows through the lives and the journeys of 50 people, what it truly means to be an Indian.
July 24, 2025
To give credit where credit is due, it’s a very impressive feat to succinctly summarise 2,500 years of Indian history in 50 lives and 430 pages.
That being said it was a dense 430 pages. For me, this book would have been a more enjoyable read if it had looked at a broader range of female lives (women only featured in 15% of the chapters) and lives that didn’t centre around religion or politics (which accounted for almost two thirds (66%), not counting the constant politicisation of artists, poets, writers, and other creatives where they did get a look in). There was no mention of any scientists, software developers, economists, labourers, teachers, or ordinary people who might represent ordinary Indian lives, and the elusive lower-caste born mentions soon ambitiously and excitingly climbed to become… yes! More male politicians!
I learned a lot from the few chapters that did stand out - Lakshmi Bai, Indira Gandhi, Subbulakshmi, Amrita Asher-Gil, Panini, Deen Dayal.
That being said it was a dense 430 pages. For me, this book would have been a more enjoyable read if it had looked at a broader range of female lives (women only featured in 15% of the chapters) and lives that didn’t centre around religion or politics (which accounted for almost two thirds (66%), not counting the constant politicisation of artists, poets, writers, and other creatives where they did get a look in). There was no mention of any scientists, software developers, economists, labourers, teachers, or ordinary people who might represent ordinary Indian lives, and the elusive lower-caste born mentions soon ambitiously and excitingly climbed to become… yes! More male politicians!
I learned a lot from the few chapters that did stand out - Lakshmi Bai, Indira Gandhi, Subbulakshmi, Amrita Asher-Gil, Panini, Deen Dayal.
March 18, 2017
Incarnations is an ambitious project. To pen down small essays on 50 Indian lives which shaped India and selecting the 50 from the thousands of lives that has shaped the history of this country is no easy task.
Out of the 50 lives spoken I knew about more that 70% of them. What is refreshing about Mr. Khilnani's approach is how he has dealt with each one. He has not dwelt deep in to these lives but has just given a basic overview of their lives. What he has manged to do is string together a narrative as to how these icons are still alive in India and what ideologies they represent. This is the differentiation of this book. The long forgotten or unknown lives that he has touched upon have been most interesting to me. Charaka, Basava, Malik Ambar and Dara Shikoh are just some of these unsung historical people.
This is a must buy (physical) book to adorn the library
Out of the 50 lives spoken I knew about more that 70% of them. What is refreshing about Mr. Khilnani's approach is how he has dealt with each one. He has not dwelt deep in to these lives but has just given a basic overview of their lives. What he has manged to do is string together a narrative as to how these icons are still alive in India and what ideologies they represent. This is the differentiation of this book. The long forgotten or unknown lives that he has touched upon have been most interesting to me. Charaka, Basava, Malik Ambar and Dara Shikoh are just some of these unsung historical people.
This is a must buy (physical) book to adorn the library
August 10, 2016
This is a sort of comfort read (listening) for history-buffs, with a series of 50 14-minute podcasts on influential personalities who shaped India.
5-6 of the 50 people he chose were completely unknown to me, there were interesting facts and insights even on ppl completely familiar and none of the 50 podcasts bored me. The style of presentation was good too, choosing to start each podcast with a small example of how the person is relevant in today's India. Searching for more like this for multi-tasking. Maybe A history of the world in 100 objects
5-6 of the 50 people he chose were completely unknown to me, there were interesting facts and insights even on ppl completely familiar and none of the 50 podcasts bored me. The style of presentation was good too, choosing to start each podcast with a small example of how the person is relevant in today's India. Searching for more like this for multi-tasking. Maybe A history of the world in 100 objects
July 16, 2020
Well, I learned a lot. And I firmly believe Padmavati walked so Lakshmi Bai could run and jump out of her palace on a horse in the middle of the night. Full review available here!
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