Behenji

by Ajoy Bose

BRAND NEW, Exactly same ISBN as listed, Please double check ISBN carefully before ordering.

Genres: Politics, Biography, Nonfiction, India

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

"Ajoy Bose has been regarded, in recent years, as the leading expert on Mayawati and her Dalit politics. For nearly four decades, he has been associated with a wide range of media. He is at present a senior political columnist and television commentator, published in leading newspapers and magazines in India and abroad and appearing on major channels. He began his journalistic career in the early 1970s with Patriot newspaper and Link magazine, going on to become Delhi correspondent of Sunday magazine, and in the 1980s started the Delhi edition of The Sunday Observer, India’s first Sunday newspaper. In the 1990s he was with the Pioneer newspaper where he became the Executive Editor. He was also India correspondent of the Guardian, London from 1978 to 1996 and later the New Delhi representative for the Khaleej Times, Dubai. He has broadcast extensively on the BBC, Voice of America and Radio Nederlands. During the 1998 national elections he co-hosted along with Vinod Dua and Mark Tully the popular television poll programme Chunauv Chunauti for Sony television. In 2004, he produced a weekly foreign affairs television show, Global Challenges, on Doordarshan News. Ajoy Bose has co-written two books, the highly acclaimed For Reasons of State: Delhi Under Emergency and Shah Commission Begins."

Reviews

[Praj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a fan of Mayawati or her political agendas and never will I vote in favor of her or BSP(Bahujan Samaj Party). That said, I must confess that I am highly intrigued and approve of Mayawati as a woman who from being an impoverished Dalit(an outcaste community crushed with harsh discrimination) transformed into a powerful and mercurial politician. The fact that she may become India’s Prime Minister in the future scares the crap out of me; hitherto it is not a farcical prospect anymore.

Ajoy Bose in this unofficial biography maps out the controversial journey of Mayawati who from being one of the nine children of Prabhu Das Dayal, a lowly clerk in Central postal department in Delhi, went on to become a celebrated protégé of Kanshi Ram and in due course becoming one of India’s crude, unscrupulous and devious politician. Bose in his narration garners sort of affection and intelligentsia towards Mayawati which I highly suspect is due to Mayawati being his research subject for years. Otherwise it is a feeble attempt to glorify Mayawati as a cerebral and rational leader.

Yes! She is a maverick when it comes to contemporary Indian politics nevertheless if her meteoric rise continues and God forbid takes on the Prime Minister seat, I will surely find refuge in a far away land with the fear of Mayawati’s figurines being constructed all over my country.

[Nikita · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impoverished woman coming from the most oppressed community of India and rising to become the chief minister of one of the most feudal, patriarchal and backward state of Uttar Pradesh - this premise is enough to attract any serious enthusiast of Indian politics. Ajoy Bose deserves great praise for this meticulously researched and deeply engaging and brilliantly written 'unofficial' biography. To erect the whole career trajectory of an enigmatic personality like Ms. Mayawati is no mean achievement and the fact that the author has also managed to answer many mysteries of her career against the larger backdrop of regional and national politics makes this book a unique work in political literature of India. It serves as as a microcosm to the shifty political dealings & caste-community considerations of Indian politics.

The only shortcoming is the author could have left out some minutest details of election statistics and thus reduced the expanse of the book, this could have made the reading more enjoyable. Also the 2nd edition published in 2012 has some editorial errors in not being sufficiently updated. Apart from these minor errors, this book is a welcome addition to the small bibliography of regional political writings of individual Indian states.

[Aabha Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

juat finished reading it and its pretty good. gives a pretty comprehensive guide throught the highs and lows of mayawatis career.

[Bhaswati · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-researched political biography of Mayawati, the Indian Dalit leader.

[Rajesh Mani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't a authorized biography of Mayawati & the auther has done a marvellous job in portraying the life time of the lady quite neutrally

[E.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a political biography of one of India's most intruiging and interesting politicians - Mayawati who is also known as "Behenji" (Respected sister). Thinking that a poor Dalit leader rose to become the CM of India's most populous state gives me goosebumps and reposes faith in our democracy. And this journey has been very well detailed by the author - right from Kashi Ram's efforts to Mayawati winning the majority single-handedly in 2007 and ruling. But, the good part ends here.
The author plays apologist for Mayawati's well-known shortcomings - be it allegations of corruption, divisive poisonous casteism or poor governance. Some figures for eg. 17% GDP growth rate under her rule seem fudged. Also, the massive waste of her statue/construction drives have been justified in the name of self-respect. Surely, the author cannot justify everything by comparing her to Mulayam Singh Yadav ? Surely, the pursuit of power cannot be the sole aim and what matters is what you achieve once in power ?
And finally, unlike the author I am very happy that the Gandhi-Ambedkar Poona pact in 1932 led to reserved seats and not separate electorates. It this because of this that Kashi Ram and Mayawati had to move to "Sarvjan Samaj" from "Bahujan Samaj" and be more inclusive.
The title should be "Behenji: A Political (Strategy) Biography of Mayawati" since it is obsessed with her political/electoral strategy and not actual outcomes or tangible benefits to the people by her governance.

[Akshay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt it was a political biography rather covering all the aspect. I was convinced the book to be good. But the major negative point of this book is showing her political opponents as cunning and smart and showing her as a political leader who is female fighting odd of society. I really applaud the writer for showing her as politician who may shift her ideological stance according to collation. They didn't try to hide she was there in that seat for power not for ideology. But again there were other things which I don't agree like her policy SC / ST atrocities prevention act making it one sided law. Including massive population to convert to Buddhist is she comes to power at centre. Spending lot of money in building statue and park in name of DR Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and delusion of her knowing anything about corruption charges. This book tries to downplay some controversial issue that is related to her. Still it is a book worth to read. You will know how UP politics is majorly caste dependent and inner politics of UP.

[Shireesh Pareek · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of one of the politicians from that section of society which has been subjugated for centuries, who eventually rose to the highest echleons of power. The first ever chief minister of Uttar Pradesh to complete 5 year term in the office followed by a historic clean sweep.
The books tells you the journey of an IAS aspirant school teacher who deserted her long cherished dream of joining the civil services after a meeting with her mentor/guru Sh. Kanshi Ram.
The unauthorised biography of Kumari Mayawati throws light on many aspects of the leaders life and times like how she became Behenji, the Iron Lady and Super CM stature that she earned, her relationship with her father and immediate family, her relationship with her mentor,her style of functioning,her various stints at the highest office of Uttar Pradesh,her not so good relationship with the media/journalists,her struggle to be in power,her tussle with BJP,SP, Congress, her performance as the CM of Uttar Pradesh, all the controversies surrounding her, the swift changeover from bahujan samaj to sarvajan samaj, the infamous Lucknow guest house incident, her messiah like stature among oppressed caste of society, her rags to riches story and her dream to be the Prime Minister of this great Nation are all well covered in the book.
Recommended to everyone who is interested in knowing about the leader. A lucid language is what makes this book a good read along with all the details.

[Rajesh Akinapalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of this book ends on a promising note, a time when Mayawati becomes fourth time chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. On the hindsight , it would be interesting to know how the author would interpret her 2007-2012 stint as CM and and BSP's unfortunate show in 2014. This book certainly needs a sequel.Perhaps he is waiting to see how 2019 unfolds.

The book is well written, easy to understand chronological order. It charts out how Mayawati and Kanshi Ram have achieved an almost impossible dream by their sheer pragmatism and unique brand of politics. It is worth reading. I began reading with some suspicion that book will have too much bias and lots of judgement, like usual Indian journalists. however it wasn't so.

[Conrad Barwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a hagiography but a far from critical account of Mayawati and her political career. Understandably given the restricted access and the well know aversion to media interaction of the subject, not many real insights into the personality or biography of the individual in question; but still a valuable contribution to the still under-researched and under-published area of Dalit studies and Dalit politics esp in English. The account of state politics and party rivalries in UP during the 1990s and 2000s will be invaluable to students of the period and the region, with the account of crucial incidents such as the state guest-house attack in 1993 being a real contribution.

[Rahul Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off on a promising note and Ajoy covers the intriguing story of Mayawati very well right from her childhood to her job as a teacher and from joining Kanshi Ram to becoming the CM of Uttar Pradesh. There are moments when you cannot help but admire Mayawati for the sheer courage and phenomenal rise which she has seen cutting across caste & gender.

However, part II of the book goes repeats a lot of events and aims at painting a flawless picture of Mayawati. For every wrong committed by her, the author makes a justification saying the previous government also did it. The bias is quite visible & after a point nauseating.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly hagiographic biography of Mayawayi, but nevertheless interesting and filled with useful information on both Mayawati's progress personally but also the BSP's achievements in mobilizing more than just Dalit support.

Would be interesting to see a book on the BSP that covers their 5 years in power, but I guess we'll have to wait a while for that to happen (since few like writing about defeated parties).

[Umesh Kesavan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A racy read though it does not even attempt to delve into the personality of Mayawati. It is more a biography of BSP than Mayawati. The book underlines how vital caste equations have been in the politics of Uttar Pradesh. With the benefit of retrospect, one cannot help snigger at Ajoy's prediction of BJP's demise in UP considering what happened in May of 2014.

[Kunal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives a very detailed account of Mayawati's life in the last 15 years or so. The story is straight out of a fairytale although sometimes you do get a feeling that the author is biased towards Mayawati.

[readerswords · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very sympathetic study of Mayawati Kumari's political career as well as a good introduction to the political trends in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh over last two decades.

[Anuradha Goyal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tells you a little about Mayawati a mystery : http://www.anureviews.com/behenji-by-...

[Rajat Bansal · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://arbitbansal-bookreview.blogspo...

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grundig gjennomgang av Mayawathis bakgrunn og politiske rolle, men tidvis vel detaljert.