Book Review – Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to Our Times, Rajmohan Gandhi

Writing a book on history is no easy task. Any aspiring writer of history needs to read wide and research deep. If the author presents unverified information, s/he runs the risk of losing credibility. If s/he simply lines up facts in chronological order, with no flair, s/he will end up losing the readers’ attention. It takes some skill to write an interesting book on history and Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi has proved his mettle here.

History books are of two kinds. Either you speak about the history of a nation, an era, a political movement or other noteworthy events. Or you extol the virtues of a king, an artist, a reformer or an inventor. Between presenting the details of forest (overall history) and picking up trees for special treatment (biographies, for example), few people have the knack of speaking about the forest, while allowing a clear view of the individual trees as well. Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi does a splendid job here too.

This book on South Indian history begins after the fall of famed Vijayanaraga empire, defeated by the combined armies of Deccan Sultanates. Arguably the greatest empire in South that spread across all five modern Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra, Telangana and Tamilnadu, would its fall have been the harbinger of things to come for the country as a whole? We may not know. But seven decades before the fall of this empire, a man arrived at the west coast of the country, travelling all the way from Europe. The arrival of this man set off a series of quests to set up trade routes with a country whose riches were said to be beyond measures. Seven decades after the fall of Vijayanagara, the Dutch and Danish too arrived, but on the eastern shores. The scourge of India, the British, too arrived at about the same time. Of all the European powers, the French were the last to arrive.

The book feels like a treasure trove for history lovers, with its vast coverage of events that unfolded during those centuries. The typical infighting amongst the Indian royals, gullibility and greed of native Indians that let these alien powers ease into place, the treachery and traitors that gave up honour and their leaders for the proverbial ‘thirty pieces of silver’, this book recounts every tale in such detail that you will feel your pulse racing.

Covering vast ground, trying to do justice to each of the major linguistic provinces by describing their past history, the book feels like a breeze. The Zamorins and Rajas of Malabar, detailed tale of the Tiger of Mysore, the fiery social reformers of Telugu land, colourful warriors of Tamizh kingdom, communist revolutions to freedom movements, the book has almost all that you can think of, depicting the forest as well as detailing the trees.

But all that flow hits a serious brake midway through. Now, let me remind you that Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, offspring of Devadas Gandhi and Lakshmi, daughter of Rajagopalachari (or Rajaji, as he is better remembered). The fondness for his grandfathers takes over the writer and the reader is made to suffer for the same. For almost one third of a book, you are presented with the history of the entire south only from the perspective of Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi’s maternal grandfather, Rajaji.

While the writing about Mr. Rajaji is mostly unbiased, it is done at the cost of some glaring omissions. For example, anyone from the Tamizh country will remember Tirupur Kumaran and Velu Natchiyar for their heroics in the fight for freedom. But there is not even a passing mention of their names in this book, while Mr. Rajaji’s whole life is recounted here, making me wonder whether I am reading a work of history or the biography of Shri Rajaji. Since the author writes mostly from the corner of Rajaji, there is a hint of bias while writing against his political opponents. Though the author makes amends by covering the rest of the history, till our modern days, as clearly and as exhaustively as possible, the damage to the reading flow is already done.

Having said that, this is an interesting book overall that I finished it within two days, a feat that I achieved after quite a while. Interesting and as exhaustive as humanly possible, considering the nature of the project, this is a must-read for every history aficionado, provided you can withstand the author’s love for his maternal grandfather!

A.