India: The Siege Within by M J Akbar

After a long time got a book written by a journalist on India's conditions before and after the Freedom.

The book was first published in 1984 and even after repeat prints Akbar refused to make any changes. There are few things that have changed a lot but there is still a lot to know the roots.

I really felt happy and sad together after finishing the book.

Happy that the book was full of information and cleared a lot of myths that I was having in my mind but never had an argument to back that up. Nehru being not so great leader was one of them.

I was sad because I realized that there are so many small things which are negligible in life but because of the personal belief and interest resulted in a disaster which could have  been avoided for sure and India would have been here at least 20 years back where it is currently today.

The narrative is fluent and the points are backed by references rather than being based on assumptions. Akbar’s non-biased tone was a big plus for the book as he was able to put the things together without being biased towards any prejudice whatsoever.

The book is a collection of facts and commentary on the socio-political conditions of India before and after the Freedom.

It talks about three events of Indian history Creation of Pakistan, Separation attempts for Punjab and Kashmir.

I’m not giving details here but one thing that I realized was that there is no really any reason to fight on the basis of Cast, Religion, Community, Nativity et al. It all ends in a disaster some way or the other and the people with the wrong intentions and belief will only benefitted from it and everybody else will remain with the memories that haunt for the lifetime.

There is no opinion like mob opinion. People are simple minded and it is very easy to fish in a turbulent water but the question that arises is why to fish at all. Let the people be what they are (simple) and the things will fall in place. Having the wrong belief and spreading the hatred against the non-believers is a crime and the worst part is that the wrong people never get punished for that. Its only the common people who end up paying extraordinary price.

Let there be knowledge and peace.

Book is a must read.