The question, however, is should the republic’s first tyrannies, as well its democratic successes, be reduced to the idiosyncrasies of its first prime minister. In Nagaland to the east, he authorised the bombing of Christians who had the temerity to demand from India what India had sought from the British”. In Kashmir, he presided over an anti-democratic farce.

In Kerala…he engineered the overthrow of the democratically-elected Communist government. “The principled anti-imperialist acolyte of Mahatma Gandhi, who never tired of dispensing pre-elections about peace to foreign leaders had few misgivings about utilising disproportionate force against people he claimed as his own. In its first part, Malevolent Republic asks a difficult question? Can dynastism and authoritarianism be traced to the times when the country was at its democratic best? Komireddi does not absolve India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru in this respect. But Komireddi’s originality lies in weaving them together into a narrative that tells why and how India has become what it is today. There is much in this book, especially in its first part, that we already know - the mistakes of Jawaharlal Nehru, the cruelties of the Emergency, Rajiv Gandhi’s concessions to both the Hindu and the Muslim right wing. Malevolent Republic is a critique in two parts, aptly titled, ‘Antecedents’ and ‘India under Modi’.

But it would be wrong to read the book as a primer - the fate of most short histories.

Ks komireddi