From Midnight to Glorious Morning?

‘[A] sprawling account of India from the “midnight” moment of independence until the first quarter of the 21st century’
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In 1917, the British War Cabinet concluded it would take at least 500 years for India to be able to govern itself. Thirty years later, in August 1947, India became a sovereign, free nation.

Mihir Bose, born just seven months before India won its freedom, spent much of his life watching as India anxiously awaited news of how much aid it was to receive from the West. Now India is one of the largest exporters of food in the world, send space probes to Mars and is a rapidly emerging global power.

How did a country that many doubted would survive at brith transform into a nation capable of rivalling China and challenging the West? Bose recognises that there is much to celebrate in India’s short history of independence. Yet, as this personal and trenchant book shows, there is still a long way to go before the dawn of that hoped-for bright morning.

MIHIR BOSE is an author, journalist and broadcaster. He has worked for the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and was BBC Sports Editor from 2006-9.

See Mihir’s website here.

Find Mihir on Twitter @mihirbose