A tell-all book on the Gandhis seemed too good to pass up (what? I’m as voyeuristic as the next guy, I read personal blogs, don’t I?), but although I couldn’t stop reading this excerpt of Tavleen Singh’s book Durbar, I ended with a bad taste in my mouth. More than revealing anything major about Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi, it seemed to show Ms Singh as a petty grudge-holder, who couldn’t get over being sidelined.
Nevertheless, I bought the book, and I’m glad I read it. As someone on the fringes of the Delhi drawing rooms that Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi socialised in and friendly with a number of political people, Ms Singh was in the perfect position to write a fly-on-the-wall sort of book. Unfortunately, the details she came up with were only vaguely interesting, the way she presented them deeply prejudiced, and her own resentment seemed to take centrestage.
But apart from being friend to many in influential and political circles, Ms Singh was also a mid-level journalist living in Delhi at a very interesting period. Viewing history through her eyes turned out to be much more interesting than the promised gossip about India’s first family.
As a child of the 80s and 90s, my head was filled with Congress propaganda of the kind that made the Emergency invisible and Operation Blue Star entirely about the fact that Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. The Congress version of history presented in our school textbooks and on Doordarshan was further burnished growing up in a family of Congress supporters.
I was startled to become acquainted with the Emergency when I studied political science in college and even more nonplussed to realise that Indira Gandhi was the undisputed villain of the piece. Nevertheless, the glamour of the Gandhis and frankly the fact that Rajiv was the first halfway decent-looking politician I had seen continued to influence me so that when I heard of the Bofors scandal, I could scarcely give it credence. I also was widely contemptuous of most other Indian politicians, mainly, I realise because they offended my sense of aesthetics.
This book effectively brought down that edifice for me. One of its main projects is to lay serious blame at Rajiv’s door for some of India’s current problems, particularly the communal ones, and it does make a case to be considered, if not completely bought because apart from her personal grudges, Ms Singh surely has her political leanings too. Nevertheless, many of the points Ms Singh brings up – Rajiv’s failure to liberalise the economy, for one – have been raised by more credible others too. I was particularly shocked by Rajiv’s revengeful stance after his mother’s assassination and the ensuing pogrom against the Sikhs. This is not news, but I had never quite faced the fact of it before.
I see Rajiv at the same level as Narendra Modi now. The only difference is that he is dead, so in voting Congress, one is not directly voting for someone that sanctified murder on a massive scale. Still.
I also got more insight into other political leaders like Vajpayee, VP Singh, the Rajmata of Gwalior and her son Madhavrao, Fahrook Abdullah, etc. In my Congress-bubble growing up, it felt like these people popped up out of nowhere onto the political stage, when in fact they had been around for ages, and were not national leaders and eventually prime ministers for no reason. I had never quite understood the appeal of Vajpayee but reading just one line of his speech during the Emergency won my admiration, and also my desire to learn Hindi properly.
I suspect that many of us, especially from English-speaking Congress-inclined households, are fuzzy on the details of that period. We lived through it, but as children so it was not our reality. If you are not inclined to pick up a proper history book, read this one for:
- Its description of the Emergency
- Its personal reportage of the Punjab problem, the period leading up to Operation Blue Star, the operation itself and the terrible days following Indira Gandhi’s death
- Insights on the political situation in Kashmir
- Backgrounds and personal impressions of some big political names
- A different view of the Congress heroes.
I read a rather vile interview Ms Singh gave right after Durbar was published (trying to fish it out, but not able to right now) and for completely bitchy and voyeuristic reasons that one read made me want to pick this one up. And I did, in Delhi last week, where I walked into a bookstore, a REAL one with LOTS of books, unlike the only one I have here in Panjim, and went batshit crazy. Eventually, I had to pick and choose for fear of exceeding my baggage limit, and I chose How to be a Woman (because I have wanted to read that for so long now) over Durbar..
But, for so many reasons you have stated: Congress-bubble, having only heard one side of the story growing up, and seeing Modi as the new Rajiv Gandhi (which makes me wonder, are we then just choosing between evils?), I am quickly adding this to the list.
I fully endorse picking How to be a Woman over this one. But this is a good, possibly, important read too, because I suspect few of us are going to pick up a hardcore history book on that period.
I guess comparing Rajiv Gandhi to Modi is completely apt, not in the way the BJP would like though. We are always choosing between evils in Indian politics. If Rajiv was alive and the prime-ministerial candidate, I would have a hard time voting for him.
The only reason we grew up in Congress supporting household despite them being the downfall of the country and the reason for rampant corruption is because at least openly their stance is not communal persecution.
Even Midnight’s Children (I have only seen the movie) refers to the delusional despot that Indira Gandhi had become.
As to Rajiv Gandhi being Narendra Modi, though the destruction may have been the same, I find the reasons behind both different enough to put RG one rung above on the ladder to hell.
Since communal politics of the kind we are so familiar with now – and which affects our voting choices today – did not exist at that time, I don’t think our parents voting Congress because they were anti-communal. It was something else – their association with the freedom struggle, they seemed honourable, they were “just like us” or better. We forget (in my case, I wasn’t aware) that Rajiv Gandhi opened the floodgates to the whole Babri Masjid issue by allowing a Hindu groundbreaking ceremony on the site. Not to mention his shocking overrule in the Shah Banu case, which also contributed to the atmosphere of mistrust, leave alone what it meant for women.
As for Indira Gandhi, I have no doubt our parents were aware of her madness – they lived through it as adults – but was it ever communicated to you as a child? It wasn’t to me.
I cannot excuse Rajiv for his reasons. What were his reasons? That Sikhs had killed his mother? So he washed his hands in their blood? And to excuse what happened with “when a big tree falls the earth shakes”. Chilling!
The general political ignorance of the English speaking ‘elite’ is well underlined in Durbar. Her personal grievances apart, it’s an interesting documentary of its times. I’m actually quite surprised that the powers that be haven’t banned it yet!
Haha, yeah, she also has a part in the book about the banning of Salman Rushdie’s book (and her surprising connection to it vis a vis her name!). Again, something that had escaped me was that it was Rajiv who banned that book. I guess the powers that be decided it was best not to fan the flame by banning it. I’m sure the Opposition would have had something to say, though how they could with their own penchant for banning is anyone’s guess.
Read the book too and like your review. I know the Congress bubble you speak of. I grew up on the fringes of it too
My parents voted Congress more out a distaste for the BJP but were not completely blind to their faults so I grew up hearing criticism about Blue Star, Indira and Bofors. The other thing I found really shocking which I was not aware of until I read the book was the famine in Orissa. I found the analysis of the Shah Bano case and the Ram temple quite interesting too because it puts a different spin on the “secular” image of the Congress for the time.
I think Tavleen Singh could have written a great book because she had a unique view and she does have a lot of insight but she let that be overshadowed by the petty gossip the book covers. I read it a second time ignoring all the gossip and focusing on the policy stuff and liked it much more. Maybe better editing would have helped the book.
Also wish Tavleen Singh writes another book about her own very interesting personal life which she hints at in this book. An affair with a married Pakistani politician and a son born out wedlock with the same must make for very interesting reading.
Shah Bano case I was familiar with as we touched upon it both in PolSci and Sociology. A really shocking event, but it didn’t strike me then that it was Rajiv’s time though I knew the Congress was responsible. The amount of crap he presided over is amazing.
I guess the gossip drew a lot of us in, so can’t fault that. I also ignored the gossip, ans specifically her own petty voice when relating it, when reading the book and then it began to resonate with me.
Yeah, Tavleen Singh is interesting herself. Though I feel like if she wrote something personal, it would be in the same petty tone as she rendered the “society” bits of this book. Her lack of objectivity was startling.