3 Review(s)

9 February 2016: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) erupted with‘anti-national’ slogans. Arrests of student leaders, the shutdown of theuniversity, a lecture series on ‘What the Nation Needs to Know’, a student’sdisappearance, another’s suicide and a number of even more disruptiveprotests ensued.JNU: Nationalism and India’s Uncivil War, by a long-standing JNU professor,is a ringside account of what happened. Delicately and incisively crafted,it is an empathetic insider’s account of JNU’s problems from an expertin the field of higher education. Through this book, the author makes animpassioned plea to transform rather than destroy JNU, as also reformhigher education. But more than that, this book is also a history of ourtimes, of India’s ongoing transformation, the story of the changing selfapprehensionof a nation.Examining the multiple meanings of nationalism in our time, Paranjape delvesdeeply into what it means to be an Indian today. He offers his perceptionand understanding of the new India that is fast emerging as India entersits 75th year of Independence.