ramachandra guha india after gandhi review

Moustache shaved, head tonsured, dressed in a white Indian tunic and dhoti, he stands barefoot with a staff in his hand, like a shepherd of shorn lambs.

By the third image, he has mutated again. Here he hunches at a desk in a rough loose shirt, pants, and sandals: a prisoner in a Johannesburg cell. In a second picture, circa 1908, the man and his circumstances have been transformed. Hair slicked down, black moustache framing his lips, he wears a morning coat, a starched collar, and a jaunty striped tie, every inch the fashionable professional. The first photograph, taken around 1906, shows a young brown-skinned man standing with his arms crossed and his head cocked. It was here that thousands of political prisoners were jailed for the “crime” of resisting racist laws.Ī series of life-size portraits hanging in a former prison block (now a museum) chronicles the trajectory of one of its most famous inmates. In the center sits the Constitutional Court, established in 1994 to protect the rights of all citizens, and housed in an innovative building that unites motifs from every part of the “rainbow nation.” Surrounding the court, the remains of Johannesburg’s century-old prison complex tell another story. One of the best places to appreciate the struggle and the triumph of post-apartheid South Africa is at the top of Johannesburg’s Constitution Hill. Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha (Knopf)

Ramachandra guha india after gandhi review