By Anubha Anushree
My shortlist of five remarkable books published in 2024 in the field of political history of Asia spans a range of disciplines. These works captivated me for their ability to document political histories from the ground up while offering profound insights into the transformations that lie ahead for the region. These books are more than historical accounts—they serve as mirrors reflecting the complexities of our tumultuous present and the uncertainties of our future. Most crucially, they illuminate narratives of resilience, reconciliation, and hope emerging from some of the world’s most violent and unstable regions, reminding us of the enduring human capacity to rebuild and reimagine.
Anand Teltumbde, Iconoclast: A Reflective Biography of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (Penguin Random House, 2024)
About the middle of the book, Ambedkar’s biographer and prominent intellectual on caste, Anand Teltumbde, references one of Ambedkar’s final interviews with Voice of America recorded in 1956. Titled “Prospects of Democracy in India,” the interview reveals Ambedkar’s vision of democracy as a form of “associated living.” Teltumbde’s biography delves into how this radical conception shaped Ambedkar’s politics and philosophy, securing his unique and enduring legacy in the annals of democratic thought.
While numerous biographies of Ambedkar have been written in recent years, Teltumbde’s work stands out for its “iconoclastic” interpretation. Departing from the celebratory, nationalist, and neo-liberal readings of Ambedkar, Teltumbde provides a more nuanced portrayal. He highlights Ambedkar’s reticence toward activism, his challenges in leveraging Indian democracy for the “collective empowerment” of Dalits, and his supposedly conservative stance on gender issues. While much of what Teltumbde says remains contestable, and by some accounts even disagreeable, his approach deserves attention primarily because he refuses to confirm to the recent canonization of Ambedkar, ofeering instead a more “human” and unorthodox account of the figure. Resisting hagiography and embracing intellectual critique, Teltumbde demonstrates an affinity with Ambedkar’s own commitment to questioning established norms.
The book also includes a trove of 200 rare photographs, offering a rich visual archive that deepens discussions on caste, democracy, and modern India’s political evolution. Through its critical lens, Teltumbde repositions Ambedkar as a philosopher of equality, whose ideas remain vital and whose vision for justice demands renewed urgency in today’s India.
Pratyoush Onta, Lokranjan Parajuli, and Mark Liechty (eds.), Nepal in the Long 1950s, (Martin Chautari, 2024)
This volume offers a multifaceted, groundbreaking examination of one of the most transformative decades in Nepal’s history. Marked by the end of the 104-year Rana rule and the restoration of democracy, the 1950s was a period of profound internal upheaval, while Nepal also found itself at the crossroads of major regional and global shifts. The emergence of a partitioned, independent India and the rise of Communist China asserting control over Tibet reshaped the region’s political and cultural landscapes, placing Nepal in a unique and precarious position.
Through ten meticulously crafted chapters, the book challenges narrow, insular narratives of Nepal’s history, arguing instead for an integrative approach that examines the local, regional, and global dimensions of its transformation. Nepal’s history, the authors contend, was forged not only by internal developments but also by its entanglements with broader subcontinental and global changes.
What sets this volume apart is its innovative focus on underexplored practices and discourses that shaped Nepal’s social and political fabric. For instance, an early chapter examines the modest yet pivotal role of tea shops in cultivating public discourse and fostering democratic ideals, while another delves into the contributions of the Nepali Sanskritik Parishad, an overlooked literary and cultural organization, in mobilizing social and political reform. By drawing attention to such seemingly peripheral elements, the book asserts that Nepal’s history is not merely a story of external influence or internal turbulence but a vibrant interplay of grassroots activism, cultural production, and regional dynamics. This volume redefines our understanding of Nepal in the 1950s, positioning it as a site of dynamic historical and political experimentation.
Sugata Bose, Asia After Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century
(Harvard University Press, 2024)
Sugata Bose’s long interpretation of twentieth-century Asia offers a dynamic and material account of how the continent was imagined, contested, and misrecognized during this pivotal era. Among the many myths of the twentieth century, the idea of “Asia” stands out for its persistent distortion. While the term audaciously attempts to subsume the continent’s immense diversity under a single geographic signifier, “Asia” has largely lost its political relevance, reduced today to a racial or ethnic construct shaped by Euro-American perceptions.
Bose’s work traces this misrecognition back to its historical roots, contrasting it with the rich and diverse ways early twentieth-century Asian thinkers and artists envisioned the continent. Through an examination of key intellectuals and cultural figures from Japan, China, India, North America, and Europe, Bose reconstructs an Asia defined not by imposed European universalism but by small affinities, solidarities, and defiance of narrow cosmopolitan ideals. For Bose’s subjects, Asia was more than a geographic identity—it was a call for inclusive universalism and a rejection of the parochialism of nation-states.
By offering a wide-ranging prehistory of what is often referred to as the “Asian Century,” Bose reframes Asia as a space of radical possibility and shared imagination. His work challenges dominant paradigms, reminding us that Asia’s true power lies not in external definitions but in the intellectual and cultural solidarities forged by its own people.
V. V. Ganeshananthan, Brotherless Night, (Random House, 2023)
Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night is a rare and unflinching exploration of the violence that shaped modern Sri Lanka. Both poignant and dispassionate, this internationally acclaimed novel reconstructs the island’s harrowing descent into civil war through the eyes of its protagonist, Shashi. Set in Jaffna during the tumultuous years of 1981–1989, the story unfolds against the backdrop of the brutal ethnic conflict between the majority Buddhist Sinhalese and the Tamil minority, a war that officially claimed over 100,000 lives and left countless families shattered.
What distinguishes Brotherless Night is its refusal to dilute the horror of violence or reduce it to simplistic narratives of cause and effect. However, the novel does not merely recount a history of suffering: it juxtaposes despair with flickers of hope and resistance, highlighting the human capacity to persist in the face of unimaginable loss. Ganeshananthan masterfully weaves the private grief of Shashi with the broader collective tragedy, creating a narrative that is as much about survival as it is about the fragility of social and political order.
As both an intimate portrait of a fractured society and a powerful reflection on the precariousness of the present, Brotherless Night stands out as a monumental literary achievement. It compels readers to confront the enduring scars of history and reckon with the tenuousness of peace in a world still shadowed by its violent past.
David Van Reybrouck, Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World, translated by David Colmer and David McKay (W.W. Norton, 2024)
Originally published in Dutch in 2020 and translated into English in 2024, Revolusi by Belgian author David Van Reybrouck is a masterful and incisive exploration of Indonesia’s decolonization—a region often overlooked in global discussions of colonialism’s aftermath. Known for his meticulous and dynamic historical narratives, particularly in his work on Congo, Van Reybrouck shifts focus to Indonesia, dismantling long-standing Dutch narratives that portray their colonial rule as benign and benevolent. Through a combination of eyewitness accounts, extensive interviews, and a narrative that fluidly traverses time and geography, Revolusi exposes the profound violence that shaped Indonesia’s struggle for independence.
What makes Revolusi particularly compelling is its broader critique of how colonialism established and perpetuated cycles of violence that continue to reverberate in Indonesia’s political fabric. Van Reybrouck highlights the legacy of vigilantism and authoritarianism that emerged from the structures of colonial oppression, presenting them as enduring features of the nation’s political “gene.” These insights not only challenge the sanitized versions of colonial history but also provide a lens to understand Indonesia’s postindependence struggles with dictatorship and socio-political instability. His nuanced depiction of these formative years unearths the complexities of a decolonization process that was anything but orderly or humane.
By illuminating the brutal realities of Indonesia’s decolonization and its lasting impact, Revolusi transcends the boundaries of conventional historical accounts. It compels readers to reckon with the enduring scars of colonialism and the violent legacies it bequeathed to the modern world, making it an essential contribution to the global discourse on decolonization.
