Started reading two memoirs, one by former Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and another by former US President Jimmy Carter
Last updated on 1st Jun. 2022
The Narasimha Rao book has fictional characters and background but clearly is mainly the author's memoir perhaps with little amount of fiction. The reader can make out the real characters and background corresponding to the fictional characters and background. For example, Anand is Narasimha Rao and Afrozabad is Nizam's Hyderabad state. [See 29th April 2022 update below.]
The front cover of the book has this comment of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee which I think is a powerful description of the book: "A profound contribution to the tradition of political memoirs because it is a mirror not of people but of the life and times they have lived in."
[On PC desktop, to open pic in larger resolution (if available), right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]
Another aspect of my interest in Narasimha Rao's memoir is that I have now lived in Andhra Pradesh state for close to twenty years (since Oct. 2002). The Puttaparthi area where I live is part of Rayalaseema which was ceded to British East India company by the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1800 - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceded_Districts . So history of Rayalaseema from 1920s to India's independence is a period when it was under British administrative rule. However, most of Telangana (and some part of Maharashtra, I believe) were part of Hyderabad state of Nizam and so have a significantly different history, way of life and administrative environment then, from that of Rayalaseema. But Telangana masses also speak Telugu language and that is the common factor between Rayalaseema and Telangana! So I am quite fascinated by Narasimha Rao's memoir part dealing with two or three decades of Hyderabad state just before its accession to India (1948). Note that Hyderabad state resisted accession to India and acceded to India only after the Nizam of Hyderabad state's army surrendered to Indian army in September 1948.
The book runs into 800 odd pages and seems to cover Narasimha Rao's chief minister of Andhra Pradesh stint but not his stints as union minister and then Prime Minister in Delhi.
I started reading the book with some trepidation as I thought that given Narasimha Rao's scholarly background, the book may be a tough and intense read. However I was pleasantly surprised to find the reading to be easy and engaging and was able to read the first forty or so pages in a couple of days at night time, just before sleeping.
29th April 2022 Update
The Anand central character in 'The Insider' seems to be a mix of fact & fiction
I have read about 100 pages of 'The Insider' by P.V. Narasimha Rao.
I wonder now about the accuracy of my earlier view: "The Narasimha Rao book has fictional characters and background but clearly is mainly the author's memoir perhaps with little amount of fiction."
The Anand character which I think corresponds to P.V. Narasimha Rao, becomes an armed revolutionary against the 'Aforazabad' state! He participates in a raid on a police station to procure firearms, and escapes being detected as the police launch a massive hunt for the rebels who participated in the raid. At that time, Anand is with a gun, and is ready to fire it against the police, if his detection becomes inevitable.
Later, Anand lives in a forest hideout with other rebels for many months. On page 100, Narasimha Rao writes, "The (rebel) group had some crack shots, among them Anand, and an arch manoeuvrer in Sudarshan. When it came to sheer daring, nothing was beyond Anand; his capacity to savour peril increased in direct proportion to the peril. He had, as it were, cultivated a relationship with Death. His actions were never foolhardy; yet they evidenced a disdain for death that at once distinguished him from others. When there was grave danger, Anand would be the one to lead; that was the rule. The regular leader of the group, however, was Sudarshan, who understood Anand's phenomenal spirit. In his heart of hearts, he did not expect his dearest friend, Anand, to outlive the struggle. Whenever the thought crossed his mind, he became unusually sad."
Was Narasimha Rao an armed rebel in the fight for independence from Nizam of Hyderabad rule? Was he a crack gunfighter (crack shot)?
I searched the Internet to get some info. on this. Some relevant articles and related small extracts are given below:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._V._Narasimha_Rao :
"P. V. Narasimha Rao was part of Vande Matram movement in the late 1930s in the Hyderabad state."
...
"Along with his distant cousin Pamulaparthi Sadasiva Rao, Ch. Raja Narendra and Devulapalli Damodar Rao, P. V. edited a Telugu weekly magazine called Kakatiya Patrika in the 1940s.[28] Both P. V. and Sadasiva Rao contributed articles under the pen-name Jaya-Vijaya.[28][29]"
...
"Rao was an active freedom fighter during the Indian Independence movement[30] and joined full-time politics after independence as a member of the Indian National Congress.[27]"
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From the article, PV Narasimha Rao reinvented India – so why is he the forgotten man?, https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/pv-narasimha-rao-reinvented-india-so-why-is-he-the-forgotten-man-1.455990 :
"Even before he was 30, Rao acquired something of a reputation as a freedom fighter, barrister and scholar. He trained as a guerrilla to fight the Nizam, smuggled bombs and weapons into Hyderabad, founded and edited a literary journal, translated a Marathi novel into Telugu and a Telugu novel into Hindi, and published a clutch of short stories."
From the article, Path-breaking ‘accidental’ PM, https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/columnists/path-breaking----accidental----pm.html :
"Most of us visualise PV Narasimha Rao as a frail old man but he was a firebrand activist during his youth, engaging in guerrilla-type insurgency to topple the Nizam of Hyderabad. "
From the article, When Vande Mataram landed students in trouble, https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/when-vande-mataram-landed-students-in-trouble/article18064764.ece :
"According to popular accounts, on November 28, 1938, in the prayer hall of B Hostel [Ravi: of Osmania university] meant for Hindus, the students assembled and sang Vande Mataram [Ravi: which was banned by the university]. At the end of it, hostel warden and other officials locked up the room. They opened the doors later, but allowed the students to step out one after the other only after they signed on a paper showing their presence at the prayer. Among the students who signed on the paper and walked out of the room was future Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao."
The impression I get from the above articles is that Narasimha Rao rebelled against the Nizam of Hyderabad mainly in a non-violent way - singing "Vande Mataram" and being suspended for it, and perhaps writing articles in magazines advocating independence from Nizam. I doubt the article extracts above about Narasimha Rao training as a guerilla fighter and smuggling bombs and weapons into Hyderabad. I also did not come across any article claiming that Narasimha Rao was a crack gunfighter rebel who stayed with other rebels in the forest for many months.
So the Anand character seems to have some background of P.V. Narasimha Rao with quite a large dose of fiction too.
Nowadays I do not read much of fiction. I prefer to read actual historical accounts with biographies and memoirs (autobiographies) being one such area of interest. I am rather disappointed to know that the Anand character in 'The Insider' is a mix of some fact and some fiction, without it being clear what part of it is fact and what is fiction. Now I don't blame the author P.V. Narasimha Rao or the publisher for it, as they have categorized the book as "Fiction".
Also, in "A Note from the Author" at the beginning of the book, P.V. Narasimha Rao writes, "This is not a regular autobiography, not is it entirely a work of fiction wherein the writer has the freedom to create characters and improvise situations at will."... "... I have tried to mesh historical reality with the lives of several fictional and semi-fictional characters and situations to maintain narrative continuity and sustain the reader's interest. The central character [Ravi: Anand, surely], whose experiences are often derived from my own, participates in the final phase of India's freedom struggle, ..."
So the author and publisher have been quite frank that the book is not a non-fictional autobiography. It is I who hoped it was largely an autobiography of P.V. Narasimha Rao with him being the character Anand.
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20th May 2022 Update
I read further till about page 150, and then browsed through next few pages. The political intrigue game between Mahendranath, the chief minister of Aforazabad, after Aforazabad had merged with India, and his "Number Two" Chaudhury, is very complex and runs into many, many pages. It involves state government and federal government with both the governments being of same political party, political party intrigue, a top journalist who is bought by money/kind etc. About Mahendranath, Narasimha Rao describes him as, "the ruthless, ferocious, direct, honest, vicious, uncouth, carnally insatiable and strangely popular chief minister"! My God!
Then there is a romantic angle between Anand and a political colleague Aruna, both of whom had been elected to the state legislature. Aruna is a married woman and Anand, if I recall correctly, is also married but the book, till the around 150 pages point, has very little about Anand's wife!
As I wrote above, the big issue for me is to know what is based on fact and what is fiction (masala). As my interest is in knowing about actual life of former PM Narasimha Rao, I found that the book was not really helping me in that regard. So I have stopped reading/browsing the book.
I add that for other readers, the book may be of great interest.
--- end 20th May 2022 Update----
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Now about Jimmy Carter's memoir. Actually I had started reading the Jimmy Carter memoir, 'A Full life', quite some time back but had to stop mid way. Now I intend to start from the beginning of the book again. Note that Carter has written quite a few memoirs. This book runs into 250 odd pages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter informs us that Carter was born in 1924 and so Carter's youth and adult life would have been contemporaneous with Narasimha Rao's. Carter is still alive and getting close to a century of years of life!
I like Carter's writing style. Like Narasimha Rao's book, this book too is easy and engaging to read though the writing style is significantly different. Carter writes quite frankly about his life and as he became the most powerful person in the world as US President for 4 years, I find the book to be fascinating. Carter graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree, served in US Navy till 1953 when he left his naval career on his father's death and took control of his family's peanut-growing business in Plains, Georgia, USA. He did not inherit much as the estate got divided among siblings and his father apparently forgave a lot of debt. Carter worked to grow his peanut farm business. In this period, he opposed racial segregation, supported US civil rights movement and became a Democratic Party activist. His political representative career seems to have started in 1963 when he got elected as a senator in the Georgia State Senate (NOT US Senate). He later became governor of Georgia state in 1970 and rose to be US President in early 1977 (winning 1976 US presidential election). That is some story! And in his post-presidency period, he has done a lot of charitable work and promotes human rights, winning the Nobel Peace prize in 2002 for his human rights work. That makes Carter a very interesting person for me to read about, especially when written in his own words.
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Given below are some of my comments (slightly edited) from associated FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/3374304972786056 :
Nice to know about the store in your city associated with "Habitat for Humanity". Thanks for sharing ---.
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A reference to Habitat for Humanity that I read yesterday night in above book of Carter ... Jimmy Carter's father (Daddy in the book page pic) Earl Carter died in or around 1953. (comment has pic)
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The extract has some unpleasant stuff about the human condition when suffering from a serious disease. But, as a reader, I am happy that Jimmy Carter shared this as it shows the tenacity and dedication of a health care worker who was caring for his father then.
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