First Flush of Freedom : Recollections and Reflections

Contents: Foreword. Introduction. 1. Sardar: India's man of vision. 2. How the cabinet system of government was shaped in the early days. 3. Preparing for war. 4. Mundhra: the scandal that never was. 5. The rise and fall of the civil service. 6. Salvation according to our own lights. 7. The importance of being secular. 8. Private initiative, public direction. 9. Selling toothpaste and machine-tools. 10. Rural realities. 11. Foreign policy puzzles. 12. Pragmatic choices. 13. The limits of 'growthmanship'. 14. The founders. 15. Life-support systems. Chronology. Index. "Volumes have been written about the Indian Freedom Movement that began with Dadabhoy Naoroji, Gandhi, Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. The men who followed them: Tilak and Nehru, Azad and Patel now occupy their rightful place in history. Very little has been said about a third generation of patriots, men who had lit their torches at the parental flame. It was their mission to carry the torch safely over the stormy waters of transition, the terrible bloodletting of the partition and the general civic unrest that attends the birth of a great democratic nation. H.M. Patel was one of these forgotten heroes: men who presided with commitment, care and wisdom over the fragile early decades of the infant republic. Midwifery, as Socrates said, is humble vocation. It seeks no praise for itself but asks only to serve the greatness that is waiting to be born." (jacket).…