Paul R. Brass (1936–2022)

One of the best written biographies of a short term president, that pulls no punches. The writer does not favour Charan Singh in any capacity and it shows the history of UP politics from the vantage point of one Kulak Leader.

According to Charan Singh, if you are in competition or above him in, then you can only be either corrupt, incompetent or a buffoon, while he himself is an idealist without compromise. Faults only exist in others, while people who call out the same in h don’t know show more anything. It is marvellous that the is able to bring about these points in a book that is frankly published by his own family. Not sure if they read it or were like we can’t make him look any better.

CCS politics were rooted not in real life or data about the real life, but anecdotes about what he thought an ideal life should be. His policies always had short term benefits and disastrous long term consequences; and would be usually caught in the wrong side by virtue of his over ambitious nature. Flip Flops and alliances were also clothed in his banal sense of idealism, which even his own immediate family members would sneer upon.

The book tries but fails to show the protagonist in any better light than the so called rivals, which speaks to a backward looking farmer leader. His short tenure in any capacity is still too long a time. show less

If loving this obsessive biography of India's preeminent peasant leader is wrong, I don't ever want to be right.

The first and the second volumes were fairly detailed and provide rich insight on the political leader. However the third volume really disappoints and ideally should have contained a more detailed narration of events especially his final days.