4.5 stars. It is a truly authoritative account of India's history since independence till late 2016. It could have been even better had it not been tainted slightly by the obvious biases of Ramchandra Guha against some particular individuals, most evident specially in the last part of the book where he allots disproportionate weightage to the virtues of historical personalities based on whether they fancy his ideology or not. Apart from this particular nuance, which can be caught and tackled about by a contemplative reader, this book is majestic: in all senses of the term. Though it focuses the most on politics, it does not just gloss over societal, environmental, economic and technical issues, but actually gives them proper space while even reaching to grass roots visible results of how all these processes and forces acted together and shaped the landscape and people of India as a whole and also accounted for particular variations.
For the generation born around the turning of the millennium and after that, and who didn't study humanities beyond the secondary level, this is a must read and the best account at present available of how the nation that they live in has come about to the be the way it is since its birth in 1947. It will rattle you, delight you, inspire you but will also lead you to bemoan and repent, with eventually instilling a sense of awe and wonder of the huge complexity of India and the World, which the future gives us an opportunity to manage and change for the better.