Pandora's Daughters

Kalyani Shankar is one of the most respected political commentators and columnists in India.Kalyani Shankar is a political commentator and columnist. She was Political Editor at Hindustan Times and has been its Washington correspondent. She was also a broadcast and television journalist. Shankar was a Nuffield press fellow at Cambridge University and senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington. She is the author of Nixon, Indira and India: Politics and Beyond, India and the United States: Politics of the Sixties and Gods of Power: Personality Cult and Indian Democracy. Kalyani Shankar lives in Delhi.Pandora's Daughters looks at eight prominent women leaders in modern India who have achieved great power in the male-dominated world of Indian politics, examining their traits and personalities, tactics and manoeuvres, strengths and disadvantages and analysing the reasons for their success. With her years of experience in covering national politics, Shankar combines rigorous research and invaluable insight to make Pandora's Daughters essential reading for all who wish to understand politics in India today.As a veteran journalist, Kalyani Shankar has long had an inside track in Indian politics, perhaps because she is invariably perceptive yet balanced in her reportage and commentary. Both characteristics are evident in this study of eight very different women who have left their stamp on contemporary India, both influencing and making an impression on India's polity far out of proportion to the share of women in the higher echelons of our democracy. She delves into their own variegated background, the unconventional ways they rose to the top, sometimes against their own inclination, and the manner in which they faced down their political crises, sometimes doughty, sometimes feisty, sometimes even eccentric, but always determined and persistent. Kalyani Shankar is to be congratulated on this signal contribution to our understanding of the single biggest lacuna we are still to fill 66 years into Independence, namely, the incorporation, involvement and participation of half of all Indians in India's democracy.Kalyani Shankar's book is an invaluable contribution to the understanding of contemporary Indian politics. Although woven around top women leaders of our times, the author narrates the evolution of current political trends through the rise and consolidation of power by the most powerful women politicians of today.Kalyani Shankar has broken new ground with resolute vigour and sound judgement. Pandora Daughter deserves a wide readership.Kalyani's analysis is significant because it does not restrict itself to a chronological account of the political careers of these powerful women. It dissects their style of functioning, the basis of their power, their strengths and weaknesses, their character traits, and the challenges they face in a male dominated society. In this sense, it provides a fascinating insight into both the inner and external persona of these leaders, and, by extension, into Indian politics as a whole.