Makers of Modern Asia

The current Asian Century and its attendant leading cast receive a much-needed collection of profiles edited by Guha (Gandhi Before India), an influential historian of modern India. Shunning inflated rhetoric and propaganda, the writers here eschew simplified accounts of their subjects’ respective achievements and instead explore these political powerhouses—including China’s Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, India’s Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh, and Indonesia’s Sukarno—from their origins and their ambitions to their affiliations and their strategies. Some common traits the thinker-activists shared: many traveled or were schooled abroad, and they all understood the evil of colonial rule, formulated a plan to thwart it, and built a popular movement to seize power. Explanations and insights are delivered throughout in mostly serviceable prose, which is particularly distinguished in the chapters devoted to India’s Indira Gandhi, Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, and Pakistan’s Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. “Of the eleven leaders featured,” Guha writes, “only one—Lee Kuan Yew—is still alive. Yet all their legacies continue to have an enduring impact.” Compared to many biographies of Western political leaders, these stories lack the commercial drama and overheated sensationalism of the bestselling variety, but that characteristic may be a welcome respite for many readers. (Aug.)