Years after Jawaharlal Nehru’s historic ‘Tryst with destiny’ speech, in Indian cities and villages millions survive on less than the bare minimum. Children are not in classrooms, women have nowhere safe to relieve themselves and jobless men lie around in a daze. In cities, where initiative should flourish, a merciless state looms large over every common endeavor. The civilization that was India, that grand culture, has not found utterance again. Long years after freedom from the British, why do we remain suppressed? In India’s Broken Tryst, bestselling author and popular political columnist Tavleen Singh chronicles the damage done. She catalogues in bold, eviscerating detail the systematic unmaking of our sense of destiny.