Bharat Jodo Yatra: Reclaiming India’s Soul

Bharat Jodo Yatra

Reclaiming India’s Soul

by Pushparaj Deshpande and Ruchira Chaturvedi

The definitive account of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Paperback | 372 pp | Rs 499

Available wherever books are sold | Releasing March 2024

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‘Last year, I spent 145 days walking across the land I call home. I started at the edge of the sea and walked through heat, dust and rain, through forests, towns and hills, until I reached the soft snow of my beloved Kashmir… I wanted to understand the thing I loved. The thing for which I was ready to give up everything, including my life. The thing that could make me take so much pain and abuse for so many years. I wanted to know precisely what it was that I loved. Was it this land? The mountains? The sea? Was it a person? Was it a people, or a set of ideas? But there was something else. I also wanted to understand what sort of heart was mine that had allowed itself to be captured in this way.’

— Rahul Gandhi

‘The common people have been desperate for someone to pay heed to them with respect and compassion. And Rahul Gandhi stepped up. He did not just walk the 4,000+ kilometres across twelve states—he walked straight into people’s hearts… Like Mahatma Gandhi once did with the Dandi Yatra, Bharat Jodo traversed through villages and towns, interacting with people from all walks of life, listening to their concerns and conjoining them for a larger struggle. Like Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Mahad Satyagraha, Bharat Jodo fought for the most voiceless despite overwhelming odds.’

—Mallikarjun Kharge

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About the Book

This is the definitive account of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the epic 4,000-kilometre nationwide march from September 2022 to January 2023 under the stewardship of Rahul Gandhi, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and former President of the Indian National Congress. This book is a comprehensive map of the why, what and how of this Herculean undertaking. Going beyond the symbolic, it strives to capture the aspirations and reflections of the yatris and organizers, and the eminent Indians who joined the Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. In doing so, it also attempts to understand and embrace India’s vast diversities.

This book highlights the many layers of meaning underpinning the Yatra. ‘Bharat Jodo’ meant different things to different people, and therefore had multiple social, economic, political and cultural meanings—which a galaxy of India’s foremost academics, activists, politicians and citizens from all walks of life speak to. But what connects these diverse meanings is that the Yatra was primarily a clarion call to all patriots to reclaim our collective humanity, and hence India’s soul.

From the Plate

Contributors

About the Editors

Pushparaj Deshpande is the director of the Samruddha Bharat Foundation. He is the series editor of the Rethinking India series, the Reshaping India volumes, and co-editor of The Great Indian Manthan: State, Statecraft and the Republic. He writes for numerous national dailies. He has worked with various legislators, the Rajya Sabha TV, the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies and the Indian National Congress. He walked in the Bharat Jodo Yatra and helped with civil society outreach and interactions in a few states.

Ruchira Chaturvedi is currently the national convenor of Social Media and Digital Communications, Indian National Congress, and has previously worked with the party in various capacities. She is also a Konrad Adenauer School for Young Politicians fellow and an American Council of Young Political Leaders delegate. She was a former LAMP fellow with PRS Legislative Research. She walked in the Bharat Jodo Yatra and coordinated its social media activities.

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For reviews, excerpts, interviews, and more information, please contact Vandana Rathore at
vandana.rathore@harpercollins.co.in