The Life and Times of George Fernandes

Since the time he left his coastal town of Mangalore and came to Bombay (now, Mumbai), more than seven decades ago, George Fernandes’s was a life lived with passion, but more importantly, of struggle against all odds. From those early years of fighting for the rights of dock and municipal workers of Bombay to this last decade as a bed-ridden, afflicted with Alzheimer’s, but keenly watchful of his own slow bodily degeneration, his fights were always persistent and single-handed. Chronicling the story of George, who rose from the streets of Bombay to straddle the power corridor, The Life and Times of George Fernandes: Many Peaks of a Political Life opens a window to the life of George Fernandes and traces the course of the Socialist Party in India from its inception in 1930s to its dissolution into the Janata Party in the late nineteen-seventies. With nineteen-eighty as the dividing line, the book explores India’s post-independence politics. It focuses particularly on a trail of opposition parties that worked to displace the long-ruling Congress Party from its preeminent position. Thought provoking, comprehensive and absolutely unputdownable, this first definitive biography of George Fernandes is a tour de force.