Vinay Sitapati does what a classical biographer would do - “footstepping” in the wake of his subject to determine and recreate a life. In 2015, the new BJP Central government built a memorial ghat for Rao in Delhi.” (p.7) It has announced that Rao’s life will be taught to schoolchildren, and a district and university renamed after him. Starting in 2014, the Telengana state government has chosen to officially celebrate his birth anniversary in #Hyderabad every year. In fact “in #Telenagana, the #TRS has adopted Rao as a local icon in a newly formed state looking for regional heroes. So the significance of biographies particularly of politicians takes on a completely new dimension.

Also for the many centuries of its existence India till 1947 had never existed like this as one nation state, a united entity, and certainly not for so long - nearly seven decades. Similarly it is to be hoped that this was part of Vinay Sitapati’s intention with his Half-Lion since the life of Rao coincides with the birth of independent India, a geo-political entity and a significant player in international politics. In addition the scope of these biographies allowed exploration and understanding of contemporary historical, socio-political and economic events too. #Biographies of eminent people helped bolster this image considerably by seeping into the collective consciousness of people. It was a period of reconstruction and establishing the image of united Britain, one nation. It is no coincidence that the art of writing biographies that required considerable scholarship and research began in UK soon after the end of World War II. As #MichaelHolroyd points out the golden period of writing literary biographies in Great Britain began in the 1950s and continued till the late 1990s. More often than not a biography serves another purpose - that of presenting a period in history as being continuous and particularly in the history of a nation to be stable. The purpose of a biography is to not only record the life of its subject but place it within context.

Review and ‪#‎authorinterview‬ of Vinay Sitapati's ‪#‎biography‬ of former ‪#‎primeminister‬ of ‪#‎India‬, ‪#‎NarasimhaRao‬.

Vinay sitapati half lion