Review: ‘We, The Citizens’ | A primer on India’s policies, with simple text and illustrations

"We, the Citizens" by Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur, and Pranay Kotasthane breaks down public policy in relatable graphic non-fiction.

In We, the Citizens (Penguin), authors Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane take on a big task — and the book’s subtitle, ‘Strengthening the Indian Republic’, lays out that ambition in clear terms. They promise that questions and concepts of public policy, “often perceived as dull and boring”, will be presented in their graphic non-fiction book in a “manner relatable for readers of all ages”.

And the authors — a writer-cartoonist, a public policy researcher and an economics professor — are largely successful in breaking down large, complex ideas to their basic, single-cell components with the help of simple illustrations. Says Pathak, “The first reading of every chapter was done by my daughter, who was 11 at the time. And I wanted her to understand or at least get the gist of what we’re trying to say.”

The questions the book asks (What is a democracy? How is a republic different from a monarchy? How is anti-national different from anti-govern- ment?) are answered in short, succinct ways, coupled with real world examples, peppered with cultural and historical references — you’ll find here Sisyphus and his rock, Birbal, Rajinikanth and Bob Dylan, and even the Sun King, Louis XIV.

There is, though, a lot of ground to cover, and while keeping things short allows the book to do exactly that, it also means that the reader doesn’t get to stay with one idea for too long. Instead of a deeper understanding of any one concept, she receives only a cursory understanding of everything, all at once. At its heart, however, this is a book that’s asking us to care — about the shape of our country, and our role, duties and rights. Because, as Walt Whitman, who is quoted on the back cover, says: we, as citizens, can also “contribute a verse” to the story of our nation.

swati.daftuar@thehindu.co.in