Sujata Anandan
HarperCollins India
278 pages, Rs. 499
Anandan explores the life and times of Bal Thackeray, a rather timid man from the working classes who was shaped into a demagogue by his circumstances, and by certain vested interests. Thackeray not just changed the name of Bombay to Mumbai, but also altered the very character and fabric of the city. He was driven, Anandan argues, not by ideology, but by pragmatism and personal interest.