Book review: Regimes of narcissism, regimes of despair

"Regimes of Narcissism, Regimes of Despair." Ashis Nandy. Oxford University Press. March 2013. --- In this book Ashis Nandy considers a new India, where the fate of the country is largely decided by its political culture that has become the domain of two predominant psychological states: narcissism and despair. Looking at the nationalism of Gandhi and Tagore, Savarkar, and Madanlal Pahwa, and cultural psychology, terror and counter-terror, humiliation and human degradation, happiness, and modernity and the sense of loss, the essays aim to open up the future for the next generation of intellectuals and political activists in India and in other societies. Reviewed by Anupama Ranawana.