A man of unusual gifts and dangerously consequential flaws. Atal Behari Lal Vajpayee was the Hindu Right's most glamorized and enigmatic face until now. Drawing on a natural talent to pull in the crowds with hus cloquence, he elevated his physically frail and academically mediocre self to become a powerful spokesperson of historical victimhood.

In this singularly gripping account. Abhishek Choudhary sets out to prove that Vajpayee was far more critical to the project of Hinduizing India than is commonly understood. He uncovers how Vajpayee's early life, of which we know shockingly little, lies at the heart of his political character: essentially conservative vet curious and conciliatory, detached vet quietly ambitious. Weaving previously unseen documents with revealing interviews, Choudhary layers this definitive biography with details of Vajpayee's underground activities in the wake of Gandhi's assassination; his carly obsession with foreign policy; the shock from the premature deaths of his parents; his tortuous private life and maudlin poetry, his key role in the SVD coalition experment; his defence of the Sangh Parivar inside the parliament and his averments and deferments outside. In so doing, this extraordinary debut revises several lazy myths and false binaries that have come to dominate Indian political discourse. The sympathy of Congress conservatives and Hindi intelligentsia for the RSS. Patel's own extended ambiguity. Nehru's innate conviction that East Pakistan would merge back with India. Indira Gandhi's fleet-footed attack on the Jan Sangh's finances and electoral chances. the foolish fantasies of JP's Total Revolution and the Sangh Parivar's dubious heroism in the Emergency are also revisited to reveal the complexity of India's democracy.

The first of a two-volume study, Vajpayee The Ascent of the Hindu Right is a stunningly original portrait of Hindutva's first prime minister.

ABHISHEK CHOUDHARY studied economics in Delhi and Chennai, followed by stints in development and journalism. He was awarded the NIF Fellowship in 2017 to research former prime minister Vajpayee's life. During the winter of 2021-22, he was a scholar-in-residence at the International Centre Goa. He lives in a south Delhi suburb.

GOING BY THE NUMBER OF THINGS RECENTLY NAMED AFTER VAJPAYEE, his stock soars by the hour. This list includes: the newly developed state capital of Chhattisgarh; a dozen-odd welfare schemes and universities, memorials and libraries, airports and stadiums, roads and bridges; a mountain peak here, a long tunnel there, even a newly crossbred variety of lemongrass.

Much of this naming (and renaming) began after his death, on 16 August 2018, and is not entirely surprising. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which he co-founded in 1980 after the Janata coalition's split, now runs the country with an iron fist. They enjoy a bona fide majority at the centre and in ten states, a luxury Atal Behari Vajpayee never enjoyed in his lifetime. For the BJP - a party glaringly devoid of icons - Vajpayee was the first authentic homegrown hero who was loved and respected by the masses. The BJP's rivals often pit his moderation and sagacity in office against the Modi regime's brusqueness.

Despite looming large on the political scene, Vajpayee remains the most enigmatic Indian politician of recent times. Early in my research, I found a key to his enigma: beyond the traditional clichés and the occasional snippets, we know little of value about the first half of his six-decade-long career. Upon understanding his early life, his dilemmas and doublespeak begin to fall into a pattern. This book, first of a two- volume study, attempts to fill that void.

**Contents and Sample Pages**