The Indian Socialist tradition is now moribund, but there was a time when it had a profound and mostly salutary influence on politics and society. Yet few people now know of its past vigour and dynamism. The Congress, the Communists, the regional parties, the Ambedkarites, and (especially in recent years) the Jana Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party – all have had their chroniclers and cheerleaders who have traced their respective ideological lineages and written biographies, and sometimes hagiographies, of their major leaders. Not so the Indian Socialists, who, for the most part, have been ill-served by Indian historians. This...