Book Review - The Rebel: A biography of Ram Jethmalani

"If you help a criminal before the crime, you're an accomplice. If you help afterwards, you're a lawyer" - from a cartoon punchline

Ram Jethmalani has been India's best known & highest paid lawyer. Besides having a career spanning the entire history of independent India, he has a long list of other accomplishments & idiosyncrasies  -

• obtained LL.B.degree at the age of 17. At that time, the minimum age for becoming a lawyer was 21, but a special resolution allowed him to become a lawyer at 18. 
• 90% of the cases he takes up are said to be pro bono 
• "smugglers once constituted ninety per cent of Ram's practice"
• has taught at several colleges in India and in the US
• has been an outspoken Parliamentarian since 1980, serving for more than 35 years
• co-founded the prestigious National School of Law in Bangalore
• has 2 wives which is permissible in India due to a legal quirk
• believes in numerology and astrology though he has "never really understood God"

As he is a non-conformist & has highly controversial views, his discussions on TV & articles in newspapers  provide an interesting perspective. I found it intriguing that an American pediatric surgeon & long-time friend of the Jethmalanis (Ram's daughter Shobha is her co-worker), Susan Adelman has authored the 600-page biography The Rebel: A biography of Ram Jethmalani and picked it to read instead of the authorized biography that's also available.

The author was editor of Detroit Medical News for 17 years and presumably this book is her first on a non-medical topic. Still, her writing is well-researched (the bibliography/notes is all of 45 pages), informative and entertaining as it is filled with numerous funny anecdotes which may have been possible due to her proximity to the subject. This reminded me of Al Jaffee's biography, sensitively written by Mary-lou Weisman - his friend of thirty years

Ram Jethmalani is also a philanthropist and the book tells us that his philosophy of life is to make as many people as possible happy. He turned from young prodigy to traditional patriarch at the age of 25 due to compelling circumstances. He resolved to be rich after his family had to face bad living conditions when they arrived in India as refugees following Partition.

This is a good read as it not only tells the story of a Indian luminary but also the contemporary history of India

The story of Ram's career is also the story of India

Some facts about India I gathered from the book:
* There are about 20 million Dalit Christians in India
* Ram has for years been a charitable patron of Dr Samant, a professor in Odisha who runs two outstanding institutions - Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) and Kalinga Institute of Technological Sciences (KITS)
* Shanti Bhushan in 1968 proposed the first Jan Lokpal Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha in 1969, but before it could be passed by the Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha was dissolved and the Bill lapsed. Lokpal Bills were introduced eight times repeatedly from 1971 to 2008, but were never passed.

Ram considers the Nanavati case (which has been dramatized in the 2016 Bollywood movie Rustom) as the most important milestone of his career

Even a signed confession is no barrier to a successful appeal when Ram uses his arts of rhetoric, cross-examination, and sly innuendo. There is no secret to his techniques, beyond their cleverness, clarity, and originality. Above all, he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the law, which never fails to impress clients. Even judges are in awe.

Ram has played many roles and has "endless talent for reinventing himself".

Ram's practice ranges from election law to constitutional law, criminal, civil rights, terrorism, smuggling, preventative detention, family law, malpractice, contracts, almost every branch of law, but he really shines when it comes to the rules of evidence

India has plenty of lawyers, but people from the farthest reaches of the country still call Ram

Quotes:

"My power is my renunciation, my ability to quit"

"Power corrupts, but the prospect of losing power corrupts absolutely"