Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

It is not an easy task to review a set of volumes, the first of which begins with the Paleolithic and Mesolithic ages, and the third ends with a chapter, devoted to the ‘Development of Socialist culture.’ In fact, considering that the contents of the first volume are far removed in time from October 1917 the title is a bit of a misnomer…

The world over, the bureaucracy is fair game for anyone who wants to have a go at it. Very few institutions have been as reviled, jeered at and abused as continu­ously as the bureaucracy. Not that it is entirely unwarranted, as anyone who has had to go to a Government office and deal with forms or permits knows…

Vidya Dehejia who has published two important books, Early Buddhist Rock Temples (1972) and Early Stone Temples of Orissa 91978), is a dedicated scholar of Indian art. But in the present publication she steps down from the high pedestal of specialized scholarship to perform what is a very important task…

Hegel said that every great man places history under an obligation to understand him. No student of history would today accept this dictum: rather, he would regard almost all so-called great men as irrelevant, if not diversionary nuisances. Yet it is worth spending a little time on C.R. First of all…

In his preface K.S. Duggal feels that the short story is a product of the twen­tieth century. It was born during the first World War, and ‘the subsequent period of distrust and dislocation of accepted norms of daily life fostered it.’ Rather a nega­tive way of looking at it—surely there were other…

To the tell-me-a-story request from her grandchild, grandmother Rama Rau responded with tales of her own child­hood and little Asha listened with wonder—’… from her expression I might have been describing a totally foreign land in a remote period of history’. From the girl’s insistence that her…

This is a source-book for those who wish to obtain specialized information regarding the material culture of Akbar’s times. It is not a book that one expects to complete at one reading, but is more in the nature of a reference book, aiding such of us as would wish to verify whether, for example, a kettle-drum of a particular type was known in Akbar’s days or if flutes of a specific variety were then in vogue…

Till the late sixties students of Indian elections and party system used to complain of the dearth of relevant and reliable data needed for undertaking sys­tematic empirical studies in these two areas. The position has changed since then substantially, thanks largely to the efforts of some scholars to develop…

With the increasing realization of the role of Multinational corporation as the coupling mechanism in the structural linkage between the ‘centre’ of the Imperi­alist system with its ‘periphery’ the literature on the working of Multinationals in the Developing world continues to grow. By now, in purely quantitative terms…

In 1921 when Professor Vakil headed the Bombay School of Economics and Sociology most of the present gener­ation of Indian economists (even senior ones) were unborn. Like John Matthai he was one of the earliest Indian products of the London School of Economics in its formative years…

Most seminars based on a broad theme shed some light and create some obscu­rity. This one is no exception. Planned as an open-ended discussion, it studies movements of protest and reform in India over the centuries, directed against things as disparate as ‘slavery, untouch­ability and colonialism’ (in the words of a participant)…

When a few months ago I had the chance to come across the poetry of Margaret Chatterjee (The Sandalwood Tree) I was so deeply impressed, not only by her talent and skill as a poetess but also by her grasp of the various contemporary social and ageless philo­sophical problems reflected in her verses, that I made a point to meet her in person and find out more about her…

This extremely well-produced book is­ one of the most thorough and com­prehensive studies yet published on the politics of the Indian Ocean, both in terms of littoral issues and the use of the sea itself.Although one may disagree with some of Dr. Singh’s arguments about the various powers as they jostle for influence in the area (if one can yet call the Indian Ocean an ‘area’) his book is a valuable aid to further analysis…

Monika Verma is at least prolific, if these two books, published within a year of each other and averaging over twenty-five poems are any indication. Some of the other poets considered here are even more so. That this is of no great importance should be evident…

The reviewer doubly regrets his in­ordinate delay in preparing this note. For one thing, both books are to be wel­comed as examples of an increasing flow of responsible, illuminating, especially region-specific studies coming now from a broadening array of India’s applied social science institutions. This fanning out of good work among…

It is sad but true that three-quarters into the twentieth century and over fifty years after the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, we still have no term but ‘modern’ to describe the kind of literature associated, above all, with these two writers…

Clearly, abstract research must con­tinue irrespective of how little of it is applied in practice. The Muslim way of life, not necessarily Islamic as at least two of the above publications amply prove, has also been subjected to consi­derable theological interpretation and sociological research, but the findings have probably been…

Is it possible for a scholar to specia­lize in two countries as dissimilar as India and Israel? Perhaps a journalist might achieve fame by writing on many sepa­rate countries but it is rare for area specialists to stray from their own coun­try or region. The authors of 0 Jerusa­lem and Freedom at Midnight exemplify journalists whose popular political histo­ries…

If nothing satisfies a man so much as the esteem of one’s friends and collea­gues, then Gorwala must indeed be a very happy person; the articles brought together in this volume felicitating him on his 75th birthday eloquently express…

Since the early 50s, coinciding with the setting up of the ‘national’ govern­ments in many of the Third World countries, and perhaps consequent to it, several thousand intensive surveys have been made of single villages in those countries. This concern of academics in the ‘developing’ nations with rural realities…