Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

Nobody may dispute that Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly called JP, has been an important factor in Indian polity for about half a century. Starting as a Marxist (while a student in the United States of America!), he became a votary of non-violence under Gandhi’s influence and took part in the various satyagraha movements launched by the Mahatma for the country’s freedom.

Mao Zedong was the most dominant and towering actor in the long drama of the Chinese Revolution. His ability to interface the universals of Marxism­-Leninism with the particularities of China created a profound organic rela­tionship between the man and the event which he himself acknowledged.

A central vision illumines this book: Pakistan intends to assemble a nuclear arsenal, but does not have present capa­bility to do so. Eventually it will. India should, therefore, devise a policy to keep its competition with Pakistan below the nuclear threshold.

While research on the Indian economy, both at the present time, as also in the colonial period, has tended to con­centrate on the agrarian sector, relatively little work has been done on the relation­ship between the rural and urban worlds. The two volumes now under review offer a welcome change from this one-sided focus.

One remembers reading a lot of Enid Blyton as a child, because there was little else in English. This was not the case with the regional languages. There were a num­ber of children’s magazines in Bengali and Hindi, Chandamama, Parag, Suktara and Satyajit Ray’s Sandesh, to name a few.

These two books make interesting and lively reading for children in the age-group of 7 to 10. Both wri­ters present totally different themes in their stories but the universal appeal that adven­ture holds for children is to be found in both.

Thirty Seven years ago President Truman of the Uni­ted States of America drop­ped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When he learn­ed of the successful attack on Hiroshima he leapt up in the air and exclaimed, ‘This is the greatest thing in history.’

Non-Alignment is one area of international politics where there is no dearth of literature. Still, since the con­cept is dynamic there is always the probability of getting some fresh air whenever new arrivals hit the bookstands. The books under review have not belied that hope. Published in the wake of the Seventh Non-Aligned Summit held in New Delhi in March 1983, they have served a valuable topical purpose by putting the con­cept in its historical and cur­rent perspectives.

Once upon a time intellectuals in Europe were seriously debating whether America Indians had souls (because if  they didn’t there would be no   point in sending missionaries to the new continent). A few years later white liberals were troubled about the morality of owning black slaves and then with the issue of the brown indentured labour—the new kind of slavery.

Some time during the Emer gency in India, the late J.P. Naik presented at a seminar in  Pune his new programme of educational reform. Inspired  by Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and his action  programme for ‘conscientization’ of the oppressed in favour of social change, Naik proposed substitution of ‘literacy’ by ‘poliracy’

Judging by the aplomb with which he goes about his ministerial tasks, Mr K.R. Narayanan appears to be at home in the troubled and troublesome world of pre­sent-day Indian politics.

Both these books—one a novel, the other a collection of short stories—have been published by Readers International whose policy is to publish ‘contemporary literature of quality from Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, featur­ing especially works that have suffered political censorship or were written in exile.’ Not surprisingly, therefore, both these books belong to the genre of the literature of protest.

Rural Development and the agricultural sector, much in the fashion of socialism and empathy for the poor, has acquired any number of exponents and path-finders and people concerned enough to exhort everyone else to practise the ‘faith’—since everyone swears by it as if it were a faith in itself.

Soviet Indian friendship…is an impor­tant factor for peace and stability in the current tense situation and an example of how countries with different systems can fruitfully cooperate

All the three books under review deal with significant dimensions of Indian social structure and are works of noted social -anthropologists. Notwithstanding the inevitable overlaps, I propose to discuss them successively in the order in which they are listed.

Islam and Muslims are quite important subjects not only in India but in the world at large. The Middle East always remains in the news thanks to many regional conflicts in the area.

If daily news and commentary can be likened to an enormous and often indiges­tible meal, the daily cartoon must surely be—at least in the Indian context—the pickle, something to make you take a sharp breath or smack your lips or, on the rare occasion, force a muted expletive.

Mera koi hai nahinGhar mujhe chaahiye:Ghar ke bheetar prakash hoIs ki mujhe chintaa nahin hai;Prakash ke Ghere ke bheetar meraghar ho —Isi ki mujhe talaash hai.

There is nothing a Jesuit will not do, if it is humanly possible. He will cross the seas, cross deserts, climb mountains, live among aboriginals, learn strange tongues and write in them with authority. Carlos Valles and Paul Johnson are both Jesuits. Valles, a Spaniard, is a scholar in Gujarat. In 1980 he was chosen by the Gujarati Literary Academy for the prestigious Ranjitram Gold Medal.

Ranga Rao’s first novel Fowl-Filcher is a Chaucerian repast. Farce, accident, vio­lence, sex, pathos—all find place in this rapid-fire narrative. Shot after shot changes the scene, but keeps the tempo, in the manner of the famous author of The Canterbury Tales.