1988
Viswarupa is usually synonymous with the dazzling revelation of Krishna’s infinite divinity, as narrated in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita. The visual association that has gained popular vali¬dity is that of Vishnu, standing like a veritable pillar and the entire Hindu pantheon arranged around and in the space inhabited by the principal deity.
Two important books have appeared recently which seriously examine the environ-mental problems with the inten¬tion of working out a strategy for sur¬vival. These books differ in more than one way from each other. Still there is a commonality—they agree that all major malfunctions in society are ecolo¬gical. They intend to see ecology emerge as a ‘super’ subject, just like August Comte saw sociology and Karl Marx saw political economy.
In some recent literature on aspect of food problem, there is a welcome initia¬tive to look at some long neglected areas. For example, problems like pollution or depletion of drinking water sources, loss of forest-based foods including fruits, flowers and roots which prove particularly useful in drought years, the conversion of staple foods of the poor into luxury foods of the rich though various processing technologies, and of course the growing problem of wood-fuel shortage.
The Centre for Policy Research has a knack of selecting issues of national importance, investigating them in all aspects and bringing out policy impli¬cations for the benefit of planners and practitioners. The focus of this publication is on one such issue of great national significance i.e. people’s participation in family planning without which there is no guarantee that the programme will succeed in future.
1988
The epistemological problem pervades all research. Demographic research is no exception. In fact, the epistemological problem seems to be more serious in demographic research which is characteri¬zed by large-scale sample surveys. Any¬thing smaller than a sample size of 5,000-10,000 households and as many respon¬dents is not only ridiculed but also frown¬ed upon.
The Security of South Asia edited by Stephen Cohen presents a thought provo¬king perspective contributed to by some of the principal commentators in the field, as they look ahead to the sub-continent’s future and examine the implications for the rest of the world.
1988
For those not born to it, Hinduism is not an easy religion to understand, much less to warm up to. And it has not been well served by exegetists—both Indian and non-Indian—who been have swept off their feet by the epistemological and ontological absolutism of Adwaita Vedanta and have therefore tended to over¬emphasize the ‘other-worldliness’ of the Hindu view of life.
My tiny friends, if you remember, I had mentioned in the Nov/Dec. ’87 issue of The Book Review that a wagon full of new books written by Indian authors had arrived in our book market. I wonder if you had the time to read some of them what with examinations on your head, but I delved into the wagon and guess what I found—two exciting books published recently by CBT.
The India-culture boom of post ’84 years has almost bypassed vernacular literature, the Spic Macayian increase in the tribe of Hindustani/Carnatic music and dance lovers notwithstanding. All to the credit then of editors Iqbal Narain and Lothar Lutze to take on the com¬pilation of seven papers presented at the VIII European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies (held in Sweden in 1983).
The subject dealt with in Lethal Games is of considerable contemporary concern. It is important enough for a leisurely analysis by the academic community, policy makers and the bureaucracy who are normally pressed for time due to the hurly burly of the daily grind. The book has seven chapters and two annexures.
The first fifteen years of a nuclear rivalry can be very rocky. This is when the rules of the competition are still being written, when vulnerabilities are greatest, and when monitoring capabilities are spotty, at best. It therefore comes as no surprise that India and Pakistan are going through a dangerous passage.
The Stimson Center and Vision Books have brought out a well researched paperback on a subject which the Center has pioneered in South Asia – Confidence Building Measures and Risk Reduction. The hopes that motivated the Stimson Center, led by Michael Krepon, on leading India and Pakistan to a “progressive and cumulative set of CBMs between 1991 and 2003, have been belied, owing to ‘geopolitical realities’”.
Pakistan is a state that appears to be in rapid movement, but has in fact changed very slowly. In the last few years it has become an overt nuclear weapons state, the army seized power for the fourth time in a coup, there was an ill-fated military adventure across the Line of Control at Kargil, the leadership signed up with the American-led (but ill-named) war on terrorism, and most recently Pakistan’s revered “father of the bomb,”
C. Bhan’s ‘Farm Mechanisation and Social Change’ and Nadkarni’s ‘Farmers’ Movements in India’ are two recent studies which focus on the impact of technological development and moder¬nization of agriculture to explore the different dimensions of social and political changes engendered by, and within, a process of agricultural moder¬nization.
The Coming of the Devi is a minutely researched and sensitively written history of the transformation of an obscure small¬pox propitiation ceremony into a move¬ment for social reform and tribal self assertion. Hardiman’s empirical investi¬gations into the origins, spread and growth of the Devi movement among the tribals and peasants of South Gujarat also addresses more general issues such as the nature of peasant consciousness and the understanding of those movements for social and political change which remained independent of elite control and initia¬tives.
Those who had known Thondup Namgyal, the late Chogyal of Sikkim, would find Nari Rustomji’s portrayal of his persona¬lity extremely interesting and readable. The personal letters reproduced reflect the conflicting trends which contributed substantially to the course of events in Sikkim. Charming and sensitive, Thondup Namgyal was human to the core.
Social change is associated with realign¬ment of individual and group interests as the economy moves from one stage to another in the course of its development. It is, therefore, axiomatic that those whose position is challenged in this pro¬cess should resist and those who feel deprived of their due entitlements make a bid for fair deal. One of the legitimate functions of the State is to ensure that these changes take place without disturb¬ing the order through the processes which are generally accepted as legitimate.
About five months before his martyrdom, Mahatma Gandhi gave us in a short sentence a key to an understanding of his complex personality and of his place in human history; he told the Shanti Seva Dal, ‘My life is my message.’ Nothing more needs to be said.
This is the full story of the military operations in Jammu & Kashmir during 9147-48 undertaken to save that princely state, which had acceded to the Union of India, from a brutal invasion by Pakistan. The year-long campaign saw many triumphs and tragedies which are narrated objectively in detail. The Indian Army and Air Force, just emerging from the throes of partition and still in the process of reorganization, emerged from the or¬deal stronger.
A timely book. Timely, since it synchro¬nized with a vigorous debate in the national press on the justification for present outlays on the armed forces and the limits of defence expenditure. This debate was engendered by the rapid escala¬tion in defence outlays for 1987-88 by as much as 43 per cent over the last financial year to over Rs. 12,000 crores.