Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

Each dawn, in recent times, has found the nation bemoaning a fresh scam perpetrated by those who had been charged with the responsibility of providing good governance and unlocking the gates of El Dorado, outside which stood the mass of the Indian people all eager to pursue the emerging Indian dream.

This is a high impact low fuss book. Within its covers the authors provide a remarkably comprehensive and lucidly written survey of the three geographical zones where armed conflicts are currently taking place within IndiaJ&K, the Northeast trouble spots of Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, Bodoland, and the Maoist resistance in the central forested regions…

Islam was the first pillar on which Pakistan was built and its leaders’ search for a new identity was the other virulent non-Indian non-Hindu pillar. While both were understand-able from Pakistan’s perspective, Jinnah’s version of a moderate Pakistan began to change soon enough…

The perennial question which arises in the mind of anyone even generally familiar with the PalestineIsraeli issue is the reason a solution has bedevilled the many attempts during the 65 years since the Second World War. Talmiz Ahmeds splendid, well-researched, and cogent analysis of the root causes of the issue goes…

The relationship between sexuality and empire in the context of South Asia is one that has received much, and muchneeded, scholarly attention in recent years. Since one kind of archive or another is used by scholars and activists in the field of sexuality studies to form and/or legitimize their case, Arondekar finds it necessary…

The period 17071857 is one of the most fascinating in the history of India. It in effect laid the foundation for colonial modernity and had a profound impact on the making of modern India. As such, when a noted cultural historian writes a survey book on this period ones expectations are of a different kind. Lakshmi Subramanian is also a wellknown…

This anthology brings together 14 invaluable essays by Harbans Mukhia which had earlier been published in different journals and collected works. Some of these essays date back to the 1970s but there are many others more recent ones and some are still in press. Focusing on three themes: the intellectual and cultural milieu; economy…

THIS is a book about the immediate past and the distant future of mankind. It looks at the recent development ex­perience of the world, particularly Taiwan and South Korea, and goes on to make predictions and give advice. But that is not all, for this is a book of disconcert­ing diversity.

The volume under review is geared towards describing and analysing the practical implications and policy imperatives of deepening democracy beyond its institutional parameters and the role of civil society interventions in creating a culture of democratic engagement, accountability, and transparency (p. 3)…

This is an important volume of Nehrus selected works and deals with the initial months of the year 1958. There are two major themes that pervade the entire volume. The first consists of the problems of national unity and Nehrus deep commitment to Indian nationalism. The second consists of the complexities involved…

The versatile personality of the author finds reflection in this little ‘bunch called BOOK’—as the author himself calls it. Whether it is sangeet or social work or social justice, costs or crimes or com­munalism, or corporate sector, religions and revolution—the author has some­thing to say, some thought to exchange with others.

One of Freud’s distinctive departures from the psychiatric tradition of his time was to consider himself solely as the patient’s agent and thus to repudiate any obligations to the patient’s family and society.

Ranjan Kaul’s debut novel presents a dark view of relationships, institutions and struggles in contemporary India. In fact, the most striking feature of the novel is its current register of the several Indias that exist simultaneously with each other.

‘Nepal is an area on the political evolu­tion of which not enough is known as yet,’ says the author; and to meet this gaping need he sets out to make his own contribution. What sort of treatment he renders to the subject is indicated in the title itself —Nepal: Year of Decision.

Bhagabati Charan Galpamala (Bhagabati Charans Short Stories) is not the first anthology of the short stories of Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi (190843), the founder of Nabajuga Sahitya Samsad (Literary Society of the New Era), the Odia version of the Progressive Writers Movement which had its first convention at Cuttack between 29 November and 6 December 1935…

Bhisham Sahni had once said, The only novel about Partition is Yashpals Jhootha Sach; everything else is merely a footnote. Surprisingly, however, it has taken almost fifty years for its English translation to come out. Jhootha Sach was originally published in Hindi in two volumes in 1958 and 1960…

In A Himalayan Tribe: From Cattle to Cash, a welcome sequel to Apa Tanis and Their Neighbours, Von Furer­-Haimendorf describes his observations on the Apa Tanis whom he revisited after a gap of thirty-six years.

What does one make of pedestrian prose, a plot devoid of suspense and concerned mainly with the bric-a-brac of the lives of women in a Haveli? Add to this no subtlety to the characterization, no range, no depth and to think of it that it walked away with the Sahitya Akademi award!

There is a view supported by, among others, Salman Rushdie and Amit Chaudhuri that Indian Writing in English is superior to literature produced in regional languages. Obviously this opinion fails to take into account the variety, vigour and sincerity that marks writing in various Indian languages. Punjabi fiction being a case in point.

The present volume is a collection of fifteen short stories and two novellas. Ismat Chughtais name should be familiar to anyone who has even a slight interest in Urdu literature and drama. She opened new avenues for women writers in Urdu fiction. According to Tahira Naqvi, Ismat was an unselfconscious feminist (who) was doing…