Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

Maya regularly attends meetings of the Natural History Society and the Geographical Society where she (and in the process, the reader) gets to meet and converse with eminent thinkers and scientists of the time. These meetings and deliberations are a fascinating insight into the debates raging at the time in not only the political field, but in the cultural and social arenas as well.

The poem ‘Body’s No Picnic’ exemplifies the poet’s respect for women and his ability to portray sensuality with sensitivity and depth. The interplay between desire and loneliness creates a complex emotional landscape, where the search for connection is both necessary and fraught with disappointment.

I guess, the picture book is published in a single language. The Hindi and English can be appreciated simultaneously. Some phrases/words sound better in one language than the other. That difference may make the reader understand the beauty of both languages.

The same is true for the poems, books, and articles that are mentioned, as quite a few are footnoted and can be looked up. In fact, the narrative seems to encourage readers to verify historical references, as the characters do so often, even using search engine techniques. This dynamic line between fact and fiction is necessary to the story as one of its central questions is whether the Star of India is really as powerful as the stories declare.

While there is much enthusiasm in big cities and among the young about joining Europe and seeking new opportunities in the West, there is a strong cultural and even political attraction elsewhere about the Russian connection. Many do not like the prospect of free migration into the country that may result from joining Europe.

Furthermore, a very high domestic savings rate powered the investment driving China’s development, and it also enjoyed very high productivity levels. Chapter two argues that China and India have versions of ‘state capitalism’ with a complicated mix of private and public sectors. Tracing the history of liberalization in both, Cable considers ‘creative destruction’ and the varying ability to tolerate its social costs. While China’s early reform period was often ruthless, Xi Jinping is now far more cautious. And although India has not matched China’s earlier zeal, liberalizing trends continue.

However, while these are valid points, the new ‘norm’ of calorie intake cannot be arbitrarily arrived at without a systematic assessment of the population structure, work patterns and bio-medical status of the population. An exercise like that, involving professional nutritionists, statisticians and economists will be more than welcome periodically to see how the norms of poverty are changing.

The chapter highlights increased financial inclusion via UPI, economic formalization, and improved productivity through digital business models as key developmental drivers, but warns against complacency. The concentration of data power, a global public good in a few hands remains a regulatory challenge.

To avoid tax and regulatory burdens in their home countries, several shipping firms would register their companies in Panama, Liberia, Hong Kong, the Bahamas, and other Caribbean imperial outposts. These registries became offshore tax havens. With a new flag-of-convenience registered in the Bahamas in the late 1980s,

For Gulfishan Khan, one such bureaucrat, intellectual and historian was the author of Siyar-ul-Muta’khkhirin (An Overview of the Modern Times), Ghulam Husain Khan Tabatabai (born 1727). With deep connections in the old Mughal world of Delhi, Agra, Patna, and Murshidabad, Ghulam Husain wrote the book in 1783 for his British patrons in Calcutta. A fine English translation of the work was almost simultaneously prepared by a scholar, later identified as Haji Mustafa. Considered to be one of the best historical works produced in the late eighteenth century, it offers ‘a description of glorious past, as well as a sad narrative of the Mughal decline, and above all an indigenous critique of the impact of the early colonial rule’ (p. 46).

At over 600 pages, his book is comprehensive and deeply researched. It is built from extensive research into primary sources, including war diaries, personal letters and regimental records. These sources document the deployment of Indian infantrymen, artillery units, mule transport and logistic corps, and the hardships they endured on the Dardanelles Peninsula from April to December 1915

The author subjects this interpretive tradition to sustained critical scrutiny and ultimately dislodges it with compelling force. Drawing upon expansive and carefully curated archival corpus, he demonstrates that French imperial expansion was neither anomalous nor benign, but instead grounded in modalities of power and domination structurally analogous to those deployed by other European empires.

Today, nine years later, seeing the terrifying effects of Zionist zealotry unfold all across West Asia in real time, Jews with a conscience, whether in the US, Israel or Europe are asking themselves what constitutes morally defensible Jewish politics. What should their stance be, so as to not relentlessly weaponize either the long historical memory of anti-semitism or the relatively recent experience of the Holocaust? How should they stop their co-religionists from seeking to oppress and dominate supposed enemies, especially Muslims, whether in Palestine, Lebanon,

The areas explored in Sheher Mein Gaon sit atop deep and complicated sediments: the residues of older Delhis, the scars of 1857 and Partition, the afterlives of endowment, and the shifting meanings of heritage. Hauz Khas, in particular, poses a question the book might have confronted: why do the architectural remains of great learning complexes in much of the Muslim world continue to function as transregional centres of scholarship, while in India similar sites survive largely as aesthetic fragments, embedded in precarity and neglect? Delhi is full of structures that once organized knowledge, devotion, and public life.

Instead of seeking proportional representation based on identity, the Constitution seems to expect that elected MPs must act as ethical advocates for all citizens. This shifts the focus from who the representatives are to how they act, turning the protection of marginalized minorities into a collective moral obligation rather than mere numbers game. Representation, in this sense, is envisaged as an entirely secular act. The Constitution, nevertheless, is conscious of group rights.

Farida Parvin, an elderly lady, seems at ease looking into the camera perched delicately on the shore rocks, as the mighty ocean spreads behind her and a thin layer of black cloud cuts the frame horizontally. Our attention is drawn to the flower tucked in Farida’s henna-coloured hair that matches the colour of her saree. In the interview with Gadihoke, Khemka tells us that the flower was the subject’s last-minute choice. The last picture is of Shahnoor Khanum who, stands confidently with both her arms on her hips atop a small fishing boat parked on the dry shore right at the edge of the sea.

The colonizers left a large volume of literature about the hills, with innumerable accounts of exploration and adventure, escapades and gossip. As Indian writing became more prolific in the later years, perceptive accounts of sojourns in the hills were penned by well-known storytellers and essayists.

The irony proves pointed: species deemed threats to native ecosystems are the very fish Isha once knew, now providing sustenance and cultural memory in diaspora. The novel withholds its most startling revelations until late, interrogating the very nature of identity, memory, and kinship across temporal and ontological boundaries.

The next line reads: ‘This would never happen for English poetry.’ Indian poetry still retains its oral roots in its strong bonds with rhythms and music. The audience waiting for a Qawwali knows that it will transport them into the world of youth and romance.

The trope of memory has been used effectively by the poet through the lens of both the young girl and the mature woman. In ‘Wild’ she reminisces with tender emotion about the relationship with her mother. When she was a young girl, mother ‘struggled’ to ‘tame’ her curls, even as the ‘rebellious tresses refused to obey’.