Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

Dimensions of Economic Theory and Policy is a festschrift honouring Professor Anjan Mukherji who retired as the Reserve Bank of India Professor of Economic Theory at the Center for Economic Studies and Planning, (CESP) Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2010.

Other things being the same, does economic success, like lightning, strike countries randomly? Or can the probability of being struck by it be significantly enhanced by governments? Peter Blair Henry, Dean of the Stern School of Business in New York, says yes, it can. His prescription for success is simple, old as the hills and eternally valid: discipline in policies.

Most of the discussions and reports on Muslims in India often embrace the sketchy phrase Pakshe Kerala Muslims (But Muslims in Kerala) to emphasize the ‘exceptional’ standards that Muslims of Kerala have achieved.

The book is a study of the ways and processes in which adivasi livelihood has been affected through the colonial and postcolonial period and adivasi responses to it. It is divided into two parts.

The collected essays of historian Sarvepalli Gopal (1923-2002) has finally arrived, meticulously edited with a fine introduction by Srinath Raghavan. Raghavan and the general editors of the series, Ramachandra Guha and Sunil Khilnani make a strong case for a Gopal revival.

One of the most enduring myths of the founding of the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) is that of the rescue and subsequent marriage of the Englishman Job Charnock to an Indian woman. Marriages between Europeans and Indians were not quite uncommon in the early colonial period, most famously chronicled by William Dalrymple in his White Mughals.

Arrest and detention are considered as routine and necessary procedures in any criminal justice system. In fact, it relies heavily on it.

The fact that foreign scholars find it difficult to decode the Indian experience of living with, negotiating and managing the multiple challenges of citizenship and rights in arguably the world’s most diverse ethnic and religious environment without, in the main, sacrificing the tenets of procedural democracy, comes as no surprise.

The edited volume under review makes a stimulating attempt to explore a seemingly elusive and intrinsically unsettling territory called modern Indian culture.

It is the usual impression that oriental know­ledge essentially consists of speculation concerning the ultimate nature of things beyond what is avail­able by pure observation.

Watership Down is an incredible book. It is the story of an epic journey of a small band of wild rabbits. Fiver, the prophet, predicts imminent destruction and, under the leadership of his brother Hazel, the rabbits leave the familiar security of their warren and brave the unknown countryside in search of a new home…

Like the proverbial Prometheus, Sikkim, having happily unbound itself from a despotic past, now adds to the diversity-a distinct hallmark of our culture. Yet, reading these tales from Sikkim, one often has a feeling of familiarity. It stems from common experi­ences of the past…

Roy Morris Jr.’s book chronicles Oscar Wilde’s eleven-month long tour of the United States and Canada in 1882. It is during this tour, we are told, that Oscar Wilde became Oscar Wilde.

Even as not everything written by Indian writers in English may be of equal merit, one would have to acknowledge that the Indian novel in English has come of age.

When God receives a request from Fátima to help prevent a war between Fidel Castro and JFK, he asks his son, Jesus, to return to Earth and diffuse the conflict. On his island, Fidel Castro faces protests on the streets and realizes that he is about to be overthrown.

Very captivating and entertaining, Teller of Tales goes down the memory lane of two friends in the civil service, the reserved secretive Arunava and the staid Tapan—a very close friendship at one level and full of doubts on the other. Adding to the mystery and charm of it all is a thread of romance. A beautifully crafted novel, it keeps the reader in suspense till the very end.

Indian Music, like Hinduism, is comparable to an ocean. Its origins are lost in the mists of antiquity, and over the centuries, it has evolved, modifying itself to suit the times, assimilating new ideas from alien con­cepts, and yet managing to retain its own unique personality.

Here is another general commentary on Indian culture, this time by a well-known Indian writer. It is difficult to assess which level of reader the book is really meant for as it is written in a very broad sweep.

There are times, usually of media hype, when I don’t read a new novel that I would otherwise have read. Then there are novels I don’t read immediately because I am told by friends that I am certain to like them.

Growing up, I used to treat going to my nani’s house for a sleepover as a great event. I would very seriously pack my night clothes, my tooth brush and my towel, and then toddle off down the road to her house.