Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

As another addition to the spate of publications on Indira Gandhi and Emer­gency, this book does not provide any fresh insights into either the personality of the former Prime Minister or on the economic/political developments which led to centralization of the state in the form of Emergency…

In the last decade, studies on women have made an impact in the field of liter­ature and social sciences. Whether to become a ‘libber’ or be known as ‘Ms’ is a topic of active discussion in women’s forums the world over. The women’s liberation movement has highlighted the so-called weaker sex’s increasing…

Foreign aid to India is a subject which has attracted good deal of scholar­ly attention. Its topicality, too, has seen many revivals, the latest occasion being Carter’s visit to India early this year. Surprisingly, the works available so far have failed to present an in-depth analysis on the subject, verging…

English has an uneasy existence in India, for we in India are not at home with it in spite of the Times Literary Supplement’s consistent advocacy of the recognition of Indian English. In India it is nobody’s language unless you would like to consider it the language of Anglo-­Indians (Eurasians), but their number is small…

A Tamil proverb says that a half-nosed  person is the king among  noseless persons, This proverb can be applied with precision in the modern Tamil literary sphere where anything vaguely resembling political writing and every­thing that is made to seem revolutionary is hailed. The mere mention of a wor­ker, revolution…

History, notoriously, is not about the past.-Amitav Ghosh in The Man Behind the MosqueVishwajyoti’s Ghosh’s Delhi Calm reminds one of the daily calm that is being witnessed along with the daily alarm of scams, jams, inflation and general deflation of spirits. The phrase ‘India shining’ was the buzzword a few years back…

Trickster City is an extraordinary collection of stories, anecdotes, observations, biographical fragments about arrival, about belonging, about identity and about the fragility of existence. It is about a Delhi that is known and yet unfamiliar. Moving away from the easily recognizable, historically rich and elitist neighbourhoods…

‘Delhi is whatever you make of it’, muses New Yorker Dave Prager in Delirious Delhi, the Capital’s latest travelogue-cum-survival guide. ‘Every person defines Delhi for his or her self, and no two Delhi struggles are the same. At any given point, your experience will be the exact oppo-site of my experience, and we’ll both be right.’..

Kitsch and homogenization have been two important techniques used in the reduction of the person to the mass man by the mass society of today.Kitsch means that products of mass culture in which the aesthetic and intel­lectual work is done for the recipient, making him a passive recipient rather than an active discoverer…

The book is meant as a case study of different modes of transport provided by different agencies, under public and private ownership, in the Calcutta metro­politan area, and the economic and operational efficiency of these modes and agencies. The Calcutta State Transport Corporation, being the principal agency responsible…

In the struggle-torn world of today, not only individuals try to better their lot, but even nations compete ferociously to overtake each other. Ever-growing competition has led to an almost un­wholesome image-consciousness which manifests itself in organized showmanship by almost every country…

‘The humbug, the waste and the plain stupidity that constitute a distressingly large part of our educational scene today’. This is the basic theme of this provocative collection of essays. Though they relate mostly to higher education, Professor V.V John also makes trenchant comments throughout this book…

She title sets the tone of the contents and one is prepared for an earthy, chatty, light meander through the bylanes of memory and small townish reminiscences. And this is what one gets. The stories are short and interspersed with great humour—both in the situations and characters depicted and in the manner of the telling.

Bani Basu’s Gandharvi (Original Bengali Gandharbi) narrates the story of Apala, her life and her musical journey. The crests and falls of her life mirror the high and low notes that she is able to sing with equal elan; however, unfortunately, the notes of her life do not have an equally happy ending.

‘The two principal political ideologies of the present age, democracy and socialism, either singly or in various combi­nations are built,’ writes Beteille, ‘on the premise of equality for all human beings.’ The philosophy underlying the concept of equality emerged mainly out of the concern within modern nation-states…

white Crane Lend me Your Wings is a heartbreaking story set in the idyl-lic Nyarong Valley of Tibet
in the pre- and post-Chinese occupation years—where people live enchanted lives, with simple needs, simple beliefs and a deep faith that their Gods will never fail them.

Duncan M. Derrett is an excellent survey of marriage laws in India. A Professor of Oriental Laws at the Univer­sity of London, Derrett has given an analytical appreciation of Hindu Mar­riage Law. Being familiar not only with legal aspects of a law but being aware of Indian condition, he has contributed in understanding marriage…

Written by Vikramajit Ram whose first book Elephant Kingdom: Sculptures from Indian Architecture was followed by two travelogues, The Sun And Two Seas marks his debut in fiction writing. A graduate in art from the National Institute of Design, Ram combines his knowledge of art and architecture with excellent narrative skill to tell—‘not the sad story of the death of kings’, though several deaths do occur in the novel—something that is more than an exceedingly readable tale.

The story of Ruttie and Jinnah could easily be translated into a screenplay. It has all the elements to make a compelling film—the tall and stately Muhammad Ali Jinnah so enigmatic in his quiet resolve to be the most powerful man falls for the beautiful and determined Ruttenbai Petit in her diaphanous saris and scandalous blouses to whom the fight for freedom is as thrilling as her dangerous romance with Jinnah.

First order theoretical activity has been rare in recent literature in social sciences. Works which convey an integrated social understanding and a sense of historical sweep, and which possess a philosophical quality while at the same time relating themselves to common human problems, are not easy to find. But claims to such status are not scarce…