Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

China and India are among the few exceptions in the world which continue to show stark deprivations that are specific to women or
girl children while the per capita GDP growth has been moving ahead at a phenomenal pace.

Over the last three and a half decades or so, one of the most striking phenomena has been the emergence of the medical industry as the second largest industry in the world, after, of course, arms.

This volume is the outcome of a regional conference, called the Second SAARC Business Conclave that brought together a number
of key players from the private sector, policy makers, and academics who expressed hope that if the reform processes are in place, South Asia has the potential to achieve and sustain higher growth.

If nation states in their very creation are majoritarian in their thrust besides being the repositories of (often unbridled power) how have
certain institutions and instruments of minority rights protection proved effective in Europe but remained singularly undeveloped in South Asia?

2006 had been a fraught year for Bangladesh. Differences between the two major political parties, the Awami League (AL) and the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) that go well beyond democratic discourse has been a constant in Bangladesh for over thirty years.

Nepal’s crises—political, economic, social, cultural—seem to be without end, and nowhere is the sense of despair more acute
than among Nepal’s thinking elite.

China became the third largest economy in the world after the United States and Japan with an estimated $4.8 trillion in gross domestic
product in 2009.

As an individual deeply interested in the religion and culture of early India, I have consistently admired the writings of Wendy Doniger, enjoying every bit of what I have been able to read of her several works, ranging from lengthy monographs to crisp prefatory remarks and editorial interventions.

What is special about the autobiography of an ordinary man? Not much perhaps, except that it may well be an accurate
documentation of life on average. This element of the prosaic is precisely why Tubten Khetsun’s book is pertinent. Presenting the
views and circumstances of an ordinary Tibetan from the time of the Tibetan People’s Uprising in 1959 to the early 1980s, this book documents the changes wrought by expanding Chinese control over the region.

Gordon T. Stewart’s book is fascinating, for being English he has Stewart has had an advantage in easily accessing the old British agents’ diaries, letters and political dispatches. The book contains every feature of what the empire stood for: enlightenment, imperialism and interest.

It can be inferred from the author’s profile on the dust jacket that he is bassador in Lebanon, he has earlier been the Saudi kingdom’s ambassador to Pakistan between 2001 and 2009. His earlier career was in the police prior to his moving to appointments in which he looked after the security of Saudi diplomatic assets.

The very title shows the self-confidence and optimism of the editors, and also, of most of the scholars who have contributed to the volume. Such self-confidence and optimism are sadly lacking among decision-makers.