Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

The Centre for Studies in Social Sci¬ences, Calcutta has been trying to take stock of the place of history as an academic discipline and also looking for alternatives to ‘academic’ histories. An earlier volume, based on presentations at a conference held in 1999 was edited and published under the title History and the Present.

This book is as big and as sprawling as its full title: Kalahar (White Water-Lily): Studies in Art, Iconography, Architecture, and Archaeology of India and Bangladesh (Professor Enamul Haque Felicitation Volume). With 370 folio pages of long and short essays and a few short notes, and innumerable plates appended to the main text in seventy-six additional pages, it has been designed as a monumental “felicitation” volume.

Beyond prostitution is a collection of twenty-three essays on sex work in India. Of these only two essays have been previously published in academic journals. The essays in the collection range from serious analyses of themes in sex work in India, historical and literary surveys of various forms of the practice, brief field based reports, a panel discussion…

One of the most extraordinary – and positive – outcomes of the second upsurge of the women’s movements in the 1970s was the movement’s engagement with health, going beyond issues of reproduction.

Radha Chakravarty’s book Feminism and Contemporary Women: Rethinking Subjectivity is based on her Ph.D. dissertation on the same subject and retains all the qualities of a solid, well-researched dissertation. It investigates a familiar enough field of enquiry – subjectivity, with related notions of identity and agency – which has continuously engaged philosophers,…

Discussing the geopolitics of empire John Bellamy Foster says the inherent instability of empire under capitalism points to potentially more dangerous wars.

Bob Woodward’s fourth book on President George Bush and his war on Iraq is subtitled ‘A Secret White House History 2006-2008.’ His earlier three books are: Bush at War(2002),Plan of Attack(2004, ) and State of Denial(2006).

‘We have been so long accustomed to dictate to the world’ that it was ‘rather galling now that we find ourselves playing second fiddle to the autocratic ruler of the United States.’

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has been writing for fifteen years, during which she has honed her talents; the range of her work has consisted mostly of fiction: novels, short stories and the occasional article in prestigious journals. She has made use of various techniques to project her views on marriage and gender…

This book surveys the field of philosophical discourse in modern Maharashtra, by revisiting three iconic figuresPhule, Vinoba Bhave and Savarkarthrough their writing, and the responses it has evoked, in Marathi. In the process, G.P. Deshpande interrogates contemporary trends in historiography…

Literature of Resistance: India 1857 is a compilation of academic papers pre-sented at a seminar held in late 2007 at the D.A.V. College for Girls in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana.

Gayatri Spivak, Helen Tiffin, Aijaz Ahmadwith the opening batters like the first two and such a number three, the danger is that you may never get to see the others in action! But get you must, since this team of writers includes many more who would be part of a Worlds Eleven of Postcolonial Studies…

We Indians love watching rich family dramas play out on the screen. The big screen has KJo and the small screen has Ektaa Kapoor and her Band of Bahus. The workaholic Kapoor alongwith Star TV changed the way Indians watch television. A few others joined the bandwagon and the world of tradition…

Deewanawas a hit. The audience loved him. Shah Rukh Khan, the actor, had made it.A hundred and six pages into Mushtaq ShiekhsShah Rukh Can, the lines wash over you and ring loud the words that youve been waiting for from the moment you started reading it. Careful choice of wordsShah Rukh Khan, the actor, not Shah Rukh Khan, the star…

Poet and philosopher Khalil Gibran noted, Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart Leela: A Patchwork Life, among other things, reveals precisely this. Radiant, ethereal, stunning, Leela Naidu was the purveyor of beauty for a generation of Indians and foreigners alike. With her sublime smile…

This is a new and slightly abridged edition of Khwaja Ahmad Abbass autobiography of the same title originally published in 1977. Edited and introduced by Suresh Kohli, the reincarnated version has a Foreword by Amitabh Bachchan as its novel feature, highlighted on the front page of this hard cover book…

Writing on film in India was for a long time mired in different kinds of bias and untouchability. While only certain kinds of films and filmmakers in the realist tradition were considered worthy of critical attention, bulk of the films produced here was considered trash. As for the writings, most of them…

Back to Gondwanaland: An Account of the Gondwanaland Expeditions Journey from the Top of India to the Tip of Africa is a highly entertaining and educative account of a three month expedition by a team of about ten persons from different disciplines driving three Scorpios through sixteen countries that lie between Iran and South Africa, in 2006…

Fabindia is our favourite fairytalea dashing young foreigner in India with a dream, marrying a beautiful Indian girl, and creating a kingdom based on high principles and beautiful craft skills. Armed with a belief that success and prosperity, used wisely, can also bring prosperity to the poor. Now someone has written the story.

Mapins richly illustrated book does what its editor Hasan-Uddin Khan promises to: produce a broad look at the city by having a range of international specialists examine Chandigarh through different lensesto creatively speculate about the city and the way that its original conception has stood up to the pressures of a contemporary Indian city…