Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

The book under review is an absolute vi- sual delight. And adding weight to the beauty of the hardbound book is the tremendous value each page holds as a source of information and knowledge about Sattriya dance. The book boasts of contributions by eminent experts in the field including the likes of Maheswar Neog, multifaceted scholar of Assamese arts, culture and literature…

After decades of success in buying out some of Britain’s most iconic media institutions, Australia born media baron Rupert Murdoch’s ambitious plans hit an extraordinary road block in July 2011. His bid to increase his stake in the British Sky Broadcasting, the distribution arm of his television network in the UK, was not only thwarted but in the ensuing investigations…

S.V. Srinivas’s new book tracks a history of Telugu cinema over fifty formative years, in terms of its industry as well as the cultural shifts in the medium. Beginning with the premise that the connection between cinema and the politics of a society is a crucial one, SV (as he is popularly known among colleagues and friends) explores the beginnings of Telugu cinema in the context of the rise of new socio-political elites…

What does it take to win a war? Leadership, sol-diers, strategy, weapons or finance? What explains the inadequate accomplishments of the states, with enormous resources at their disposal, vis-à-vis terrorism? Are we confronting an enemy which simply can’t be defeated? Or philosophically speaking, are we, with an aim of defeating terrorism, merely fighting against ourselves…

From a Minister’s Journal by Fakir Syed Aizajuddin narrates his impressions gathered over time, primarily spanning former President Pervez Musharraf’s term in Pakistan (1999-2008). Aizajuddin is a writer with wide ranging experience—first as a chartered accountant with considerable corporate experience…

His Majesty’s Opponent tells the story of Subhas Chandra Bose whose life was as mysterious as his death was believed to be. While history text-books have limited his description to that of a warrior and a revolutionary in the Indian struggle for freedom, this bespectacled man with an innocent face has more to him than meets the eye, and much more to offer to the intellectual discourse on Indian politics.

If we believe Alistair Macmillan, India has surprised democratization theorists and fits the case for ‘deviant’ democracy. Despite the persistence of inequality, poverty, illiteracy, corruption and low urbanization, it has been able to remain a democratic state. This argument could be borrowed to explain the situation of minorities, especially Muslims…

Sociology in India is not synonymous with sociology at Lucknow University. The latter however happens to be a significant bloc in the whole of the historical edifice. In an exciting neatness, and meatiness, this book offers a nuanced peek at the four legendary figures from the posterity of Lucknow University. Radhakamal Mukerjee, Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji, Dhirendra Nath Majumdar…

Observing, embodying and document- ing these moments of transition and experiencing India in all its splendour and unfamiliarity were English painters Thomas Daniell and William Daniell. Thomas, the senior of the two, was born in 1749 and after struggling for some years as a painter in England, ‘animated with a love of the romantic and the beautiful…

The story of the demolition of the Babri Masjid is fairly well known. The sordid tale of the original conspiracy to make that now extinct historical monument the focus of Right Wing political mobilization soon after Independence is not as well known.

Chamba Achamba seeks to record and narrate in detail the unique and rich cultural traditions associated with the beautiful area of Himachal Pradesh which has always been synonymous with natural splendour, music, festivals and legends that fascinate.

I picked up Per Stahlberg’s book, or rather, his doctoral thesis, Writing Society through Media: Ethnography of a Hindi Daily with a lot of interest. A keen look into what makes Hindi journalism tick, especially seen through the lens of a journalist working in the Hindi heartland) is a fascinating topic. I used to work in a newspaper myself, have travelled in Uttar Pradesh…

The book under review takes the difficult path of exploring resistance in literature. Resistance stands against conformism. Resistance is disapproval of conformism. It attempts to discontinue ‘obviousness’ and ventures into the oblivion terrain that has been branded as ‘abnormal’. Therefore, ‘theoretical intervention’ on resistance must be applauded.

This edited volume of essays is a critical enquiry into the polyphonic cultures and literatures of indigenous people across the world and is a companion volume to Indigeneity: Culture and Representation (2009). These two collections of select essays were compiled after the ‘Chotro’ conference that was organized in Delhi. ‘Chotro’ means a ‘place where villagers gather’…

Revisiting Literature, Criticism and Aesthet- ics in India is an ambitious and valiant attempt at doing and being several different things. It brings together sixteen of the veteran author’s essays on themes like ‘Word and Beyond: Questions of Meaning and Interpretation’, ‘Theory of Creative Process in Narratives about the Ramayana and the Mahabharata’…

This book belongs to the genre of Hajar Churashir Maa by Mahashweta Devi and Uttaradhikar-Kalabela-Kalapurush—trilogy by Samaresh Majumdar, treating the difficult theme of the Naxalite movement. But while those relate to the movement among educated and urban youth (sparked off in 1967 at the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal), Nilima Sinha’s novel refers to the more recent insurgence in Jharkhand as seen by a local girl.

When, almost fifty years after the first daguerreotype arrived in Europe, George Eastman invented the small ‘brownie’ camera, he brought photography into homes worldwide. Indian photographic aficionados were not far behind their western counterparts, though initially photography was an elite preoccupation. Soon, Kodak advertisements that used women as models were validating a slowly growing tradition of the woman with a camera.

The three books reviewed largely deal with the representation of history—partly (as in the first book) or exclusively (as in the other two books) through the medium of historical architecture.
The first book is essentially a catalogue of an exhibition centred around an album of photographs of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry, taken in 1950 by Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Laila ke khutoot, literally meaning ‘Let- ters of Laila’, is the story of a prostitute, her perspectives on men and the idea of conjugal love revealed through the letters she wrote to one of her lovers. In the latter part of the book ‘Majnun ki diary’ Qazi Abdul Ghaffar, the author tries to portray the confusion, cynicism and alienation of so called educated young men who had gone astray in pursuit of their unbridled sensuality.

Questioning the Muslim Woman by Nida Kirmani is a remarkable piece of work in which she tries to deconstruct the category ‘Muslim women’ through the narrative approach. The study was conducted in a Muslim majority urban locality (Zakir Nagar) of the capital city of India. Though the category of Muslim women or issue of Muslim women has always been a debated subject…