Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

Codes of Misconduct tells us the story of how through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the colonial government in Bombay city passed a series of laws against prostitution. Many of these laws, strangely, were repetitive and seemed to cover the same ground over and over again…

The context of Community Radio differs from country to country and the communities therein. In the West it started as political propaganda machine and this was called pirate radio, since airwaves were considered government property or state property. Even in the twenty-first century it is not public property in the true sense.

Before April 2009 the author of this volume was a little known journalist. In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections he attended a press conference given by the Minister for Home Affairs, P. Chidambaram…

Many transitions to democracies in the Third World have been pro-tracted—evolving over the course of several elections. Although all elections have not been free and fair, however,the repetition of the electoral process even if flawed or manipulated can result in democratization. Citizens endowed with rights—one person…

Indira Menon was born in Madras, and spent her early years in Bihar where her father was posted. With her sister Kalyani, she later went to live with their grandparents in Madras, where her grandfather, Sir K. Ramunni Menon, had them placed under the tutelage of Smt. T. Brinda, who taught them Carnatic music in 1944–1947…

The monograph under review is one of many attempts to demystify the recent crisis. The author offers an explanation of the incipient causes of the financial crisis and outlines the sequence of events that flicked the first domino so to speak. The stated purpose of the book is to generate an informed ‘working class’ opinion on the crisis, the response of the US government and other national governments.

This is a very important volume for all the students and scholars interested in the field of Environmental Economics as it is a compendium of articles by eminent persons in the field, who have dealt with the theory and practice of the subject.

Freedom is a many-splendoured and infinite-dimensional state of existence of a human being. Animals other than man also do not submit to the constraints on their freedom without coercion or ‘training’.

It is nowadays very difficult, at times even for neo-liberals, to deny that the current phase of globalization and liberalization has resulted in intensified immiseration of the working people. The ranks of informal workers, already the largest component of the workforce, have swollen

Colonialism as an experience, as a site of conflict, triumph or loss, of nostalgia or repudiation, and as a destination of frequent, involved revisit does not seem to go away. Even if we move out of the Manichaean category and debate as to whether colonialism was the maker or the breaker of the world it…

The relevance of Pepper’s work for a scholar seeking to understand the dyna­mic that informed the politics of China’s civil war period cannot be over empha­sized. Not only does Pepper treat us to a most perceptive and brilliant analysis of what went into making a communist victory possible in 1949

A number of books have been published on the life and adventures of ‘Billy’ Arjan Singh, both by Billy and his numerous admirers. This is as it should be, for Billy was one of the most remarkable conservationists the world ever knew, for his commitment, dedication and passion for the cause. The author mentions…

Morton Klass’s book is perhaps the most important analysis of the Indian caste system to come out of western scholarship in the last thirty years. It comes at an opportune time – when the economic and social crisis of Indian society has reached the point where caste divisions among the labouring masses have become a major weapon of the ruling classes and ‘atrocities against Harijans’ have leaped into the front pages of all daily papers.

Confronted with a host of· books on Afghanistan the overwhelmed reader needs to have good reason not to consign to unread oblivion yet another work on the subject. What distinguishes this selection of essays is their analytical presentation of an Indian perspective on the Afghan crisis and its implications for the region and the international system.

Writer Anita Desai in her foreword to India: A Traveller’s Literary Companion declares the short-story collection to be ‘curious’, ‘original’ and, ‘audacious’. In the initial impression the book does seem curious. And, in a cynical moment, the collection even appears contrived. Something that may compel the reader…

Poems Come Home is an uncommon piece of collaborative labour. Subtle in its nuances, sensitive in its portrayal, rhythmic in its power and stark in its simplicity, this bilingual book has poems originally written in English by the poet-critic Sukrita Paul Kumar, who uses the pen name ‘Sukrita’. These have been translated into Hindustani by the famous lyricist Gulzar…

The industrial structure of cities, immigration and capital investments are most likely to be highly correlated. But, establishing a cause and effect relation­ship between variables like in-migration and employment would be as difficult as proving whether the egg comes first or the hen.

The RSS was a natural child of the twenties. Like any organization, it reflec­ted the ambitions and aspirations of a section of Hindu society of that time and was set up to meet a specific historical need. Since then it has grown and the growth has brought many alterations in its original character.

The novel Middle Time by Priya Vasudevan is a fascinating work of fiction with a dreamlike quality. The plot has two distinct stories set apart by time, place, history, prevalent customs and traditions. The parallel narration of two tales, one set in Hampi and the other in modern-day Chennai and the chronological timeframe-one of 1535…

Rakhshanda Jalil’s debut collection of ten short stories strings together gentle, at times wistful, ruminations -on what it is to be human, to be (wo)man, to be ill, to survive, to be from certain times and (un)certain locations. Sometimes in the first person, sometimes in the third person, these skillfully wrought stories…