Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

2006 had been a fraught year for Bangladesh. Differences between the two major political parties, the Awami League (AL) and theBangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) that go well beyond democratic discourse has been a constant in Bangladesh for over thirty years. What now lent a special edge was the determination of the BNP…

Nepal’s crises—political, economic, social, cultural—seem to be without end, and nowhere is the sense of despair more acutethan among Nepal’s thinking elite. It should therefore be a matter of some considerable interest to all Nepal watchers that this book, written by one with sound businessman-economist credentials…

China became the third largest economy in the world after the United States and Japan with an estimated $4.8 trillion in gross domesticproduct in 2009. With near nine per cent growth rate projected in the financial meltdown year of 2009, China still leads the world in growth rates, although it would need several decades to actually…

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. Other than a sparkling…

What is special about the autobiography of an ordinary man? Not much perhaps, except that it may well be an accuratedocumentation of life on average. This element of the prosaic is precisely why Tubten Khetsun’s book is pertinent. Presenting theviews and circumstances of an ordinary Tibetan…

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. The book is interesting but repeats the same wistful narratives…

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. Of course, the decision-makers, including the US President Obama, have good reasons for lacking in optimism…

The search for a final theory of everything is an enduring, if not always endearing, part of human endeavour. If that search is successful it should yield explanations for all that we see around us, natural phenomena of course, but also human behaviour, the way societies function, national and international events and developments…

This is a slim volume, but attempts to grapple with the problems of nuclear nonproliferation in the most contentious areas of the world.The book opens with a remarkable Address by the External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherje, which needs some comment. Unusually for a minister, this is a frank essay that speaks of the economic shift of the center of gravity to Asia…

Most contemporary great and major powers, unless protected by alliances, possess nuclear weapons, although as North Korea and Pakistan prove, having a nuclear weapon does not make you a great power—they just make you a tough problem. Nuclear weapons are very costly and require a large industrial infrastructure for their fabrication…

Despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Muslims live outside the Middle East, the words Arab and Muslim are used synonymously and the Arab world continues to remain the ‘center’ of the Muslim world. It takes bomb blasts for the world to sit up and notice that something is happening in the ‘Islamic periphery’ as well…

Fakirs with their puppet shows exhibit military conflicts which end with the flight of the English. Songs resound the praises of our enemies and reports are industriously spread to rouse thenative troops and inferior classes of inhabitants in action . . . The very salt we manufacture is said to be mixed with the blood of cows or swine, Hindus and the Musulmans’…

R.C. Dutt, the first ‘condenser’ of the Mahabharata’s one lakh slokas, chose to spare the Western reader the ‘unending morass’ and ‘Monstrous chaos’ of epi­sodical matter by leaving out whatever he felt to be superincumbent.

Close to 300 insurgency-related deaths were reported from Balochistan in 2009, which is a marginal improvement over the previous year’s toll of 350. Such ‘statistics’ notwithstanding, the Baloch insurrection remains a critical problem for the nation building exercise in Pakistan. Pakistan’s attempt to enter into a process of dialogue…

Alyssa Ayres’s 217-page book is a mas-terful exposition of the role that language has played in ‘engineering’ the ‘idea of (modern) Pakistan.’ Divided into ten chapters, Ayres fleshes out Pakistan’s experience with the Urdu language, used by the state as a means to justify the ends of nationalism and national unity…

The partition of India is once again big news. Last year the BJP stalwart, Jaswant Singh in Jinnah: India-Pakistan-Independence, New Delhi: Rupa and co.), was summarily expelled from the party for daring to suggest that it was the intransigence of leaders like Nehru and Patel that compelled Jinnah to go down the road of a separate homeland of Pakistan for Muslims of India.

This last book by Papiya Ghosh, released posthumously almost three years after her tragic death in 2006 is a work of great acumeninvolving exhaustive research with arguments and findings based on a plethora of sources. The valuable manuscript was almost lost but was retrieved from the stolen computer held in police custody…

About a year ago as an Honorary Fellow of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library I had chosen to work on Nehru—first from 1930–1947 when Nehru was preparing himself for taking India to an exciting future; second, 1947–1964 when Nehru did become the steward of India’s development, policy, direction and journey.

This is the third volume in a series of books about the author and his family. Daddyji, dealt with the paternal side of his ancestry while Mamaji deals with the maternal side. His own life has been por­trayed in Face to Face.