Regardless, the book’s framework still makes the following speculations possible.
First, even as the societal consensus around America’s ruling ideology of democracy, capitalism and freedoms has collapsed at home, the number of its takers internationally has dwindled, including within the West, as the rise of inward looking, nationalist and far-Right forces across the West indicates.
The first section of Part Two deals with Trudeau’s foreign policy, Canada’s failure to win a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council and his challenges in dealing with US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The book is structured imaginatively in two sections, A and B. Section A deals with Northeast Asia and B with South Asia. In Section A, there are three sub-chapters which discuss extensively the countries in the region, such as North Korea, Japan and South Korea and their relationship with China, in particular under Xi Jinping, and separately the influence of Donald Trump in Northeast Asia. In Section B, relations of the US with three countries of South Asia, namely, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are studied in detail followed by the developments in these countries under President Trump.
The Indo-US nuclear deal and the Sri Lankan affairs count for Basrur as exemplars of drift. These two cases show why the Indian state got checkmated by domestic conflicts and institutional infirmities. In contrast, Basrur argues that the absence of a cohesive policy in Indian nuclear strategy and its approach to cross-border terrorism caused a ‘responsibility deficit’.
‘The Age of Nationalisms: Competing Visions’, the first chapter sets the stage by exploring the rise of nationalism in early twentieth century. The author highlights the diversity within nationalist movements in South Asia, showing how they were marked by competing visions and internal conflicts.
However, the book falls short of mentioning any American departure and post-war impacts on the West Asian region. The US withdrew from a long, bloody war in Iraq on the assumption that they had left the country in a better place and condition. Nevertheless
Midway through the book, the author sheds light on how a series of networks were built by the Iraqi regime during the war to appeal to the western world against US actions in Iraq. Numerous political cells were created by Baathist supporters of Saddam to mobilize people in cities like New Jersey
The three essays in the final section centre on war and diplomacy. Shantanu Chakrabarti discusses the writings of Hiranmoy Ghoshal, who spent considerable years of his life in Poland. These writings include Ghoshal’s ‘eyewitness account’ of the German invasion of Poland during the Second World War
According to Matos, white socialization teaches white individuals about their obligations, anticipated behaviours, assigned roles, and strategies to preserve the exclusive nature of their community. She explains that the moral choice that whiteness affords (which ‘not all racial groups have’) is the choice to either continue to follow and strengthen a system that is structured on white supremacy or challenge it.
For Jaffrelot, Modi’s personalization of power coupled with identifying the cosmopolitan origins of the Nehru-Gandhi family in particular allowed him to claim ownership to being a victim of elite politics along with the common people. This ‘national-populism’ for Jaffrelot is undergirded by a mimetic syndrome wherein Modi successfully managed to create a discourse of unanimism—the idea that the people and the leader are one and the same. This ‘Moditva’
The rest of the essays in Part II of the book are rooted in different aspects of elections. ‘Election Time’ by Anupama Roy and Ujjwal Kumar Singh reiterates elections as an expression of popular sovereignty, highlights the significance of the Election Commission of India (ECI). Election time also serves as a site of electoral morality in the Model Code of Conduct (MCC)
While reading the book I couldn’t help but think of a very disturbing image from news this year when a part of the roof at Delhi airport’s Terminal 1 collapsed, killing a cab driver waiting for passengers and injuring several others. Compensations were announced and allegations and counter allegations between the ruling government and the opposition followed.
Anup Shekjhar Chakraborty looks at the phenomenon of ‘notices’ in the Northeast which are handed out as local communitarian commands. Here the community replaces the state as the focal point of governance. Pratip Chattopadhyay analyses how debates are conducted in Indian tele-media. He calls for a more participatory model of debating to ensure more meaningful participation of the new generation. Vinod Pavarala draws our attention to a now forgotten medium of political communication
Chapters five, ‘Can Umbrella Parties Survive? The Decline of the Indian National Congress’, and seven, ‘Coalition Strategies and the BJP’s Expansion 1989-2004’ provide a long-term perspective on the two largest parties: the Congress and the BJP. Chapter five, coauthored with Adnan Farooqui, provides a critical assessment of Congress’s diminished capacity to act as an ‘umbrella party’ based on electoral rules
Coming to the limitations of the book, the author’s desire to give a simple and accessible introduction to the idea/ideal of secularism does not get involved with the various intellectual critiques of secularism as a western hegemonic ideology particularly put forth by Islamists and decoloniality theorists.
The most moving section in the entire book is the concluding part, ‘Suffering’. The four chapters in this portion are important in that they narrate in detail the miseries which were inflicted on the families of the sixteen ‘conspirators’. The uniqueness of this portion of the book lies in the fact that problems which the victims and their families faced are retold in their own voices.
Fazal problematizes the contradictory government stand vis-à-vis ban on cow slaughter and a rise in beef exports almost at the same time. The steps which cater to divisive populism fell short of engaging with the impact it had on the livelihood issues of farmers as well as people engaged in subsidiary industries. The pitiable condition of Gaushalas which fail to provide decent living conditions to the cows question the actual commitment of the government.
Divided into seven chapters along with a detailed introduction, including notes on sources, and conclusion, the book uncovers some of the aspects about both the universities which are hardly discussed and deliberated upon. For example, it is often stated that Jawaharlal Nehru once described Jamia as ‘a lusty child of the noncooperation movement’ and sent a special message on the Silver Jubilee of Jamia on 10 September 1946.
In a sudden move, on June 20, 1948, the Madras Ministry led by Omandur Ramaswamy Reddiar issued an order imposing Hindi once again on the population. The difference this time was that Hindi was imposed as an elective second language along with other south Indian languages.
In order to improve Census accuracy, Kumar proposes a number of measures such as strengthening bureaucratic accountability, streamlining Census schedules, securing the release of data on time, and engaging respondents more intensively
The introduction (‘Sojourning for Truth’) and the Epilogue (‘The Last leaf’) bring the book to our pressing present and show us the mirror. Bela recalls, she was a four-year-old when famine raged Bihar’s countryside in 1967 and she heard about poverty for the first time.
Bakshi drives home the point that if one has to remain true to Vivekananda’s teachings, then the issue of fanaticism needs to be tackled head-on. Interestingly enough, though, Bakshi argues that ‘the death-knell of all fanaticism’ is not a point of arrival, but an ‘arduous and an ongoing process’ (p. 107).
The second part of the book concentrates on the Sufi orders which operated during Bahmani times, described in tandem with contemporary political events and rulers. One chapter reiterates Chishti tenets as found in north India and discusses Zain al-Din Shirazi’s and Gisudaraz’s relationships with the rulers. After Zain al-Din’s passing in 1369, Siddiqi sees a vacuum in Sufi activities in the Deccan
The fourth section entitled ‘Social History: Reflections on Conceptual Issues’ contains five essays reflecting mainly upon several historiographical approaches. In the chapter on ‘Social Structure and Commercial Pursuits in Early India’, the author focuses on the terminological parameters of commercial pursuits. Leaving aside the common terms, the author questions the meaning of vārtā in the changing contexts of society. He further questions how in ancient Indian terminological parameters
Simplicity offers opportunity to cleanse Perry’s apartment of possessions he did not really need (not going as far as to replace all his clothes with a dhoti or lungi, concluding sadly that he was not built for them) and to acquiring two new talents—spinning and playing the tabla.
Each scholar takes a different track: the art historian Zitzewitz looks at the theatrical performances that are imaged in the artist’s photo-performances, tracing a historical lineage to popular performances and even the artist’s own childhood participation in dramatic enactments of historical and mythological stories. Zitzewitz further argues for the interpretation of performance as an inhabiting of gender. Whether exploring the gendered iconography of nation or cinematic tropes
This richly researched and evocatively articulated narrative, however, might leave a historian hankering for more in terms of a radical re-engagement with some of the existing frameworks. While the author begins with critiquing existing historiography on reducing the life of the Widow Reform Movement to its architect, Vidyasagar, the choice of opening the book with a chapter dedicated to the man does make the reader question the extent to which the book falls into the same trap.
It is here, in the kotha, that Rekha Devi begins to piece together the shreds of her life and secure it from one day to the next, discovering herself in the process—learning music although she ‘sang like Neelkamal’, her goat, and wondered how she could ever sing, when she hardly ever spoke (p. 20). Her body, however, responded instantly to music (p. 22). She wished the ustad who tried to teach her music would use a spittoon and ‘not open his fountain mouth which sprinkled red spittle all over
The second section of the book deals with the challenges of financial regulation and its relationship with monetary policy. The discussion revolves around the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) which failed in early 2023. The SVB was a successful new age financial institution, with a clientele drawn from the technology and startup sectors. Established in 1983
Kumar-Rao skilfully offers readers a deep and thorough understanding of the fragile landscapes using extensive investigative journalism and vivid descriptions of challenging circumstances.
The richly textured sections on semi-urban and rural Bangladesh are remarkable for visual details. Imagine this: A ‘gora’ missionary holding a bundle of dirty clothes is lowering himself gingerly into a scum-covered pukur to wash himself and his garments. The steps are broken and slippery and a large, cheering audience of locals is shouting instructions! Here is another
Yaar Mera… besides being the tale of Partition pathos and the lost world of syncretic culture is also an account of a father-son relationship. We get to see an entirely other side to this relationship through the depicted voyage and the numerous conversations between the duo that go into the construction of the memory which wasn’t easy to recollect and be given shape to in the textual form.
Readers who feel that they are missing something here in this almost comically polarized, existentialist formulation between dying and tea-drinking have every right to feel puzzled.For there is a hidden allusion here to Albert Camus,
Most of these stories are those of survival and not lofty heroism. Put in vulnerable and helpless situations, where solutions lie beyond their control, the courage and maturity of the characters come across in their resilience, tolerance and acceptance, despite their flaws. As readers, we witness a growth in our own empathy and understanding of the conditions of being a refugee.
The mouse offers the following response: ‘My Dear Lady, you will have to carry out a lot of research to write about them.’ This feels like an evasion to me. After all, the equally Ashraf Rahi Masoom Raza didn’t need to do a lot of research to write Aadha Gaon and the Hindu Khatri Krishna Sobti—whose Zindaginama, while centring her own caste, didn’t exclude anyone—explicitly rejected the need for research, arguing, much like Proust himself, that the writer just needed to notice and internalize what was around them. In a recent article on the Pasmanda experience, Khalid Anis Ansari says that he is ‘…attempt[ing] to capture the experience of the Muslim caste, not by unearthing the hidden secrets of everyday routines, but by shedding light on what is right in front of us and for which nothing more is required but “to take notice”.’
The book is a repository of information of the numerous varieties that are cultivated in the country. Thanks to poor shelf-life most varieties do not make it beyond their area of cultivation. There are varieties restricted to specific orchards and trees. Melodious names like Kohitoor, Mankurad, Imam Pasand and Neelum are still common, but Ratna and Sindhu are niche varieties of specific areas of Maharashtra. Rani Pasand in Murshidabad, Bengal and Champa in Champaran Bihar rarely make it beyond their territory.
The intimate style of Jalil-Burney’s writing is like walking through the several rooms of her house from within which one can hear Ruqaiyya Khala’s hearty laughs in one corner to Abba’s serious recitation of Urdu poems in another, as each chapter narrates a life story about a family member, seamlessly tied to a culinary memory or a dietary choice peculiar to that incident.