Prakash Kumar
Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India for the most part appears as a straight-forward account of Bengal indigo (indigofera tinctorium)—the natural dye that could colour cloth in intense blue.
Reviewed by: Rohan D'Souza
Pius Malekandathil
Just when one thought that the theme of Europeans in India during Mughal rule had been nearly exhausted, Pius Malekanda-thil’s book came for review. The author, how-ever, seems to have produced new wine from an old bottle exploring various dimensions of Portuguese activities in India.
Reviewed by: Kanakalatha Mukund
Allen S. Whiting
Whiting speaks of the Chinese calculus of deterrence ‘as an attempt to infer what general strategy underlies persistent patterns of behaviour aimed at persuading a perceived opponent that costs of his continuing conflictual activity will eventually prove unacceptable to him because of the Chinese response…
Reviewed by: K.N. Ramachandran
Meenakshi Gopinath
The author shows how Bhutto and his P.P.P. organized the campaign despite its being a new party. Its programme and campaign caught the aspirations of the people. Bhutto raised his voice against rightist parties, which in the name of religion were supported by feudal elements, a section of capitalists and imperialists.
Reviewed by: Sudhir Mathur
Sudeep Sen
The Harper Collins Book of English Poetry edited by Sudeep Sen is an amazing and audacious project in more ways than one. It attempts to showcase poems of 85 post-Independence Indian poets writing in English.
Reviewed by: Rumki Basu
V.V. Nagarkar
Nagarkar’s book is yet another example of the heart-searching of the troubled generation that witnessed Partition. His motives, as stated in the preface, are admirable—to cut through the syndrome of the search for the ‘Guilty’, to discard ‘simplistic’ and ‘inadequate’ analysis, and seek an ‘objective’ answer…
Reviewed by: Dilip Simeon