Devy covers an extensive expanse from genetics (David Reich’s Who We are and How We Got Here) to linguistics (David Anthony’s The Horse, The Wheel, and Language, Maheswar Neog’s Essays on Assamese Literatures) to literary theory. For him, Indo-Iranians entered the subcontinent with the horse-and-chariot and mingled with Out-of-Africa southerners producing the Mahabharata culture, shifting from pastoral to agrarian, urban and feudal society.
Gandhi is possibly the greatest Indian to have lived since the Buddha. His greatness, however, lies not in his invulnerability—but rather, in his struggle to overcome his many frailties. Gandhi’s story is an alluring, yet rare, tale of the triumph of human will over seemingly insurmountable odds. One is reminded of Albert Einstein’s famous phrase describing Gandhi, ‘Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.’
Syed Mahmood could have become a public figure as eminent as his father Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the educationist and social reformer who founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College (later the Aligarh Muslim University).
It is this project of othering of the Assamese that is the central theme in Moushumi Kandali’s Black Magic Women. A collection of ten fiercely feminist short stories translated from Assamese, the tales are tied together with the threads of marginalization, vulnerability and racism. The book blurb announces that Kandali situates most of her characters out of Assam and in the mainstream, exploring their struggles of assimilation.
Prejudice promulgates differences, and stereotypes contribute to defining individual identities in a society that caters to judgments and bias. Damodar Mauzo’s The Wait and Other Stories set in the heart of Goa deals with the conundrums of reality in a chaotic human world using subtle humour and nuanced narratives.
It is interesting to note the conflicting perspectives of the egalitarian ideals of Communist Indian supporters with the likes of the feudal class stakeholders like Umma and other privileged ones.