By Swapna Kona Nayudu

Nehru indeed played a dominant role in the formulation and articulation of foreign policy, although he disclaimed personal ownership of it. In his parliamentary speeches, he attributed the evolution of Indian foreign policy to a slow process preceding Independence. ‘It is a policy,’ he said, ‘inherent in the circumstances of India, inherent in the past thinking of India, inherent in the whole outlook of India, inherent in the conditioning of the Indian mind during our struggle for freedom, and inherent in the circumstances of the world today.’


Reviewed by: Jayant Prasad
Edited by Mohammad Naushad

(The Vedas echoing in his blood,/ the azan illuminating his forehead/ and the cross swaying upon his breast). This veneration for Nehru’s secularism seems ironic, considering the fact that scholars like Mushirul Hasan and Ayesha Jalal have argued that Nehru’s secularism prevented him from addressing the specific insecurities and marginalization of Muslims after Partition.


Reviewed by: Nishat Zaidi
By Arvind Panagariya

At the very least, the remarkable decentralization of economic authority in China—where over 50% of government spending is controlled by local bodies with sweeping powers over land, labour, and investment—and its focused development of over 600 internationally benchmarked cities deserved mention. Further, while the book does discuss China’s success under Deng Xiaoping, it stops short of unpacking the underlying drivers. While he had started empowering local governments soon after he took over in 1978, the early results were uneven.


Reviewed by: TCA Ranganathan
By Aria Fani

It was not just top-down reform or policy. Rather, the transformation took place in the lively debates and unpredictable collaborations among writers and intellectuals, the energy of voluntary reading circles, and periodicals that crisscrossed borders. These were spaces of possibility where new literary collections took shape and where different visions of the nation’s future could be imagined,


Reviewed by: Muneer Ahmed
By Ashutosh Singh

Notwithstanding the Agreement, clarity on status of the territories of Hunza, Chilas, Koh Ghizar, Iskoman and Yasin to be part of Gilgit Agency continued to elude the British. They wanted to retain the frontier for maintaining direct control over all the areas. Finally, in 1941 the Government of Jammu & Kashmir referred the matter to a Court of Arbitration, to reinforce their claim over these territories. The author herein has given a very detailed account of the report prepared by Ram Chander Kak, Chief Secretary of Jammu & Kashmir, and the opinion of the Resident of Kashmir, Lt. Col S M Fraser.


Reviewed by: Major General Nalin Bhatia
Edited by Purna Bahadur Karki

Nepal witnessed long spates of Maoist insurgency, and later, there were insurmountable challenges in assimilating the insurgent constituencies in the mainstream politics. In this context, the first chapter discusses the inception of the Communist movement in Nepal—founded early in 1949 upholding socialist slogans and agendas concerning universal civil liberty. The promulgation of the Constitution was significant in reinforcing the status of Communist politics in Nepal as combatants were mainstreamed and inducted in security forces, thereby legitimizing their agenda of equality and inclusion


Reviewed by: Priyanka Singh