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The German philosopher Theodor Adorno once stated that the true basis of morality is to be found in bodily feeling and in identification with unbearable pain, that the metaphysical injunction that one shall not inflict pain can only find its justification in the recourse to material reality, i.e., corporeal, physical reality and not in any pure idea, which would be at its opposite pole. As the editors state in the preface, is an enquiry into this ‘materiality of hurt as a felt sentiment, with its own taxonomies of affect. When and how does a materialist understanding of political rationality make way for apprehensions of fear and pain?’ (p. xii) Their book explores the question of bodily feeling, of sentiment and its inevitable entwinement with politics and cesnsorship in the current Indian scenario. Metaphysics, as Adorno stated, has slipped into material existence.

“Provided that they (The Indian Army or IA) do their duty, armed insurrection in India would not be an insoluble problem, If however the IA were to go the other way, the picture would be very different.”These lines sum up the essence of the book under review which examines the critical role played by the Indian Army during a vital period in the history of the subcontinent, the end of the Second World War and the rapid unravelling of the subcontinent as a single administrative unit culminating in a divided subcontinent in 1947 with all the attendant horrors which followed. The book argues that the Indian Army despite being put to unimaginable strain did not fall apart and continued to perform as a highly professional force, notwithstanding some aberrations.

The book begins with Ram Prasad Bismil’s poem sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil me hai which captures the fire of sacrifice and intense loyalty for nation held by men and women in the Hindi heartland.The main thrust of this book is to explore the contribution of lesser known women who made sacrifices for the sake of freedom. The narrative embarks with the ordeal of Rajkumari Gupta, a freedom fighter of Kanpur. Her involvement in the movement left her homeless, as she had a pivotal role to play in the Kakori plot that resulted in her arrest and consequent rejection by her in-laws. The author starts her discussion culled from oral and archival sources about the role of women participants in the Kakori incident, and furnishes information regarding their experiences and identities.

The book under review, Partition: The Long Shadow, delving into the notions of ‘foreignness’ and ‘belonging’, focuses upon three significant themes: one, it brings back the peripheral regions of the subcontinent, e.g., Assam, Sindh, and Ladakh, into the academic discussion on Partition; two, it gives voice to the second and third generation memories of the event; and three, it suggests a larger study of the psychological aftermath of Partition.

Education occupies an intersecting space between economic, cultural and political spheres in society. In this context, the book under review investigates the nature of identity formation among economically deprived adolescent Muslim girls in Delhi by focusing on the interstitial spaces of the ‘home’ and ‘school’. It examines issues of religion, patriarchy and education, to interrogate the universalistic norms which are generally gendered in India. The volume using an interdisciplinary approach and multiple research methods attempts to contribute to the study of socialization and modern education among minorities and other marginalized groups.

This is one of those books that not only immediately captures one’s attention, but becomes something of an academic page turner. Lila Abu-Lughod’s book may be dismissed by many as an apologia for the abject condition of women in the Islamic world. Her response would be that those who make the most about the issue of the degraded condition of Muslim women are under the sway of what she calls ‘IslamLand’. This is an unchanging notion of the lands of Islam and Muslims that does not take into account the multifarious and diverse ways in which women lead their lives in these many regions, territories and nations of the world. Abu-Lughod’s training as an anthropologist equips her with precisely this imperative to look into the complex matrix of diversity, hopes, miseries, desires, ambitions, dreams and uncertainties with which women lead their lives. Her focus is on the Middle East and in particular a remote village of Egypt in which she has followed the lives of her many female interlocutors about whom she has written, quite often with great empathy.