And the collapse came in the 20th century. The depression of the 1930s was the first serious blow. While the larger business houses were able to stay afloat, the medium and small firms suffered a near collapse. Next came World War II and the Japanese invasion.
The text contains an extensive account of the manner in which the Kalsia zail (retinue) was organized as a raiding and soldiering band with sections on its allies (hamrahan, tab’in) and relatives. Disputes over succession arising out of a range of superior and inferior conjugal unions (karewa, chadar dalna, shadi, byah) form an important part of this study. Women in the roles of wives,
Chapters focus on early Indian traditions, followed by a region-specific treatment of South and Southeast Asia, East Asia, inner Asia, the West, and Women’s ordination across cultures, ending with a chapter self-explanatorily titled ‘Grassroots Revolution: Buddhist Women and Social Activism’, which is an account of women in what is called ‘engaged Buddhism’. Blurbs by eminent Buddhist scholars such as Jay Garfield, Jose Cabezon, and Paula Orai situate it within academic discourse as a valuable resource.
A new social and political class dissociated from the Congress and with considerable political clout was emerging in rural areas. As a result, policies like the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) emerged during this time.
In his own way, though, he was defying stereotypes associated with pracharaks. He had little by way of a formal education’ (p. 324). It was Advani who persuaded Vajpayee to send this pracharak from a little room of the Party office in New Delhi as Chief Minister of Gujarat. Second, the author’s narrative of Vajpayee’s indifference towards the Ayodhya issue, even with the ongoing Allahabad Kumbh Mela.
In these four decades plus, the country has experimented with democracy which was short-lived. It ‘remains a grey zone of uncertainty’. The ‘people deserve a better future’. Will that ever come to pass, wonders the author. Korea appears to be the author’s soft spot. Again, with good reason. Unlike Myanmar, South Korea has moved, in around the same time period, from being a despised dictatorship to a robust democracy. In 1983, in an infamous attempted assassination of the then President, the Korean Foreign Minister who had earlier been Ambassador in India was killed. Korea’s economic growth is exemplary.