J. Furcifer Bhairav & Rakesh Khanna

As the title suggests, this work is a popular encyclopaedia, which attempts to compile narratives on ghosts, demons, and monsters from the Indian subcontinent. Edited by J Furcifer Bhairav and Rakesh Khanna, this book excavates the ‘spooky’ stories of mythical, tribal and contemporary origins. It constitutes 332 entries with multiple sub-entries, and its lucid writing style is supported by detailed illustrations, inviting a wide range of readership. A significant contribution of this work lies in tracing the micro and macro tales from Assam to the Konkan coast, Kashmir to Odisha, and Tibet to Lakshadweep.


Reviewed by: Shivani Sharma and Prashant Mishra
Udbhav Agarwal

Allahabad has had its share of books. From literary anthologies to histories to the fascination with the Kumbh Mela, this city, where the rivers meet has attracted the attention of insiders as well as outsiders. Huien Tsang, the Chinese chronicler, writes that he visited Prayaga now officially called Prayagraj in 643 AD, during Harshvardhana’s reign.


Reviewed by: Sohail Akbar
Craig Storti

Craig Storti’s ambitious book is a unique addition to the sagging shelves of literature on the world’s most famous mountain.  Where most Everest books begin with the exploratory expedition to the peak in 1921, Storti’s story spans the seven or so decades before that pioneering venture.Mountaineering lore holds that Radhanath Sickdhar (sic), a ‘computor’—as number-crunchers were known in those days—working for the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, burst into the room of his boss one day in 1852 exclaiming: ‘Sir, I have discovered the highest mountain in the world.’  What was visible from Darjeeling as a mere smudge on the mountainous horizon was now ‘the third Pole’. 


Reviewed by: Govindan Nair
Akhil Ranjan Dutta

The 2014 elections witnessed an unprecedented performance by the BJP in Assam. This was further followed in the Assembly elections of 2016 which saw the Party come to power in the State for the first time. Similar electoral victories were registered in the Parliamentary elections of 2019 and the Assembly elections of 2021. Akhil Ranjan Dutta in Hindutva Regime in Assam puts forth an elaborate account of this rise of the BJP in the State.


Reviewed by: Parvin Sultana
Christophe Jaffrelot. Translated from the original French by Cynthia Schoch.

Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy is a meticulously documented book. It tries to unpack India’s journey from populism to ethnic democracy and authoritarianism. It is divided into three parts.In the first part, Jaffrelot starts by explaining the rise of Hindu nationalism. He studies the rise of Modi in Gujarat and how he went from the RSS to the BJP in the 1990s, where he rose above the organization, subjugated it, and to some extent liberated himself from it. He gradually became a national-populist hero, cleverly turning the stigma of the Gujarat riots to his advantage by using his charisma and a well-orchestrated public relations campaign run by pro- fessionals to build his superhuman image. 


Reviewed by: Mirza Asmer Beg
Pavan K. Varma

The story of Indian civilization has been recounted and debated over considerably in India and beyond. For this, scholars have used the term Indus Valley Civilization or the Harappan Civilization, after Harappa, the first excavated site.  Almost all research works on Ancient India recognize the Indus Valley Civilization as one of the three greatest civilizations alongside Egypt and Mesopotamia. To John Marshall who supervised its excavations, it was ‘in some respects even superior to Mesopotamia and Egypt’.1


Reviewed by: Jawaid Alam