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Sunday, August 10, 2003 |
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Books |
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Hegemony
and the hamburger
Shelley Walia
Why do People Hate America?
by Ziauddin Sardar and Merry Wyn Davies. Icon, Cambridge, UK. Pages
231. £ 7.99
ON
the streets of Paris or along the Rhine flowing through Germany, on
the banks of the Tigris or in the streets of Teheran, the
anti-American wave blows all the more stronger in the post-Twin
Tower debacle. America’s unmatched military strength, its
corporations and popular culture coalesce into what Ziauddin Sardar
and Merry Davies call, a ‘hyperpower’ that influences indigenous
cultures around the world. The hamburger culture overwhelms the
Third World indigenous cultures.
Meet the author
“Content-wise,
Indian fiction writers have little to offer”
RECIPIENT
of this year’s Nachiketa Award for Excellence in Journalism, Francois
Gautier is one of those rare writers who mince no words when it comes to
telling the truth. Although French by birth, his knowledge of
contemporary and historical Indian affairs gives him an unparalleled
position among the major writers of non-fiction. He came to India when
he was barely 19, an age, in his own words, when the mind has not yet
settled into hard and frozen patterns.
Signs and signatures
Camus’
posthumous testament of passage from childhood to manhood
Darshan Singh Maini
ALBERT
CAMUS, the great French existentialist novelist and thinker who died in
a car crash in 1960, has received huge critical acclaim the world over,
and the corpus of his novels and philosophical essays stands apart, a sui
generis phenomenon in world literature. The Nobel Prize for
Literature (1957) had, finally, come to be seen as a testimony to his
genius which had, in fact, been duly acknowledged when his first novel, The
Stranger (1946) made an astonishing debut, and in one leap, so to
speak, put him amongst the greatest names in the French novel.
India’s
nuclear dream and Iraq’s nightmare
J. Sri Raman
Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream
edited by M.V. Ramana and C. Rammanohar Reddy.
Orient Longman, New Delhi.
Pages 502. Rs 575.
LAST
May 11, it was already five years since Pokharan II. Must we still
go on debating whether India needs nuclear weapons or not? Another
way of asking the question: It is now over five months since the
outbreak of the Iraq war. Must we go on and on about South Asia as a
flashpoint, when the focus of world attention has shifted to West
Asia?
Horror
trail revisited
Aradhika Sekhon
A Breath Of Fresh Air
by Amulya Malladi. Penguin, New Delhi. Pages 178. Rs 225.
THE
first thought that comes to the mind as one finishes reading A Breath
of Fresh Air, is "nice book!" Certainly, as light reading
goes, the book is an easily palatable one with all the ingredients that
would ideally be prescribed to write a ‘good story’ thrown in for
good measure. These would include a couple of well-etched characters, a
plot that moves forward and backward in time, a villain of sorts who
finds reformation of sorts in the end.
What ails Pakistan?
R. L. Singal
Contemporary Pakistan: Political Processes, Conflicts and Crises
by Veena Kukreja. Sage Publications, New Delhi.
Pages 348. Rs 295.
THE
title of the book Contemporary Pakistan is slightly misleading,
because the author does not confine herself to presenting a picture of
the present-day Pakistan. The book, on the contrary, gives us an
analytical study of the social, political and ethnic problems plaguing
this Islamic country since its inception in 1947.
A
slice of journalist’s life
Jaswant Kaur
Mother Teresa: Saint of the Indian Crossroads and Other Vignettes
by R.K. Raju. Shipra Publications, New Delhi. Pages 123. Rs 225.
FOR
some it is a passion, for some a jumble of deadlines and for some
others a mere cut-and-a-paste job for adding a few bucks to their
take-home salary. But for Raju, journalism is a way of life, full of
challenges, twists and turns.
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Taking
economic relationship beyond rhetoric
Raghubansh Sinha
Beyond the Rhetoric: The Economics of India’s Look East Policy
edited by Frederic Grare and Amitabh Mattoo. Manohar in association with
Centre de Sciences Humaines and Core Group for the Study of National
Security, JNU. Rs 500.
THE
changes that came about in international politics as a result of the end
of the Cold War exposed the limited vision of the Indian foreign policy.
India then sought to give a new thrust to its diplomacy. Economic
consideration became part of its new diplomatic realities. Strengthening
economic relationships with the nations of South-East Asia was one of
the top priorities of the Congress government led by the then Prime
Minister Narasimha Rao in early 90s.
Short Takes
A patriot who
enjoyed the fortunes of a king
Jaswant Singh
C. Rajagopalachari: The True Patriot
by R.K. Murthi. Rupa, New Delhi. Pages 63. Rs 195.
AMONG
the galaxy of leaders who spearheaded the country’s freedom struggle,
the name of C. Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji or just C.R.,
stands out prominently for his sharp intellect, hard logic and sound
reasoning. A close associate of Gandhiji, he never shied away from
expressing his own opinion when he differed with the leader. As a
minister in independent India’s first Cabinet, he expressed his
differences with Nehru on several issues of national importance.
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