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Upto
the Marx
A. J. Philip
Across Time and
Continents
A tribute to Victor G. Kiernan
ed. Prakash Karat.
Left Word Books, New Delhi.
Pages 255. Rs 450.
CPM
General Secretary Prakash Karat has one thing in common with his
predecessor E. M. S. Namboodiripad—a sense of history. I first read
about the Marxist historian, Victor G. Kiernan, in one of EMS’s
articles in the CPM mouthpiece, Deshabhimani, in the early
seventies. He introduced the British scholar as one of the greatest
interpreters of Marxism, whose understanding of the Indian situation was
almost unparalleled.
It
rekindles hope in secularists
Prophets Facing
Backward: Post-modernism, Science and Hindu Nationalism.
by Meera Nanda. Permanent Black.
Pages: 308. Rs 695
Our
modern "prophets" have been "facing backward"
for a long time, and now a ‘fanatic scientist’ has come along to
tell us why. The aggressive postures of the Hindutva-led Hindu
nationalism, which went through a rare mobilisation process in the past
decade or so, have been a source of nagging worry for the diminishing,
hopelessly marginalised, tribe of the secularists. First it was L.K.
Advani’s ceremonial Rath Yatra, then the demolition of Babri Masjid at
Ayodhya, and thereafter, the horrifying reality of post-Godhra,
state-sponsored communal riots.
I
am a fanatic rationalist
Rana Nayar
speaks to Meera Nanda on her life, interests, passion for science
and her book Prophets Facing
Backward
Fly
with it
Shastri Ramachandaran
The Red Carpet
by Lavanya Sankaran Review, Headline
Pages 215. Rs 295
After
the global IT meltdown and
before the markets began reviving some two years ago, B2B, meaning
"Back to Bangalore", became the survival strategy for global
tech majors as well as techies. As a global IT hub, Bangalore attracted
not only investments, and individuals who had made tracks to greener
pastures in the West, but also a lot of interest and curiosity – about
the city, its culture and inhabitants, its way of life and society in
general.
A
bland catalogue
Jaswant Singh
The Cripps Mission
by Prashanto Kumar Chatterji.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata.
Pages 217. Rs 300.
The
transfer of power from Britain to India and the birth of Pakistan
on August 15, 1947, was the culmination of a series of developments and
unsuccessful efforts to avoid a division. The first such effort on the
part of the imperial power was the visit of the one-man Cripps Mission
to India in 1942. Sir Stafford Cripps was sent to India at a time when
the war was not going well for the Allies and Japanese forces were
knocking at the doors of India after impressive successes in South-East
Asia. The principal war ally, the USA, had persuaded the War Cabinet of
Britain, headed by Sir Winston Churchill, to send Sir Stafford to India
with a set of short-term and long-term proposals to solve the Indian
question.
Life behind bars
Harbans Singh
My Days in Prison
by Iftikhar Gilani. Penguin.
Pages 148. Rs 195.
Dedicated
to all those who believe that life and liberty, far from being a
gift of society, state or Constitution, are inalienable rights of every
individual. My Days in Prison is not only a graphic description
of Iftikhar Gilani’s experiences in Tihar Jail, but also an indictment
of the judicial process, justice as it is meted out and the media that
chooses to become a willing tool of the establishment. It is a book that
is bound to disturb all those who cherish freedom and who aspire to
build a society whose foundations are laid on the principle of rule of
law. It is also disturbing because of the fact that when the Fourth
Estate is manipulated, however momentarily, it can play havoc with not
only an individual life, but also with the fabric of a civil society.
Spirits
come calling
Kanwalpreet
Just Beyond: Short
Stories
by Anjan Ray. Stellar Om Books International. Pages 251. Rs 195.
This
collection of short stories deals with the experiences with the
supernatural, which are hard to believe. Anjan Ray claims that he has
heard people narrate incidents that are beyond explanation. He admits in
Preface that the title of the book was inspired by the Nobel laureate
physicist William Fowler’s lecture: "Everything we consider
supernatural is probably sitting just beyond the boundaries of science
as we know it."
An
engaging tale
Sridhar Chari
Mahashwetha
by Sudha Murty. EastWest Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd.
Pages: 171. Rs 150
"I
never knew it would be so dangerous to be beautiful and poor," says
the heroine of Sudha Murty’s novel Mahashwetha, summing up her
plight as a good-looking but poor woman, who after being wooed and
wedded by a handsome doctor, gets turned out of the house, not only
because of her poverty, but because she is unfortunate enough to develop
leucoderma.
Short
Takes
Resolving
the identity enigma
Randeep Wadehra
Identities at large
edited by Rupinder Kaur, Paramjit Kaur & Rabinder Powar. Twenty
First Century Publications, Patiala. Pages: xv + 131. Price: Rs 300
Identity
has been an enduring enigma for those who’ve tried to define it
in specific terms in consonance with contemporary milieu.
Battle
for the books of Herculaneum
Buried
deep in the Villa dei Papiri, covered by the molten lava of
Vesuvius, lies one of the finest libraries of the ancient world. But
excavation may destroy more than it saves. By Peter Popham They look
like lumps of coal, and when the Swiss military engineer and his team
who first explored the buried town of Herculaneum in the 18th century
encountered them, that was how they were treated: as ancient rubbish, to
be dumped in the sea.
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