|
From the French
Revolution to Bush
This splendid book is a result
of a lifetime’s engagement with Tocqueville, writes Jonathan
Wright
Alexis De Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution
by Hugh Brogan
Profile. £ 330
Everyone seems to adore Alexis de
Tocqueville these days. His extraordinary account of the political
landscape of the early United States, Democracy in America, is endlessly
quoted by pundits and politicians of every stripe.
OFf
the shelf
Making
of a nation
V. N. Datta
Haksar Memorial Volume III: Challenges to Nation Building in a World of
Turmoil.
Ed Subrata Banerjee. Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial
Development, Chandigarh.
Pages xi+ 464. Rs 795.
As a tribute to the memory of P
N Haksar, a week-long seminar-cum-lecture series programme on themes
relating to nation building, development process, communication and
governance was organised by the Centre for Research in Rural and
Industrial Development, Chandigarh, from November 7 to 17, 2005. The
book under review is based on the papers presented at that seminar.
Cursed by caste
Mohan Lal Phillauria
Hitchhiker
by Vinod George Joseph.
Books for Change. Pages 385. Rs 350.
Hitchhiker is the story
of an untouchable, Peterraj, a Verumar. He has adopted Christianity
because he thinks that Christianity is the only way to attain salvation
from the bind of casteism. He was employed as a watchman by a Christian
School. The main theme of Hitchhiker is the conversion of the
untouchables because of oppression by those belonging to higher castes.
Rich
variety of themes
Ramesh Luthra
Poems
by J P Das. Translated from Oriya by the poet. Grassroots. Pages 112. Rs
195.
J
P Das is a reputed Oryia, poet, playwright and short story writer as
well. His inborn talent of writing impelled him to resign from the IAS
to and devote his time to writing.
Dattani’s classic
Indian drama
Tejwant Singh Gill
Dance Like a Man
by Mahesh Dattani.
Pages 74. Rs 99.
Dance Like a Man is the
best- known play by Mahesh Dattani. English is the medium of this modern
Indian playwright. His forte lies in conceiving and consummating his
writing in English, regarded outwardly foreign but inwardly native by
the Indian people, particularly putting up in urban, more so
metropolitan centers.
The not-so-humble
hand pump
Meeta Rajivlochan
Water: A Matter of Life and Death
by Maggie Black with Rupert Talbot, Oxford University Press. Pages 262.
Rs 545.
For a country that boasts of
tremendous technical manpower and crows about its achievements in
science and then mewls about the absence of opportunities for work, it
seems something of an irony that none of the technical types could be
bothered to design a hand pump for water that would function well under
Indian conditions.
PUNJABI REVIEW
Rich in imagery
Surinder Singh Tej
Rukhan Di Dastaan
by Varinder Walia
Ravi Sahit Parkashan, Amritsar
Pages 112. Rs 120
Newspaper journalism is
perenially based on hard facts. Facts are generally considered
sacrosanct. And the constant emphasis on thesacrosanct nature often
takes its toll. It makes scribes hard-boiled, cynical, sceptical and
somewhat sneering even in their personal lives.
SHORTTAKES
Crime and
punishment
Randeep Wadehra
Gandhi’s View of Legal Justice
by Ajit Atri
Deep & Deep, N. Delhi.
Pages: xix + 284. Rs 650
|
