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Rebel without a
pause
Reviewed by Shelley Walia
Bob Marley: Herald of a Postcolonial World
By Jason Toynbee. Polity Press, Cambridge. Pages 263. $22.95
Many
years ago, I had a friend at Cambridge who introduced me to the
Rastafarian ethos; it was part of the ambience of her apartment
especially her dreadlocks and her khaki camouflage and weeds so striking
in the otherwise traditional Anglo-Saxon stronghold. The music from
Trinidad that played all the time in her room seemed always to be a
tribute to a ghetto-bred boy who had stood for peace, love and justice,
and for the struggles of the impoverished and the powerless. It spoke to
me of the mission that Bob Marley had, a mission to "tell the truth
about the world". And the truth about the man and his music is
brought out by a sheer tour-de-force of biographical detail mixed with
cultural theory by Jason Toynbee in his book entitled Bob Marley.
Weaving
many Indias together
Reviewed by Nidheesh Tyagi
Ed. Ramachandra Guha
Penguin Viking. Pages 549. Rs 799.
Tarabai
Shinde is a forgotten name. But the pamphlet she wrote from a
tiny Buldhana town of Vidarbha in 1882 is one of the finest modern
voices of a woman in a society which was plagued by discrimination of
caste, gender, religion, and class. She is not likely to be in your list
of people who made modern India. But Ramachandra Guha brings her as one
of the 19 characters who shaped the India we live in.
Understanding
Tamil identity
Reviewed by Nirbhai Singh
Cultural Paradigm and Social
Critique: A Tamil Perspective
By S. Panneerselvam.
Progressive Books. Pages xiii+195. Rs 225.
The
book veers around the philosophical theme of cultural scaffolding
that is always in flux and continues from the past to the present.
Culture is reconstructed on the past for the coming generations.
Cultural changes operate at the social level and in the public
discourses. The book presents a paradigm of culture as a social critique
from the Tamil perspective, the indigenous culture of India, which has
been subjugated by the Aryan culture. It has been asserted in the book
that "the Dravidian languages existed in India from the beginning
of the subcontinent" and the "scholars are of the view that
the beginning of culture of the Tamils may be assigned to the fifth
century BC.
Arthur
Hailey’s Bengali predecessor
Reviewed by Harbans Singh
The Great Unknown
by Sankar. Tr Soma Das.
Penguin Viking. Rs. 350. Pages 267.
Ever
since Mani Sankar Mukherji, better known as Sankar, captured the
imagination of his Bengali readers with his serialised first novel Kato
Anjanye in a magazine in 1955, he has remained one of the most
widely-read authors of modern fiction. His characters and the subject
they deal with too have been modern and that is why it was not
surprising that his Chowringhee, published as a novel in 1962 had
predated the much celebrated Hotel of Arthur Hailey by about
three years!
Rare
Shakespeare folio goes on display
The
Shakespeare First Folio, which was stolen in 1998, is
being displayed at an exhibition in Durham University, UK. Visitors to
the exhibition at the new Wolfson Gallery at the university can view the
1623 first edition of the bard’s work in its current condition.
Bias
bared
Vandana Shukla
She
writes about the "most shameful secret of our society"
in her debut novel and gets away with the coveted Costa First Novel
Award 2010 for Witness the Night. Kishwar Desai, nee Ahluwalia,
has "fearlessly blown the lid on the problems that simmer under the
surface of modern-day India," the judges for The Costa Book Awards
said in a statement. The issues she bares in a racy crime novel are
based on socially accepted norms in the north of India —female
infanticide and foeticide.
Tribute
to a titan
Reviewed by Amar Nath Wadehra
Ek Shakhs Ek Duniya
Edited by Kashmiri Lal Zakir
Haryana Urdu Akademi. Pages: 102 + 10 plates. Rs. 150
Farishtay sey behtar hai
insaan hona
Magar ismay padtee hai mehnat zyaada
In
order to understand Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda, who expired on
February1, 2009, one will have to take a look at the values he inherited
from his father Chaudhary Matu Ram, who had made significant
contribution towards improving conditions in the rural areas. Although
he was educated only up to Class IV, Matu Ram worked tirelessly to
promote education in his community and social reforms such as removing
obscurantism, improving the status of women and making his community
politically aware. He was almost deported for helping Bhagat Singh’s
uncle Ajit Singh.
Tackling
trafficking
Reviewed by V. Eshwar Anand
Human Trafficking: Dimensions,
Challenges & Responses
By P.M. Nair
Konark Publishers. Pages 302. Rs 600
TRAFFICKING
has become a big threat to human life and dignity. Though the menace is
increasing day by day, the government’s response to tackle it has not
been encouraging. Indeed, very often, it has been half-hearted,
inappropriate and even retrograde.
Back of the book
With or Without
You
By Partha Sarathi Basu
Penguin. Pages 211. Rs 150
Aarav
will do anything to get to the top of the organization. He will
betray his colleagues; submit incorrect reports; sleep with sexy and
crafty Sonali; even abandon his disapproving wife in the middle of a
romantic trip to London. Sonali uses his ambitious streak, promising to
take him right to where he wants to be, if he does what she says.
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A Soulful of Lie
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Evidence
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