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Significant
tome on Tibet
Reviewed by Parshotam Mehra
Tibet: A History
By Sam Van Shaik. Amyrryllis, New Delhi. Pages 411. Rs 695
Thanks to the Dalai Lama
and a sizeable, if also widespread, Tibetan diaspora, interest in Tibet
and its affairs has over the past quarter century and more exploded
well-nigh exponentially. In the event, there has literally been a
veritable flood of books on the country and its people, more especially
regarding the turn recent events have taken. Expectedly not all measure
to the top echelon and yet not a few do indeed rank quite high. The work
under review, a large-size, ponderous tome of a little over 400 pages
certainly does.
Bitter wars for water
Reviewed by Kanwalpreet
Water, Asia’s New
Battleground
By Brahma Chellaney.
Harper Collins, India. Pages 386. Rs 699
Water has emerged as a key
issue that could determine if Asia is headed toward cooperation or
competition. The risk of water becoming a trigger for war or diplomatic
strong-arming is especially high in Asia...." With these lines,
Brahma Chellaney sets the tone of his book which is a joint venture of
Harper Collins and the India Today Group.
Apt portrayal of Punjab’s
turbulence
Reviewed by Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Khalistan Struggle: A
Non-Movement
By Jagtar Singh. Aakar
Books. Pages 520. Rs 695
FOR the past six
centuries, Punjab has gone through many upheavals.`A0 After almost a
period of every 20-30 years, it has faced one trouble or another. Leave
the distant past aside, a few decades ago at the time of Partition,
Punjab had virtually turned into a river of blood owing to communal
violence. A few decades after Partition, Punjab witnessed trouble
related to the Punjabi Suba morcha. Some years later it was hemmed in by
Naxal violence.
Renewed interest in de
Beauvoir’s The Second Sex
Reviewed by Madhusree
Chatterjee
MORE than six decades
after celebrated French feminist Simone de Beauvoir wrote The Second
Sex, feminists are sifting through her interpretations of women's
emancipation in their quest for solutions to new gender posers. "There is clearly a
heightened interest in Simone de Beauvoir and her contribution to the
feminist movement and gender studies," according to American
writers-translators Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier,
whose second English translation of The Second Sex is soon to
arrive in India.
Pakistan’s man of
destiny
Reviewed by Harbans Singh
Pakistan: A Personal
History
By Imran Khan. Bantom
Press. Pages 390. Rs 599
Pakistan: A Personal
History is essentially the political manifesto of Imran Khan’s
Tehereek-i-Insaf party though it also contains a brief history of
Pakistan as well as his personal life. He is no stranger to India having
participated in many bruising battles on the cricket field. Indian fans
have suffered his cockiness and have discovered that admiration for
India and anything Indian comes but grudgingly from him.
We, the corrupt people
Reviewed by D S Cheema
Corruption in India
By Bibek Debroy and
Laveesh Bhandari. Konark. Pages 193. Rs 350
IT has been the idea of
democracy enshrined in its institutions and political practices that has
survived and endured in India for the past more than six decades. It is
well established that only democracies are responsive to public pressure
and India, in recent times, has been a witness to the power of that
pressure. While India is shining in
many areas, it is definitely outshining in corruption.
Tete-a-tete
Literature’s child
John Siddique believes
literature is the glue that unites humanity. He does not believe in
being a poet of half-truths, as he talks about his poetic journey
Nonika Singh
Whatever else British
poet John Siddique may be, one thing he certainly not is pretentious.
Nor presumptuous for that matter. Forthright and honest about his
personal life, he minces no words while expressing his views either. So
while he has no compunction in divulging details about the separation of
his parents, Irish mother and an Indian father, he is equally candid on
how racism is very much alive and kicking in his country of birth the
UK.
short takes
Intriguing, funny and
tragic tales
Randeep Wadehra
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