|
On a personal
note
Reviewed by Neeti Nair
Strictly Personal: Manmohan & Gursharan
by Daman Singh. Harper Collins.
Pages 451 Rs 699
Strictly
Personal is not only a deeply evocative biography of Daman
Singh’s parents; it is, equally, an important contribution to the
historiography of 20th century India. From the trauma and displacement
of partition that were, in part, reflected in the nature of Dr
Singh’s nomadic undergraduate education, to the college student
Gursharan’s anxious preparation for a cultural program to welcome
Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev to the Bhakra Dam, the life
histories of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his wife
Gursharan Kaur straddled several major moments in India’s history.
Health
issues in British India
Reviewed by Jayanti
Roy
Colonial Medical Care in North India. Gender State and Society
1840-1920
by Samiksha Seherawat.
Oxford University Press. Pages 292. Rs 895
Health
care existed in India since ancient times and there are
references of hospitals even in the era of Ashoka the Great. However,
state-sponsored institutional medical care, as we see it today, was
introduced, expanded and funded by the colonial state. This book
chronicles the history of medical care and hospitals from 1840-1920.
And in the process, paints a picture of the Indian society of that
time, its dilemmas, evolution, ideologies, anti-colonial nationalism
and several other dimensions, which dominated life in that period of
80 years. History can be written in many ways and each way makes us
look back in time with a different perspective, enriching our
knowledge and understanding. This is true for the book in hand.
Old
text, modern relevance
Reviewed by Madan
Mohan Goel
Anu-Gita In The Mahabharata
by Satya P. Agarwal & Urmila Agarwal.
New Age Books. Pages 161. Rs 250
Anu-Gita
is a little known part of the Mahabharata. It occurs
towards the end of the great epic. After the Mahabharata war,
when peace ensued, Lord Krishna told Arjuna that he would like to go
to Dwarka. Arjuna replied, "Before you go, please teach me the Gita
once more, because I have forgotten a large part of what you taught me
in the battlefield of Kurukshetra." Krishna's this lesson to
Arjuna is called Anu-Gita. The prefix Anu means after. To
carryout studies for business ethics and corporate social
responsibility (CSR) by professionals in corporate world and to
internationalise Indianisation, Anu Gita is the primary source
of information in English.
Concerns
of a wildlife lover
Reviewed by Ashima S
Batish
My Life with Tigers Ranthambhore and Beyond
by Valmik Thapar.
Oxford. Pages 191. Rs 550
The
book takes you on a journey through the jungles of Ranthambore
to the conference rooms of the Ministry of Environment and Forest. En
route, it introduces people, who cared for the wildlife and the
contradicting set of callous beings. And accordingly, you love and
hate them.
|
