|
Liberalisation on an uneven pitch
Reviewed by M Rajivlochan
Indians In A Globalising World: Their Skewed Rise
by Dilip Hiro. Harper Collins. Pages 377.
Rs 699
This
book provides a quick overview of how Indians coped with the
deregulation of the markets. Hiro begins the story of change by
tracing the transformation of small town Gurgaon into a bustling
metropolis, almost fully dedicated to providing services to the
western economies. He does note the role played by government inaction
in creating this town but does not notice that in India de-regulation
was also about the government refusing to govern.
When aspirations clash with institutions
Reviewed by Dinesh Kumar
Liberal Humanism and the Non-Western Other: The Right and the Good in World Affairs
by Sushil Kumar.
IIAS, Shimla. Pages XV, 340. Rs 695
The book underlines a growing
disconnect of democratic aspirations with institutionalised processes
designed to align them with elite interests, even the movements for
social and gender justice. The struggle for Independence did not
prepare a blueprint for post-Independence state-building. Hence the
leadership had no alternative to drawing on the ideological resources
of colonial governance and the strategic thought processes of Mughal
and British rulers.
The idea of Kashmir, and its past
Reviewed by Priyanka Singh
Kashmir’s Contested Pasts
by Chitralekha Zutshi.
Oxford. Pages 360. Rs 995
What is Kashmir; who makes it
what it is — the Pandits’ influence over centuries or Islamic-Sufi
traditions, or both, and still many others? Objectively, through
enormous repertoire of historical views and 16th century Persian
narratives and Sanskrit texts, Chitralekha delves into the idea of
Kashmir; the dynamics between Kashmir and imperial entities — the
Mughals, Afghans and Dogras; the Tarikh tradition; vernacular
histories and historiographical tradition; orientalist and nationalist
knowledge production in Kashmir and colonial India; and conflicts over
history and the embattled territory of this ‘distinct mulk.’
Of crime and retribution
And Death Came Calling
by Mukul Deva. Harper Collins.
Pages 299. Rs 299
Reviewed by Vikrant
Parmar
Sometimes the past haunts,
smudges the present and decimates the future. As happens with the
protagonist of author Mukul Deva’s novel And Death Came Calling,
Ashwin Thakur. A father consumed by tuberculosis, a mother who is a
‘victim of self-induced alcohol-soaked self-pity’ that propels her
to the grave, a loving sister killed in a gruesome road accident;
converts former Army officer Ashwin into an existential recluse, who
lives as if there is no tomorrow.
|
