Book Review

Articles

• Review of Sainath’s The Last Heroes | KS Subramanian
  21 January 2023, by K S Subramanian

  Reviewed by KS Subramanian
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  The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom by P Sainath
  (Penguin India) 2022
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  The book is dedicated to the author’s mother whose stories of freedom fighters including those of her father who spent years in British jails inspired him. The author’s grandfather was VV Giri who became President of India after its independence.
  While at university, the author had learnt that almost all the major uprisings against the British had begun in the (…)

• Sreenivasan. Review of Guha, Sumit, History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200-2000
  16 September 2023

  Reviewed by Ramya Sreenivasan (University of Pennsylvania)
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  History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200-2000 by Sumit Guha
  University of Washington Press 2019. 264 pp. (paper), ISBN 978-0-295-74621-0 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-295-74622-7
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  This book of extraordinary scholarship traces how different human societies have developed their modes of narrating and comprehending aspects of the past over time. This is a book about how collective knowledge about the past was (…)

• An Accidental but Secular Prime Minister | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  21 May 2022, by M R Narayan Swamy

  Furrows in a Field: The Unexplored Life of H.D. Deve Gowda
  by Sugata Srinivasaraju
  Vintage/Penguin Random House
  Pages: 562; Price Rs 799
  ISBN: 9780670093434
  __0__ He was a reluctant Prime Minister but proved his worth once he entered 7 Race Course Road; he remains a devout Hindu but respects all religions; he rose in politics the hard way, taking loans each time he fought elections; he was a product of provincial politics but embraced a national vision. Meet Haradanahalli Dadde (…)

• Indian Spiritual Masters who Fought Orthodoxy | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  29 July 2022, by M R Narayan Swamy

  review by M.R. Narayan Swamy
  India’s Greatest Minds: Spiritual Masters, Philosophers, Reformers
  by Mukunda Rao
  Hachette India Pages: 499 Price: Rs 699
  Even hundreds of years after his death, the Sai Baba of Shirdi (1838-1918) remains one of the most widely revered and worshipped saints by millions of Hindus, Muslims and others. Born to Hindu parents and brought up by a fakir, the compassionate saint was a harsh critic of religious orthodoxy and detested the Hindu-Muslim divide. He (…)

• Review: Last among equals by M.R Sharan | Aamir Raza
  20 May 2023

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Aamir Raza
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  Last among equals: Power, Caste and Politics in Bihar’s Villages
  by M.R Sharan Westland Publications 2021 / 229 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9390679664 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9390679669 __0__
  In India, the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) were established to promote self-governance at the grassroots level and facilitate the social and economic development of rural areas. However, despite initial enthusiasm for this decentralization movement, the system has (…)

• A tale of love, truth and victimhood | Prasenjit Chowdhury
  23 July 2021

  BOOK REVIEW by Prasenjit Chowdhury __0__
  One Love, and the Many Lives of Osip B
  by C. P. Surendran
  Niyogi Books, New Delhi
  www.niyogibooksindia.com/
  Email: niyogibooks[at]gmail.com
  IMPRINT: OLIVE TURTLE June - July 2021, 372 pages
  ISBN-13: 978-93-91125-12-7
  Rs. 695
  # Fiction
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  ‘This is my moment of truth. Kashmir’s too. Shaheed Osip Bala Krishnan. I shall redeem honour by throwing myself in the way of bullets fired by the Indian army. Someone will take a (…)

• Elephants face an elephantine problem | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  22 April 2022, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW by M.R. Narayan Swamy
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  Trumpet Calls:
  Epic Tales of Extraordinary Elephants
  Nalini Ramachandran
  Hachette India
  Pages: 242; Price: Rs 350
  ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 939102890X ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9391028909 __0__
  Elephants have been caught and tamed from as early in history as 6000 BCE. And the practice of training them to fight in wars began in India around 1000 BCE. So many were trained to fight with deadly effect that King (…)

• Dissecting a Dictator amid Western Hypocrisy | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  7 June 2025, by M R Narayan Swamy

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution
  by Lindsey Hilsum
  Faber and Faber
  Pages: xxi + 228; Price: Rs 599
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  That Muammar Gaddafi suffered a horrible death at the hands of some of those he had tormented for decades is no news. That he, his family as well as cronies bled Libya during the 42 years that he presided over the country is also known. What makes award-winning journalist Lindsey Hilsum

• Lala Lajpat Rai: A Hindu leader who was secular at heart | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  14 June 2024, by M R Narayan Swamy

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
  __0__ Being Hindu, Being Indian: Lala Lajpat Rai’s Ideas of Nationhood
  by Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav
  Penguin/Viking
  ISBN: 9780670094073 Pages: xliii + 748; Price: Rs 1,299
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  Who was the real Lala Lajpat Rai? A veteran Congress leader and a leading star of the Indian freedom movement? Fiercely anti-British and who died due to grievous injuries he sustained in a street protest? A Hindu Mahasabha leader who advocated (…)

• A Black Woman’s Journey to White House | M R Narayan Swamy
  18 June 2021

  BOOK REVIEW
  Reviewed by M R Narayan Swamy
  Becoming
  by Michelle Obama
  published by Viking (an imprint of Penguin Books) ISBN-13:978-0241334140, Pages: 428; Price: Rs 999
  Long before she moved into the opulent White House as the US First Lady, Michelle Obama’s family lived in the poor side of Chicago, one of the few who didn’t own a home. The lack of air-conditioning made the apartment unbearably hot in the afternoons. Michelle, her brother and their parents were packed into less (…)