Book Review

Articles

• Review of Brunstedt, Jonathan, The Soviet Myth of World War II
  29 March 2025

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR
  by Jonathan Brunstedt
  Cambridge University Press
  Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare Series
  2021, 320 pp. ISBN 978-1-108-49875-3
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  Reviewed by Christopher Bishop (University of Southern Mississippi)
  In May 1945, Joseph Stalin raised a toast to the

• Sri Lanka’s natural beauty amid fractures | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  15 July 2023, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW
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  Upon a Sleepless Isle: Travels in Sri Lanka by Bus, Cycle and Trishaw
  by Andrew Fidel Fernando
  Picador India (PP, 2023), Pages: 267; Price: Rs 499 __0__
  Call it an irony but tourists, primarily from the West, never stopped exploring Sri Lanka all through the period the country was caught up in one of the longest running and blood-soaked ethnic conflicts. The reason was simple. The battle for a Tamil homeland was largely confined to the northern and eastern (…)

• How the English Built India – Brick by Brick I M R Narayan Swamy
  30 September 2023, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW
  Empire Building: The Construction of British India 1690-1860
  by Rosie Llewellyn-Jones
  Penguin/Viking ISBN: 9780670099689 Pages: xi + 239; Price: Rs 799
  __0__ Yes, the English landed in India purportedly to trade before they began pitting one kingdom against the other amid a crumbling Mughal order to gain lordship over one of the biggest countries in the world. Before the British Raj started ruling India directly after the 1857 War of Independence, it was the East India (…)

• A Story of Police Injustice – And Reprieve | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  9 June 2023

  BOOK REVIEW by M.R. Narayan Swamy
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  The Stolen Necklace: A Small Crime in a Small Town by Shevlin Sebastian and V.K. Thajudheen
  HarperCollins India Pages: xi + 249 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9356296855 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9356296855 Price: Rs 399
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  It happened in a small town in Kerala but it could have happened anywhere in India – and to anyone, more so if one couldn’t pull the right strings. V.T. Thajudheen was adamant he had committed no crime. Yet the (…)

• "Post-Post modernist" theory of "Cohesive development through Alternative development paradigm | Bharat Patankar
  18 October 2025

  It was a very great experience to read Prof. Sunil Ray’s upcoming book. In fact, at many instances while I was reading, I thought as if I am reading my own writing on the "Alternative development paradigm "!! This was particularly true when I was reading the beginning of the Part III which says,
  "The primary condition for cohesive development is social cohesion among individuals with a sense of community and commitment to the common objective based on collective understanding and shared (…)

• Review of Researching Social Media with Children | Arun Kumar Gond
  29 March 2025

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Researching Social Media with Children: #DigitalEthnography #Storytelling by Antonio Silva Esquinas, Jorge Ramiro Perez Suarez, Raquel Rebeca Cordero Verdugo, Julio Diaz Galan
  Routledge 2024, 105 pages, Rs 1,622 ISBN: 9781032506173
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  Reviewed by Arun Kumar Gond
  Social media is more than just a platform for connection- it shapes how young people form identities, express emotions, and navigate reality. This book explores their (…)

• Oppenheim on Lee, Pop Empires: Transnational and Diasporic Flows of India and Korea
  5 November 2021

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Robert Oppenheim (University of Texas at Austin)
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  Pop Empires:
  Transnational and Diasporic Flows of India and Korea
  by S. Heijin Lee, Monika Mehta, Robert Ji-Song Ku, eds.
  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
  2019. 360 pp.
  ISBN 978-0-8248-8000-2. __0__
  The popularity and transnational reach of Indian popular media, most centrally Bollywood and regional Indian cinemas, have been subject to a great deal of academic attention. Somewhat more recently, (…)

• Why has communism failed to permanently change the world? | Apratim Mukarji
  25 November 2023, by Apratim Mukarji

  BOOK REVIEW
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  Yuddhakalin Sahitya Samgraha 1942 Editor: Utpal Sengupta
  Publisher Parul Prakashani Pvt. Ltd., 8/3, Chintamani Das Lane, Kolkata 700009 info[at]parulprakashani.in Price Rs. 500.00
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  Eminent economist John G. Gurley thought that India was one country where communist and Marxist tenets should take root, along with Italy, France, and Japan. “Marxism and Capitalism are now engaged in an intense, worldwide struggle. When Americans look beyond their borders, many (…)

• Review of Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp Selected Stories | Malathi Suramanian
  11 October 2025

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Heart Lamp: Selected Stories
  by Banu Mushtaq
  (Booker Prize Winner 2025)
  Translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi
  Penguin Random House India
  2024
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  Reviewed by Dr. Malathi Suramanian

• Why Alternative Development Paradigm Matters? | Jos Chathukulam
  15 March 2025, by Jos Chathukulam

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Birth of an Alternative Development Paradigm: Unfolding Transformative Mode of Production
  by Sunil Ray
  Germinal Publications Pvt. Ltd (Sharmistha Dutta on behalf of Germinal Publications Pvt. Ltd), Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
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  Birth of an Alternative Development Paradigm: Unfolding Transformative Mode of Production by Sunil Ray introduces to us a novel development framework