Book Review

Articles

• A Classic on Indian Magic | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  15 April 2023, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW
  Jadoowallahas, Jugglers, and Jinns:
  A Magical History of India
  by John Zubrzycki
  Pan Macmillan India — Picador India Pages: 508 ISBN 9789386215352 __0__
  Magic, in case you did not know, is as old as India. Indeed, the blurred boundaries between magic, mythology and religion continue to be the defining feature of Indian enchantment, the origins of which go back to the start of the Harappan civilization nearly 5,000 years ago. Australian diplomat-turned-writer John (…)

• Pakistan
  24 January, by M R Narayan Swamy

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Perfect Storm: The History and Anatomy of 26/11
  by Prabhakar Aloka and Nikhil Ravi
  Ebury Press/Penguin Random House
  Pages: xxxi + 220; Price: Rs 499
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  If former Intelligence Bureau officer Prabhakar Aloka is to be believed, Pakistan

• Review of Alpa Shah’s The Incarcerations | Anand Chakravarti
  4 May 2024, by Anand Chakravarti

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon and the Search for Democracy in India
  by Alpa Shah
  HarperCollins Publishers India 2024, xxii + 561pp. Rs.699 P-ISBN 978-93-5489-986-7 (Paperback)
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  This is a book by a scholar of conscience – one who is deeply affected by the perverse use of state power to incarcerate sixteen persons accused of conspiring against the state in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case (henceforth BK case, and (…)

• The lessons from Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday misery | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  26 July 2024, by M R Narayan Swamy

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir] __0__
  Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Massacre: Lessons for the International Community
  by Rohan Gunaratna
  Penguin Books Pages: lxxvi + 238 Price: Singapore$ 28.90 __0__
  It was sheer incompetence at the highest level of governance that helped the Islamic State to devastate Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday in 2019, slaughtering 275 people and injuring almost 600. The suicide bombings were the worst terrorist onslaught by the IS outside the Iraqi and (…)

• To reclaim our country’s soul | Joydip Ghosal
  19 July 2024

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
  Review by Joydip Ghosal
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  Bharat Jodo Yatra, Reclaiming India’s Soul
  by Pushparaj Deshpande, Ruchira Chaturvedi
  HarperCollins Publishers India
  2024 | 348 pages
  P-ISBN: 978-93-5699-941-1
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  Bharat Jodo Yatra, Reclaiming India’s Soul is a comprehensive map of Bharat Jodo Jatra which was an epic nationwide march from September 2022 to January 2023. This definitive book attempts to portray the journey in its entirety. This (…)

• Karunanidhi’s Rise and Rise — And Fall | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  9 September 2022, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW
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  Karunanidhi: A Life
  by A.S. Panneerselvan
  Penguin/Viking
  ISBN: 9780670082940
  Pages: 450
  Price: Rs 699
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  Who was the real Muthuvel Karunanidhi?
  A statesman and a visionary? A corrupt politician? A strong advocate of federalism? A Tamil chauvinist? Secular to the core? Anti-Hindu? A leader who aided Tamil Nadu’s progress? LTTE’s godfather? Social reformer?
  It would be extremely difficult for anyone to do a political autopsy of one of India’s (…)

• 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 (…)

• Paula Larsson. Review of Charles, Nicole, Suspicion: Vaccines, Hesitancy, and the Affective Politics of Protection in Barbados
  15 April 2023

  BOOK REVIEW
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  Suspicion: Vaccines, Hesitancy, and the Affective Politics of Protection in Barbados by Nicole Charles
  Duke University Press 2021. xi + 196 pp. $25.95 (paper) ISBN 978-1-4780-1763-9.
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  Reviewed by Paula Larsson (University of Oxford)
  Suspicion: Vaccines, Hesitancy, and the Affective Politics of Protection in Barbados is a short but gripping ethnographic study exploring the manifestation of suspicion as it relates to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine (…)

• Bhagat’s Review of Toxic Immanence by Livia Monnet
  15 July 2023

  Reviewed by Raina Bhagat (Northwestern University)
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  Toxic Immanence:
  Decolonizing Nuclear Legacies and Futures
  by Livia Monnet
  Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press 2022. 472 pp. ISBN 978-0-228-01136-1
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  Toxic Immanence: Decolonizing Nuclear Legacies and Futures is an edited collection with an ambitious scope, making impressive strides across both disciplines and genres to sketch out numerous paths toward the unequivocal need for the abolition of nuclear (…)

• Newton’s Review of Melody Jue, Rafico Ruiz, eds., Saturation: An Elemental Politics
  13 May 2023

  BOOK REVIEW:
  Reviewed by Samm Newton (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
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  Saturation: An Elemental Politics
  Melody Jue, Rafico Ruiz, eds.
  Duke University Press
  2021. xii + 332 pp. (e-book), ISBN 978-1-4780-1304-4 (paper), ISBN 978-1-4780-1146-0
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  Saturation: An Elemental Politics, edited by Melody Jue and Rafico Ruiz, is a rich and varied collection of essays that offers a multidisciplinary foray into how the concept of saturati can be employed as an interpretive lens (…)