Book Review

Articles

• Beyond the Fences: A Rationale for Cohesive Development | Sanjoy De, Atanu Sengupta
  20 April 2025

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Birth of an Alternative Development Paradigm: Unfolding of Transformative Mode of Production
  by Sunil Ray
  Germinal Publications Pvt. Ltd. (Publisher of frontier weekly)
  2024. 250 INR.
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  Development is the buzzword of today. Everybody speaks of it as if it is the only religion and pursuit of the modern day. In his populist book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari (2015) argued that the ability of man to (…)

• Restoring Peace and Democracy in Chhattisgarh: Inherent Message of a Political Memoir
  27 November 2015, by Gabriele Dietrich

  BOOK REVIEW
  Inside Chhattisgarh: A Political Memoir by Ilina Sen; Penguin Books India; 2014; pages: 307; Price: Rs 399.
  This is an extraordinary book, based on an unusual life-journey, rooted in search of solidarity and democratic transformation of society. It is unfortunate that Ilina and Binayak Sen have been in the national and international limelight because of the trumped-up Binayak Sen case and the subsequent “Free Binayak Sen Campaign” which was, of course, very positive. This (…)

• The Looming Shadow of the 1866 Famine in Orissa | Suranjita Ray
  29 April 2023, by Suranjita Ray

  A Haunting Tragedy Gender, Caste and Class in the 1866 Famine of Orissa by Bidyut Mohanty ascertains understanding famine as a process to comprehend who starved during the famine and why. The book engages the reader in understanding the Orissa Famine in 1866 that had its worst impact on the poor, in particular the agricultural labourers, weavers, salt workers and fisher folks, invariably belonging to the lower castes who were marginalised and deprived. The growing consciousness of the (…)

• Review of Hoxha, Artan R.. Sugarland: The Transformation of the Countryside in Communist Albania | Andrew Pfannkuche
  22 March 2025

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Sugarland: The Transformation of the Countryside in Communist Albania
  by Artan R. Hoxha
  Central European University Press
  2023. xi + 293 pp.
  (cloth), ISBN 9789633866160.
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  Reviewed by Andrew Pfannkuche (Universit

• Review of Bala Ramulu Chinnala’s Development Strategies and Governance in India | Srinivasulu Karli
  22 November 2025, by Karli Srinivasulu

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Development Strategies and Governance in India:
  Predicaments and Challenges
  by Bala Ramulu Chinnala
  Routledge
  2025
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  Reviewed by Srinivasulu Karli
  Post-independent India

• Valour and Distress in India-Pakistan Wars | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  21 January 2023, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW
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  1971, 1999 War Stories
  by Air Commodore Nitin Sathe
  Vitasta
  Pages: 223; Price: Rs 525
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  Air Commodore Jawahar Lal Bhargava survived Pakistani custody in the 1971 war because — believe it or not — he had a cricket coach who had helped him once play for the Ranji Trophy.
  Bhargava was flying an Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jet over Pakistan when it got hit by ground fire and he ejected using a parachute. He was captured after hitting the land.
  “Dalle nu (…)

• How A Secret Meet Between Badal and Rajiv Fizzled Out | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  18 March 2023, by M R Narayan Swamy

  Living a Life Hardcover by Ravi Sawhney Konark Publishers Pvt.Ltd | 10 February 2023 Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 264 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8195678637 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8195678631 __0__
  1980 brought the Congress to power in Punjab and turned the defeated Akalis belligerent. The state began to feel the heat as the Akali Dal launched a massive agitation for the implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973. Although the Akalis did not create Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, they did not speak (…)

• Sarah Foss. Review of Nolan, Rachel, Until I Find You: Disappeared Children and Coercive Adoptions in Guatemala
  24 August 2024

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Rachel Nolan. Until I Find You: Disappeared Children and Coercive Adoptions in Guatemala. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2024. 309 pp. (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-27035-0.
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  Reviewed by Sarah Foss (Oklahoma State University)
  Every so often, we hear a statistic that seems improbable at best, unfathomable, even, given the reality we think we know. Such a moment occurs in the opening pages of Rachel Nolan’s book, Until I Find (…)

• 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 (…)

• Mark Hurst. Review of Martin, Barbara, Roy and Zhores Medvedev: Loyal Dissent in the Soviet Union
  12 October 2024

  [fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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  Roy and Zhores Medvedev: Loyal Dissent in the Soviet Union
  by Barbara Martin
  Academic Studies Press
  2023. 260 pp.
  (cloth), ISBN 979-88-87191-81-2.
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  Reviewed by Mark Hurst (Lancaster University)
  During the twentieth century, opposition to the Soviet regime took a variety of shapes and sizes. In the latter years of the Cold War, the Western perception of the so-called Soviet dissident movement was dominated by two Nobel (…)