Upfront

Posts

Showing posts from August, 2021

On India by Khushwant Singh

"Why am I an Indian?" "I did not have any choice," says the author. He is not proud of being an Indian and the reasons for it are addressed briefly in the book. But that doesn't mean he hates India. His heart is clearly in India , especially Delhi. Among the many evils like untouchability, religious fundamentalism and corruption, he hates the "government" the most. He writes this in 1970. It clearly depicts governments have always been like that. Nothing has changed. He loves Delhi a lot. He finds Delhi's housing unique because your address will reveal your economic, social and bureaucratic status. He talks briefly about various diversified areas like monsoon, sadhus, cow, Pakistan, yoga etc. Along with his various memoirs. The book contains 24 short chapters on India, including the English translation of Guru Nanak's "Bara Mah". This short book must be read by those who want to understand the subtle nature of India.

Decoding Intolerance: Riots and the Emergence of Terrorism in India by Prateep Kumar Lahiri

The writer disagrees with Huntington's theory of the "clash of civilization". He puts the lens of economics while discussing the problem without leaving religious and cultural aspects. The book covers various factors and dynamics of riots including the important and much-debated topics like secularism, terrorism, and fundamentalism vs liberalism within Islam. He deals with major riots separately with deep insights. The primary reason for riots in India, according to him are economic, political, and British policy of divide and rule. So religion alone is not responsible for the riots. Where there is more "civic engagement" there is less chance of riots. The Riot proneness is confined to only 5% of the population. So it is affecting quite a small number of the population only. Overall a very good book to read about the history and functioning of riots in post-independent India including a brief overview of pre-independence, with a way forward.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

Do you think only humans have families? No. Just like we have families trees also have their families. Where they help their kids to grow, protect each other from external aggression and share nutrients with their fellow undernourished trees through an interconnected web of roots. A tree in the group lives more than the tree growing alone. Of course, they don't speak but they do communicate. They communicate through producing scents or by giving off specific gases. This is an amazing book. Must be read by every person on this planet because trees are our base. This book would induce a deep sense of affection for trees and would certainly change your perspective of seeing them. "Trees are also like us."

Everybody Loves a Good Drought by Palagummi Sainath

Things won't change until we start talking about them. How much space do national newspapers give to the villages? Marginal. The front page of every national newspaper is filled with what's going on in Delhi. Between 2012-2016, front page space given to stories from India's 6,40,000 villages was 0.26%. Agriculture in the same period claimed 0.07% of the front-page news space of the top Hindi newspapers from the capital. The book specifically deals with the tribal and scheduled caste people because they are extremely vulnerable beings in this country. The book makes various revelations and the most important thing about it is that it is not written just by sitting in a room. The writer has really worked hard and went to the ground. Everyone must read this book. We all know that poverty exists in India. We all have sympathy for the poor also. But we take the matter casually. Please read this book if you really want to understand their agony. I am sure you would definitely s...

The Prince by Machiavelli

You must have read that "men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of his patrimony", here is the person who said this. Machiavelli wrote The Prince to get employment under the Medici ruler. The Prince is the real representative of him. It contains his ideas on the conduct of the King and ordinary people. Though he gives extreme power to the king to achieve the targets, his ideas can be justified by looking at the context(e.g. Italy was divided into 5 parts and people were extremely corrupt). He is called as "devil's disciple" and "despots tutor" majorly because of his ideas in The Prince. A lot of similarities can be found between the working of this government and the principles which Machiavelli gave. This book can be read for an understanding of the realist view of power. I would say read this book but don't follow it blindly as it contains "some good" and "many objectionable" ideas.

India Unbound by Gurcharan Das

I am borrowing the review of this book from Amartya Sen because that is succinct and I was also about to write more or less the same. Sen says, "It is a wonderful book- a great mixture of memoir, economic analysis, social investigation, political scrutiny and managerial outlook being thrown into the understanding of India". If you are not a student of economics and want to know the economic history of India since independence, this book would serve your purpose. It is written in a unique way with beautiful language that you won't even know, you are reading economic history. The book goes like a story. Highly recommend.

Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir by Yashica Dutt

The book talks about the representation of Dalits, violence against them, the role of media, their representation in media and Dalit movements, etc with the author's memoirs. She deals more with "what is" than the "possible solutions" for change but it is full of facts. Dutt has done extensive research and unfurls many hidden facts including the changing nature of the left's and RSS's love with Ambedkar. Though I don't agree with some of the ideas given by her, one chapter which I found quite interesting was on Dalit movements. I would recommend the original work of Ambedkar, Omprakash Valmiki, and Gail Omvedt for a better understanding of caste and its functioning. This book can be read to understand the role of caste in various spheres of life from movies to media in independent India .

The Dramatic Decade The Indira Gandhi Years by Pranab Mukherjee

It is written by the former president of India. Though written by a congressman, it is a quite balanced and impartial book. This book can be read to understand the time of Indira Gandhi, her way of handling situations, her politics, and how she was being influenced. It also reveals the internal functioning of the Congress party. Overall a good book.

Citizen Raj: Indian Elections (1952-2019) by Surjit Bhalla

I don't know why I bought this book. Maybe because the writer was the former member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and is a contributing editor with The Indian Express. But the book turned out to be BJP propaganda. He still doesn't accept that demonetization was a failure and puts "demonetization-a failure" under the heading of fake news. He supports the EWS quota so enthusiastically and rejects the reservation based on caste. How can BJP's beloved Nehru be left? So Nehru and his major mistakes are also covered. He terms PDS(Public Distribution System) and bank nationalization as "errors" or "mistakes". The same PDS which can be termed as widely successful during Covid-19 times. And the same bank nationalization through which savings drastically increased. He rejects the claim that PM had ever said that he would create 10 million jobs. Seems like since he didn't say he is not bound to create. Sheer propaganda book....

Kitne Pakistan (कितने पाकिस्तान) by Kamleshwar

इस उपन्यास को अगर आपने अभी तक नहीं पढ़ा तो फिर क्या पढ़ा! यह उपन्यास बाबर, हुमांयू, अकबर, अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी और न जाने किस-किस को कटघरे में खड़ा करता है और उनका पक्ष भी सामने रखता है। यह एक हिस्टोरिकल फिक्शन है। यह उपन्यास आपको हर एक समय और अधिकतर महत्वपूर्ण स्थानों पर ले जाएगा। इसे पढ़ते हुए लगता है जैसे सामने कोई फ़िल्म चल रही हो। 1990 में कमलेश्वर ने इसे लिखना शुरू किया औऱ इसका पहला संस्करण फरवरी 2000 में छपा। करीबन 10 साल की मेहनत है इसमें। सबसे अच्छी चीज़ मुझे इस किताब की शैली लगी। जिस तरह से इसे लिखा गया है जिससे कभी किताब पढ़ी भी नहीं जाती वह भी इसे एक बार में पढ़ जाएगा। भूल न जाएं इसलिए पोस्ट को तुरंत सेव कर लीजिये। किताब विशलिस्ट में डाल लीजिये। और ज़रूर पढ़िए। 🌿 P.S.- I would also recommend the English readers to read this book.

The Free Voice by Ravish Kumar

Everyone must have heard about this book. I didn't find anything very special or astounding in it. If you are aware of the things around you and emotions have not taken control of your logic, you don't have to read this book. It is a simple book dealing with basic issues like "godi media" and polarization etc. About which you already know if you are reading authentic news. Overall it is a good book, dealing with the present scenario. I think this book is being sold at the face value and not solely on the material inside the book. He talks about 1984 by George Orwell in the book. So that book(1984) you can read. It is a very good book. Leaving up to you.