Recently published books relevant to Southasia

Caterpillar and the Mahua Flower:
Tremors in India's mining fields
edited by Rakesh Kalshian

Panos South Asia, 2007 Mahua flowers fall to the ground in the morning, which women then sweep up and carry home in baskets, to dry in the sun. For the poor, this is a meal that gives instant energy; when fermented, it also becomes a powerful spirit. The title of this work suggests an anthropological study of life in the Adivasi belt of Central India, but turns out to be a powerful book on resource economics, instead. The articles here recount the exploitation of the poor by the nexus of the mining industry, administrators and politicians. The story of the mines of Keonjhar, in Orissa, which exports most of its iron ore to China, is particularly moving. Following Manmohan Singh's recent declaration of Naxalism as the main enemy of modern India, this work could offer him a better understanding as to why leftwing extremism thrives in rural parts of resource-rich Central India. By the standards of INGO publications, this book is surprisingly engrossing. (CKL)

An American Witness to India's Partition
by Phillips Talbot

Sage, 2007 In 1938, the New York-based Institute of Current World Affairs awarded 23-year-old Phillips Talbot, a reporter with the Chicago Daily News, a fellowship to study the dynamics of contemporary India. Talbot's reports from the field over the following decade document the most turbulent period of the Subcontinent's history. Seamlessly bridging the gap between journalistic stories and academic research, Talbot writes with empathy, insight and flair. This collection provides rare glimpses into larger-than-life figures such as Nehru, Gandhi, Jinnah, Patel and Liaquat Ali, who, unthreatened by the young Talbot, allowed him extraordinary access to their personal and political affairs. This fascinating work is worth a read even if only for the letter by Talbot's wife, Mildred, who evocatively describes the heady Independence Day celebrations of 14 and 15 August in Karachi and Delhi, against the backdrop of a horrific communal conflagration. (Laxmi Murthy)
 
The Great Partition:
The making of India and Pakistan

by Yasmin Khan

Viking, 2007 Yasmin Khan's is one more in the slew of publications on Partition that came out this past August. Khan, born in Britain but with roots in the Subcontinent, traces the troubled history that led to the birth of Pakistan, right back to when the 'P' word was first uttered. With a deft marshalling of facts, Khan narrates the why's and how's of one of the most cataclysmic events of the 20th century: the unseemly haste with which the British handed over power, the confusion and lack of preparation among the political leaders, as well as the intense misery caused by the riots and the dislocation that accompanied the division of the former colony. Khan not only dares to suggest that there was nothing inherently wrong in Partition, as one of the many possible solutions to the problems that India faced during that period, but also that not all of the present-day conflicts between India and Pakistan can be ascribed to that single act. (LM)

Journey into Islam:
The crisis of globalisation
by Akbar Ahmed

Penguin/Viking, 2007 Ibn Warraq is the pseudonym of the India-born writer who penned the incendiary tract "Why I Am not a Muslim". Quoting noted Orientalist Bernard Lewis, Warraq argued, in his critique of Edward Said, that there are three kinds of Islam: the path of the Koran, the faith of Hadith and the lifestyle of Islamic civilisation. Akbar Ahmed, a Mohajir who has made it big in his adopted land (he rose to be High Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain) before migrating to the West, thinks that a Southasian categorisation based on the Deoband, Ajmer and Aligarh models would be more suitable to understanding modern Islam. The first represents the purist Wahabi orthodoxy; the second is a symbol of Sufi mysticism. But Akbar prefers the Western modernism of the Aligarh tradition, and his choice is on full display in this book. It is said that the ultimate destination of every journey is to return home a better person. But this work leaves the impression that, had the author stayed on his perch at the American University, watching the BBC and CNN, he would not have missed much. (CKL)
      

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