Reviews of the latest books from and on Southasia

Why I Supported the Emergency:
Essays and profiles by Khushwant Singh
compiled and edited by Sheela Reddy
Penguin/Viking, 2009

This compilation is Khushwant Singh at his iconoclastic best. Irreverent, straight from the gut, the grand old man of Indian journalism is still going strong at 94. His essays on the travails of the aged, kissing, death and dying, rub shoulders with scathing comments on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and sting operations. Strangely, a comment on the anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat in 2002 is conspicuously absent, though. Witty portraits of Nehru, Sir Vidia, Amrita Sher-gil, Jinnah, Aveek Sarkar and Protima Bedi reveal poignant vulnerabilities of high-profile newsmakers. No punches are pulled, even about icons of our times. Khushwant Singh calls Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore "a mere songwriter" and overrated as a writer, and claims that no one dared to say so because Bengalis immediately took umbrage. And in "*&^% All Editors", the legendary columnist and editor sums up the four F's of the modern media landscape: films, fashion, food and fuck editors. If the title essay is unconvincing – and Singh's legendry support for the Emergency has been long forgotten, save in certain circles – his candour and disarming revelations about that 'obscenity' in Indian democracy more than make up. (Laxmi Murthy)

Hindu Kingship, Ethnic Revival, and Maoist Rebellion in Nepal
by Marie Lecomte-Tilouine
Oxford, 2009

Ever since Nepal's Maoists promised the right of self-determination to ethnic groups as an incentive to enlist their support for armed insurgency, the country has been wracked by a million mutinies. Communities across the country are asserting their distinctiveness through rediscovered markers and invented traditions. Marie Lecomte-Tilouine has observed this process of identity-formation in the midhills of western Nepal for years, and her anthropological observations, rigorous analyses and deep insights have now been collected in book form.

The volume presents the story of the complex relationship that existed between the Hindu kingship and the ethnic communities of the hills, an association decoupled by the Maoists with the force of the bayonet. The author explores how the self needs the other for assurance of its existence, but finds it necessary to outwit the competitor in every sphere including customs, legends, folklores and myths. To quote one of Lecomte-Tilouine's Magar interlocutors, "Cow dung, for us, is very pure, but for forest spirits, it is shit." In any case, what passes for cow dung in most places is excreta of the ox or, literally, bullshit. But that does not in any way lessen its ritualistic importance.

Even though it is a scholarly treatise, the book abounds with interesting trivia. Did you know that, in Nepal, it is often on land dug up by a wild boar that a hunter sows seed and founds a village? Hindu Kingship is meant primarily for academics, but it is surprisingly engrossing even for lay readers interested in the anthropological dimensions of evolution of republican Nepal. (C K Lal)

Limping to the Centre of the World
by Timeri N Murari
Penguin, 2008

In this log of his 200-km, month-long trek, Timeri Murari writes of the humbling majesty of Mount Kailash, the spiritual centre of the universe for four religions. Limping his way (Murari suffered a bike accident when he was young, affecting his knee) from the sticky sea-level heat of Madras, Murari is spurred by the hope of reaching Lord Shiva's abode to ask that the deity grant his adopted son, Bhima, safe passage in a major surgery he is about to undergo. Perusing this book is made particularly worthwhile by the author's amusing accounts of his bureaucratic encounters and his interactions with fellow travellers, rather than due to the long-winded anecdotes on his spiritual awakening and the vivid landscape he admires. Beginning his journey as a misinformed yatri, Murari aptly describes the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra of 2005, organised by the Indian government, as "spartan, with chaos and confusion". Though making the tale lightly lengthy, Murari backgrounds every segment of his journey with historical, spiritual and cultural details, which makes for an informative read. (Smriti Mallapaty)

Challenge and Strategy: Rethinking India's foreign policy
by Rajiv Sikri
Sage, 2009

As is clear from the beginning, this new work is particularly interested in lambasting US foreign policy – the so-called 'new world order' – since the end of World War II. In the Indian context, the author has also put extensive effort into highlighting and projecting New Delhi's own foreign policy vis-à-vis its neighbours and the world. Even so, however, he does little to bring these two strands, particularly in explaining what exactly this 'new world order' really is. Rather, Challenge and Strategy is a prognosis on how India can rise from its political and economic challenges on the road to becoming a major power. Almost all major powers since the Romans have shown that once they attain prominence in global affairs, there is little that stops them from either 'humanitarian intervention' or fixing 'failed states'. This is the same notion that drives the agenda of multilateral agencies, Sikri points out, where centralised and non-engaging policymaking is intended to be the key to the world's problems. Is this the new world order? We are left merely to wonder. (Shiven Thapa)