Reviews of the latest books from and on Southasia

Investigative Journalism in China
edited by David Bandurski &
Martin Hala
Hong Kong University Press, 2010

Contrary to the bland title, the eight case studies offered here are written with an eye to such offbeat detail that they quickly take on the pacing of an old-time gumshoe thriller. Here is the journalist happening upon a story (of corruption, of cover-ups, of seedy prostitution rings) that grows and grows. Here is the journalist helped by a stream of helpful lawyers, doctors, witnesses and good Samaritans – and constantly beset by a hideous system embarrassed of its own flaws but seemingly unable to do anything about them.

Of course, the story is more complicated. Since the early 1990s, that system – otherwise known as the Communist Party of China – has actively fostered an increasingly commercialised press. In turn, growing inter-press competition has been an indisputable driving force for the nascent watchdog journalism that does get done. At the same time, the system has attempted to incorporate the press's investigative potential into its own powers. The official idea of yulun jiandu, or 'supervision by public opinion', thus offers a tantalising modus operandi for the press, while simultaneously boxing it into a startlingly problematic situation: if journalists are seen as an extension of state power, how do they report on that power itself?

As it turns out, every journalist, editor and publishing house must individually answer that question. Mostly it seems to come down to not sticking one's neck out before it is time, and understanding that the probable consequences far outweigh the potential rewards. Such 'rules' appear to lead to a lot of self-censorship, at all levels; but they also lead to an incredible tenacity, when the time is right. (Carey L Biron)

The Rozabal Line
by Ashwin Sanghi
Westland, 2010
 
Jesus Christ, an Antichrist, Buddha, Krishna, the Illuminati, the Opus Dei, the Bhagavad Gita, the Quran, the Bible and CIA documents – when all of these are thrown into a pot and stirred in maniacally, they can only produce an indigestible goulash. Swinging dizzyingly from the third century BC to 2012, from Jerusalem to Guatemala, Waziristan to Washington, Sanghi leaves nothing to chance. Everything and everyone, every place and every time is covered. Just in case. While the contemporary relevance of Kashmir and the fictitious Lashkar-e-Talatashar (no marks for guessing who the 13 'chosen ones' are) holds promise in terms of suspense, the temptation to make wild links defeats what little thrill the novel holds. Styling himself as India's answer to Dan Brown, Sanghi's insistence that all momentous events of history (and legend) emanated from and occurred in India would make even the most ardent Indophile weary. The staccato prose – an average of one page per section – seems tailored to readers with short attention spans, trying to finish a novel between commercial breaks. Suggested action: watch television instead. (Laxmi Murthy)

Journal of International Relations 8(1)
edited by Imtiaz Ahmed
University of Dhaka, 2010
 
One of the responsibilities of being an academic is to grapple with theoretical issues that are unlikely to produce immediate or practical results. Since funding for purely intellectual exercises is almost impossible to obtain, academics in much of the developing world tend to spend their energies on consultancies and the like. As such, academic institutions in donor countries have a monopoly on knowledge creation, as there is little to challenge them from states struggling for existence. Academics in Southasia are thus perpetually looking towards their counterparts in the West 'to lend them a paradigm'.

On the flip side, this journal is a sincere effort at creating a Southasian approach to issues that concern us all. The recent volume included eight scholarly papers in addition to book reviews and a synoptic editorial, indicative of the editor's impressive network of contributors. Of course, much here is still debateable: G K Chadha proposes that technology is the biggest challenge for increasing stress on agriculture in the developing world, but fails to explain why the caloric intake of rural Indians declined massively between 1983 and 1998 despite technological advancement. Similarly, the premise of Bahar Baser and Ashok Swain that 'scarcity of resources, underdevelopment, economic necessity, and finally and most importantly violent conflicts in the South force people to leave their homeland and migrate' needs further study, particularly with regards to the role of political economy.

However, the number of questions raised, rather than solutions offered, is the measure of quality in any academic paper. By that yardstick, this volume is a stimulating one. (C K Lal)

Bad Moon Rising:
The Puffin book of mystery stories
Puffin, 2010

A collection of 12 mysteries, about murderers and vampires and werewolves, these stories feature quirky but unexplainable twists that lead to resolutions that completely skip the most important part of the genre: leading the reader through the step-by-step logic of solving the case. Given this collection's intended audience of children, this is an especially unfortunate oversight. The writers seem to have trouble grasping a central idea of the mystery story: writing parallel narratives. Instead, the 'evidence' is pointed out through obvious one-liners, and there's little reading between the lines to be done. Some of the protagonists here are believable, and some of the antagonists – always the most fun characters in such stories – are likewise portrayed fairly well. The latter do lead the reader on a merry, if short, chase. But the stories are notably poor in detail and the type of hidden clues that make good mysteries compulsive reading, for adults as much as for children learning to love the activity. In these stories, the 'whodunit' is simply never much of a mystery. (Amrisha Vaidya)