Book Review Bulletin October 2007

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SOCIAL SCIENCES AND TRADE REVIEW BULLETIN October 2007

Sociology/Religion/Politics Not just an urban phenomenon Religious Division and Social Conflict: The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in Rural India Peggy Froerer ‘This is a carefully analysed and well-written ethnography which provides an excellent lens into grassroots processes by which Hindu nationalism becomes entrenched in rural areas. It deserves a wide audience since it cautions against the facile assumption that the Hindutva movement is merely an urban phenomenon and that it will soon disappear due to its electoral defeat.’ Prema A. Kurien THE HINDU, 2 October 2007

Sociology/ Demography/ Gender Studies Still a long way to go The Enigma of the Kerala Woman: A Failed Promise of Literacy Swapna Mukhopadhyay ‘According to this study, despite higher educational levels, women in Kerala have a lower status, lower work participation rates and more stressed out lives than women in many other states.[The author] was perplexed by the disjoint between the relatively higher educational achievements of women in the State, on the one hand, and manifestations of old-fashioned patriarchy on the other, exemplified by higher recorded crime rates against women, high incidence of domestic violence (despite lower reporting rates), increasing female foeticide and a gradual erosion of their property rights. In this book she, along with researchers from the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, and Calcutta University, examines the seeming paradoxes of the Kerala situation, by looking for a possible association between individual life characteristics, including education, and psychological indicators of well being.’ Cavery Bopaiah THE HINDU, 18 September 2007

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New Perspectives in South Asian History History/ Culture Studies Reproductive Health in India: History, Politics, Controversies Sarah Hodges Old Potions, New Bottles: Recasting Indigenous Medicine in Colonial Punjab, 18501945. Kavitha Sivaramakrishanan ‘For better or worse, the story of colonial medicine has generally been the familiar imposition of 'modern' Western medical regimes on previously timeless non-western traditions. In turn, the scholarly assessments of this legacy are usually benchmarked along the extent of influence and control of the colonial state, or its specific public health institutions. Despite the critical insights generated, the historiographical directions of colonial medicine are still largely dependent on the perspectives of medical and public health officials taken from official records. The various articles in Reproductive Health in India, edited by Sarah Hodges, and Kavita Sivaramakrishnan's Old Potions, New Bottles, seek to refocus the lens on the negotiations of non-state subjects with Western medical discourses.’ Kai Khiun Liew WELLCOME HISTORY Issue 34 Reproductive Health in India: History, Politics, Controversies Sarah Hodges ‘This edited volume seeks to address the commonly held presupposition in the literature on reproduction, that pre-modern Indian women were agents of backwardness, in contrast to their counterparts. By focusing on the period from the 1850s to the 1950s, the book traces the change in the tenor of discussions on reproductive health, from the fixing of responsibility for the alarming rates of maternal and infant mortality on the traditional midwife or dai to proposals promoting national efficiency by the time of Indian independence. The papers show that while actors and campaigns changed over the course of these hundred years, reproduction as a site for reform constant.’ Mridula Ramanna MEDICAL HISTORY, 51(3) July 2007

Orient Longman Old Potions, New Bottles: Recasting Indigenous Medicine in Colonial Punjab, 18501945. Kavitha Sivaramakrishanan ‘Kavita Sivaramakrishnan's new book is definitely the most comprehensive and eloquent statement ... not only does she see ‘tradition’ as being ‘re-negotiated’ in the nineteenth century, but indeed, she uncovers a fascinating series of overlaps between these renegotiations and a range of issues such as the various nationalisms (Hindu, Muslim and Sikh), language controversies (Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi) and movements for religious reform (Arya Samaj, Khalsa, Santanist, etc). Sivaramakrishnan deftly knits in all these narratives within a framework familiar to social historians as the ' patron-client' model. The great merit of this work, in our view, is its refusal to see medical history as an arcane exercise in documenting the developments within the 'indigenous' medical world alone...its intellectual sophistication and insight remain unparalleled by any of its contemporary rivals by a long way.’ Projit Bihari Mukharji SOCIAL SCIENTIST Vol 35/ Nos 5-6 May-June 2007

Religion The Intimate Other: Love Divine in Indic Religions Anna S. King and John Brockington, eds. ‘In keeping with the DHIIR’s (Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic Religions) educational mandate, the various authors have generally adopted an accessible tone, and the volume as a whole will find a well-deserved place on many a college reading list. The best of the papers reflect distillations of profound scholarship, delivering poised overviews and new perceptions with lightness and clarity. In this regard there is no better starting place than the first essay in the collection, where John Brockington’s discussion of “The epics in the bhakti tradition” supplies the depth of field that is essential to a reading of medieval devotional texts, while also showing how perceptions of the epics and their supposed authors have been viewed retrospectively through the lenses of these medieval traditions themselves. Brockington’s achievement of what might be called “summary without dilution” is reflected in some of the papers also.’ BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES,

Rupert Snell Vol 70/2 2007

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International Politics/Peace Studies Space, Territory and the State: New Readings in International Politics Ranabir Samaddar, ed. ‘The discipline of International Relations has come under increasing criticism for the past many years from authors adhering to post-modernism. The present volume is a welcome addition to such literature. The subaltern theme is where the book provides a balanced view between the approaches to the two regions as almost every contributor to the volume has deliberated on the history of dominated and oppressed peoples. All contributions on South and Central Asia comment on the local and indigenous people being underrepresented and relegated to the periphery of world history.’ Farhan Hanif Siddiqi CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIA

Polity India at the Polls: Parliamentary Elections in the Federal Phase M .P. Singh and Rekha Saxena ‘Singh and Saxena’s book examines the transition of India’s federal polity, from the oneparty dominance of the Congress party in the 1950s to the coalitional government headed by a right-wing Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the new millennium. The book has sought to explore and analyse the various trends that has made it possible for India’s federal pattern to survive and prosper in spite of seemingly diverse social and political cleavages and the transformations that have been wrought in more contemporary times.’ ‘Overall, the book is highly readable and explains in persuasive tones the changing contours of federalisation in Indian politics. The book will be particularly appealing to scholars and academic experts specialising in electoral studies in general and that of South Asian politics in particular.’ Mohammed Badrul Alam CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIA

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Language/Culture Studies Hindi Nationalism Alok Rai ‘The book is part of the Tracts for the Times series edited by Neeladri Bhattacharya. The aim of the series is to offer critical perspectives on themes pertinent to contemporary India. Honoring this commitment, Rai’s exploration of the politics of language from colonial times up to the present, in particular the nationalist claims of Hindi, is an appropriate and welcome addition to the series. Rai begins his tract with the aim of revisiting the set of debates concerning language within the context of Indian nationalism and British colonial rule, in order to clear the way for new solutions for more democratic possibilities of language use in India.’ Rama Sundari Mantena CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIA

Public Administration Public Accountability and Transparency: The Imperatives of Good Governance Madhav Godbole ‘The book under review highlights the importance of public accountability and transparency in promoting good governance, exploring how laws and institutions can best foster such accountability in India. It offers a comprehensive account of governance problems in India and examines a wide range of issues. Its originality lies not only in pointing out significant gaps in rhetoric and reality, but also in proposing agendas for legal and institutional reforms for ensuring good governance. Although the book is written for an Indian context, it is useful for policy makers, academics and experts of other South Asian countries, which share common problems of governance.’ Abdullah Al Faruque SOUTH ASIA RESEARCH Vol.27 (2): 237-247

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Sociology/Politics The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India’s Future Martha C. Nussbaum ‘BEGINNING with the chilling facts of the Godhra carnage of 2002, Nussbaum amplifies the calculated nature of the genocide unleashed by Hindu fanatics and the complete breakdown of law and order in the economically prosperous state of Gujarat .She points to the fast paced industrialization and urbanization, of ‘quality of life issues’, the rise of ‘conservative’ Patels and the emphasis on technical rote learning over critical thinking as some of the reasons for an upsurge of Hindu fundamentalism in the state. Ironically, Samuel Huntington’s analysis of political decay attending certain kinds of economic development comes to mind here. But Nussbaum is preoccupied with challenging Huntington’s ‘clash of civilizations’ prophecy with the idea of the ‘clash within’ all modern nations (heightened in today’s India) between people who are prepared to live with and respect difference and those seeking homogenous nationhood.’ Vasanthi Srinivasan SEMINAR 576- August 2007

Diaspora Studies Diaspora Down the Centuries Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World Tony Ballantyne ‘This volume, using rich sources and rigorous methodology, offers a refreshing and innovative interpretation of Sikh historiography. The author critically examines a wide range of primary sources: from colonial sources to non-conventional sources such as film, sculpture, art, fiction, and the internet, which have been largely ignored so far, in order to provide new perspectives on the Sikh past. Use of alternative sources gave him leverage to cover a wide cultural spectrum— ranging from the history of the Indian army to the ‘bhangramuffin’ of Apache Indian. Thus, Ballantyne sends a strong signal that it is high time to elevate Sikh historiography from the narrow cauldron of religion and politics to a broad diasporic cultural terrain to have a more nuanced understanding of the Sikhs and Sikhism.’ Pralay Kanungo THE BOOK REVIEW 11, August 2007

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Literature in Translation Sand and Other Stories Ashokamitran N. Kalyan Raman and Gomati Narayanan, trans. My Years with Boss at Gemini Studios Ashokamitran ‘Ashokamitran is possibly the best known of modern Tamil writers outside Tamil Nadu. This is almost certainly because he is the most widely translated and anthologized of contemporary Tamil authors. He has been a prolific short story writer, and his novels are short, often no more than novellas, as in this collection which brings together Sand (Manal, 1974), Malati (Malati, 1981), and Those Two (Iruvar, 1993). The collection is intriguing, both for the way a similar theme is handled in different ways in the first two stories, and for the juxtaposition of these two earlier stories with the third, very different one. Ashokamitran is also master of a deceptively simple and understated style. He will often light upon exactly the right detail– baby clothes drying on a makeshift clothes-line, a small poster tucked away among giant hoardings – which brings a whole scene to life. And most particularly there is his wryness of observation, a comic vision which highlights the absurdities and ironies of the everyday, and counterpoints the undertow of tragedy in his stories. The second book under review is ravishing both for itself, and also because of the light it throws on much of Ashokamitran’s fiction. For his years with Gemini and Vasan were to be a storehouse, providing Ashokamitran with insights, characters and stories – about aspiring actors and successful ones, tiger-impersonators, monster-impersonators, tycoons as well as people on the margins of the film industry, desperate to eke out a living.’ WASAFARI

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Economics Discussing ‘Inclusive Growth’ Ahead of Its Time Inclusive Growth: K N Raj on Economic Development Edited by Asoka Mody ‘This collection brings together a selection of K N Raj's essays on various aspects of India's economic development in the post-independence period published in the Economic Weekly and Economic and Political Weekly. Though only a fraction of his writings on development issues, it brings out the wide range of issues that he studied, his breadth of perspective, and the clarity and insightfulness of his analysis. His work covers both macro-economic aspects of development strategy and policy as well as specific aspects, notably agrarian structure and land reform, conceptual and measurement rural unemployment, India's cattle economy, decentralisation and the impact of structural changes in the world economy for developing countries. In all these areas his work generated lively scholarly debates and provided a rich stimulus for researchers.’ A. Vaidyanathan ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY July 28, 2007

Gandhi Studies In the name of the father In the Tracks of the Mahatma: The Making of a Documentary Edited by A. K. Chettiar and introduced by A. R. Venkatachalapathy; translated from the Tamil by S. Thillainayagam Harilal Gandhi: A Life Edited by Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal and translated from the Gujarati by Tridip Suhrud. ‘These two books come at the start of a series entitled Gandhi Studies overseen by Ashis Nandy, Trdidip Suhrud himself, and Thomas Weber of La Trobe University in Australia, so underscoring the global popularity of and interest in the Gandhian solution. The series inscription is to Gandhi’s “unique practices” being as much part of his politics as his spiritual life, and for that reason the series holds to no particular view of Gandhi preferring instead to investigate all possible dimensions.

Orient Longman At first sight, these two books have little in common apart from being translated into English from their original languages but, upon reflection, they push into two quite different but related aspects of the Gandhi life: the public and the private. A further embellishment there is that they by definition raise more questions about the distance between reality and symbol.’ Brian Stoddart BIBLO July-August 2007

Life of a Son and the Making of a Film ‘So cathartic indeed is the impact of Chandulal Dalal’s life of Harilal Gandhi that one is persuaded to compare it rather lamely with the passion and grief of Greek tragedy. The tragic developments in Harilal’s life played out in the shadows of the Mahatma’s superhuman moral growth belong to the realm of literature even as they stem from the aspirations and frustrations of the mortal world. For one, In the Tracks of the Mahatma: The Making of a Documentary defies all norms of literary categorization. Neither a memoir nor a travelogue, though it has some features of both, it could be described as possessing a certain picaresque quality … Anecdotal, episodic, obstinately non-linear, the book is densely informative and full of a kind of boyish zest. It reports freely of the famous and powerful with candidness and humour; deeply reticent and modest, the author effaces himself from the narrative allowing the process of making the documentary to occupy centre stage.’ Rohini Mokashi-Punekar THE BOOK REVIEW September 2007

Fathers and Sons Harilal Gandhi: A Life By Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal edited and translated from the Gujarati by Tridip Suhrud ‘One of the greatest advantages of reading this translation of Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal’s Gujarati biography is that there is no attempt to interpret the relationship in terms of pseudo-theories. Without being judgmental, Dalal shows that Gandhi was unintentionally indifferent to his eldest son in the early years. In his letters home in the early 1890s, he rarely enquires about Harilal. We also learn some of the lesser-known facts of Gandhi’s professional career in the 1890s.’ Parsa Venkateswara Rao Jr. SWAGAT August 2007

Orient Longman Retrieving a Vision Gandhi is Gone. Who Will Guide Us Now? Nehru, Prasad, Azad, Vinibha, Kripalani, JP, and Others Introspect Sevagram, March 1948 Edited by Gopalakrishna Gandhi and translated from Hindi by Gopal Gandhi and Rupert Snell. ‘The book belongs to a separate genre. Compared to other books on Gandhism after Gandhi, which primarily deal with stories of struggles by individual Gandhians and their movements, the present documentation, of a crucial historical moment, seeks to rift apart the oft-assumed monolith of Gandhism by focusing on trials and tribulations, fears and anxieties, of the individuals who tried in their own ways to give expression through their work the spirit and essence of Gandhism.’ Suparna Gooptu THE STATESMAN 30 September 2007

History/Colonial Studies Keeping track 27 Down: New Departures in Indian Railway Studies Edited by Ian J. Kerr ‘The papers demonstrate the force of Kerr’s argument. Ranging from literature to films, from economics to commerce, covering management and labour, they describe the impact of railways and their significance in interpreting many different aspects of Indian history. Yet for all their impact the railways did not achieve what Karl Marx prophesied they would–they did not hasten the industrialization of India. 27 Down makes it abundantly clear that the railways of the Raj were at best a mixed blessing for Indians. They were certainly not constructed with Indians in mind nor were Indians allowed to manage them. The fact that the railways now serve India so well goes greatly to the credit of the Indian managers who have shown there was no need for all those Europeans. What’s more 27 Down suggests that India would have been a very different place in 1947 if the British had allowed Indians to exploit the railways’ full potential to develop the economy.’ Mark Tully BIBLO July-August 2007

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History/Colonial Studies Guilt-ridden historiography The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain Nicholas B. Dirks Decentering Empire: Britain, India and the Transcolonial World Edited by Durba Ghosh and Dane Kennedy ‘What used to be read four decades ago in the writings of Ram Gopal, Brijen Gupta, John Gurney and others on the British conquest of Bengal and the Carnatic, and of Dame Lucy Sutherland and Peter Marshall on the social moorings of this phenomenon in 18th– century Britain itself, has been served up again, albeit in a different form, now all synthesized afresh, the argument recast, and with the important add-on of how this conquest was rationalized. Every British schoolboy must now read this history once again, less to recall the greats to mind, for praise or for censure, and more to understand the moral underpinnings of contemporary empires and our own responses to these. As may be gathered from the list of contents, the contributions range over a wide, wide field of study, indeed, including different colonies and time periods as well, from the mid-18th century to the mid-20th. ... If then “Empire” stands decentred at all in this volume it is because of the many theatres of its manifestation and not because of the presumed absence of a strong causative metropolitan dynamic that lay at the heart of Empire.’ Majid H. Siddiqi BIBLO July-August 2007

Social Medicine/Development Studies Triumph of the survival spirit Peculiar People, Amazing Lives: Leprosy, Social Exclusion and Community Making in South India James Staples ‘This book is an excellent study. With first-hand accounts, use of informants, and indepth study of leprosy and those affected by it, the author paints a different picture of the issue than what traditional notions teach. In short, it brings out the beauty of the human survival instinct and embraces a community that has always been misunderstood.’ Archana K Sudheer BIBLO July-August 2007

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History/Culture Studies Modern Times Picturing the Nation: Iconographies of Modern India Edited by Richard H. Davies ‘Picturing the Nation explores visual representations of India from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries, and thought the concept of the nation is largely a western construct, offers the readers desi versions of imagination and analyses of the same. Consciously differing from writings where imagining the nation is a predominantly verbal and discursive activity, the book presents a visual history of modern India.’ Somdatta Mandal THE STATESMAN 2 SEPTEMBER 2007

Agriculture Issues of Agricultural Development Science, Agriculture and the Politics of Policy: The Case of Biotechnology in India Ian Scoones ‘Ian Scoones in his study on the development of biotechnology industry in India and its relevance to agriculture analyses the politics of policy making and the manner in which policy decisions get made in crucial areas which impact millions of people. The study is based on interviews with people working in industry, NGO workers, government officials, journalists, academics and farmers. … The book has clearly brought out the role of the public agencies in giving a direction and finally disseminating the use of biotechnology.’ Shakti Kak THE BOOK REVIEW September 2007