Reading The Zoo in My Backyard, the first thought that comes to mind is how apt the title is. In just the first few chapters, a black monkey, a baby elephant, a mouse deer, and numerous birds and rabbits have pranced through the pages, kindling amusement, occasional bouts of trepidation, and a heavy dose of nostalgia. […]
Navmi Krishna’s Review: “The Zoo in My Backyard” Read More »
Justice Rajindar Sachar will be most-remembered for having Chaired a committee constituted by the Government of India to document the social and economic condition of Muslims in India. The committee’s report documented their poor condition in devastating detail and included a host of suggestions about the sorts of initiatives that ought to be taken to
In Pursuit of Justice by the late Justice Rajindar Sachar Read More »
The strange title of The Brass Notebook is a nod to Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, and that (in my view, quite inappropriately!) suggests a comparison of the author’s life to brass vessels which were used in Indian kitchens. Was my generation the last to see such vessels in our kitchens, or do such vessels
The Brass Notebook by Devaki Jain (Foreword by Amartya Sen) Read More »
In approximately 5 weeks the United States will hold the most important Presidential election in its short and violent history. Bookmakers and Psephologists alike think of it as a 50-50 proposition. The incumbent Donald Trump has been hinting that the election, whatever the result, will be tainted, rigged and that, as such, he would not
Romi Mahajan’s Review: Arundhati Roy’s “Azadi” Read More »
Dispossession without Development: Land Grabs in Neoliberal India. Michael Levien. Oxford University Press. Reviewed by Dr. Nikhil Deb in the LSE Review of Books blog; used here by permission. In Dispossession without Development: Land Grabs in Neoliberal India, Michael Levien examines how the shift from state-directed capitalism to neoliberalism in India from the 1990s has led to
Who is Fauja Singh? Someone who started as a weakling in childhood, learning to walk only when he was 5 years old, but who went on to become the oldest person to complete a marathon. He broke many records in the process – including, repeatedly, his own. Finally, he became the first 100-year old to
Fauja Singh Keeps Going by Simran Jeet Singh Read More »
Review of Breaking Through by Vinay Sitapati at Scroll A financial journalist, the story goes, called up the residence of Montek Singh Ahluwalia, at the centre stage of economic policy from the 1980s to 2014. These were, not coincidentally, the growth years of the Indian economy, and Ahluwalia was the go to person for businessmen,
Vinay Sitapati’s Review: “Breaking Through” Read More »
“Pind” is the Punjabi word for “village”, and the Punjab is an area divided between India and Pakistan. The word “Punjab” means the land of five waters to signify the five rivers that run through it. PIND: Portrait of a Village in Rural Punjab is a self-published debut photobook, a labour of love, with photographs drawn
Pind: Portrait of a Village in Rural Punjab by Harkaran Gill Read More »
The Gated Republic Review by Rama Bijapurkar Why we are the way we are. The stark commentary is an inquiry into India’s history and politics of public policy, and the anatomy of failure A European anthropologist observed in the 1990s that in India, people are thought of first as consumers and second as citizens and
Rama Bijapurkar’s Review: “The Gated Republic” Read More »
