Book Reviews

The zoo in my Backyard

Navmi Krishna’s Review: “The Zoo in My Backyard”

  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.

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In-Pursuit-of-Justice

In Pursuit of Justice by the late Justice Rajindar Sachar

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

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The Brass Notebook

The Brass Notebook by Devaki Jain (Foreword by Amartya Sen)

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

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Azadi

Romi Mahajan’s Review: Arundhati Roy’s “Azadi”

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

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Dispossession without Development

Dr. Nikhil Deb’s Review: “Dispossession without Development: Land Grabs in Neoliberal India”

  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

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Breaking Through

Vinay Sitapati’s Review: “Breaking Through”

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,

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Pind: Portrait of a Village in Rural Punjab by Harkaran Gill

“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

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