Revisiting Gandhi
R. L. Singal
Gandhi, Gandhism and the Gandhians
by Thomas Weber.
Roli Books, New Delhi.
Pages 361. Rs 395.
This book by Thomas Weber, a well-known researcher on Mahatma Gandhi’s life, ideas and legacy, consists of 12 papers—four each on Gandhi, Gandhism and Gandhian, already published in different journals. Now, they have been collectively published in the form of this book for those interested in Gandhian lore.

The Great Indian Elections
Shastri Ramachandaran
India’s 2004 Elections: Grass-roots and National Perspectives
Ed. Ramashray Roy & Paul Wallace Sage. Pages xvi+341. Rs 720.
This is the third volume on Indian politics and elections by the two distinguished editors whose scholarship commands respect and attention. The first collection Indian Politics and the 1998 Elections: Regionalism, Hindutva and State Politics was followed by India’s 1999 Elections and 20^th Century Politics.

Dilemma of Indian immigrants
Manju Joshi
Bye-Bye Blackbird
by Anita Desai. Orient Paper Backs.
Pages 224. Rs 175.
Anita Desai delves deep into the psyche of her characters. The writer aims at truth, and there in lies her success. Bye-Bye Blackbird, her third novel, published in 1971, examines the plight of Indian immigrants in London.

Manage with trust
Amarinder Sandhu
Sociology of Organisation
by Jaspal Singh. Kanishka
Publisher, New Delhi. Pages 250. Rs 595.
From the perspective of a functionalist, organisations are viewed as systems made up of interdependent parts. A society cannot develop without organisation. The various parts of an organisation and the relationship between the parts contribute to the effective working of the system as a whole. Thus, in the fast globalising world, organisation is needed. Organisation is a concept and organisation as a socio-cultural phenomenon is multi-disciplinary.

Restless man of letters
Kashmiri Lal Zakir
Fifteen years ago, I met Munir Niazi in an Indo-Pak Mushaira jointly organised by the Haryana Urdu Akademi and the Sham-e-Bahar Trust, Ambala Cantonment. But I knew him before that through his ghazals that often appeared in the leading magazines of Pakistan. At that time, books and magazines from Pakistan were easily available in India. Therefore, writers from both the sides knew what was being written in poetry and prose.

Terms of eco-friendly trade
J. Sri Raman
Environmental Requirements and Market Access: Reflections from South Asia.
Ed. Nagesh Kumar and Sachin Chaturvedi, Academic Foundation. Pages 264. Rs. 695.
No aspect of national or international life has remained the same after the emergence of environmentalism and through its rapid growth in the recent period. Just three decades ago, no one expected green politics to acquire a great political role in the West or a Medha Patkar to make even a slight but significant difference to Indian politics.

Happy ending to Ian McEwan story
John Walsh
The Comfort of Strangers ended with the double murder of an English couple in Venice. At the end of The Child in Time, the little girl abducted in the opening chapter stays unsaved. His Booker Prize-winning Amsterdam ends with the mutual murder of two friends, Clive and Vernon. Enduring Love closes with the death of the love-crazed stalker in the grip of de Clerambaut’s Syndrome. It would, frankly, be difficult to confuse any of McEwan’s moody, troubling works with Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

Spiritual lessons
Arun Gaur
Reflections in a Sacred Pond
by Murad Ali Baig.
Tara Press, New Delhi.
Pages 217. Rs 295.
It is a difficult (and thankless) mission that Murad Ali Baig has taken up in this book. Difficult not in the sense that it is anything like a remarkable research work, but in the sense that it surveys the Indian history and presents comments on well known sensitive issues in such a way as to easily invite adverse reactions from almost all the sections of society.

Back of the book
Nuremberg: Evil On Trial
by James Owen
Headline Review
Pages 376. £12.99
At Nuremberg, the Nazis’ leaders took the stand for greatest trial in history... The end of the Second World War presented the Allies — Britain, France, Russia and the United States — with a very large and contentious problem. What to do with the surviving members of a regime that had brought death and misery to millions?

Development Under Stress: Sri Lankan Economy in Transition
by Saman Kelegama
Sage. Pages 305. Rs 850.
My Fabulous Divorce
by Clare Dowling
Headline Review.
Pages 468. £6.99

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