Images of Africa
Archana Shastri
African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat
Eds Kenneth X Robbins and John McLeod. Mapin Publication. Pages 224. Rs 2500.
THE book is a chequered and prismatic compilation of illustrated writings by specialists in history, numismatics, architecture and art history of South Asia. In a country given to varying shades from light to dark skin tones, identifying an African is no simple a task. With dominant cross-cultural influences, identification of an African Muslim from that of an Indian Muslim is equally challenging.

India twinkles
Peeyush Agnihotri
Planet India
by Mira Kamdar. Scribner International. Pages 320. Rs 395.
Rising sun in the backdrop of changing Indian skyline casting a rippling reflection of Mughal-period monument on the water-body below! This stimulating illustration on the cover of the book, Planet India, like the content within, brings to the fore India’s transition from being a "land of snake charmers" to a super power with wings spread wide.

Books received: ENGLISH

Integrated solutions
Rachna Singh
Brand Bollywood: A New Global Entertainment Order
by Derek Bose. Sage Publications. Pages 226. Rs 325.
A reality show on U.K. Television turned Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty into a global celebrity overnight. This could happen only in the techno-savvy world of today, which is heading for a multiple media fusion. Until a few years back, cinema, television, radio or the mobile phone were considered disparate media, functioning in their own separate spheres.

Love, freedom and silence
Kuldip Dhiman
Nirvana in Candrakirti’s Prasannapada: A Study in the Madhyamika Concept of Nirvana in the Context of Indian Thought
by G.C. Nayak. Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2006. Pages 107. Rs 200.
History has seen many revolutions that aimed to usher in an ideal state where all would be happy. All such political, economic and religious revolutions failed in their aim, and will continue to fail because changing the external conditions alone does not lead to happiness. Until the inner core of the individual undergoes a qualitative change, a person would be unhappy even in a ‘Utopia’.

Tortuous history
R.L. Singal
Partners of British Rule: Liberators or Collaborators?
by Mohinder Singh Pannu. Allied Publishers, New Delhi. Pages 856. Price not stated.
THE sub-title of the book sums up in two words, liberators or collaborators, the author’s crucial query which he himself seems to answer—collaborators. According to the author, the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League and their allied political groups seemingly fighting for the country’s independence were in fact partners of the British rule.

Fiction moulded by truth
The Edge of Time, the English translation of Tembare, is not only a fine work of imagination but a product of deep research in folklore and anthropology, writes M.P. Yashwanth Kumar
The Edge of Time
by M. Veerappa Moily Translated by C.N. Ramachandran from Tembare Rupa. Pages 230. Rs 295
Bhutaraadhane, the ritual worship of holy spirits, known as bhutas, in Tulunadu (coastal Karnataka), constitutes the backdrop of M. Veerappa Moily’s novel The Edge of Time. The headquarters of the district (Dakshina Kannada) is at Mangalore. It is primarily an agricultural region wedged between the sea and the western ghats.

EXTRACT
In quest of cosmic particles
Biman Basu
Back at TIFR Yash Pal had very good graduate students and collaborators. Among them were Ramnath Cowsik, Shyam Tandon, R.P. Verma, T.N. Rengarajan, and many others. One of his first students was K. Babu who went to Caltech, did his PhD in theoretical physics and then shifted to molecular biology. Yash Pal hesitates to call them his students.

History in a living tradition
 Ashish Alexander

  • Origin of Christianity in India – A Historiographical Critique
    by Benedict Vadakkekara. Media House. Pages 384. Rs 395

  • Divine Experience – An Inquiry into the Charismatic Renewal
    by Dr Jacob Kaniyaraseril. Media House. Pages 280. Rs 150

Back of the book

  • Mirage
    by Kokilam Subbiah. Orient Longman Pages 200. Rs 230

  • Wicked
    by Gregory Maguire, Headline Review Pages 495. £ 3.25

  • Spirit Willing Flesh Weak
    by Julie Cohen Little Black Dress Books. Pages 276. £ 2.25

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