Now go get a better world
Reviews by Randeep Wadehra
Science, Spirituality and the future: A Vision of the Twentyfirst Century edited by L.L. Mehrotra. Mudrit, New Delhi. Pages 194. Rs 400.

Apostle of Love: Sri Saipadananda by Rangaswamy Parthasarathy. Sterling, New Delhi. Pages 333. Rs 125.

Taking What Comes: A Biography of AG Stock by Basil Clarke. Publication Bureau, Panjab University, Pages xii + 391. Rs 300.

A Glance at France by KJS Chatrath. Indian Publishers’ Distributors, New Delhi. Pages 323. Rs 495.

Healing Systems by OP Jaggi.Orient Paperbacks, New Delhi. Pages 207. Rs 55.

Atal Baba and forty faces in the fight
by Kuldip Kalia

Faces: Forty in the Fray by Janardan Thakur. Business Publications, Mumbai. Pages 241. Rs 150.

Indian politics is dominated by king-makers, fixers, defectors, unprincipled or unholy alliances with the sole motive of grabbing power and staying in power. In this coalition era, regional parties have gained momentum and play a vital role in shaping the style of governance at the centre. In fact, it has given place to a unique love-hate syndrome.

The book under review throws light on the lives of prominent political leaders. They got prominence because of their acumen in remaining on the political scene. Moreover they have the knack of claiming to be among those personalities who can either govern or hold the key to the political destiny. It also reveals the facts or fictions which helped them cling to power or be near the throne, and unfolds the real face behind the public mask.

It sounds strange but is a fact that Indian politics has the capacity to absorb all kinds of politicians — chameleons or entertainers; moderates or extremists; fundamentalists or modernists; defectors or loyalists, couriers or rumour-mongers. The players have vastly different ideologies and their personalities are poles apart.

Perhaps the biggest ever blunder committed by Farooq Abdullah was shaking hands with Rajiv Gandhi to regain the “gaddi”. That action made him not only unpopular but in the process he also lost his fighting image. Some even branded him as a “stooge” of the Central Government. None trusted him. In his state, the people looked upon him as an agent of Pakistan.

Similarly, when L.K. Advani termed the demolition of the Babri Masjid as “unfortunate” which was virtually a fallout of his Rath Yatra, he missed the chance of becoming Prime Minister despite his militant Hindutva posture. At the same time his contribution to the revival of the BJP and the formation of the “saffron” government in 1996 cannot be ignored.

A.K. Antony has failed to realise that integrity and idealism have no place in politics. In fact, these traits lead one nowhere except to political suicide. This has pushed him into the category of endangered species.

Truly speaking, there is no untouchable in politics. There was a time when the moderate liberal “kakaji” of the landed community, Parkash Singh Badal, could not stand the sight of Sant Bhindranwale. But then militancy gripped Punjab and Badal was put behind the bars, and events drew him to the Akali extremists and he started a dialogue with the father of Bhindranwale in 1984. A copy of Article 25 of the Constitution was burnt but later on he returned to the path of liberalism.

Moreover once known to be close to Tohra, Badal fell out with him and they openly started criticising each other. Like priorities, pledges too change. Mamata Banerjee had taken a pledge that she would not marry till the CPM was voted out in West Bengal. However, as a leader of the Trinamool Congress, she has pledged to throw the Congress into the Bay of Bengal.

Who knows the skill of manoeuvring better than Om Parkash Chautala? Surprisingly, even his partymen did not know how he became the Chief Minister of the state the first time. The thing which they remember is that Devi Lal had called a meeting at his place.

As a shrewd operator, Chautala gave support to the BJP despite the fact that Bansi Lal, his arch rival, was its ally but it was an investment for future. That proved true when he captured the “gaddi” from Bansi Lal with the BJP support.

In contrast to Chautala, there is the urbane, sophisticated, more of a technocrat and less of a politician named P. Chidambaram. Bringing reforms in the bureaucracy is his passion. When forced to leave the Congress, he termed it as a “temporary break”.

Then there is the convent educated and charming Ms Jayalalitha who rode to prominence because of her association with M.G. Ramachandran. She had joined politics reluctantly and, at one stage when a DMK member tried to pull her sari in the Assembly, she had thought of quitting politics. Later a time came when she directed the Governor to address her as “Puratchi Thalaivi”.

George Fernandes is said to have the unique quality of saying the wrong thing at the worst possible time. Like his statement on China, tirade against Admiral Bhagwat, and the confusing and conflicting arguments on the Kargil affair. However his capacity for surviving in the political jungle is amazing.

In politics, limits can never be fixed. Deve Gowda had no intention of stepping beyond the borders Karnataka but destiny made him Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy when he was not even an elected member of parliament. He did not have any charisma or charm. Moreover dozing off at public functions and meetings was his trade mark.

Who can forget the so-called “Chanakya” of the South. K. Karunakaran never deserted Indira Gandhi even at her worst time. The Rajan case (during the Emergency) forced him to resign but he had the capacity to rise from the ashes. Outwardly, he proclaimed loyalty to Narasimha Rao but did every bit to get him removed as party president. Surprisingly, both of them owe much to each other. Rao believed that he had played a significant role in making him Prime Minister and Karunakaran thought that Rao stood by him at the time of a crisis (when he met with an accident).

There is no permanent enemy or friend in politics. M. Karunanidhi claimed to have made M.G. Ramachandran a hero of the people of Tamil Nadu. Later they fell out and MGR floated the AIADMK. Meanwhile the DMK’s criticism of Indira led to the dismissal of the DMK government. In 1977, Indira Gandhi made an alliance with the AIADMK. However, she shook hands with Karunanidhi in 1980.

There are different forms of expressing loyalty or solidarity with a particular party or personality. Perhaps the worst form is to declare oneself a “chaprasi”, as Bansi Lal did to please Indira Gandhi. It is destiny which is the greatest deciding factor. The man (Bansi Lal) who once created terror was paraded in handcuffs through the streets of his hometown Bhiwani. Even Indira dropped him when she found Bhajan Lal more useful. On certain occasions, Devi Lal used him.

One must know the art of maintaining personal equation from G.K. Moopanar because nobody ever seems to hold anything against him. Similarly connections often matter more than the ability to climb the political ladder. Who can tell you better about this than Chandrababu Naidu? The right choice of father-in-law played the trick in his life.

Statements often put a person in trouble. Remarks like “In America, rape is as common as drinking tea” made E.K. Nayanar pay a heavy price politically. Having ambitions in life is a good thing but how could one like Ram Vilas Paswan think himself to be the new Babasaheb Ambedkar and dream of becoming India’s first Dalit Prime Minister?

Similarly playing with words is the game which helped Pawar to worship power. At one stage he did not like the post of general secretary of the Congress because it was nothing but being one of the chaprasis but when he switched over to Congress from Congress (S), suffixes became irrelevant for him.

Rajeshwar Prasad became Rajesh Pilot because of his brief stint in the Indian Air Force. He is in a hurry to become Prime Minister but desperately in search of a tree to climb.

How can you stop sycophants like Arjun Singh who never failed to remind the public that “his politics begins and ends at the doorsteps of Indira Gandhi” and did not feel tired of praising Rajiv Gandhi, equating his virtues with the Buddha, Vivekanand, Tilak and Nehru?

The person who is always within the “striking range” of Prime Ministership is Subramaniam Swami. Atal Behari Vajpayee is projected as the future of India and the ground reality which the BJP has accepted is that the campaign has to be built around him for its survival.

Bal Thackeray believes that “threat works faster” than anything else and crudeness leads to greater popularity. Mulayam Singh Yadav is another name for adopting styles and strategies of the wrestling more. He has the unique quality of joining and quitting more political parties than one can easily recall.

Then there are other stalwarts like Laloo Prasad Yadav and Gurcharan Singh Tohra who know how to rule the roost.

The author has revealed several anecdotes which the public at large may relish.

Now go get a better world
by Randeep Wadehra

Science, Spirituality and the future: A Vision of the Twentyfirst Century edited by L.L. Mehrotra. Mudrit, New Delhi. Pages 194. Rs 400.

FOR ages now saints, seers, ascetics and yogis have been trying to find means to forge harmony between spiritual and temporal realms. Solutions, practical and easy to follow, as well as esoteric and impractical, have been offered from time to time. In modern times, Gandhi demonstrated how it is possible to discharge one’s worldly duties without compromising on spiritual pursuits.

Today the Dalai Lama, the monk-statesman, is trying to attune man’s materialistic aspirations with his spiritual needs through “ahimsa, maitri and karuna”. Constructive social action coupled with positive human behaviour can have beneficial effects on humanity that is wallowing in pain, confusion and misery. The Dalai Lama points out that despite gaining freedom, most nations are buffeted by ethnic and religious tensions that promise a new harvest of conflicts.

Yuichi Kajiyama points out that unlike monotheistic religions like Islam and Christianity, Buddhism does not believe that God created man in his own image. It propagates the idea that man is only one of the six sentient beings — denizens of hell, hungry ghosts, animals, evil spirits, human beings and celestial beings. Some Buddhist sects omit evil spirits and recognise only five sentient beings. Nevertheless, they are unanimous that we transmigrate from one realm to another according to our deeds.

Michael Kirby, however, points out that ahimsa is not confined to Asia, nor is it specific to Buddhism. The Rev, Martin Luther King Jr used nonviolence to fight racism. Nelson Mandela too eschewed violent tactics while resisting the white supremacist regime in South Africa.

Vandana Shiva, an internationally noted environmentalist, avers that violence is becoming part of our daily life, and our sensibilities are getting immune to the consequent horrors. Diverse species, ecosystems, communities and cultures are being led to extinction or getting mutilated as a violent economic and technological order forces them to adapt to a world without compassion, instead of adapting these instruments of human thought and organisation to ecological limits and human needs. The globalisation process is based on economics and technologies for genocide, which writes off the right of millions of species and people to survival.

Sunderlal Bahuguna sorrowfully points out that the Himalayan region has become violent. Instead of saints and seers praying for peace, one finds men with sophisticated arms sitting inside concrete bunkers. Jarring sounds of destruction have overwhelmed the soothing hymns, the melody of conch shells and temple bells.

If weapons are destroying eco-systems, the instruments of so-called development too have wrought havoc. The worry of environmentalists is not synthetic. Try to imagine the agony of an elephant dying a slow and painful death surrounded by men hacking away at its tusks. How would you feel if someone wrenches your teeth out after stabbing you in the stomach? Precisely. Would you find it far-fetched that even in “civilised” countries like Australia animals — both domesticated and wild — are subjected to untold barbarity.

Due to increasing interdependence between nations, a new global community is emerging to ensure long-term peace and stability, demilitarisation of the planet has become imperative. Towards this end, people should be educated on the advantages of a nonviolent world. A feeling of empathy for others should be patiently cultivated. A sense of universal responsibility needs to be instilled. This will ensure enduring global peace.

No doubt all this sounds utopian in a world where petty issues, bloated egos and vainglorious quests are continuously triggering off violence — both at the micro and macro levels. Yet, it is essential to strive relentlessly for a perfect world. This is the only way to keep the rampaging evil at bay.

C. Kabil Singh notes that according to Buddhist philosophy sila (precepts) controls the body (kaya) and words (vaca). When our hearts are full of compassion there is no need to forbid oneself from killing, stealing, etc. With compassion, sila becomes a natural behaviour. It becomes an adornment that beautifies action.

This book contains a poem by an Australian poet, Keath Walker, which epitomises the universal dream:

Look up my people, the dawn is breaking./The world is walking to a new bright day./Where none to tame us and no/one to blame us./None to shame us, no sneer dismay.

See now the promise, Oh, freedom lover./Heights nearly over and along the climb./New lights meet us, new friendships meet us./Enjoy completely in our new dream times./To our fathers’ fathers’ pain, the sorrow./To our children’s children the bright tomorrow.

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Apostle of Love: Sri Saipadananda by Rangaswamy Parthasarathy. Sterling, New Delhi. Pages 333. Rs 125.

Love is in short supply. Rarer still are the apostles of love. One can count them on one’s fingers... Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, etc. The saint-philosopher Sri Saipadananda Radhakrishna Swamiji is in the same league. He bestowed his benign love on thousands, without discrimination. Bereft of dogmas, free of fanaticism and prejudices and, above all, religious trappings. He stood for spiritual synthesis. Towards this end he advocated shedding of the consciousness of individuality. “To disown individuality is to own universality,” he would observe.

Like his mentor the Shirdi Sai Baba, Saipadananda’s early life is shrouded in mystery. Like the Baba, the Swamiji too believed in unadulterated universal love. He saw no dichotomy between bhakti and temporal pursuits. In fact he considered it irresponsible to shed family ties for the sake of bhakti.

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Taking What Comes: A Biography of AG Stock by Basil Clarke. Publication Bureau, Panjab University, Pages xii + 391. Rs 300.

She was the chairperson of the Oxford University’s Labour Club, Head of the Dhaka University’s Department of English, Reader in Panjab University, Head of Calcutta University’s English Department and much else. Meet Dinah Stock, an intellectual with impressive credentials.

Dinah was initiated into the Labour Party’s ideals at school itself. Later on at Oxford, she joined the university’s Labour Club, and by the first academic year-end she was on its committee. An excellent debater and active worker, she soon made her mark. She became the first woman-chairman in 1924. She lived a mottled life from Bangladesh to Kenya.

The biographer has brought the persona of Dinah Stock alive by placing due emphasis on Dinah the person as well Dinah the professional. Her qualities of head and heart have been duly highlighted.

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A Glance at France by KJS Chatrath. Indian Publishers’ Distributors, New Delhi. Pages 323. Rs 495.

Whenever one talks of France, one conjures up images of the Eiffel Tower, the Riveira, the Cannes films festival, the hi-fashion Parisian society and, of course, the various avant-garde literary, cultural, social and political movements. In certain circles it is considered a must to mix French words in your conversation in order to be accepted in the charmed company of socialities and sophists.

Chatrath has written a curious book. You can’t call it an encyclopedia, a dictionary or a tourist guide. Yet it contains nuggets of information about French history, polity, culture, etc. However, it would have been much better if the author had given detailed accounts of the different aspects of France.

This book contains seeds for several books. One can elaborate on, say, the French literature and come up with an absorbing and informative tome. A bit of disciplined toil is required for such ventures.

Perhaps some budding intellectual might find it useful as a reference book of ideas.

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Healing Systems by OP Jaggi.Orient Paperbacks, New Delhi. Pag-es 207. Rs 55.

Health is increasingly becoming a pipe dream. Modern life-style, work environment and socio-cultural transition are taking a heavy toll of our physical well being. Add to this the almost scant respect for Mother Nature and the cup of misery is full.

Our worldview is so littered with artificialities that we are unable to even perceive our afflictions in a coherent manner. Headache? Pop an aspirin. Body-ache? Take a painkiller. There is no time to reflect on the deeper causes for our ailments... till our body-mechanism breaks down.

According to Ayurveda our body, nay, the universe, consists of five elements called the panchamahabhutas. These are earth, water, fire, air and ether. In the human body these elements are represented in the form of dhatus, doshas, and mallas. If the equilibrium is maintained among the various elements, the body remains healthy.

The author has given information on how yoga, acupuncture, nature cure, unani, faith healing, etc. can be helpful in regaining one’s lost health. These systems can be used both as alternate or complementary therapies vis-a-vis mainstream medical treatment. A handy book for those who believe in alternate medicine.

Balwant Gargi is back, with a salacious offering

BALWANT GARGI is one of the most outstanding writers of Punjabi. Some of his illustrious contemporaries like Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari, Prof Mohan Singh and Sant Singh Sekhon are dead and gone. Though in his eighties, he is still going strong. He is mentally agile, passionately responds to situations, enjoys lively conversation full of light banter which sometimes verges on innocuous slander and is garnished with spicy jokes and tickling touches of irony and satire.

Gargi is a master of prose, sailing smoothly in the vast ocean of language, sometimes executing graceful strokes like a dolphin. He has written over a dozen full-length plays, half a dozen collections of one-act plays, three collections of short stories, about half a dozen collections of literary essays, two long research treatises on drama and two volumes about his own life.

Gargi’s first novel “Kakka Reta” appeared in the early fifties, and now the latest “Juthi Roti” has appeared after a gap of nearly 50 years. In between he has written a lot but surprisingly has not touched the novel form. His autobiographical writing “Nangi Dhupp” (The Naked Triangle) and “Kashani Vehra” (The Purple Nights) has attracted maximum attention of the reading public. Both these volumes read like novel and are notorious for the Gargian touch of irony and satire. He even had to face legal action for some of his controversial remarks which lent more popularity to the books, thus pushing up sales. Gargi likes such controversies that bring him fame and also extra bucks.

When he withdraws to his writerly solitude, he shakes his head with a soft chuckle at the consternation of his “victims”. In fact, his strength lies in his art of teasing without getting himself teased.

In his latest novel “Juthi Roti” (Lokgeet Parkashan, Chandigarh) Gargi portrays the life of two good- looking middle class girls, Shalu and Rozi, who aspire to become film actresses via modelling and hence to become respectable members of the glamour world of consumer society. Shalu becomes an assistant to a rich middle-aged art photographer Parvez who is captivated by her physical assets and ultimately he proposes to her. Reluctantly she marries him.

The initial passion for modelling is lost in the rounds of parties after marriage. The fat ugly photographer would take her to glittering parties and fashion shows organised in the saloons of luxury hotels. Parvez is impotent, Shalu is full of verve and vigour.

Once the initial fun and frolic subside, her life becomes dull and drab. She starts sleeping in the room of her mother-in-law.

After some time, the marriage is nearly on the rocks. There are daily brawls, hurling of invectives, leading to full-scale slanging matches. Shalu leaves her husband’s house and goes back to her mother and finds a job in some modelling agency.

Meanwhile she meets an old friend Rozi who is also living alone and they decide to share an apartment. They hire a flat and make friends with a bunch of boys who spend most of their time drinking, dancing and whoring. Shalu becomes intimate with a big boorish boy, Bobby who now completely possesses her and uses her as he likes. She keeps on changing her modelling job from one agency to another. The endless round of parties with night-long orgies goes on, day in and day out.

Rozy is more successful as a model because of her seductive tricks and compromising nature. One day both girls quarrel and fall out. Rozy leaves Delhi and goes to Mumbai in search of greener pastures. She makes a lot of money there as a high class whore and as a supplier of extras to the film industry.

Bobby as Shalu’s permanent friend intends to marry her. But Shalu is now pennyless. During those very days she learns about Rozy making it big in Mumbai. Once Rozy visits Delhi and she entices Shalu to accompany her to Mumbai which, according to her, is a goldmine for a girl of her appearance. Meanwhile, Bobby, her lover, kills a friend who had come from New York and who tries to rape Shalu. Bobby is arrested and sent to jail for two years. After his release he gets suspicious of his best friend Bhushan as well. He thinks Bhushan also covets Shalu, which does not seem to be all that farfetched.

One evening Bobby arranges a barbecue party at his farm house which is attended only by three of them — Bobby, Bhushan and Shalu. In a fit of jealousy and madness, Bobby shoots Shalu as she is the root cause of all his problems. Shalu is saved though she has to remain in hospital for three months. Bobby is sent to a mental hospital in Agra.

Shalu goes to Mumbai to stay with Rozy after she has recovered from her illness. Rozy introduces her to a fake film producer who agrees to take her as a heroine in his new film. In fact it was a ploy and she is dragged into high class prostitution which she reluctantly acquiesces in. As a high class whore she makes a lot of money and sends it to Bobby’s mother who now has fallen on bad days after her husband’s death and Bobby’s remand to a lunatic asylum. The entire expenditure on Bobby’s treatment is borne by her, who is ultimately completely cured and comes back to Delhi.

Bhushan tells him about Shalu’s fate in Mumbai. Bobby uses the choicest invectives for her immoral life. But when Bhushan tells him about her sacrifice for him, he is dumbfounded. He visits Rozy’s place as a gesture of penitence but is disappointed to learn that Shalu has already left the place leaving a letter for him. She leaves for ever with his memories in her heart.

In this short racy novel in first person narrative Gargi has given a moral turn towards the end to a semi-salacious work. The main character Shalu goes utterly immoral on account of her circumstances yet she keeps alive a hope in her heart to lead a normal life. Every time she decides to make a new beginning, something unusual happens that pulls her back to the old ways.

The narrative reads like Alberto Moravia’s well-known “Woman of Rome”. This is a kind of stuff sold at bus terminals and railway platforms which the reader casually picks up to fight the tedium of a long journey. Of course, such stuff gives a quick return and a momentary thrill without adding anything to the cultural heritage and literary grandeur of a language.

Lokgeet Parkashan, however, has to be complimented for bringing out attractive paperback editions in Punjabi.

Quisling is what Quisling did

ONE of the words that gained currency during the forties was “Quisling” and it was only then that we students realised how words were created and coined from the conduct of men and affairs. The word Quisling became a synonym for treachery. During World War II Vilkun Quisling (1887-1945) had betrayed his country Norway by collaborating with the Germans in their occupation of it. The book under review is “Quisling, A Study of Treachery” by Hans Fredrick Dahl translated from the Norwegian by Anne-Marie Stantanife (Cambridge University Press, pages 452, £30).

Quisling entered the army in 1911 and served as military attache in Petrograd (1918-19) and in Helsinki (1919-1921). He played an important role in relief work in Russia under the famous Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen and later under the aegis of the League of Nations. His work was rated as outstanding and greatly significant.

Had he died in 1927, he would have gone down in history as a man of high integrity, goodwill and a strikingly liberal outlook. In that year he was one of the five famous Norwegians besides playwright Ibsen and explorer Nansen. But, alas! the wheel of fortune turned the other way.

In the absence of diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Soviet Union, he represented the British interest from the Norwegian Legation in Moscow (1927-29). As Minister of Defence he earned notoriety for unleashing repressive measures to crush a strike by hyrdro-electrical workers. He found the going tough. He knew not how to parley or negotiate, and suffered from his belief in his own infallibility. For this unpopular action, he was forced to resign from the government in 1933.

Quisling founded the fascist National Union Party with the objectives of stemming the rising tide of Communism and trade unionism. Despite his political campaign, he did not succeed in entering Parliament. The general opinion was that his political life was over. But fortune smiled on him, and he knew the art of making the best use of opportunities that came his way.

The author emphasises that he had absolutely no reservations in his commitment to Nazism. He collaborated with the Nazis from the day the Germans invaded in April, 1940. He had met Hitler in December, 1939, and pleaded for German occupation of Norway. This his initiative gave rise to the international recognition of “Quisling” as standing for a traitor.

After the German occupation of Norway, he proclaimed himself the head of government. His regime came under bitter attack and collapsed within a week but he continued to serve the occupation government and was named “Minister President” in February, 1942, under Reich Commissioner Josef Terboven.

Thanks to his notoriety, Quisling has been the subject of numerous biographies in several languages, including Norwegian, English, German and French. The author of the present biography had access to a large collection of Quisling papers hitherto unused by scholars. This advantage, which was denied to others has resulted in the publication of an exhaustive two-volume work.

This book is meticulously researched and clearly and effectively written. The study will go down as a standard work on the subject.

Dahl goes into the basic question of why a man of Quisling’s caliber, humanist ideals and so many virtuous qualities did go so very wrong. The author has analysed the question from a psychological angle. During Quisling’s trial the tribunal heard neurological and psychiatric evidence and dismissed the possibility of a clinical disorder or neurological damage changing his behaviour. The author’s conclusion is that there was no correspondence between Quisling’s sweeping ideas, on the one hand, and the ground-level reality, on the other.

Quisling was never an ideological Nazi in specific Hitlerian sense, though his ideas broadly fitted with in what scholars call “generic fascism” and he devoted himself to the German cause in World War II. He defined his philosophy as “universalism” in a 2000-page manuscript, which was reduced to an incomplete and unpublished treatise of a mere 700 pages.

Interestingly, his younger brother, a physician and an academician with a strong literary bent of mind, also completed a massive book — a lengthy tract on his personal philosophy. Such a tendency clearly ran in the family.

Quisling’s attempt to strengthen the National Union Party failed in peace time. The German occupation was a breakthrough. The only part of the party’s policy which corresponded to Hitler’s worldview — a negative one — was the destruction of the Soviet Union. Hitler appreciated Quisling’s loyalty to the German cause. That is why Hitler made him Minister President of an occupation government which enjoyed a greater degree of political autonomy than any other puppet administration under the Nazi imperium.

Quisling failed to enlist the support of the Norwegian people in the promotion of the German cause. Norway’s story in this respect was different from some other defeated and occupied countries. In Norway, Quisling became the object of inveterate hatred and contempt. He was held responsible for sending nearly 1,000 Jews to concentration camps.

During his trial in 1945 Quisling asserted that he had sought to establish an independent Norway (which, according to his own definition, was true enough) and that the crimes of the German occupation force were planned and perpetrated by the Germans themselves. What he failed to explain was that he had placed his regime in the service of a harsh occupation force and helping it carry out many crimes, even though he had sometimes sought to limit them.

By 1945 things reached such a pass that his own prison guards had sworn to murder him should the court impose any sentence short of death by firing squad. After the liberation of Norway in May, 1945, Quisling was arrested, found guilty of, among other crimes, treason and executed.

I think this work is an outstanding biography of some of the heroes and anti-heroes of World War II.