A book with so formidable a scope as Rahul Govind’s The Infinite Double: Persons/Things/Empire/Economy cannot be limited to a critique. And if it’s salutary ethical tonality doesn’t determine its explicit intellectual object while also not being a mere critique of imperialism, then what sort of a book is it?
This is the latest offering of the author, who is the John Hawkes Professor of English and Humanities at Brown University, and the founding co-editor of the journal Post-Colonial Studies. Postcolonial studies represent an academic branch of studies which debunk and challenge western interpretations of thought.
This is a well-written book and goes into some considerable detail on each of the major battles of the 1962 conflict between India and China in both the Eastern and Western Sectors. The narrative is riveting and supported by maps particularly of battles in the Eastern Sector as well as reproductions of photographs of many important personalities and events associated with the conflict culled from multiple sources.