S.C. Malik

Most seminars based on a broad theme shed some light and create some obscu­rity. This one is no exception. Planned as an open-ended discussion, it studies movements of protest and reform in India over the centuries, directed against things as disparate as ‘slavery, untouch­ability and colonialism’ (in the words of a participant)…


Reviewed by: Narayani Gupta
Mary Tyler

Man’s cruelty to man is unbelievable. But believe one has to, when details come out one after another, of what people undergo in our prisons, where they are supposed to be reformed. After spend­ing ages in prison, they come out· hardened, their hearts darkened more than ever with evil…


Reviewed by: R. Sreekumar
Kishore Gandhi

Reorganization of the education system in India, admittedly inadequate to meet national needs that are constantly getting wider and more complex, has been dis­cussed for long, with many commissions, committees, seminars and conferences con­tributing their learned mite. The volumi­nous Kothari Commission…


Reviewed by: C.N. Chitta Ranjan
I.V. Blanberg

To an ordinary soul it seldom occurs to consider whether his kitchen is polluting the atmosphere or not. Suddenly scien­tists raised the alarm that the future of mankind is at stake. Indiscriminate indus­trialization, atomic wastes, deforestation…


Reviewed by: Kalidas Sikdar
Sachchidanand Sahai

In the last three decades when we have replaced the political-colonial order, our rhythms seek a new formamentis. While the liberated countries are undergoing far ­reaching changes of modernization, they reveal at agility and potential to develop creatively through multilinear processes in which tradition can be a component…


Reviewed by: Lokesh Chandra
Vassilis G. Vitsaxis

No two peoples have influenced men’s ideas and attitudes as much as the Indians and the Greeks have. Much of what is important in Christianity is derived from Greek philosophers, while the bulk of the population in South and East Asia, which accounts for nearly one-third of huma­nity, is sustained by beliefs that are Indian…


Reviewed by: J.P. Uniyal
Anita Desai

ANITA Desai’s latest novel Fire on the Mountain is a distinct let-down. It has many of the qualities that marked her first book, Cry, the Peacock; spare­ness, toughness and fine descriptive writing. But while Cry, the Peacock came off, Fire on the Mountain does not; perhaps because, trying the same trick once too often, Anita Desai achieves sensationalism instead of shock…


Reviewed by: Rajeswari Sunder Rajan
Enakshi Chatterjee

The stories included in this Anthology of Modem Bengali Short Stories, sel­ected and translated by Enakshi Chatter­jee, range from ‘The Music Room’ by Tara Shankar Banerjee, published in 1934, to Kabita Sinha’s ‘The Strange Island’ and Baren Gangopadhyay’s ‘The Hand’, both published in 1966…


Reviewed by: Vasantha Menon
Enakshi Chatterjee

The stories included in this Anthology of Modem Bengali Short Stories, sel­ected and translated by Enakshi Chatter­jee, range from ‘The Music Room’ by Tara Shankar Banerjee, published in 1934, to Kabita Sinha’s ‘The Strange Island’ and Baren Gangopadhyay’s ‘The Hand’, both published in 1966…


Reviewed by: Vasantha Menon
Indu Jain

When Indu Jain published her first collection of poems, titled 64 Poems, I had reviewed it in Hindi and remember to have said that she is a new poetess with promise. Her second collection is now available. I am glad that the promise is fulfilled. She has matured in her expression.Lecturer in Hindi…


Reviewed by: Prabhakar Machwe
Pat Barr

Kipling’s caricature of the hill-station memsahib is the one that has endured—­frivolous, vain, sometimes adulterous, ‘a heartless bitch with an ever tinkling laugh’.Pat Barr has attempted to correct this image by describing the lives of a few women who came to India before the 1857 ‘mutiny’ and who were equal to their men-folk in courage…


Reviewed by: P.S. Sivadas
D.K. Narayan

As the old song does not have it, old soldiers never die nor fade away, but write memoirs. But let us grant it to them, they usually make a much better job of it than old civil servants. At least General Chaudhuri does. The book is written in crisp and cultivated English, which I at­tribute less to Sandhurst and the lesser English school…


Reviewed by: N.S. Jagannathan
Ram K. Vepa

It is seldom that one finds genuine pleasure in reviewing a book, but involve­ment in its theme can make the exercise rewarding. Ram K. Vepa belongs to the Indian Administrative service. The blurb describes his book as one written by a ‘practising administrator for the benefit of other administrators’…


Reviewed by: P.R. Chari
P.C. Jain

Based mainly on Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsha texts, the present work is a sequel to P.C Jain’s Labour in Ancient India (1971). Divided into six chapters, it seeks to study the social and economic condition of various categories of Indian…


Reviewed by: D.N. Jha
H.M. Siddiqui

According to Dr. S. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru’s involvement with the kisan struggles in eastern U.P. in the early twenties had a greater impact on him than his ‘unformative years’ at Cambridge and in London when he was exposed to the influence of Fabianism. Another scholar, Dr. Gyanendra Pande…


Reviewed by: Girish Mathur
S.C. Malik

Most seminars based on a broad theme shed some light and create some obscu­rity. This one is no exception. Planned as an open-ended discussion, it studies movements of protest and reform in India over the centuries, directed against things as disparate as ‘slavery, untouch­ability and colonialism’ (in the words of a participant)…


Reviewed by: Narayani Gupta
Nayantara Sahgal

As another addition to the spate of publications on Indira Gandhi and Emer­gency, this book does not provide any fresh insights into either the personality of the former Prime Minister or on the economic/political developments which led to centralization of the state in the form of Emergency…


Reviewed by: Achin Vanaik
Urmila Phadnis

In the last decade, studies on women have made an impact in the field of liter­ature and social sciences. Whether to become a ‘libber’ or be known as ‘Ms’ is a topic of active discussion in women’s forums the world over. The women’s liberation movement has highlighted the so-called weaker sex’s increasing…


Reviewed by: Malavika Karlekar
Brojendra Nath Banerjee

Foreign aid to India is a subject which has attracted good deal of scholar­ly attention. Its topicality, too, has seen many revivals, the latest occasion being Carter’s visit to India early this year. Surprisingly, the works available so far have failed to present an in-depth analysis on the subject, verging…


Reviewed by: Ashutosh Varshney