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Posts tagged ‘Author’

Book Review: A.G. Noorani’s ‘The Destruction of Hyderabad’

By Safia Begum
Noorani delves into Patel’s daughter, Maniben Patel’s diary for a revealing observation. Maniben writes, “On 21st August, Patel threatened ‘to resign if army was not sent to Hyderabad’”. He also said, “I am very clear in my mind – if we have to fight – Nizam is finished. We cannot keep this ulcer in the heart of the unions.”

Book Review: Jeremy Seabrook & Imran Ahmed Siddiqui’s People without History: India’s Muslim Ghettos

By Mosarrap H. Khan
However, engagement with the secular world does not imply abandonment of faith. Rather, Seabrook and Siddiqui’s study illustrates that faith is the most important pivot that makes the dream of transformation feasible. Among the poor Muslims in Calcutta, faith thwarts the seductions of extremism and violence.

An Interview with Dr. Neha Vora on ‘Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora’ (2013)

By E P Mohammed Swalih
This is what I mean by “consumer citizenship” – you mark your identity and belonging through material goods. This is of course connected to prosperity but it is not reducible to wealth. I remember one of my first interviewees in Dubai telling me that when he was growing up in Kerala, Carrefour plastic bags were considered status symbols.

Book Review: Aman Sethi’s A Free Man: A True Story of Life and Death in Delhi

By Mosarrap H. Khan
Aman Sethi’s A Free Man:A True Story of Life and Death in Delhi, focused on the life of Mohammed Ashraf, is by no means a sociological work. It is a journalistic work that explores the life of one of those thousands of nameless workers who, while contributing significantly to India’s growth story, are often rendered faceless and seen as having no individual subjectivity.

Book Review: Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland

By Bina Shrestha
Jhumpa Lahiri does it again what she does best: vivid description of emotions, relationships, lifestyle in the simplest of language. She brilliantly describes the daily lives of a Bengali family, from the nitty-gritties like eating fish-stew made in mustard and chilly-paste ground on a stone slab, to the purposelessness of the Naxalite movement that claimed many innocent lives.

Book Excerpt: Blood, Sweat, and Gorkhaland: Part-II

By B. Khaling
As the mighty column of demonstrators, snowballing as it forged ahead along the R.C. Mintri road (they were coming on) connects the Rishi Road to form a three-way junction. The CRP jawans who had been holding back the marchers from Algarah-Pedong-Labha (mentioned earlier), were taken aback by this sudden turn of event. However, discretion prevailed as they were hopelessly outnumbered by a column of more volatile marchers.

Book Excerpt: Blood, Sweat, and Gorkhaland: Part-I

By B. Khaling
There was no stopping the people once they decided to go ahead with the programme, scheduled to be held on the Mela Ground. Slowly but surely, the town began to be thronged, at first by curious crowds of onlookers, who came in small groups to loiter around the town aimlessly, but with keen eyes to watch the mood and attitude of the patrolling CRP jawans.

Book Review: Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night

By Shaik Zakeer Hussain
Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night (2010) is an intensely passionate memoir about the struggle for freedom and justice inpeer what one former U.S president described as the ‘world’s most dangerous place.’ The story of Kashmir is set against the backdrop of Peer’s life and his life is interwoven with the melancholy of his homeland and its inhabitants.