FROM THE AUTHOR OF OPEN SECRETS, THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE HUMAN TRAGEDY IN BENGAL BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER PARTITION.
Maloy and his mother board the Dacca- Sylhet Express from Bhairab in 1950. The young boy notices a tick mark in white chalk on the side of the carriage, a sign that worries him. The train enters the Anderson Bridge, and a blob, of fresh bloos hits Maloy’s face. Bodies roll down to the river…
As a young boy, Maloy Krishna Dhar, made the perilous journey to India from the East Pakistan. Politics had taken a communal colour in this region-age-old bonds between Hindi and Muslim Bengalis had deteriorated. The situation was made worse by near famine conditions and the brutal suppression of unrest. Villages were torched, marauding attackers had a free hand, and trains became charnel houses on wheels.
The partion in Bengal had its share of tragedy, of lives unmade and lost, but it is relatively less chronicled than events in Punjab. Maloy Krishna Dhar’s Train to India is a graphic and moving account of that turbulent and unforgotten era of Bengal History.
Economists talk of prices rising or falling in response to excess of demand or supply in the market, but are at a loss to explain who sets the price in a market of many players where no one has the power to dictate price. They then have to invent the ‘invisible hand’ of a mythical god called ‘price mechanism’ to create the image of the market operating as a self-regulating system. While unregulated free trade amounts to groping in the dark, the situation is far worse when the prices and other rules of the market are set by the state on behalf of large corporations-as has happened in globalizing India in the name of economic development.
Large corporations, aided and abetted by the land acquisition policies of the central and state governments, are indulging in massive land-grabbing. We witness the perversity of development in the destruction of livelihoods and displacement of the poor in the name of industrialization, in the construction of big dams for power generation and irrigation, in the corporatization of agriculture despite farmers’ suicides, and in the modernization and beautification of our cities by the demolition of slums.
One of India’s foremost theoretical economists, Amit Bhaduri contends that we have abjectly surrendered to the conventional wisdom of our time-that there is no alternative to corporations and the type of globalization that they lead. The result, he warns, will not be a freer market and more freedom, but a disastrous and deepening chasm between the India of privilege and the India of crushing poverty.
The Face You Were Afraid to See is a collection of compellingly argued essays that draws attention to the other India that we turn away from. Fiercely critical of financial liberalization, corporate-led globalization and neoliberalism that celebrates unregulated free trade, the essays together make for a forceful critique of India’s economic policies.
Two wars––the 1857 Revolt in PBI – India and the American Civil War—seemingly fought for very different reasons, occurred at opposite ends of the globe in the middle of the nineteenth century. But they were both fought in a PBI – World still dominated by Great Britain and the battle cry in both conflicts was freedom.
Rajmohan Gandhi brings the drama of both wars to one stage in A Tale of Two Revolts. He deftly reconstructs events from the point of view of William Howard Russell—an Irishman who was also perhaps the PBI – World’s first war correspondent—and uncovers significant connections between the histories of the United States, Britain and PBI – India. The result is a tale of two revolts, three countries and one century. Into this fascinating story Rajmohan Gandhi weaves the choices of five extraordinary inhabitants of PBI – India—Sayyid Ahmed Khan, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Jotiba Phule, Allan Octavian Hume and Bankimchandra Chatterjee—and of three towering figures of PBI – World history—Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy and Abraham Lincoln—to show the continuities between the nineteenth century and the PBI – World we live in today.
Scholarly, insightful and gripping, A Tale of Two Revolts raises new questions about these wars that changed the PBI – World.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, one of the most eminent scholars of Islam in the contemporary Muslim world, draws on original Arabic sources to correct misconceptions about Islam’s early history and to establish that the revolution brought about by the Prophet was entirely bloodless. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad formulated an ideal ideology of peace which he faithfully and rigorously put into practice. In his time, there were some minor skirmishes, but no full-fledged wars. The Prophet of Peace deals with the significant issues associated with the life of the Prophet, including jihad, itjihaad, the concept of war and the relationship with other religious communities. Quoting extensively from the Qruana nd the Hadith, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan illuminates the Islamic view of modernity, secularism, democracy, freedom of speech and the relevance of Islam in the modern age, clarifying that Islam as revealed in the Quran is not anti-modernity, nor does it advocate violence. Persuasive and compelling in its breadth and wisdom, this book presents an authentic picture of the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and is a must for all those who wish to understand Islam and its place in the world today.
Being the head honcho of a public sector enterprise is one of the most exacting or testing positions in the corporate world. Heading an archetypal corporate set-up where strengthening the bottom line is your sole objective is one thing; leading a corporation that has a crucial public service to perform while continuing to increase profits for its owners—the Government of India—is another. As chairman of PowerGrid.,one of India’s leading utility companies, R.P. Singh was on the inside track of Indian business, government and policy for 12 long years—years spent not just reshaping power networking in India but also raising the benchmark in corporate governance. It wasn’t always easy. Conservative, anti-reform forces had to be contested, rivals fought off, political and other influences contained. This book tells the story of how it was done. R.P. Singh reveals the inside workings of India’s government-owned business sector, the saga of how a start-up with borrowed staff and facilities was built into a public-sector jewel and one of the leading power grid operators of the world. This is a fascinating business book: part memoir, part management manual, part survival guide.
Below and around me lay the village, quiet and serene in the evening shadows, smoke rising from chimneys all along the slope. Looking down the valley, I could see the snow lingam of the Goshal Cone, glowing with the last flush of sunlight. On the opposite side of the valley, Karding and its monastery nestled in the shadow of the Dilburi peak. As twilight came on, all was quiet, save for the occasional gruff barking of a dog and the muffled roar of the Bhaga river in its cavernous passage. And then, the shrill haunting notes of the gyadung began to float down from the monastery. I was home at last.
In four novels and fifty-six short stories, the exciting adventures of Baker Street’s most famous resident -Sherlock Holmes Known and loved for over a century, this shrewd amateur detective, with the faithful Watson by his side, has delighted readers across the world. This handsome omnibus edition stands as a lasting tribute to the indestructible sleuth and his famous creator. A Study in Scarlet The Sign of Four The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes The Return of Sherlock Holmes The Hound of Baskervilles The Valley of Fear His Last Bow The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
3 January 2000, It is the start of the new millennium. On Ammanagudi Street in Bangalore, a strange creature is spotted. As the beast seizes the imagination of the city, the first people to sight It — Shrinivas Moorty, a teacher in a local college, Pushpa Rani, who works in a call centre, Neela Mary Gopalrao, secretary to an influential man, and Sukhiya Ram, her office boy — are invited to talk about it on Bali Brums’s hugely popular radio show. What was it that they saw? A bat? A malevolent avatar? A sign of the displeasure of the gods? The grotesque mascot of a city that is growing too fast and crumbling too soon? Or merely a monkey that has lost its way?
Using evocative prose that reflects her profound understanding of human nature, Usha K.R. delves into the lives of her characters and their unexpectedly linked destinies in a city that has grown from a ‘Pensioner’s Paradise’ to frenetic hub of the country’s IT industry.
