There is a new ‘great game’ being played in the Buddhist Himalayas between India, China and Tibet, which makes for a crucial third player. Together, they are leveraging their influence with the Buddhist communities to create strategic dominance, with varying degrees of success.
China’s ‘Buddhist diplomacy’ has focused on Nepal and Bhutan, and the Indian Himalayan regions of Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, which have sizeable Buddhist populations and are vulnerable to this influence. The crisis in Doklam brought into focus what will be one of the most difficult issues to unfold in the Himalayas in future: India’s insufficient ability to deal with China only through the prism of military power.
If Xi Jinping, who is known to be working towards a resolution of the Tibet question, succeeds, and the Dalai Lama does indeed return to Tibet, how will it impact Indian interests in the Buddhist Himalayas? If the Tibet issue remains unresolved, how will India and China deal with and leverage the sectarian strife that is likely to intensify in a post-Dalai Lama world?
The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas includes several unknown insights into the India-China, India-Tibet and China-Tibet relationships. It reads like a geopolitical thriller, taking the reader through the intricacies of reincarnation politics, competing spheres of sacred influence, and monastic and sectarian allegiances that will keep the Himalayas on edge for years to come.
Catagory: Non Fiction
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The Markandeya Purana
A marvellous amalgam of mythology and metaphysics, the Markandeya Purana unfolds as a series of conversations, in which the sage Markandeya is asked to answer some deeper questions raised by events in the Mahabharata. These illuminating exchanges evolve into a multi-faceted exploration of the core concepts of Hindu philosophy-from an excellent exposition of yoga and its unique attributes to a profound treatise on the worship of the goddess, the Devi Mahatmya, which also includes the popular devotional texts known as ‘Chandi’ or ‘Durga Saptashati’.
Brimming with insight and told with clarity, this luminous text is also a celebration of a complex mythological universe populated with gods and mortals, and contains within its depths many nested tales like that of Queen Madalasa and her famous song.
Bibek Debroy’s masterful translation draws out the subtleties of the Markandeya Purana, enabling a new generation of readers to savour its timeless riches.
Chanakya and the Art of War
Each and every one of us wants to become successful. We aim to fight and win in businesses, careers, relationships and, ultimately, in life. However, most of us fail to reach our full potential because of various speed breakers. Chanakya and the Art of War draws upon lessons from the great teacher, philosopher and strategist Chanakya’s masterpiece, Arthashastra, which can help us overcome those speed breakers to become innovative and influential and realize our true potential.
Author of the bestselling Inside Chanakya’s Mind, Radhakrishnan Pillai decodes the war secrets of Chanakya as relevant to our personal and professional lives. Be it an army fighting enemy soldiers across the border, the police encountering internal challenges, a politician who wants to win an election, or the common man fighting for survival, Chanakya has a plan for every situation. In the game of life, Chanakya teaches you the winning strategies by putting into practice the Art of War.
The Bhagavadgita
The foundational text on dharma and Hindu philosophy, exquisitely rendered by one of our most eminent Sanskrit translators
As a spiritual guide, the Bhagavadgita is a mesmerizing account of the debate between right and wrong, and the bond between action and consequence. One of the core Hindu scriptures, it is part of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata, and unfolds in the form of a dialogue between Krishna and the Pandava prince, Arjuna.
This beautifully produced bilingual edition is a masterful verse-for-verse translation, providing the original Sanskrit verses alongside the English rendition. Bibek Debroy’s deep familiarity with the text yields a treasure trove of insights that will delight the scholar and the lay reader alike, making this essential reading for anyone with an abiding interest in Indian scriptures.
Dharma
Chaturvedi Badrinath is known for his authoritative work on the Mahabharata, and on the central place of dharma in Indian thought. His Swami Vivekananda: The Living Vedanta continues to inspire readers with a fresh perspective on the man who was the living embodiment of the Vedanta he preached.
In Dharma: Hinduism and Religions in India, Badrinath argues that the Indian civilization is a ‘Dharmic’ one, founded as it is on the principle of dharma. Dharma has always been translated, wrongly, as ‘religion’.
The concerns of Indian philosophy are the concerns of human life everywhere. Badrinath talks about the history of the words ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism’, Islam in relation with Hinduism, the issues that arose from the spread of Christianity in India, Jainism and Buddhism as part of dharma and darshana, and explains why organized violence in the service of religious fundamentalism is the very negation of religion with its reverence for life.
Thought provoking, perceptive and challenging many long-held notions, Dharma is a must-read for anyone who is interested in India, the interaction of different religions over centuries in this land, and the underlying unity of all life.
Pilgrim’s India
More people have embarked on a quest for the sacred in India than anywhere else.
Pilgrim’s India is about all journeys impelled by the idea of the sacred. It brings together essays and poems-from the Katha Upanishad, Fa-Hien, Basavanna and Kabir to Paul Brunton, Richard Lannoy, Amit Chaudhuri, Arun Kolatkar and others-about various aspects of trips undertaken in the name of God. Readers will encounter the watchful reserve of a British journalist in southern India, the vigorous prose of a contemporary Sikh pilgrim, a French author-adventurer’s appraisal of the Ellora caves, a modern-day Zoroastrian’s reflections on Udvada and a woman’s impression of what it means to be Muslim in India.
Mystics, witnesses and wanderers write about the Supreme Being, about journeys and destination, false starts, bottlenecks and blind alleys, about humour, rage and revelation-all of which make this anthology a deeply absorbing and idiosyncratic take on pilgrims and pilgrim trails in India.
Hymns Of The Gurus
An illustrated edition containing selected hymns of the ten Sikh Gurus, from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobing Singh, translated by Khushwant Singh. Sacred hymns from the Guru Gibind Singh.
Why I Supported The Emergency
The Emergency Has Become A Synonym For Obscenity. Even Men And Women Who Were Pillars Of Emergency Rule And Misused Their Positions To Harass Innocent People Against Whom They Had Personal Grudges Try To Distance Themselves From Their Past In The Hope That It Will Fade Out Of Public Memory Forever. We Must Not Allow Them To Get Away With It,&Rsquo; Says Khushwant Singh, While Fearlessly Stating His Own Reasons For Championing The Emergency. This Bold And Thought-Provoking Collection Includes Essays On Indira Gandhi&Rsquo;S Government, The Nanavati Commission&Rsquo;S Report On The 1984 Riots And The Riots Themselves, As Well As Captivating Pieces On The Art Of Kissing And The Importance Of Bathing. Alongside These Are Portraits Of Historical Figures Such As Bahadur Shah Zafar, General Dyer, Ghalib And Maharaja Ranjit Singh As Well As Candid Profiles Of The Famous Personalities He Has Known Over The Years, Revealing Intimate Details About Their Lives And Characters. From His Reflections On Amrita Sher-Gil&Rsquo;S Alleged Promiscuity To The Experience Of Watching A Pornographic Film With A Stoic R.K. Narayan, This Is Khushwant Singh At His Controversial And Iconoclastic Best.
Selected And Edited By Sheela Reddy, Why I Supported The Emergency: Essays And Profiles Covers Three Quarters Of A Century. Straight From The Heart, This Is Unadulterated Khushwant Singh.
Delhi
I return to Delhi as I return to my mistress Bhagmati when I have had my fill of whoring in foreign lands . . .’ Thus begins Khushwant Singh’s vast, erotic magnum opus on the city of Delhi. The principal narrator of the saga, which extends over six hundred years, is a bawdy, ageing reprobate who loves Delhi as much as he does the hijda Bhagmati, half-man, half-woman, with sexual inventiveness and energy of both the sexes. Travelling through time, space and history to ‘discover’ his beloved city, the narrator meets a myriad of people-poets and princes, saints and sultans, temptresses and traitors, emperors and eunuchs-who have shaped and endowed Delhi with its very special mystique. And as we accompany the narrator on his epic journey we find the city of emperors transformed and immortalized in our minds forever.
The Fall of the Kingdom of the Punjab
A forgotten classic from India’s favourite storyteller
This riveting historical narrative is more full of drama than any fiction. With the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the great Punjab empire he had built was riven by intrigues, betrayals, assassinations and wars until the British finally annexed it, seizing the Kohinoor diamond and sending the young Maharaja Duleep Singh into exile in Britain. Khushwant Singh brings this turbulent period to vivid life in this page-turning account of the collapse of a once-mighty kingdom.