Book Review [75] : India a Portrait

First of all a very Happy Independence Day to my fellow Indians. Now coming to the theme;
Many writers (Ramachandra Guha, Shashi Tharoor, Meghnad Desai, Thomas Friedman etc) have written books on India in last decade or so, and most of them have written  politically correct pages in context of modern secularism and in doing so they have revised the incidents, characters and rather the history of India to suit the current "Secular" politics of India based mainly on Nehruvian interpretation of Indian history. Patrick French does impossible task in steering away from the local politics of India and his 'India A Portrait' is a great effort. 

In this book, he has touched almost all the issues of India from economy and its problems, alienation of minorities and tribals, rise of right wing parties, dynasticism, superstitions, entrepreneurs, NRIs etc. He destroys the hype created by Indian Media about young and suave politicians of India (like Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Rahul Gandhi, Naveen Jindal, Varun Gandhi, Omar Abdullah etc), proves decisively that 100% of all Members of Parliament below 30 years of age come from political families and the percentage is 70 for age group 30-40. India is fast becoming 'Vansha-Tantra' instead of 'Gana Tantra' and Indians are silent and sometimes happy spectators to this farce of democracy.

The success stories of Sunil Mittal of Airtel, Dabba Walas of Mumbai, A. R. Rahman, TVS Motors, Chik shampoo etc are worth reading and repeating.

He writes about the rise of Dalits in Indian politics, the rise of Kanshiram, Mayawati etc. The elite English media does not want to write good things (or rather true things) about these leaders, the only time they write, they write on 'corruption' and caste-based politics of these leaders. Arrogance and self-righteousness run deep in English media.

He also writes about the deliberate policy of minimizing the destruction and loot caused by the Muslim invasions (of Timur, Mahmud etc) and magnifying the good stuff brought by these invaders ,adopted by Indian historians like Romila Thapar etc and its impact on the Right Wing politics of India. Almost every foreign writers have written about these invasions and the brutal destructions, killing etc caused by them starting from Al-Beruni to Will Durant. Past should not be read/analyzed by the political or ideological compulsions of the current era. On one  hand Nehruvian and Marxist writers say that Invasions had not caused any major destruction in India, on the other hand Right Wing writers ridiculously exaggerate the virtues and achievements of ancient Indian like Airplane etc. Both are too far from truth and both influence the impressionable minds of kids thus perpetuating the great schism of Indian historiography and politics.

Overall its a great book and many times better than Ramachandra Guha's books.

Highly Recommended (9/10)

Book Review [74] : Return Of A King - The Battle For Afghanistan

No other country fascinates me as Afghanistan, never been there but read, heard and seen a lot of books, stories and movies about Afghanistan. The great Buddhas of Bamiyans (destroyed by Taliban before almost annihilated by the US invasion and Northern Alliance), Kandahar, Begram, Jalalabad and Kabul were the cosmopolitan focii of ever expanding Indian civilization about 1000 years back now they are the epicenters of terrorism, fanatic Islam, dark ages and Opium cultivation.

'Return of A King' is a brilliantly researched book by politically correct and rented Historian (in the context of contemporary India, infact he is a revisionary and a soft neo-imperialist)  and organizer of Jaipur Literary Festival  - William Dalrymple. I firmly believe History should be read and represented as it occurred  and no one should try to write history using the lens of 21st century (or any century) political compulsions of India. My apologies for digressing from the topic. Dalrymple details the history of Afghanistan since the fall of Shah Shuja from the throne of Afghanistan in 1809 and it focuses primarily on his return as the King of Afghanistan in 1840, first Anglo-Afghan war, destruction of General Elphinstone army by the Afghans, selling and maiming of Indian sepoys in the streets of Kabul and in the slave market of Bukhara and abandoning of Indian sepoys to this wretched fate and saving almost all the White Officials and White women by using force and money, retribution carried out by fresh force from India under the leadership of General Pollock and bringing back the pillaged gates of Somnath Temple (looted by Mahmud Ghazni and used in his tomb) to India (in Dec 1842 and ending the first war). William Dalrymple style is very fluid and engaging but he treats Indian Sepoys as "sub-humans" compared to sturdy Afghans and noble Britishers. Perhaps we deserved that then and we deserve this now. When Britishers won any battle it was because of the bravery and leadership of officers but when they lost its because of cowardice of Sepoys and when retribution army came and it started destroying Afghan villages, forts and raping and killing Afghans the entire responsibility of these war crimes were loaded on the heads of Sepoys, after-all a Britisher was a noble person.

This war was an unnecessary war  as the Russian threat to British Empire was "non-existent" and thus it resulted in nothing except destruction, killings and loss of face for Britain. When war started (1839) Dost Muhammed was the King of Afghanistan and he again became the King of Afghanistan (in 1843) within a year of the end of war. Shah Shuja was assassinated few months after the inglorious retreat of General Elphinstone army in Jan 1842 (Dr. Brydon and few hundred soldiers/camp followers of British Army were able to reach Jalalabad from Kabul out of more than 15,000 people), Sadozais Princes were expelled from Afghanistan by Barakzais after the end of war and they had to live in destitution in India. Dost Muhammed remained a friend of British and he did not support either The Sikhs in Anglo-Sikhs wars or the Russians in their Great Game proving that the entire British expedition and killings were totally unnecessary.

Highly Recommended (8/10)

Book Review [73] : The Opium War

When you have nothing to offer in a trade, offer opium? That was the mantra Britishers followed in 19th century in their trade with China. China ran a trade surplus with Britishers for more than 100 years and so to make this trade a profitable venture the Britishers grew poppy in Indian and sold it in China, illegally. 

Julia Lovell's 'The Opium War' is a detailed work on the Opium Wars that Manchu China fought first with Britain (1839-42) and then with the coalition of Western powers led by France and Britain (1856-60), its causes, its implications and its profound influence on the evolution of Communist China and its very existence. The Britishers had fought many unjust wars, first Afghan war (1839-42), annexation of Sindh and later Burma (1826-1885) and Opium wars are few examples. The Opium wars are stigma not only on British people but also on Indians and Chinese alike. We Indians are guilty in equal measure if not more because we were the ones who cultivated Opium, traded Opium and fought under British banner against fellow Asians. China was sandwiched between two group of "foreigners", the Manchus (who established Manchu Qing Empire in 1644 by overthrowing the Han Ming dynasty, Manchus came from the Manchuria) and the Britishers who enslaved the Chinese by the power of Opium. The Manchus tried hard to check this menace but they were completely outdated in science, technology, military tactics and ammunition, they did not get the full support of Hans as well. The causality ratio between Chinese and British soldiers in first Opium war was as one sided as 100:1, this clearly shows the overwhelming military dominance of Britishers and failure of a country who gave gunpowder, silk, paper etc to the world.

The defeat in Opium wars and the unjust treaties of Nanjing and Tianjin had left a deep scar on the psyche of Chinese soul and the resulting anger in the Chinese people (eg the Boxer revolt on 1900-01) against these grave injustices gave rise to the idea of Yellow Peril in the minds of western intelligentsia. Various books were written  in late 19th and early 20th century warning the western people that Chinese had not forgotten the shame of the Opium wars and they were getting ready to take revenge. This strand has been getting stronger and stronger specially after the founding of PRC on 1st Oct, 1949. Instead of apologizing for the grave injustice heaped on the Chinese people, a set of western intellectuals tend to warn people about the rise of China and the decline of Western civilization; the Western Civilization that was founded mainly by the loot from Asia.

This book is a good read but Julia loses the plot in the end and joins the stream of regular writers who write offhand notes on China in every other newspapers.

Recommended (6/10)

Book Review [72] : And The Mountains Echoed

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I will meet you there.
 - Jalal uddin Muhammed Rumi (Afghanistan born Persian poet, 1207 - 1273 AD)   

Khaled Hosseini is a brilliant writer from Afghanistan (living in US), there is Afghanistan beyond the realms of Taliban, beyond the realms of fanatic Islam and beyond the realms of bombing and killing and he is a story teller from that Afghanistan. I read 'The Kite Runner' in May 2009 during my stay in serenic Belfast, i enjoyed the book greatly, its a great book and as fresh as morning tea. 'And The Mountains Echoed' is another gem from Khaled but not as good or great as 'The Kite Runner', too many people spoil the hunt as well as the party, the same is true about this book.Its starts amazingly well with the story of two siblings, Abdullah and Pari and runs in a beautiful way for more than half of its pages and then Nila dies and the story enters in a confusing state. The story of Greek surgeon Markos is bit redundant in the main plot of Abdullah, Nila and Pari. finally It ends in a sort of happy climax (resulting in a happy reunion after half a century).

The way Khaled explores the countryside of Afghanistan is unparalleled in contemporary English literature of the region, the two promising Indian writers: Chetan Bhagat writes on urban people with cheap plot while Amish Tripathi dwelves in a mythical world. Only Amitav Ghosh brings the similar complex emotions and plot on the stage. 

Recommended (6/10).