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INDIA NOW AND IN TRANSITION ED. BY ATUL K THAKUR

Daulat Jha

Publisher: Niyogi Books

Language: English

Pages: 448,

Rs 595 (Hardback)

‘India Now and In Transition’ is a sharp and scholarly collection of essays edited by the journalist and prominent commentator on the South Asian affairs, Atul K Thakur.

The book packs in 37 insightful essays from prominent writers and opinion-makers like Ramachandra Guha, Shashi Tharoor, Tabish Khair, Manu Joseph, Chandrahas Choud­hury, Atul K Thakur, Robin Jeffrey, Vinod Rai, TSR Subramanian and Wajahat Habibullah. The names will be familiar to those who follow Indian opinion writing.

Covered are politics and gover­nance, economics and develop­ment, security and foreign policy, society and culture, and language and literature. Moreover, it has an incisive introduction by the editor, Thakur, and a special foreword by eminent Historian Sunil Khilnani.

‘India Now and in Transition’ is based on how India is being shaped by contemporary political events and other key determinants. At the outset, it is made clear that this book intends to be not a prognosis (which is often confused with prediction), but rather an inquiry into futures based on current happenings. This necessarily entails deconstruction of the past.

Essentially, the book signals, India’s present is not exactly linked with the democratic idealism of past, and its immediate future is unlikely to create a greater basis of harmony, either at home or abroad.

The remarkable piece by the edi­tor deals with the alienation of “the ‘Real Other’ of the world’s largest democracy” and consistent failure of the state to come to terms with it. It discusses ‘radical dissent’ and the challenges surrounding it. Written with a broad canvas, this piece will be of keen interest to readers in Nepal as well.

On strategy side, Dhruva Jaishan­kar’s piece is certainly important for strategic thinkers and practitioners of Nepal, who have to everyday live with the fallout of India’s strategic choices. The long piece on foreign affairs by Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy covers Nepal amply. In fact, Nepal gets ample space in other parts of the book as well, which was perhaps expected from an editor who has frequently written on India-Nepal relations.

India Now And in Transition offers fresh insights into several crucial areas, elements that have shaped modern-day India, be it the com­plex set of state-center relations under the country’s federal system, the challenges of territorial/cultural diversity, or the contradictory out­comes of economic reforms.

This book looks diligently at the successes and failures of India’s tryst with democracy. There is con­sideration for truth-seeking rather on striving to secure a politically correct side. It should be of interest to anyone who has an interest in policy matters and the fast-changing politics, society, governance and economic processes in India and to a large extent, in South Asia.

By Daulat Jha

The author is a Kathmandu-based journalist

[email protected]

Fiction

THE FORTYRULES OF LOVE

Elif Shafak

Publisher: Penguin Books; Re­print edition (April 26, 2011)

Language: English

Pages: 368, paperback

“Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven’t loved enough.”“The real challenge is to love the good and the bad together, not because you need to take the rough with the smooth but because you need to go beyond such descriptions and accept love in its entirety.”

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Elif Shafak’s characters stay in your subconscious mind long after you have turned the final page of her book. They are hard to forget. That’s how well she develops her characters and brings them to life. You only wish the same could be said of her storytelling. You would expect it from an author who claims, time and again, that her homeland is none other than storyland.

Inspired by Rumi’s messages on love, ‘The Forty Rules of Love’, like most of Shafak’s works, man­ages to confuse you no end. This often-poetic novel within a novel story unfolds in two parallel nar­ratives. The first one takes place in the 21st century and is about an unhappily married Jewish housewife named Ella living in Northampton, Massachusetts. Ella works for a lit­erary agency and is given the task of writing a report on a book titled ‘Sweet Blasphemy’ by Aziz Zahara. The sweet blasphemy is the second narrative of this novel that is set in the 13th century. It’s about Rumi and the infamous wandering dervish known as Shams of Tabriz.

The story of Ella finding love with a bohemian Sufi mystic while in the process of evaluating his book that is set in a time period we are famil­iar with is a lot less believable than the one where Rumi and Shams of Tabriz find comfort in each other’s company. And it’s the story that takes place in an era that you can’t really relate to that the readers find themselves increasing drawn to as the narrative progresses.

There is also an overdose of cli­chés that distract from the storytell­ing. Phrases like ‘shivers go down the spine’, ‘bowled over’, ‘far off the beaten track’, and, ‘make a moun­tain out of a molehill’, make the narrative somewhat annoying and lame. Shafak, who has previously written both in English and Turkish, seems to have made a mistake by writing the novel first in English, having it translated into Turkish, and then rewriting it in English. The experiment, albeit interesting, doesn’t quite work.

Despite having been quite harshly critical of her work, we would still like to recommend Shafak’s The Forty Rules of Love to our readers. If not for Shafak, then you might want to read it for Rumi or as an introduction to Sufi thoughts and ideologies. Also, the lessons Shafak shares through Rumi’s story encour­age you to make some changes in your life and fill it with love and even if that were the only reason to read this book, it’s reason enough.

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Alexander McCall Smith

Born: 24 August 1948 (age 69)

Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)

Occupation: Writer, professor

Nationality: British

Alexander McCall Smith, 69 now, achieved worldwide fame only in his fifties with the debut of the highly acclaimed ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’, a series of novels set in Botswana featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe, who feels compelled to ‘help peo­ple with problems in their lives’, as the protagonist. Altogether 18 novels have been published in the series between 1998 and 2017 and they have been translated into 40 languages and sold more than 20 million copies in English alone. The books in the series, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, aren’t your regular run-of-the-mill detective stories. Here Mma Ramotswe just happens to solve crimes as she goes about her life, all the while drinking copious amounts of tea. In the first book, she is hired to track down a miss­ing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. And then there is a missing 11-year-old boy, who seems to have been snatched by witchdoctors. The plots are usually simple and the solution simpler but the wit and wisdom with which Mma Ramotswe seems to solve the cases are delightful, to say the least.

All the books in the series work wonderfully as stand-alone books, although you would do well to read them in order if you want to follow Mma Ramotswe’s life prop­erly. What’s also nice about the books is that the stories feel very real. There isn’t that thrill element in any of the books yet they man­age to hold your attention and you are, all the while, rooting for Mma Ramotswe who, with her self-righ­teous ways, makes you smile despite the ridiculousness of many of her actions. She also isn’t made out to be a typical heroine with no flaws and that is what is refreshing about the series.

Smith writes with a great deal of gentle wisdom and good cheer and his books make you happy and at ease while reading and that, we think, is one of the main attributes of a good author. Crime writer Ian Rankin claimed that as the world becomes more politically turbulent, it will find itself increasingly in need of Smith’s heart-warming novels and reading one of the books in this series, that marks its 20th anniver­sary this year, you will realize that perhaps truer words have never been spoken .