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Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter. Historian Chitralekha Zutshi has written a biography of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah (1905-82), one of the best-known and yet controversial political figures of 20th century South Asia. The second in HarperCollins’ Indian Lives series, and out on December 21, Sheikh Abdullah: The Caged Lion of Kashmir places Abdullah’s life in the context of critical global developments. Writing a biography of Sheikh Abdullah, says Zutshi, was a challenging task, not least because he did not leave behind a sizeable body of writing. Zutshi drew on oral histories, press reports, government documents, visual materials, and the private papers of individuals associated with Abdullah. “I hope this biography allows readers to appreciate Abdullah’s complexities as a nationalist, a political leader, a revolutionary, a prisoner and a head of state in the context of his engagement with his advisers, well-wishers, critics and interlocutors, as well as the broader canvas of the intellectual and socio-political currents of the global twentieth century,” she points out. A Kashmiri nationalist, Abdullah is best remembered for opposing the Dogra monarchy’s exploitative economic and political system; securing Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India in 1947; passing revolutionary land reforms as Prime Minister of J&K; and later for championing the cause of Kashmiri self-determination—he was imprisoned for two decades for this—before coming to terms with the Indian government in 1975.
In reviews, we read B.N. Goswamy’s last book, a sociologist on the Indian village, a retelling of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and more. We also talk to Anita Nair about her crime thriller series, and read an excerpt from Swati Narayan’s Unequal.
Books of the week
In The Indian Village: Rural Lives in the 21st Century (Aleph), Surinder S. Jodhka argues that the village is deeply connected to urban life. First, it offers a supply of poorly paid labour to build cities and keep the growth engine turning. Second, it also provides a retreat from growing urban hazards such as poor air quality. In her review, Uma Mahadevan-Dasgupta writes that for those who live in rural India, migration to urban centres has offered some alternative, however imperfect, to exploitation by the old oppressive social structures in the village. “Remittances by migrant workers from cities in southern and western India, like Bengaluru and Mumbai, provide valuable financial support for families back in the hinterland.” Jodhka emphasises that “the village” itself is no single thing but diverse, and that it is imperative that for it to grow, “it is time to focus on the needs of rural India and to strengthen local governance, livelihoods, women’s empowerment, and the inclusion of marginalised groups.”
Art historian B.N. Goswamy passed away last month, and it turns out that The Indian Cat (Aleph) was his last book. The book is divided into three parts – in the first, he narrates stories about cats from ancient texts like the Panchatantra; in the second, he examines cats in Indian art, picking 58 paintings to depict the relationship between humans and cats; in the third part, he looks for poetry on cats. In her review, Veena Venugopal says that it is clear upon reading the book that he likely revised his thoughts about cats in the course of his research – he begins the book with a confession that he doesn’t particularly like cats. “Whether he admits to it or not, there is no doubt that ‘strictly speaking’ Goswamy became a cat lover, a fate that will likely befall all his readers too.” The book, writes Venugopal, is a treasure trove, a whimsical tribute to an intriguing animal.
George Orwell is having quite a moment in 2023. There have been retellings of both his most well-known books, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. In Beasts of England (Picador), Adam Biles sticks to the plot of the original – power corrupts, and it corrupts in predictable ways. The old villains, pigs and dogs, remain the villains in the retelling, but as the reviewer Anil Menon points out, “In Biles’ novel, since humans are already removed from the scene, he has more space to show how the corruption spreads.” Though he has reservations about the novel – “the animals become too creepily human”, for instance – Biles’ reworking does speak to the cartoonish behaviour of most of the world’s so-called leaders during the COVID-19 years, says Menon. “That they were cartoonish didn’t make them any less sinister. That we have writers still willing to make us laugh at them is a relief.”
In her book, Unequal: Why India Lags Behind Its Neighbours (Westland Books), academic and activist Swati Narayan argues that India is in the grip of “systemic and, at times, barbaric inequalities.” As Narayan undertook a five-year study across four countries, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, she found that even poorer neighbours were doing better than some Indian States on a range of social indicators like health, education, nutrition and sanitation. Read an excerpt, in which she looks into grassroots level schools in Bangladesh and finds that simple experiments are working to get the message across.
Spotlight
In her third Inspector Gowda novel, Hot Stage (HarperCollins), the title has multiple meanings, says Anita Nair: “The evidence that leads to the scene of the crime, of the hot stage in the course of an investigation as in the breakthrough, and the book’s figurative hot stage – where the crime happens.” The first two in the series, Cut Like Wound and Chain of Custody are also terms policemen are familiar with. In a conversation with Sheila Kumar, Nair says that “in many ways, Gowda echoes my thoughts and feelings, and it is especially true of what is destroying Bengaluru.”
Browser
- ULFA: The Mirage of Dawn (HarperCollins) by Rajeev Bhattacharyya tells the story of the outlawed separatist outfit from its inception in the early 1980s to the present, when peace is being negotiated between a faction led by chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and the Indian government.
- In Biological Apocalypse (Primus Books), edited by Pronami Bhattacharyya, profiles 17 of the most susceptible non-human species on the endangered lists (in several categories) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature including the Amur leopard, the pangolin, the white-winged wood duck and the one-horned rhino.
- Set in 1890s’ Bombay, Anuradha Kumar’s The Kidnapping of Mark Twain: A Bombay Mystery (Speaking Tiger) features the famous American writer and a large cast of quirky fictional characters, including diplomats, detectives, magicians and thieves.
- The Pig Flip (HarperCollins) is a graphic novel narrated and illustrated by Joshy Benedict, and translated from the Malayalam by K.K. Muralidharan. In it, villagers gather at a secret spot to gamble, and there are consequences. The story revolves around Babycha, who tries to overcome his addiction.
