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Tag: nonfiction

A People’s Constitution – An Excerpt

Posted on by Penguin India

It has long been contended that the Indian Constitution of 1950, a document in English created by elite consensus, has had little influence on India’s greater population. Drawing upon the previously unexplored records of the Supreme Court of India, A People’s Constitution upends this narrative and shows how the Constitution actually transformed the daily lives of citizens in profound and lasting ways.

Rohit De examines four important cases that set legal precedents: a Parsi journalist’s contestation of new alcohol prohibition laws, Marwari petty traders’ challenge to the system of commodity control, Muslim butchers’ petition against cow protection laws and sex workers’ battle to protect their right to practice prostitution

Here is an exclusive excerpt from the introduction of the book!

In December 1950 Mohammed Yasin, a young Muslim vegetable vendor in the small town of Jalalabad in north India, was in distress. He had received notification that the town government was implementing a new set of bylaws licensing the sale of various commodities and was providing only one license for the sale of vegetables in the town area. This license had been issued to a Hindu merchant, granting him a virtual monopoly over the vegetable trade in Jalalabad, which forced Yasin and other vegetable vendors to sell their goods after paying the license holder a certain fee. Yasin petitioned the Supreme Court to issue a writ of mandamus directing the town committee not to prohibit the petitioner from carrying on his trade.

A writ of mandamus is an order issued by a superior court to compel a lower authority or government officer to perform mandatory or administrative duties correctly. Yasin’s lawyer argued that not only was the new regulation ultra vires (i.e., beyond the powers of the municipality), it also violated Yasin’s rights to a trade and an occupation, conferred by the Constitution of India.

As a vegetable vendor from a minor town, Yasin appears to be a nondescript bystander as the grand narratives of Indian history—independence, partition, elections, the integration of princely states—play out around him. Why should he be interesting to us today? Yasin is one of the first Indians to present himself before the new Indian Supreme Court as a rights-bearing citizen.

His problem and its solution both emerge from India’s new constitutional republican order and represent a phenomenon that is the subject of this book. Yasin’s constitutional adventure highlights three features, this book argues, that form the basis for Indian constitutionalism. First, the Constitution mattered as a limit to or a structure for daily living. Second, this constitutional engagement included large numbers of ordinary Indians, often from minorities or subaltern groups. Third, a significant number of these constitutional encounters were produced through the new Indian state’s attempt to regulate market relations.

India became independent at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947. Three years later the Constituent Assembly, whose members were nominated by elected provincial legislatures, promulgated a new constitution declaring the state to be a “sovereign democratic republic. ” This was a remarkable achievement for that time. The Indian Constitution was written over a period of four years by the Constituent Assembly. Dominated by the Congress Party, India’s leading nationalist political organization, the assembly sought to include a wide range of political opinions and represented diversity by sex, religion, caste, and tribe. This achievement is striking compared to other states that were decolonized. Indians wrote the Indian Constitution, unlike the people of most former British colonies, like Kenya, Malaysia, Ghana, and Sri Lanka, whose constitutions were written by British officials at Whitehall. Indian leaders were also able
to agree upon a constitution, unlike Israeli and Pakistani leaders, both of whom elected constituent assemblies at a similar time but were unable to reach agreement on a document.

The Indian Constitution is the longest surviving constitution in the postcolonial world, and it continues to dominate public life in India. Despite this, its endurance has received little attention from scholars. Although there are a handful of accounts of constitution-making and constitutional design, the processes through which a society comes to adopt a constitution still remain underexplored.

Exploring how the Indian Constitution of 1950 enfranchised the largest population in the world, A People’s Constitution considers the ways that ordinary citizens produced, through litigation, alternative ethical models of citizenship.

Seven Things You Didn’t Know About the 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India, T.N. Seshan

Posted on by Penguin India

The essays in the book, The Great March of Democracy cover a range of subjects, from the evolution of the Election Commission, the exciting story of the first electoral roll, election laws, the deepening of democratic institutions over the decades to the participation revolution ushered in by the Election Commission’s untiring and targeted efforts at voter education.

Here is a glance at T.N. Seshan, the 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India, taken from the essay –T.N. Seshan and the Election Commission by Christophe Jaffrelot:

  1. As the criminalization of Indian politics was affecting elections as never before in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the Supreme Court initiated a new form of ‘judicial activism’. But the Election Commission contributed in its way to boosting the rule of law. The shift came with the appointment of T.N. Seshan at its helm in December 1990, where he would serve for six years.

  2. Often, Seshan would stagger voting to deploy additional forces and thus reduce the risks of booth capturing and violence near polling booths, which aimed at dissuading so-called hostile voters (e.g. Dalits who, it was feared, would not vote for their upper-caste candidates) from turning up.

  3. It is true that the 1991 elections were held in a particularly tense background—Hindu–Muslim clashes on the one hand, and caste conflicts on the other dominated the campaign. However, there was still a ‘Seshan effect’, as the press termed it. Seshan’s policy partly explains the higher voter turnout (+10 points in Uttar Pradesh): the security provided around polling stations encouraged a greater number of voters to cast their ballot, especially the Dalits, whom gangs were no longer in a position to intimidate.

  4. Seshan also waged war against the tendency of politicians to flout the model code of conduct, which they were supposed to abide by. Polling was suspended in a Madhya Pradesh constituency as a serving governor campaigned for his son, ultimately leading to his resignation.

  5. Seshan harried politicians by constraining them to limit their election expenditure. This policy was executed vigorously from April 1996, when the Supreme Court accordingly mandated the Election Commission, which then ordered political parties to submit accounts of their expenditure after the elections.

  6. T. N. Seshan’s popularity, especially in urban areas, stemmed from his efforts to bring an increasingly decried political class to heel. In 1994, a survey of 2240 people (1620 dwellers of the six largest Indian cities and 620 villagers) revealed that Seshan’s name was familiar among two-thirds of the citizens interviewed (30 per cent of the rural population), who felt that he was motivated to root out corruption rather than put himself in the limelight.

  7. The trajectory of the Election Commission under T.N. Seshan shows that the effectiveness of institutions is highly dependent upon the personalities at their helm.

The Great March Of Democracy celebrates seven decades of India’s vibrant democracy and the Election Commission’s excellence and rigour.

Eight Things you need to know about Donald Trump’s Unconventional Presidency from Delusional Politics: Back to the Future

Posted on by Penguin India

Hardeep S. Puri’s forty years of professional life as a senior diplomat, India’s permanent representative to the UN, and now Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs in New Delhi, give him a unique vantage point to see the fault-lines in political narratives and the ‘delusional’ idiosyncrasies of politicians.

Many democratically elected leaders of the twenty-first century have displayed streaks of recklessness, megalomania, bizarre self-obsession and political views that are difficult to characterize. Delusional Politics studies the actions of these contemporary political leaders and covers Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, the rise of the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and decision-making with respect to global governance, terrorism and trade. It brings to light the fact that at the centre of delusional politics is perhaps the delusional politician itself.

 

Hardeep Puri explores in particular one of the more ‘unconventional presidencies’ of contemporary times-that of Donald Trump from his early career, to his presidential campaign and to the personal and political concerns that govern his somewhat unusual attitudes to America and its place in the world order.

Read on for eight things you need to about Donald Trump’s unconventional presidency.

The presidential aspirations that grew from a jibe

“It is far-fetched to assert that Trump’s pursuit of the US Presidency originated from a single night in the Washington Hilton hotel in 2011 over some one-liners. In an interview with the Washington Post during his presidential campaign, Trump stated, ‘There are many reasons I’m running, but that’s not one of them.’ But as Trump’s public persona slowly evolved into a treasure trove for entertainment and jest, his self-alleged thick skin grew lean. Stack upon stack of jeers and taunts ushered Trump towards his eventual realization: ‘Unless I actually ran, I wouldn’t be taken seriously.’”

 

His self-described ‘truthful hyperbole’

“In his book Trump: The Art of the Deal, Trump terms boisterous bragging of this sort ‘truthful hyperbole’. Trump dragged this into the Oval Office to serve no political or policy related purpose. Of course, the President’s own popularity is sought to be enhanced. Such efforts do not appear to effectively factor in the negative impact of botched attempts. Misleading the public is not entirely new to the presidency. Post-truth politics has been in play for quite some time.”

 

The slew of exaggerations and ‘alternative facts’ on both sides

“It is perhaps fitting that the first documented accounts of President Trump’s first 100 days in office are based on delusion and exaggeration. The President is known to have made exaggerated claims, whether pertaining to his business dealings or his personality, and the media too has published exaggerated stories of both his past and present. It would seem neither party is ready to shed the delusion and pull back on the hyperbole just yet.”

 

His reneging on the Obama-era Iran deal with no alternative in sight

“When viewed from this perspective, the withdrawal from the Iran deal was a corrective measure he took in the interest of the average American—a delusion he himself believed and fed his support base. He was correcting, he believed, a wrong committed by the ‘establishment’ and saving America from yet another international misadventure, similar to the interventions in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Moreover, the withdrawal was meant to pander to the strong Israeli lobby in the United States, which was steadfastly against the Iran deal but got little attention from President Obama. The delusional act of bringing domestic partisanship and one-upmanship to international negotiations, that too to an issue as grave as nuclear security, has had serious consequences.”

 

The strange competition with Kim Jong-un regarding ‘button sizes’!

“‘The following tweet from the personal account of the forty-fifth President of the United States is just one example of the flailing governance of nuclear security in the world: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food-starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!’”

 

His complete dismissal of climate diplomacy or environmental considerations

“On 2 June 2017, Trump withdrew US support to the Paris Accord, claiming he was elected President of the citizens of Pittsburgh and not Paris. He made his contempt for climate action, global governance and multilateral diplomacy clear in one go. To win the presidential election, Trump had promised to bring back the jobs the coal miners had lost due to environmental regulations imposed by Obama. The pull-out from the Paris deal along with a host of domestic measures was therefore Trump’s way of delivering on his campaign promise. The fact, however, remains that these efforts have little to no impact and the jobs Trump tried to recreate are nowhere in sight. Like many of his decisions, this renunciation of the Paris Accord too is steeped in delusional thinking.”

 

His  dream team, filled with the most hawkish and anti-international individuals

“Each of these individuals had a common reputation that preceded them—Pompeo was a former member of the Tea Party, and known to have a hawkish worldview. He famously defended the CIA against the senate report that claimed that torture tactics were deployed during the Bush presidency. Gina Haspel, who replaced Pompeo as the head of the CIA, was herself accused of torturing suspects and destroying evidence. Neither of them, however, comes close to the hawkishness of John Bolton, who till day remains one of the few individuals who defends the American invasion of Iraq, and the intervention in Libya.”

 

His complete cognitive dissonance handling nuclear deals in Iran and North Korea

“Moreover, this ambiguity has set the precedent for future negotiations. Both Iran and North Korea will see the other as a benchmark. For Iran, a much watered-down (and vague) agreement with the United States sends the signal that to get Trump back on the table, it too needs to expand its nuclear capability, and in return, get a better deal than the one it signed with Obama. For North Korea, if Trump can renege on the Obama-era Iran deal, which was much more comprehensive than the bullet points they have agreed to, there is little value in taking the initiative forward, and in fact, their best play is to continue to retain a nuclear arsenal capable of reaching the United States. When viewed from this prism, the discontinuation of military exercises with South Korea is a win-win solution for Kim Jong-Un. He has demonstrated that he can build intercontinental ballistic missiles, buy time from the US (due to the vagueness of the bullet points) on the future course of action, and have South Korea and Japan on the back foot.”

Delusional Politics brings to light the fact that at the heart of delusional politics is perhaps the delusional politician.

Game India- An Excerpt

Posted on by Penguin India

India may widely be acknowledged as one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world, but how can this vast, diverse and heavily populated nation sustain growth prospects? Game India offers a decisive answer.

Through chapters, at once ambitious and engaging, it outlines seven key unrealized opportunities India can pursue to remain a leading player on the world economic superhighway.

Here is an excerpt from the book!

Everybody likes stories. They are what we grew up with, what we turn to when in doubt. Stories are the beginning of all thought. One of the triggers for this book too lies in a story, narrated to a large gathering by the late Nani Palkhivala — eminent jurist, management guru and tax consultant.

For those who were young in the 1980s, Nani Palkhivala was iconic. He was such a lofty legal luminary, he was almost an institution. But he was renowned for yet another unique contribution. Every year, about a week after the budget papers were presented to Parliament, he would deliver a much awaited, much-eulogized speech — his critique on the budget. This was a time when there were no private television networks in India. Doordarshan, the sole master of the airwaves, was reluctant to telecast views critical of government policy.

So those who wished to benefit from Palkhivala’s views had no choice but to attend his public discourse.

Palkhivala would pore over every clause and sub-clause of the budget and deliver his appraisal of the government’s plans and intentions. His views were revered; almost every corporate baron, tax consultant, finance manager from all over India— even students—thronged to listen to him. Such was his hold over people’s imagination that most flights from all major Indian cities to Mumbai (it was Bombay then) were filled to capacity a couple of days before and after the date that Palkhivala had chosen for the delivery of his evaluation. Palkhivala continued this ‘free’ contribution to the nation year after year till the late 1990s when age made him give up this practice. That he made a deep impression on me would be an understatement. I owe a great deal of my understanding of India’s economy as well as my vision for the country to his thoughts and analyses. That is why it is not surprising that the inspiration for this book comes from one of the ubiquitous tales he told in the course of one of his speeches, a story that is as relevant today as when he first narrated it.

When God decided to create man — a version goes — He made a clay image of Himself and then put it into the oven to bake. Impatient, yet excited about creating this creature, God took the clay model out of the oven rather quickly, for fear that it would get burnt. He was in for a shock. The creature was half-baked! Yet conscious that He couldn’t undo what He had already created, He breathed life into the clay model. And man was born. Not exactly as God might have wished him to be, but marvellous nonetheless.

So God gave his creative efforts a second chance. He made another clay model of Himself and put it into the oven to bake. Now, He told himself to be patient, to wait. Finally, after a great deal of time, He pulled the creature out. This time, the being was burnt ebony black—extremely beautiful, but still not quite what God had in mind. As before, the Lord imparted breath to this creature as well.

Then, God decided to make one final attempt. He crafted a third clay model of Himself. This time He took care that it would bake for neither too long nor too brief a period. At the precise moment when He believed that it was perfectly done, God extracted this model. Glowing a rich brown, it looked stunning—and exactly as God had hoped he would be!

So thrilled was God that He began bestowing qualities on His latest creation. ‘You shall be wise, creative, adventurous, hard-working . . .’ A few more adjectives were just waiting to trip off his tongue, but before he could utter them, the white and the black creatures rose in unison and shouted, ‘God, stop!’ God looked at them incredulously. Pointing accusing fingers, the two castigated Him roundly. ‘A God is supposed to be impartial. He has to be fair. He should bestow His gifts on all.’

Realization struck God. They were right. Instead of being balanced and just, which was His essential nature, He had got carried away. But, what could He do? He could not take back what He had already given. As He wondered and worried about just how to right this wrong, an idea struck him. ‘I know,’ God said, ‘if I cannot erase what I have already given the brown man, let me at least restrict him with a handicap.’ Then he broke into a twisted smile and softly murmured, ‘I shall give him the Indian government.’

Weaving together industry lore, keenly analyzed data, and one-on-one interviews with corporate moguls-from Verghese Kurien and the Pais of Manipal to Gautam Adani and Brij Mohan Munjal- Game India is essential reading for every Indian looking ahead.

Vivaan Shah Dons Many Hats! Get to Know More About Him

Posted on by Penguin India

Vivaan Shah is the effervescent author of murder mystery Living Hell. Did you know that writer-actor Vivaan became a director at the tender age of seventeen? In the book, he introduces us to the colourful protagonist with a twist; Nadeem Sayed Khatib, aka Nadeem Chipkali.  All Nadeem Chipkali, wants to do is stay in his apartment all day, watch some TV and ignore his mounting worries. As he races against time, a particularly unhelpful police force, the dead man’s bereaved and unusually attractive ex-wife, and the Bombay underworld, he relies on his wits and an unexpected motley crew of people who, sometimes, want him dead too.

Get to know more about the man behind Nadeem’s story, Vivaan Shah!

Vivaan Shah graduated from The Doon School in the year 2009. He went on to study Arts from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi.

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As a child, Vivaan used to draw and write comic books.

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Vivaan has participated in the plays of his parents’ theatre group Motley since childhood. At the young age of seventeen, Vivaan single-handedly adapted Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” into a 30-minute skit for his school’s inter-house competition and for this feat, he was awarded the Best Director and the skit fetched him the Best Play Award.

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Starting out young, Vivaan has acted in plays by writers as diverse as Shakespeare, Premchand, Bertolt Brecht, George Bernard Shaw, Stephen Leacock, and Ismat Chughtai.

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Vivaan Shah started acting in movies at the age of twenty with 7 Khoon Maaf, then acted in Happy New Year, Bombay Velvet and Laali ki Shaadi Mein Laddoo Deewana.  His two upcoming movies are Coat and Abhi Na Jao Chhod Kar.

           

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Being an experimental writer, Vivaan has written a series of Horror and science fiction short stories, one of which titled ‘Entombed’ was published in the Hindu Business Line: BLInk fiction magazine. Vivaan has also written academic essays about film history on filmmakers like Fritz Lang, Raoul Walsh, Sam Peckinpah, Ken Russell, and Roger Corman, about actors like James Cagney and Jim Carrey. The essays are available online on the blogs Cafe Dissensus and A Potpourri of Vestiges.

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Vivaan’s literary influences are multi-faceted, just like him and include Edgar Allan Poe, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, Damon Runyon, Joseph Conrad, Premchand and Kader Khan.

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Vivaan is the younger son of the veteran actors Ratna Pathak and Naseeruddin Shah.

Don’t miss out on his debut novel, as Vivaan has put all his creative energies in this endeavour and this one promises to be a nailbiting read! Set against the backdrop of a low-life Mumbai that comes alive at night, Living Hell is a fast-paced noir murder mystery with dark humour and an accidental hero.

 

 

 

Five ‘delusional leaders’ from Hardeep Singh Puri’s ‘Delusional Politics’

Posted on by Penguin India

Hardeep S. Puri’s forty years of professional life as a senior diplomat, India’s permanent representative to the UN, and now Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs in New Delhi, give him a unique vantage point to see the fault-lines in political narratives and the ‘delusional’ idiosyncrasies of politicians.

Many democratically elected leaders of the twenty-first century have displayed streaks of recklessness, megalomania, bizarre self-obsession and political views that are difficult to characterize. Delusional Politics studies the actions of these contemporary political leaders and covers Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, the rise of the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and decision-making with respect to global governance, terrorism and trade. It brings to light the fact that at the centre of delusional politics is perhaps the delusional politician, who, in turn, is often encouraged and egged on by pseudo expertise, vested interests, and self-serving advice. Such leaders pursue delusional policies that yield catastrophic results.

Read on for five world leaders and the ‘delusional politics’ they have pursued.

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa

A lack of fiscally responsible spending, which has led to a growing dependence on China

“Many examples of delusional politics are available in South Asia, including in India itself. In Sri Lanka, an elected president decided to define his legacy by erecting huge white elephants in his home district Mattala, a port in Hambantota, and the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport. What purpose do these mega infrastructure projects serve? They provide an ego boost to the leader. But what else? He succeeded in driving up his country’s debt. Sri Lanka now faces the prospect of more than 90 per cent of its GDP being earmarked for debt repayment. Since this is not sustainable and the Chinese are not into philanthropy or altruism, the debt has been converted into equity and parts of Sri Lanka have been sold to the Chinese.”

 

David Cameron

Casually deciding upon calling a referendum and allowing its outcome to be shaped by the uncertainties of democratic politics without due diligence, hard work and safeguards being put in place to ensure the nation’s future.

“As the story goes, Cameron had been eating pizza at O’Hare while waiting for a commercial flight home following a NATO summit. He was with his Foreign Secretary William Hague and Chief of Staff Ed Llewellyn. The conversation that ultimately led to the unravelling of the United Kingdom apparently went something like this: We have a lot of Euro-sceptics in the party. Let us smoke them out. Let us have a referendum. Cameron had been on the lookout for an opportunity to reclaim face and leadership, not only in Parliament but within his own party.”

 

Theresa May

Calling an election when it was not due and when the government had a comfortable majority.

“When campaigning for the prime minister’s job, Theresa May had pledged to continue in the footsteps of her predecessor. In calling the general election in April 2017, she had succeeded in venturing down the same superfluously tumultuous path as Cameron. The elections took place less than two months after May’s announcement, on 8 June 2017. The Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority, and Labour gained seats. After the embarrassing results, May then resorted to forming a new government with the Democratic Unionist Party in order to secure a governing majority.”

 

Donald Trump

A series of delusional decisions

“He formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, breaking with seven decades of US foreign policy and stripping any prospects of a US-led mediation. He has announced that the US will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, breaking away from Western allies and possibly inciting a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. His attempts to earn a Nobel Peace Prize for denuclearizing the Korean peninsula have fallen embarrassingly short. He initially made negotiations with North Korea virtually impossible by threatening to ‘totally destroy’ the country of twenty-five million and by insulting Kim Jong-Un personally, calling him ‘Little Rocket Man’ and a ‘sick puppy.’ He then proceeded to meet with the North Korean leader at a summit in Singapore, where both of them agreed to ‘denuke’ the Korean Peninsular.”

 

The Congress Party and the Gandhi family

The interests of the grand old party that had facilitated India’s freedom were being subordinated to the interests of one family

“What went so horribly wrong for the Congress party? At a general level, several decisions, which can only be described as ‘delusional’, need to be mentioned. Three possible reasons suggest themselves, two of which are apparent: One, a mother’s abiding love for and persistence with the less than successful and reluctant leadership qualities of her son; two, a ‘dynasticization’ of politics, where one family is above the party, and for some Congresspersons, above the country. The third reason, which is not so apparent but more crucial than the first two, is the separation of power and accountability between 2004 and 2014. An interesting system of ‘diarchy’ was introduced in 2004 when the Congress won and this was widely regarded as an unexpected victory.”

Delusional Politics brings to light the fact that at the heart of delusional politics is perhaps the delusional politician.

Things you didn’t know about India’s Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs

Posted on by Penguin India

In Delusional Politics, Hardeep S. Puri, studies contemporary political disruptions in three of the world’s largest democracies, namely United Kingdom, United States of America, and India; and how these events are mirrored in current conversations around global governance, terrorism and trade. Delusional Politics, the author’s second book, follows Perilous Interventions in its honesty, clarity, and incisiveness. Hardeep S. Puri, not known for mincing his words, delivers in his unique style a book that will come to be regarded as one of the finest analysis of democracy as a form of government; the role of democratically elected leaders and how their delusion decision-making can yield catastrophic results; and how these domestic upheavals reverberate in and impact the world order.

These interesting facts about the author and the current Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs will leave you ever more inspired to read his book!

Hardeep S. Puri has over forty years of experience in the world diplomacy, which began in 1974 when he joined the Indian Foreign Service.

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He was India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, both in Geneva and New York. He has also held Ambassadorial level positions in London and Brasilia, and was also Secretary (Economic Relations) at the Ministry of External Affairs.

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Puri chaired the United Nations Security Council and was also Chairman of its Counter-Terrorism Committee.

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He has extensive experience with and specialization in trade-related matters and has also served on many Dispute Settlement Panels of the GATT and WTO.

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Puri has served as Joint Secretary (Navy) at the Ministry of Defence.

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As a young political officer stationed in Colombo, he met and negotiated with LTTE chief Prabhakaran on behalf of the Govt. of India.

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Puri did his Bachelors and Masters in History from Hindu College, University of Delhi.

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He briefly taught a St. Stephens College, University of Delhi

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Hardeep S. Puri is married to Lakshmi Puri, a former Indian diplomat who served as India’s Ambassador to Hungary and accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Until recently, she was the Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).  

 

Delusional Politics brings to light the fact that at the heart of delusional politics is perhaps the delusional politician.

A Conversation with the Author of ‘Ganga’, Sudipta Sen

Posted on by Penguin India

The Ganga enjoys a special place in the hearts of millions. In his new book, Ganga: The Many Pasts of a River, historian Sudipta Sen tells the fascinating story of the world’s third-largest river from prehistoric times to the present.

We had a conversation with him about the book. Take a look!

What is your history with the River Ganga? Why did you choose to write a book on the river?

I grew up in Calcutta. The section of the Ganga that runs by the city and meets the Bay of Bengal across the expansive muddy flats of the Diamond Harbor is called the Hugli and also the Bhagirathi. I traveled with my parents to the pilgrim towns of Haridwar and Rishikesh by the Ganga in the Garhwal Himalayas as a child in the early 1960s and had the great fortune of experiencing their contemplative quiet and their natural setting. These journeys left a deep impression on my mind for years to come.

Gori Ganga (also known locally as Bhagirathi) descending through the Garhwal himalayas. photograph by Debal Sen.

I revisited the history of the Ganga and its delta during the period of the expansion of British rule in India spearheaded by East India Company, when I was studying for my PhD at the University of Chicago. My revised doctoral thesis, published as Empire of Free Trade: The English East India Company and the Making of the Colonial Marketplace, was about the conflict over markets and marketplaces between the Company and indigenous regimes. Researching the history of bazaars and ganjs and various sites of worship and pilgrimages along the river in northern and eastern India, I delved into old travel accounts in Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Bengali that brought to life for me the antiquity, vibrancy and wonderful complexity of Indian economic and cultural practices of the greater Ganga Valley. When Yale University Press approached me for the first time, almost fourteen years ago, with a request to write a history of the Ganga, I could not turn down the offer.

 

What was the research process for the book? How long did it take to write?

When I agreed to write this book, I had not fully realized how daunting and difficult the undertaking was going to be. First of all I had to get back to my old Sanskrit grammars and dictionaries and start rereading the stories of the descent of the river across all the major Hindu Puranas. It also dawned on me very quickly that I had not seen many parts of the river that I was writing about, which is why I had to trek to places like Gaumukh and Tapovan in the Himalayas, or the low-lying mangrove-rich flats of the Sunderbans, and travel by land and boat in various places along the river between Allahabad (now Prayagraj) and Banaras, Patna and Bhagalpur, Rajmahal and Kolkata. It was my good fortune to have my friend and cousin, the eminent cardiologist and wildlife photographer Dr. Debal Sen with me on some of these journeys, and many of his wonderful photographs appear in my book.

 

The cave of Gaumukh. Photograph by author

I thought that I would be able to write this book in the space of five or six years. It has actually taken me more than twelve years! You can say that at times it felt like I was drowning (forgive the pun) in the Ganga project. Now that the book has seen the light of day, I hope that my wanderings, research and writing over these long years have led to something of value. I pray that I might be leaving something behind for my students and younger people, the next generation perhaps, who have not had the same joy and thrill of having seen the Ganga in her full and glorious majesty – before the advent of dams and barrages, or the contamination of cities and factories. The holy river could once be seen cascading down the mountains through places like Gangotri or Rishikesh, or meandering through northern Indian plains after a monsoon flecked with migratory swans and overgrown with tall prairie grass at the onset of autumn. It is for them to rediscover the rich and diverse history of this sacred body of water, the record of one of the most important riparian ecologies on this planet, and the wonderful mosaic of cultures that it has been able to sustain over the centuries.

 

Can you tell us about some of the things you are hoping to achieve from the publication of this book?

I want to remind my readers how the history and ecology of the river have at times been almost taken for granted over the last five decades since India’s independence, amounting to a historic neglect of the environment and ecology that has sustained and been sustained by this great river. I want our younger enthusiasts of Indian history and nature to find out, on their own terms, why and how the Ganga has remained such a sacred and venerated body of water, and how her historical memory is strewn across such a diverse array of faiths and traditions in the Indian subcontinent. One of the recent reviews of my book states that it is “an obituary” of the Ganga. I do not believe so. If there is a genuine groundswell of concern and outrage, I am convinced that we can at least stem the tide of contamination and overuse. The depletion of the Himalayan snowpack and siltation are more intractable problems, but here too, I believe the new generation can make a difference. I will consider myself blessed if this book can make even a small difference.

 

Are we to see another book by you soon? Have you thought of the subject for this?

I am always writing more than one book at a time. I have been working for almost two decades now on another book tentatively titled Law and the Imperial Order: Crime and Punishment in Early British India that shows how criminal law and punishment in India was reshaped during the rise of the East India Company’s rule, resulting in the proclamation of the Indian Penal Code in 1862. It is mostly focused on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, especially on the work of the first Supreme Court of Judicature in Calcutta. It looks at early methods of trial, sentencing and forms of penalty including incarceration, use of convict labour, deportation and executions. Much of this work is based on lesser known accounts of law and history in Persian, archival records in Calcutta and London, along with thousands of pages of a diary left by one of the earliest judges of the Calcutta Supreme Court, Justice John Hyde.

I am also preparing to write a shorter book of popular history on the meteoric rise and dramatic fall of Nawab Mir Qasim placed on the throne of Bengal as the second puppet by the British. Prior to this, after the Battle of Plassey in 1757, Robert Clive had installed his father-in-law Mir Jafar on the throne of Bengal. It is the story of how Qasim turned out to be much more ambitious and independent-minded than what the British had bargained for. Unlike other puppets he was a soldier of fortune who tried to adapt to the changing political times during this tumultuous period of European overseas expansion and the frantic duel for territorial supremacy between France and England in the wake of the Seven Years War.

 

What were some of the challenges that you faced while writing this book?

The sheer weight of the secondary scholarship and primary research required for a two-thousand-plus year history of the third-largest river in the world has occupied a significant portion of my life and labour for more than a decade. Some of the most demanding work went into deciphering and translating primary sources in various languages such as Sanskrit, Prakrit and Persian. Travel to high-altitude sites and pilgrimages such as Tapovan and Gaumukh was also a challenge for a first-time trekker such as me, as was learning the rudiments of handling a digital SLR camera for the first time. I am immensely grateful, nevertheless, for the fact that writing this book has taken me out of the archives and libraries, away from my desk and the classroom, on to the railroads, roadways and dusty trails along the Ganga, for some of the most memorable journeys through the mountains, plains and the last remaining wildernesses of northern India.

Seamlessly weaving together geography, ecology and religious history, this lavishly illustrated volume paints a remarkable portrait of India’s most sacred and beloved river.

Do You Want To Be An RJ? Here Are Five Things To Note!

Posted on by Penguin India

Let’s Talk On Air is the perfect book for you if you have always dreamed of becoming a radio jockey! Take a deep dive into the lives of fourteen eminent radio presenters to learn about the people behind the iconic voices that have entertained us via the airwaves-one of the oldest forms of communication. Get to know the challenges, ideals, inspirations, favourite songs and icons of the popular radio jockeys of our time, including the legend Ameen Sayani, and maybe this can be a career which inspires you too!

Here are some useful bits of wisdom imparted by these famous radio presenters!

RJ Ameen Sayani

“A radio host should be able to make their listener not only hear but also feel. The listener should be able to comprehend what you mean. What you say on-air must be factual. So always remember to do your homework! If you know your facts, you will naturally speak with confidence.”

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RJ Anuraag Pandey, Radio Nasha 91.9 FM and Fever 104 FM

“Be original. And don’t become a radio jockey for instant fame. The key to longevity is to keep in touch with the pulse of the people you are catering to. Read about them, meet them. Only if you know common people can you connect with them like an old friend.”

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RJ Prithvi Vishwanath, Fever 104 FM

“Radio to me is not about the voice as much as it is about the personality! Don’t hesitate to be you. Remember, you cannot always please everyone. Just work on your language, diction and communication.”

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RJ Rohini Ramnathan, Radio Nasha 91.9 FM

“As a jockey, you analyse song lyrics and film dialogues. It is literature, poetry and philosophy. You have to understand rhythm, rhyme and verse. And if you read a lot, you can successfully have a better conversation with your guests, irrespective of which “field they belong to.”

∼

RJ Yunus Khan, Vividh Bharati 102.8 FM

“One good quality to have is being interested in many different things, like music, literature or sports. You must have a fairly good knowledge of diverse matters that concern most people, and you must have a good vocabulary. You must love talking to people, particularly strangers. And you must really love music and songs.”

 

Do you want to be an RJ and entertain tons of listeners? Then this book is for you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elected Books For This Month!

Posted on by Penguin India

February is the month of love, and we’re all set to celebrate our love for books! Penguin brings to you a wide range of books this month, by authors including Simone Ahuja, Shravya Bhinder, Krishna Sobti and Novoneel Chakraborty.

In addition to this, with the elections around the corner, we’ve got more than one book that will help you understand the political system of the country better and prep you up on what to expect this 2019.

Take a look!

The Verdict

Published on the eve of India’s next general elections, The Verdict uses rigorous psephology, original research and as-yet-undisclosed facts to talk about the entire span of India’s electoral history from the first elections in 1952. Crucially, for 2019, it provides pointers to look out for, to see if the incumbent government will win or lose.
Written by Prannoy Roy, renowned for his knack of demystifying electoral politics, and Dorab R. Sopariwala, this book is compulsory reading for anyone interested in politics and elections in India.

 

Ground Scorching Tax

In this book, well-known economist Arun Kumar explains the reality behind GST. Known for not pulling any punches, the author explains why GST is a double-edged sword for the common man, why it will increase inequality across sectors and regions, why it will hurt small businesses-everything the government does not want you to know.

 

Game India

Through chapters, at once ambitious and engaging, Game India outlines seven key unrealized opportunities India can pursue to remain a leading player on the world economic superhighway: solar power; an enviable coastline and waterways; milk; agriculture; a huge population that, among other things, can yield methane; innovation; and unleashing human potential through education, justice and health.

 

Jugaad 3.0 Hacking the Corporation to Make it fast, Fluid and Frugal

Based on hundreds of interviews, as well as the author’s consulting work within companies, Jugaad 3.0 Hacking the Corporation identifies the competencies these corporate hackers possess. It also offers a spectrum of carefully crafted archetypes to help people see themselves in this trend and allow organizations identify the innovators in their midst.

 

How to Win an Indian Election: What Political Parties Don’t Want You to Know

Written by a former election campaign consultant for a major political party, How to Win an Indian Election takes readers into the forbidden world of election war-rooms and gives them a glimpse of how strategy is formulated, what works with voters on the ground and what doesn’t. Based on research, interviews and the author’s own experiences, this book is invaluable for its insight into the inner workings of politics, political parties and what really makes for a winning election campaign.

 

Half Torn Hearts

Half Torn Hearts is a coming-of-age tale of three layered individuals coming in terms with their first loss, which bares the devil that we all possess but are scared of encountering and which eventually becomes the cause of our own ruins.

 

Something I Never Told You

Ronnie knew that his first crush was way out of his league, and yet he pursued and wooed Adira. Shyly and from a distance in the beginning, and more persuasively later. Slowly, as they get close and comfortable with each other, life takes on another hue. Things begin to change for the worst. Ronnie and Adira will probably never find their forever after . . .

 

A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There

Part novel, part memoir, part feminist anthem, A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There is not only a powerful tale of Partition loss and dislocation but also charts the odyssey of a spirited young woman determined to build a new identity for herself on her own terms.

 

Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India’s Central Himalayas

What do we really know of the intimate-and intense-moments of care, kinship, violence, politics, indifference and desire that occur between human and non-human animals? Whether it is through the study of the affect and ethics of ritual animal sacrifice, analysis of the right-wing political project of cow protection, or examination of villagers’ talk about bears who abduct women and have sex with them, Govindrajan illustrates that multispecies relatedness relies on both difference and ineffable affinity between animals.

 

The Beauty of the Moment

Love is messy and families are messier, but in spite of their burdens, Susan and Malcolm fall for each other. The ways they drift apart and come back together are the picture of being true to oneself.

 

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