Maila Anchal : Phanishwar Nath Renu (5.0/5.0)

It's the year 1946 in a remote village of Marygunj in Bihar, near the Nepal border. Villagers hear that the authorities are looking for a young man in their community. Baldev, a known nationalist trouble maker  is promptly tied and delivered to the police station. The villagers are shocked to learn that the officials wanted to consult  Baldev and actually call him Baldevji. In those pre newspaper days in the villages , news travelled at a glacial pace and the villagers did not realise that it's almost fashionable to be a nationalist and a follower of Gandhi baba.This opening act sets up the novel which is a heartbreakingly realistic portrayal of village life in India about the time when the country got its independence. 

The book is set in Marygunj, an indigo village named after the young dead wife of a long forgotten british collector. It is a typical village of the time with a few dominant families and many more poor ones. The main strand of the novel is about the arrival in the village of the idealist young doctor to set up a malaria research centre. In the course of his stay he takes care of and falls in love with the daughter of the rich and prominent householder in the village. The resemblance to 'Sachiv ji' and 'Rinky' is not coincidental. It is possible that this is one of the earliest usage of the 'pardesi babu' trope, used in so many old hindi movies and continued in 'Panchayat'. Their love story carries on in the backdrop of the Doctor's work, of the village politics and somewhere in the background, a country called India getting its independence. 

The village life that emerges from this book is not Gandhi's romanticized version. It comes across more like the sink of ignorance, casteism and exploitation that Ambedkar saw them as. What hits a 21st century reader first is the abject poverty in which so many villagers lived. The kind of poverty where there are people who have not had a poori or owned a shirt ever in their lives.

Then there is the exploitation. Exploitation of the poor , who are forever in debt - no matter how hard they work. Of women, specially of the lower castes - by their  families, by the rich, by the 'religious' gurus. Women who have to provide comfort to some lord who has their father's / husband's signature on a blank piece of paper. Surprisingly the book also shows how some lower caste women had more sexual agency then their upper caste peers. 

Freedom struggle in the country did not really impact the day to day lives of the villagers A few Congress programs in the village were largely objects of curiosity. Despite this, Gandhiji or Gandhi baba comes across as someone who was revered as a larger than life figure, almost a saint if not a god. 

It is largely believed that the Congress party lost its idealism in the Indira era, when power shifted from Nehru and first generation of freedom fighters. However, this book shows how the decay started even before Indepence , the moment power was in sight. Idealists in the party were being sidelined or even ridiculed in favour of the merchant classes who had lately become fervent Gandhians. One congress worker remarks that the new district Congress president was the same liquor shop owner whom they picketed a few months back. Actually even today, if we think about it, we can see all around us industrialists who benefitted from their 'support' to the Congress.

This book is an essential read for an understanding of where is the Indian society coming from. It's reputation as one of the most consequential books in Hindi literature, after Premchand's Godan, seems well-deserved.

The Shortest History of India : John Zubrzycki (4.0/5.0)

As the means of travel and communication improved over the millenia, people across the world now have a common set of news and that will possibly translate to a common history for later. Few hundred years back every region had its own unique history and a few thousand years back every village or town had its own. In that sense there might no such thing as a national history.  

Therein lies the problem of writing an Indian history , specially once that goes back more than a few hundred years back. Several attempts have been made - notably Discovery of India  by Jawahar Lal Nehru. The breadth of the topic is sure to intimidate anyone attempting to approach it. This book does a tidy job of balancing the breadth and depth of this topic within 275 odd pages. 

It starts with theories of Homo Sapiens arriving on the subcontinent moving on to the  migration of the Aryans and the Harrapan civilization. In his description of this period the author seems to be influenced by Tony Joseph's Early Indians (Another interesting book that addresses , well as the same suggests - Early Indians) This is followed by Maurya / Ashoka empire and the 'Classical Golden Age' of the Gupta's. Muslim rulers such as the Delhi Sultanate , Deccan Sultanate and the Mughals are covered - including the contemporary Rajputs and Marathas. South Indian dynasties such as the Chola's , Chera's , Pandya's etc are discussed as well. 

The book covers the arrival and the occupation of the British as well as the freedom struggle. It even comments on India after the british rule - all the way upto Modi raj. (Suffice to say, the author would not be counted as a modi bhakt).  

I think this is a good effort and a great place for a concise breadth view of Indian history. One amusing note was that the author seems to go out of his way to trivialise the brutality of some of the muslim rulers. Those minor hiccups notwithstanding - This is a book I would recommend.    

Dethroned - The Downfall of India's princely states : John Zubrzycki (4.5/5)

                                                           

'India protests new laws disenfranchising minorities in Bhopal and Kathiawar' or 'Indian government exhorts Hyderabad and Bikaner  to update age of consent for women to  18'. Imagine the headlines in an India where states such as Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Bhopal and hundreds of others co-exist under alongside 'India'. India being the newly independent erstwhile British India. This was not only a plausible scenario but also a highly probable one. As a matter of fact the 'Instrument of Accession'  that the princely states signed with the independent India gave control of only 3 spheres to 'India' - foreign affairs, defence and communications. 

The Indian subcontinent that the British ruled had two main systems of government. The British crown directly ruled the so called 'British India', which was approximately three fifths of the land mass. A substantial two fifths was divided among almost 550 princely states. These states managed their own internal affairs under the crown's protection. Their fiefs ranged from a few square kilometers to hundreds of thousands of kilometers in the case of Hyderabad and 'Jammu and Kashmir'. The rulers of these states fully expected to be independent once the British packed their bags and left. Congress leadership realised that having hundreds of these 'independent states' would be a nightmare to manage. This would also have deprived the citizens of these princely states the full benefits of Independence. The task of assimilating these states fell to the unlikely pairing of Vallabhbhai Patel and VP Menon. As the name suggests , this book covers the few months in 1947-48 within which this project was completed with an epilogue of subsequent events.

Sardar Patel was a london trained barrister from Gujrat who traded his suits for dhoti kurta when he answered Gandhi's call. He  was one of the towering leaders of Congress with a huge mass following of his own. The lessor know VP Menon from Kerala was a man of many experiences. While starting his professional life as a teenage labourer at Kolar mine fields he then rose to be at the top ranks of the British administration in India. These two used every one of the old 'sam - dam - dand - bhed' to assimilate the princely states. They lulled them into a false sense of security, painted lurid pictures of people's revolt and if all failed threatened with direct use of force to ensure that the princely states fell in line. In my view the two them did the dirty work required to ensure that India came out of the British rule as one cohesive geographical unit. Specially knotty issues emerged in the case of some princely states. Hyderabad and Junagarh had muslim rulers but largely Hindu populations while the scenario was reversed in the case of Kashmir.

Zubrzycki does a good job of throwing light on this very significant part of the Indian history. He covers biographical aspects of  Patel, Menon and the major princes interspersed with a taut narrative of the events. A major source for the book is Menon's own book on the subject 'Story of the Integration of Indian states'

This is not only a good read but one of the more important books that I have read in some time.

The Alteration : Kingsley Amis (3.5 /5.0)

Last month The Economist published a list of top books set in a counter factual world. A world that would have been if a major historical event had turned out differently. I already like this genre and have read quite a few books on the list.

A significant proportion of these books involve a different end to the second world war. C.J Sansom's Dominion and Robert Harris's Fatherland are set in an  England which is losing or has lost the second world war to the Nazi's. In both these books the alternate history is a significant part of the plot. Then there are those books where the alternate history is a part of the backdrop and has nothing to do with the actual story. This would include Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz set in an independent Indian nation which co-exists with the United States and which I reviewed a few months back.   

Also in the second category is Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union which is a cop story set in a world where the Jews have been settled in Alaska instead of Israel. To take a bit of a tangent here, Michael Chabon is an amazing author who has written several other awesome books such as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Gentlemen of the Road. Very highly recommended if someone is looking for a new author to read.

Coming back to the list mentioned, I was surprised to see one of the top mentions was The Alteration by none other than Kingsley Amis, of the Lucky Jim fame. Lucky Jim is another book I love and often recommend.

The Alternation is set in an England that very different from the protestant England of Henry the VIII that we know. This is a world where Martin Luther's revolution against the papacy never happened. As a matter of fact Martin Luther himself became Pope Germanium the I. So this is a world where Vatican won against the protestants as well as science. Across Europe the Pope's world is the law.   

The story is about a boy in London called Hubert who is a gifted singer. In fact he is such a gifted singer that master singer's from the  Pope's court come to see him. They decide that he is a suitable candidate for 'alteration'  which will ensure that he does not achieve puberty and spoil his voice. He might become one of the most famous singers in Christendom but on the other hand he will never have a wife or family. Hubert along with his family and friends struggle to digest these new circumstances over which they don't have much of a choice.

The book is well written, though the writing seems a lil odd at the start. Author brings out some aspects of how the world in which Catholicism ruled  supreme would look like. That bit requires a lil more work to appreciate than some of the other books mentioned above. Apart from the obvious historical aspects the book also ruminates over  how significant or otherwise is sexual desire and its fulfilment to human existence.

I will rate this a 3.5 - a good, different book.

Submission : Michel Houellebecq (4.0/5.0)

September and October this year were French literature months for me. With  Man's Fate  I discovered Andre Malraux , an all time French great , and then Michel Houellebecq a contemporary star.

Submission imagines a scenario where the left in France teams up with a Muslim party to keep National Front and the hard right out of power. The leader of the Islamic party is the charming Ben-Abbes , who is bank rolled by the petro monarchies of the middle east. This leads to the Islamization of the  state institutions including educational institutes.  

All of this is viewed from the point of view of a washed out literature professor in Paris. He has no lasting relationships and his personal life consists of sleeping with a new student every year.

Michel is obviously a very good writer and presents some radical ideas in a logical fashion. For e.g. as the liberal movement has moved attacking the corporates and the state to attacking the family unit itself it has become like an autoimmune disease, which will lead to its own destruction. With increased labour participation of women leading to lower fertility rates and few marriages liberals will lose the Darwinian population race to more conservative sections of the society. 

Very good read.

Man's Fate : Andre Malraux (4.0/5.0)

As I planned my trip to China, I tried picking up some books set in China , googled "Top books set in China". I settled on 2 books , Shanghai Baby and Man's Fate. I read a bit of the former but didn't complete and moved on to Man's Fate. Turned out to be a great choice. 

As I learned later Andre Malraux is one of the greats of 20th century French literature.

In the 1930's the civil war in China between the nationalists, led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and Mao's communists was temporarily put on hold as they battled the Japanese invasion. The communists were supported by Soviet Union while the nationalist had the support of the west. At this point of history Chiang Kai-shek was the dominant of the two parties and was trying to contain his 'allies' while ostensibly fighting the Japanese.   

The book is set in the Shanghai of 1930's divided between the Europeans concessions and the Chinese city. The protagonists are a set of communist organizers who are setting up an insurrection in Shanghai, fighting the nationalists in the open as their superiors in Hankow are insisting that they are not to act against Chiang's forces. 

In not a great number of pages the book manages to explain the development of the communist movement in China and its uneasy relationship with the nationalists. And for that itself this would have been a great read but as is the wont of great authors it is also a complex human story which manages to explore the personal stories and insecurities of its protagonist's. Chen - the terrorist, Kyo - half Japanese progressive with an open marriage, Baron de Clappique  and several others have been brought to life with a few episodes and pages. 

With a great French author we are obviously assured of a dose of high philosophy and the book doesn't disappoint on that count as well.

The Honjin Murders : Seishi Yokomizo (3.5/5.0)

 

It's wedding time in a feudal village in Japan. The elder son of the prominent family is getting married, fighting against the instincts and prejudices of his family. There are sightings of a mysterious 3 fingered tramp in the village and then - Murder ! Not just any murder but a locked room murder.

Ring in the private investigator Kosuke Kindaichi - a Japanese Sherlock Holmes. The Honjin Murders is a Japanese classic, first written in 1948 and recently translated into English. This is the first in the series of books with Kindaichi as the protagonist. 

I think after a first 10 odd books the mystery and the solution to the mystery becomes secondary in the enjoyment of the book , its more about the narration and quirks of the investigator and if that can hold the reader. This is where Agatha Christie scores specially with Poirot. On that count this first book is pretty OK as there is the novelty about 1940's Japan. The boyish Kindaichi makes a rather late entrance into the story. He is less flamboyant than a Sherlock Holmes and not old enough to accumulate the conceit or charm of Poirot.

All in all a decent vacation read , but not enough to tempt me to immediately go for more in the series.