Page 53 - Book Review

Rah Rah, Raghav

Kannan captures the warmth, fun and struggle of a small organisation trying to stand on its feet very well. But she falters when the little production house becomes a media conglomerate

Alan Greenspan as 'politician'

Was Alan Greenspan motivated by politics more than economics?

Why India needs the Pak Army

The message - important for India - is that the Pakistani Taliban isn't going to win power in Pakistan. It will continue to create mayhem - sometimes with the support of the Pakistani military and sometimes without it

Deceit and empire

Finding itself will come as no great surprise to Indian readers but this very readable book presents much new evidence and offers some fascinating pen portraits of leading British statesmen

Dynasty as a positive force

Jayalalithaa, Mayawati and Naveen Patnaik do not have known successors. No surprise, these are also areas where the BJP believes it has long-term prospects to consolidate its position

Collusion and collision during the Emergency

The Emergency, imposed by prime minister Indira Gandhi between June 25, 1975 and January 18, 1977, remains one of the darkest periods of Indian politics

Karl and his Marxism

Like all intellectual legacies, Marx's work remains open to new interpretation

Lost opportunities in aid diplomacy

With the Western world rethinking the role of aid, the leading Southern nations need to ensure they work the aid money judiciously

The irrelevance of Security Council

Hardeep Singh Puri's book 'Perilous Interventions' focuses on military interventions in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen

Secularism unbound

The book raises important questions and compiles numerous views and contestations

The anti-Clinton brigade

Through the 1980s, assassination - or accidental deaths - of political leaders in the sub-continent was a common affair. At the very beginning of the decade, Sanjay Gandhi, the heir apparent of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, died in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances that still feed speculations. Then, on October 31, 1984, his mother and then Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was shot dead by her bodyguards, who had been turned by Khalistani militants - leading to a genocide against the Sikh community in Delhi. Four years later, Pakistan president Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash - also an assassination - on August 17, 1988. Finally, on May 21, 1991, Indira's son and Sanjay's brother Rajiv was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber during an election campaign in Sriperumbudur in south India.One of the last journalists to meet him was Neena Gopal, who was covering the elections in India that year, for Dubai-based Gulf News. During the final car ride to Sriperumbudur, Rajiv told

Death of a politician: Personal recall

Through the 1980s, assassination - or accidental deaths - of political leaders in the sub-continent was a common affair. At the very beginning of the decade, Sanjay Gandhi, the heir apparent of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, died in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances that still feed speculations. Then, on October 31, 1984, his mother and then Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was shot dead by her bodyguards, who had been turned by Khalistani militants - leading to a genocide against the Sikh community in Delhi. Four years later, Pakistan president Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash - also an assassination - on August 17, 1988. Finally, on May 21, 1991, Indira's son and Sanjay's brother Rajiv was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber during an election campaign in Sriperumbudur in south India.One of the last journalists to meet him was Neena Gopal, who was covering the elections in India that year, for Dubai-based Gulf News. During the final car ride to Sriperumbudur, Rajiv told

Gandhian economics revisited

Although much has been written on Gandhi's views, little attention has been paid to those who carried out his agenda for constructive work

Anatomy of a turnaround

The book describes how he achieved one of the most dramatic corporate turnarounds in US history, not only paying back the loan by the end of 2012, but also returning a profit of $22.7 billion

Hitler, without myths

Ever since Hitler came to power, writers have been trying to fathom him, and he is already the subject of major biographies

Inside India's oldest TV news brand

That book prompted a second when the next election came around in 1950

Uncommon saga of rural innovation

The author's feelings of guilt, gratitude, suffering, happiness, obligation, and so on are not usually central in an academic thesis

Diplomacy and patronage

Diplomacy especially attracts presidential cronies, and those that buy their ambassadorships

Can you be black and Republican?

"The African-Americans love me," Donald Trump said back in January. Nine months later, evidence of that love is exceedingly rare. Polls put Trump's black support in the low single digits. In 1964, Barry Goldwater, who had voted against the Civil Rights Act in the summer and won the enthusiastic endorsement of the Klan, received six per cent. Ronald Reagan received 12 and nine per cent. Even John McCain received four per cent.Whether because of those numbers or despite them, the academic study of black Republicans is booming. Now we have Joshua D Farrington's Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP and Corey D Fields's Black Elephants in the Room. We may soon have more books on black Republicans than actual black Republican voters.Before Goldwater, the choice was not so clear, and Mr Farrington, who teaches history at the University of Kentucky, starts by reminding us that the great migration from the "party of Lincoln" did not happen all at once. A significant minority of A

The voice of pre-independence India

Writing for the Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science in its September 1929 issue, Ramananda Chatterjee presented a perceptive analysis of the challenges Indian journalists faced in that period. This was around the time Chatterjee went to jail on sedition charges. Yet, the editor of The Modern Review, a monthly journal published in English, and Prabasi, its sister publication in Bangla, did not let his bitterness overtake a realistic review of the state of journalism, which has not lost its relevance.Chatterjee recognised that in spite of the draconian laws restraining the freedom to publish, there were other laws that provided some flexibility to Indian publications as evident from the rising number of newspapers and journals in the first few decades of the 20th century, his own included. Yet, Chatterjee struck a sombre note: "We have to serve and please many masters. The staff of those journals which are owned by capitalists have to serve them. They may not in all cas