Why breath should be not taken for granted?

At the start of 2020, a small team of scientists tried and failed to convince public health organizations that COVID-19 was spread through the air we breathe. Until then, scientists thought that respiratory diseases spread through droplets, and that these droplets had a limited range. Coughed up, these droplets fell quickly to the ground, to use the disgusting terminology of the 1990s which health officials use while speaking about tuberculosis. In reality, however, breath has been a medium of transmission of most invisible things.

Such new insights into the living atmosphere come courtesy Carl Zimmer, through his book Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life we Breathe. The text follows the research where Louis Pasteur caught germs from the air and pursues groundbreaking experiments by Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh. It warns the world about airborne infections and chronicles the dark side of aerobiology designed to spread anthrax, smallpox, and an array of other pathogens. Rather than to be taken for granted, the importance of the natural process of human breath is once again established. 

Protecting the most vital of all life processes calls for a well-thought-out strategy. Breath is in itself of immense value -- one breath in and one breath out is the manifestation of life. A breath alone brings a newborn to life; the body turns pink as the first breath gets in. And the last breath accounts for life. The power that ripples through the whole universe comes in the form of breath.

It is an intuitive act of inhaling and exhaling, which is repeated 25,000 times a day. This natural act, often taken for granted, is counted as a necessary biological activity. It is precious nonetheless, but it is more than just an exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. ‘Breath,’ says Prem Rawat, ‘is the greatest mystery, out of nowhere it comes to nowhere it goes.’ In his book, Breath: Wake Up to Life, Rawat writes that breath is the beginning of life, the sustaining of life, and when it ceases, it is also the end of life.

The invaluable gift

Breath is an invaluable gift, but only if it is taken that way. Traditional practices related to breathing value breath and even try to prolong and preserve it. Sage Patanjali has his pranayama practices that add value to age-old breathing practices that have gained popularity among the health conscious. Buddha counted breath as an essential link between the human body and consciousness. The breathing process has many hidden features that are gaining wide acceptance. That breath fuels all life forms and extinguishes it too, is a lived reality. The natural act of breathing, now counted as a biological privilege, is a precious gift given in abundance.

Breathing must be correctively done because nine out of ten people don’t breathe correctly -- aggravating a laundry list of chronic diseases, according to James Nestor. It is surprising that hospitals only deal with breathing emergencies related to specific maladies of the lungs. It is only in recent years that breathing as a branch of medical emergencies has been acknowledged.

The correct way to breathe

The way to correct breathing is an individual responsibility, but to consider that it is a pretty simple act that is well understood could be a fallacy. Only by following a tough breathing regime could four hours of daily snoring be just ten minutes. For this incredible change to happen, one has to go through an awful experience of forcefully breathing through the mouth for the first ten days and revert to nasal breathing for another ten days with lips sealed with a piece of tape. The longer one breathes through the nose, the nasal cavities get clearer and bigger, writes Nestor in his new book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art.

Inhaling-exhaling techniques are around for several millennia. Over the years, however, these techniques are being rediscovered and scientifically validated. “The fruits of this once-fringe, often forgotten research are now redefining the potential of the human body,” explains Nestor. Limited but cutting-edge research in pulmology, psychology, biochemistry, and physiology has already demonstrated that many modern maladies – asthma, anxiety, psoriasis – could either be reduced or reversed simply by changing the way we inhale and exhale. 

Stories on the magical aspects of breathing abound in the world of yoga practitioners, as popularity of yoga in the past two decades has brought a large number of huffing and puffing exponents in public spaces. Whether or not they are breathing better remains to be ascertained. From alternate nostril breathing to breathing coordination, and from resonant breathing to Buteyko breathing -- all techniques of breathing impact human health and longevity.

Nestor raises hopes of revolutionizing the health sector by generating a renewed interest in breathing techniques to act as a preventive medicine that helps in retaining balance in the body such that milder problems don’t end up being serious health issues. However, modern medicine has yet to take serious note of this wisdom generated by Buddhist monks over two millennia ago. If face is the index of mind, breath is the indicator of human well-being.

Breath
by Prem Rawat
St. Martin’s Press, New York
Extent: 180, Price: US$ 30.

Air-borne: The Hidden History of Life We Breathe
by Carl Zimmer
Dutton Press, USA
Extent: 492, Price: US$ 17.60.

Breath: The New Science of Lost Art
by James Nestor
Penguin, New Delhi
Extent: 304, Price: Rs. 433.

First published in The Hindu on June 19, 2025.

A lip-licking indulgence

Ice cream is a growing indulgence that few would choose to go without. Be with sugar or without, high fat or low, soft serve or kulfi, ice cream will always stand as the world favorite treat. It adorns restaurant menus and home freezers across the world in multiple forms. Once considered an indulgence befitting only the elite, this sweet treat has evolved into one of the most popular mass-market food products ever developed. In Ice Cream: A Global History, journalist Laura B. Weiss takes us on a fascinating journey through the ages to tell the lively story of how this delicious dessert became a global sensation.

Featuring emperors, kings, inventors, and entrepreneurs, Ice Cream makes for a surprising and delightful read. Unlike other places, India boasts a venerable indigenous ice cream culture. Mughal emperors enjoyed flavored ice brought down from nearby mountains. Later, confectioners developed kulfi, a milk-based dish. It isn’t churned like ice-creams, but the mixture is cooked before frozen in small metal cones. Sprinkled with photographs, illustrations and recipes, this is a tasty history of everyone’s favorite childhood treat.

It is a short book that has scooped almost everything about ice cream. Where it was first invented, how it travelled across the world, and evolved into many variants. How ice cream as we know it came about, and how it went from being a dish for the elite to one that today has a ubiquitous appeal? With technological advances beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, and with the widespread emergence of street vendors, regular folks could scrouge up few coins for a ice cream scoop. Laura B. Weiss touches on various aspects of ice cream, from different ways of using ice, and to making ice cream; the important people who helped make ice cream what it is today, and how ice cream features in popular culture. Different graphic representations of ice cream, including a painting by Picaso, adds rich cultural scoop to ice cream’s history. 

I learnt a good deal of stuff that I hadn't known before, and since it's an easy read, I found Ice Cream: A Global History pleasant reading. US has the largest ice cream market, followed by Italy. The Italians, the originator of modern ice cream, were ill equipped to spearhead the drive to commercialize ice creams. Their refrigeration technique lagged, and Italian gelato – which means ‘frozen’ in Italian – was hand-made. The quality of even the best American ice cream – its taste, texture and richness – couldn’t match the gelato.

Whatever be the type of scoop, it is the art and science of licking an ice cream through a cone testifies to its enormous popularity the world over. It was way back in 1904 that the cone came into being, as we know it today. A sensation in its time, it was at the St. Louis fair in 1904 that attracted thousands of visitors who could walk with an ice cream scoop in a cone. It takes about fifty licks to polish off a single scoop of ice cream nestling in a cone, but just a few bites to gobble down its cakey container. It has been a winning combination since then. 

The book makes interesting revelations. It lets us know the ice cream creation of banana split, and the great dessert innovation called the Sundae. But it is emphatically not a global history as it confines to US, Europe, Middle East, Asia and East Asia. The greatest surprise was the complete lack of any mention of Africa. Wonder why this continent with some of the highest temperatures in the world has been left out? How has the African flavors, the Kenyan classic dessert called coupe Mount Kenya and South Africa's iconic Tapi Tapi Ice Cream, remained unknown? Africa did know its ice cream as well as others across the globe. 

Ice Cream: A Global History 
by Laura B. Weiss
Pan Macmillan, New Delhi. 
Extent: 176, Price: Rs. 474.

First published in New Indian Express on June 15, 2025.

How to lose yourself?

The world is increasingly getting obsessed with self-promotion and a thinking that it alone can bring about peace and progress. The growing selfie culture is a manifestation of this daily obsession, backed by technology of the day. Often, a ‘perfect’ identity is carefully curated on social media with a focus on the self.

Swayed by the glitter of social media, there appears to be no actual pursuit of knowing the inner self. Eventually, this relentless self-promotion is leading to distress. The fear of having less and the desire for more has contributed to a balance sheet of unhappiness

It’s perhaps the right time to re-read the teachings of the Buddha, who argued thousands of years ago that the self is an illusion -- and that our belief in it is the cause of most, if not all, of our sufferings. Poring over ancient Buddhist texts, Jay L. Garfield, Maria Heim and Robert H. Sharf have teamed together to dismantle notions of the self in How To Lose Yourself: An Ancient Guide to Letting Go (Princeton University Press).

Their suggestion? “Better to lose yourself!” The writers contend that Buddha had argued for letting go of the self, which allows us to see more clearly the innumerable causes and conditions that come together to create our experience and that make us who we are. “When we allow our fantasies of self to dissolve, we discover instead the radically interdependent nature of our existence.”

Opening up another flank of study on the ancient religion, Douglas Ober contests the commonly held belief that Buddhism “all but disappeared” from India after the 13th century and 14th century and saw a revival only in the mid to late 19th century. In his book, Dust on the Throne (Navayana), he notes that Buddhism had always been there, and that two centuries of archaeological excavation and textual scholarship now point to a long, enduring, and “unarchived” Indian Buddhist afterlife that extends to the modern day. Ober’s exhaustive research told him that Buddhism had an indelible influence in shaping modern India.

As he writes in the Introduction, ‘A Dependent Arising’, the theory of Buddhism’s “disappearance” from the subcontinent is “little more than a useful fiction, deployed to wash over a more complicated historical terrain involving periodic Buddhist resurgences and trans-regional pilgrimage networks.” He shows that Indian’s modern Buddhist revival began nearly a century before 1956, when the Indian government celebrated “2,500 years of Buddhism” and when B.R. Ambedkar led half a million followers to convert to Buddhism.

Ober argues that the “revival of Buddhism” in colonial and postcolonial India led to a slew of movements from Hindu reform movements, the making of Hindu nationalism, Dalit and anti-caste activism, as also Nehruvian secular democracy. He tells the stories of individuals and communities that kept Buddhism alive, not least the incredible account of J.K. Birla, eldest son of entrepreneur B.D. Birla, who financed major Buddhist constructions in pilgrimage centers like Rajgir, Sarnath, Bodh Gaya, and also in new centers of “urban Buddhist activity”, including Calcutta, Bombay and New Delhi.

While Ghanashyam Birla, J.K. Birla’s younger brother, sided with Gandhi and Congress, J.K. and his father firmly supported the extreme Hindu right and the Hindu Maha Sabha, although as Ober notes, “they never stopped supporting Gandhi either.”

Efforts to resurrect Buddhist archaeological heritage are an ongoing process to help connect its monumental past with its philosophy.

In his book, Casting the Buddha (Pan Macmillan India), Shashank Shekhar Sinha traces the Buddhist heritage sites and the cities they are located in to understand their larger geographical, sociocultural and historical contexts. It is an illustrated history of Buddhist monuments in India, spanning 2,500 years. For the purposes of this book, Sinha writes in the Introduction, ‘monumental history’ plays on the word ‘monument’ and discusses Buddhist edifices, sites, and connected histories.

A closer look reveals how the “lives of the monuments” resonated with the people and communities around them including monks, laity, kings, traders, guilds, landlords, agriculturalists and villagers.

Over time these structures have acquired different forms and meanings and have also become important “sites of social and cultural interactions.” The buildings are “complex ecosystems” which capture the changing times and give an idea about belief systems, rituals, stories and folklore. For instance, writes Sinha, the sculptured panels on the gateways of Sanchi not only depict events from the life of the Buddha but also the Jataka tales and the mythical bodhisattvas.

Ober contends that Buddhism was an indispensable part of the daily lives of Indians from many walks of life. “They spent their days reading and reinterpreting Buddhist scriptures, attending and delivering dhamma talks, building and rebuilding Buddhist shrines.” The lives of Ambedkar, Birla, Kosambi, Mahavir, Sankritayan and many other figures “help us realize that there is no one single identity at the heart of modern Indian Buddhism... [it] continues to have an important but often unacknowledged role in Indian society.”

As Indians relived the past to find a better present and future, writes Ober, “a classless, casteless, egalitarian society,” they found the Buddha. That as a society we have not yet been able to eradicate discrimination and poverty means the debates on issues like “caste, inequality, morality, social order, and belonging” are not over. The quest to grasp the historical Buddha and understand his ‘inherent mission’ must continue, and this says a lot about our modern times and predicament.

Dust on the Throne
by Douglas Ober
Navayana, New Delhi.
Extent: 389, Price: Rs. 699.

How to lose yourself
by Jay L. Garfield, Maria Heim, Robert H. Sharf
Princeton University Press, Oxford.
Extent: 195, Price: $.17.

Casting the Buddha 
by Shashank S. Sinha
Pan Macmillan, New Delhi.
Extent: 384; Price: Rs. 359. 

First published under Bibliography in The Hindu dated May 23, 2025.

Be a woman once

Writing is an intellectual pursuit, but it’s also creative labor and a social and political statement. In doing so, one becomes a witness to one’s own self, which gets revealed in parts. The advocate in Banu Mushtaq slips into the shoes of an activist to bring alive the lived reality in the Muslim households and to narrate the eerie calm that pervades inside those four walls.

Many shades of male dominance and female submission are reflected in Mushtaq’s vast oeuvre of short stories, a dozen out of which have been translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi to critical acclaim, winning the English PEN and landing a spot on this year’s International Booker shortlist.

The 12 stories in Heart Lamp exquisitely capture the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities. Originally published between 1990 and 2023, these stories are portraits of family and community tensions that are precursors to all forms of caste and religious outbursts.

In calling out patriarchy and questioning traditions prevalent amongst predominantly traditional households, Mushtaq emerges as a tireless champion of women’s rights. For its style which is intensely observant and colloquially reflective, ‘after laying the egg of light at dawn, the black hen of ignorance exited, rushing into the darkness to peck at grain’, the collection of stories is sure to sustain readers’ interest.

Each of the 12 stories does bring the incessant human pain and misery to the surface. However, the final story, Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord! is one that serves to linger. It is not an apt closing to the collection but a touchy beginning, an open letter that dares God to be a woman once to address their plight. Written like a letter addressed to Allah, it seeks respite from male domination: ‘if you were to build the world again, do not be like an inexperienced potter. Come to earth as a woman instead!’ Either it is too naïve to understand what women endure or too cruel to acknowledge their plight.

Deepa Bhasthi’s translation has introduced Mushtaq’s progressive stories far and wide. Bhasthi has done her best in retaining the linguistic sense wherever possible. Translation of a text, according to the translator, is more than merely an act of replacing words in one language with equivalent words in another.

Heart Lamp is linguistically rich, giving the reader a different feeling. The long list of individuals has stretched support in making this book achieve the distinction that it deserves.

Heart Lamp
by Banu Mushtaq
translated by Deepa Bhasthi
Penguin Books, New Delhi.
Extent: 216, Price: Rs. 399.

First published in New Indian Express on May 18, 2025.

The will to ignorance is as strong as the desire to know

If ignorance is indeed bliss, as a poet once wrote, it also can be said that human beings “are creatures who want to know and not to know.” The world, writes Mark Lilla in his timely book, Ignorance and Bliss, is going through a phase in which the denial of “evident truth” is rising. It’s a world where “mesmerized crowds still follow preposterous prophets, irrational rumors trigger fanatical acts, and magical thinking crowds out common sense and expertise.”

Holiday from reality

A professor of humanities at Columbia University, Lilla’s arguments that people seem to favor ignorance are compelling. In these murky days when everything seems to be at sea, Lilla offers an amazing insight on the human being’s incorrigible “will to ignorance,” a term coined by Nietzsche. It seems after spending a lifetime searching for knowledge, humans have taken “a holiday from reality.” No wonder, resistance to knowledge is now being backed by an ideology that is supportive. In the face of such developments, those devoted to reason and logic have started to feel like refugees.

Quoting from George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, Lilla asks: “It is a common sentence that knowledge is power; but who hath duly considered or set forth the power of ignorance?” While some people are naturally curious about learning why, there are many others who are indifferent. There are reasons to avoid knowing about particular things, and many of those reasons not to know are perfectly justified. And then there are those who have developed a disinterest for gaining knowledge simply because they believe what they already know is the truth.

Lilla provokes readers to think about this. In the Introduction, he writes that Aristotle taught that all human beings want to know. “Our own experiences teach us that all human beings also want not to know, sometimes fiercely so.” The most obvious resistance to knowing is rooted in fear. People resist any aspect that is related to their morality and religiosity being questioned, because they are afraid of getting exposed. By questioning such firm beliefs, people run the risk of upsetting ideas they’ve built their lives around, with no guarantee of any satisfactory replacement. However, if ever questions have to be raised without any chance of them being resisted, it has to take place in a state of total ignorance.

Imagined pasts

Ignorance and Bliss is all about how ignorance ought to be viewed and how indeed it should get valued. It views ignorance independent of bliss, and for good reason. At this time when politics is filled with lies and fake news, the question worth asking is whether the root cause of the problem lies with the public.

Gaining knowledge is an emotional experience and resisting knowledge is an emotional experience too. How to live with such contrasting emotions in a given time is the focus of the book, and our present predicament. The intimate struggles with aspects of self-knowledge feature prominently in it. Even self-knowledge depends on resisting other kinds of knowledge about the world. The chapters in the book concern fantasies, exploring that power in us which inspires resistance to acknowledging reality.

Lilla explores several human sentiments like innocence, nostalgia, emptiness, and taboo, to get some clarity on the knowledge/ignorance dilemma. Clarity is hard, because the search for an answer often remains subjective. Knowledge and ignorance co-exist. Those who feel ignorance is bliss may actually have a “distaste for the present” and go rushing to “restore an imagined past,” says Lilla. On the contrary, the more we know leaves us with the challenge to know more. A quest that never ends.

Fascinating and challenging, the book makes a compelling argument that a will to ignorance is as strong in us as any desire to have knowledge, and that we are caught between the will to know and the will not to know. Such are the times that wanting not to know appears to be much stronger than wanting to know.

Ignorance and Bliss 
by Mark Lilla
Hurst, New York 
Extent: 219, Price: Rs. 1,765.

First published in The Hindu on May 15, 2025

The religious congregation with a distinct identity

Punjab is known for its sprawling deras – places where self-proclaimed religious heads recite sermons and run the institution as a personal enterprise. These gurus build their brand through charity work including the organization of blood donation camps and mass marriage ceremonies. Politicians of all stripes are now warming up to the possibility of co-opting dera congregations. Unsurprisingly, deras are increasingly playing a critical role in times of political crisis.

Today, there are some 9,000 deras in Punjab that are patronized by about 80 per cent of the state’s population. These institutions are believed to pocket much of what is given to them by way of religious donations. While most are a heady mix of the esoteric and the political, they are also reflective of the sacred geography of the land. The rising popularity of alternative religious sects has sparked much academic and popular interest in the deras, which have, over the years, emerged as seats of alternative spiritual power. Each with a charismatic baba adopts distinct rituals, ceremonies, traditions, slogans, symbols, auspicious dates, customs, prayers and religious rituals.

Given the traditionally hierarchical nature of Indian society, the popularity of deras centered on singular messianic individuals is understandable. Many have emerged in response to prevailing caste-based social discrimination and the exclusion of marginalized castes from the mainstream religions. Those that cater to the large Dalit population, an estimated 32 per cent in the state, especially, give their following a sense of social identity. There is also a vast reservoir of individuals without options for whom deras provide a progressive focus and a viable way forward. Together with mammoth physical infrastructure, these bodies provide social mobility and a sense of belonging for those deprived of it. The attraction of the deras, then, needs to be understood as part of a complex social process. There is of course much variety in the character of the deras – with the highly influential Dera Sachkhand Ballan and the controversial Dera Sacha Sauda both being part of the spiritual landscape.

Sects are a feature of religions across the world, and this is true of Punjab too. In a sense, the deras act like tributaries of the main channel, whether it is Sikhism or Brahmanical Hinduism. Far from being boxed within a narrow framework, they carry within them the richness of diverse philosophical realms. The Deras by Santosh Singh offers a compelling sociological perspective on these institutions which continue to evolve and stay relevant. Spread across seven chapters, the book presents a fascinating view of how deras negotiate the contemporary scenario. It provides an ethnographic narrative on the burgeoning of this specific culture and also examines how related aspects of social welfare are gaining precedence.

An absorbing study on a subject that greatly influences the character and politics of contemporary Punjab, The Deras puts forward the view that the mushrooming of these bodies has to do with the fact that subaltern identity has yet to be mainstreamed with aspirations for inclusion and equality yet to be fulfilled. The dera phenomenon then needs to be viewed as a push towards the generation of social capital, which eventually contributes to the emancipation and empowerment of the marginalized.

The Deras 
by Santosh Singh
Penguin, New Delhi 
Extent: 196, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in the Hindustan Times on May 1, 2025.

To seek a philosophy of one's own

Are Greeco-Roman philosophies still relevant to our times? Aren’t our modern problems much different from those faced by people in ancient times? Conversely, however, fundamental human desires and aspirations haven’t changed in the last two millennia or even earlier? Don’t we still want love, friendship, money, reputation and tranquility, and still fear sickness, pain, death? If that is what most of us would agree with, then the instruments devised by the Greeco-Romans still constitute a powerful tool kit to help us figure out how we want to live. That is why the theoretical explanations and practical suggestions of 13 ancient philosophies still relate to us and even guide us. 

Live Like a Philosopher can help the reader relate to these philosophers, without being scared off by the big names. Having done a lot of the heavy lifting themselves to develop a life philosophy, the lifetime of distilled ideas by these philosophers can be shared to build a coherent and meaning way of life. From Pythagoras to Socrates, their blueprint for thinking about how to live well are highly relevant. Despite representing different philosophical schools, the three dominant themes that run common in them are - feeling good, being good, and thinking well.      

Pigliucci, Lopez and Kunz invite readers to expand their horizon to the vast richness of ancient philosophies of life. Through each philosopher’s life and works the authors dish out practical exercises that can be applied in our daily lives. These exercises are relevant teachings to be test driven over a course of time. The idea is to help reader with questioning and exploring their own philosophical journey in the process. At the end, what is important is not to stick with one set of ideas but to seek a philosophy that one would like to own. 

The idea of buying a latest shiny smartphone gives us pleasure, but it doesn’t last long and soon dissipates. Like a drug addict we soon resume our quest for another shiny object. Should it be pursued more as a matter of choice or as a philosophical question? Whatever be it, philosophy can help us know what to do in such a situation with a sense of good judgement. Insatiable desire to accumulate more and more things is a form of sickness that not many are aware off. According to the Cyrenaics school of philosophy, we must own our pleasures instead of our pleasures owning us. In other words, it is the immediate physical pleasure that matters, here and now. 

This book is an engaging resource for anyone who would like to test drive the ancient Greek and Roman philosophies to suit present life and circumstances. It creates a much-needed bridge between ancient wisdom and modern interpretation. It helps in better understanding rich philosophical ideas, so that these could be applied in present-day modern life. Live Like a Philosopher gives an illuminating opportunity to navigate the existential waters with valuable insights and reflections. 

Well-known philosophers Pigliucci, Lopez and Kunz have compiled this book that explores a range of Greek and Roman philosophies. These philosophies include the Epicurean doctrines of pleasure and avoidance of pain; the Aristotelian philosophy on virtuous character and radical doubt; and Pyrrhonism, the humbling philosophy of life that admits of not knowing much. Despite distinctions between ancient philosophies, the authors have attempted to draw synergies to address the modern-day challenges. 

Live Like a Philosopher can be helpful in creating meaningful life philosophy to navigate a world filled with uncertainty. How can we build a good life for ourselves? is the loaded question it sought to address, by using ancient philosophies as a compass to find a new way forward with a sense of purpose. On happiness, Aristotle had remarked ‘one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day’. He went further to say that ‘one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.’ A resurgence of interest in philosophies of life is not without reason. 

Live Like a Philosopher
by Massimo Pigliucci, Gregory Lopez and Meredith Alexander Kunz
Headline Books/ Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 298, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in Deccan Herald on April 27, 2025.

History repeats itself

Has the world plunged into a crisis, and that too permanently? The geopolitical analyst Robert Kaplan has every reason to believe so. Moreso with no such thing as linear in this world, the direction of human history is anything but unknowable. Though technology has kept evolving, roots of the permanent crisis continue to lie in what goes wrong with technology. With a sweep of history and politics, one could see similarity between today’s challenges and those of interwar years. The similarity being that every national disaster now has the potential to spread across the world, pandemic being one example. 

Waste Land both warns as well as generates hope. While it positions us as the Master of Technology, it considers us no less victims of it to a previously unimaginable degree. The entire world may seem one big now yet not connected enough to be politically coherent. But despite such cultural and even civilizational differences, a crisis at one level becomes a crisis for all. All countries are now so connected, at least technologically, that the crises have a domino effect. There are exceedingly complex set of issues that have yet to be acknowledged and resolved.

An interesting and absorbing sweep through history, literature, politics and philosophy guides Kaplan to divide the world into two broad phases, Globalization 1.0 and Globalization 2.0. While the past phase was about the spread of democracy and the enlargement of the middle class, the present phase is value-neutral but largely hostile. Furthermore, this phase is characterized by dense webwork of interactions that is a perfect fuel for sustaining permanent crisis. No wonder, Ukraine, Gaza and other major conflicts get their effects amplified, rather than assuaged. 

Considered one of the top global thinkers on Foreign Policy, Robert D. Kaplan is currently Robert Strausz-Hupe Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. At this time when the world is bracing uncertain geopolitics, a deadly mix of war and climate change and heady cocktail of power rivalry and technological supremacy, the future finds itself in an exceedingly fragile phase of political transition. Nothing less than a penetrating diagnosis is needed to evolve a new international order.

The world isn’t getting worse, but the point is that social and digital media in the cities, in addition to doing some good, has greater potency to ignite more geopolitical turbulence. Waste Land surmises that social media in the world-cities are the key reason why politics will continue to get complicated and challenging. Not only has complex countries like Pakistan, Nigeria, and South Africa are teetering on becoming failed state, it is getting harder to even govern countries like the United States and France. The book makes some compelling observations and tosses unprecedented challenges that mankind is likely to face. 

Kaplan has drawn an interesting parallel of the present situation with the erstwhile Weimar Republic, the semi presidential republic during the interwar period 1918-1933, which the world today find itself in an exceedingly fragile phase of technological and political transition. Much like Weimar, ours is an interconnected system of states in which no one really rules. Weimer, once a loose-limbed republic, is now a permanent condition in the world, as countries (and its people) are connected by technology to affect each other intimately.

The whole city is a web, or should it be said the entire world is a web. Social media and the digital technology only amplify crowd psychology. The Trump phenomenon was hard to imagine in an earlier age of technology. The technology has its pinball motion that oscillates between extremes of toxic narcissi and the solidarity of the mob. The future is being defined by 21 century technology but has interesting resonant with the past. Kaplan concludes that many diverse strands of culture and history are converging to make amazing new sense of things. 

Waste Land is a brilliant and engaging survey of the world before us. Grounded in a vast range of history, philosophy and literature, it provides a range of critical positions before us. It is a dark mirror held to a dangerous world that demands our attention. We seem to have little choice but to fight one, as the outcome is neither clear nor predictable. It is a cautionary tale of absolute brilliance.  

Waste Land
by Robert D. Kaplan
Hurst, London.
Extent: 207, Price: US$ 23.

First published in the Hindu Business Line dated April 26, 2025.

A dera for everyone

Punjab is known for its sprawling deras - a place where a self-proclaimed religious head recites sermons - and there are some 9,000 of such deras in the state. About 80 per cent of the state’s population patronizes these deras which are believed to pocket 90 per cent of the religious donations. It is not without reason, it gives a large dalit population, an estimated 32 per cent in the state, a sense of social identity by which it can wield massive influence that is not without controversy. While most deras are a heady mix of the esoteric and the politics, these are also reflective of the sacred geography. Over the years, however, each dera has emerged as a seat of alternative spiritual power.  

The rising popularity of alternative religious sects has sparked much interest in the deras. These have emerged in response to prevailing caste-based social discrimination and exclusion of lower castes from the mainstream religion. Confirming the popularity of these sects among the lower castes, the contemporary attractiveness of the deras need to be understood as a complex social process. Not only that, the deras have influence on the character of the society which is often intertwined with its politics. While there is highly influential Dera Sachkhand Ballan on one extreme, the controversial Dera Sacha Sauda too dots the landscape. 

Religion is here to stay, or should it be said religious sect. In a sense, the deras act like tributaries of the main channel. Far from being boxed into narrow framework, the deras carry with them the rich diversity of deep philosophical realm. The Deras offers a compelling people’s perspective on the sociological imagination of these dynamic institutions which continue to evolve with time to stay relevant. However, the manner in which these institutions negotiate with the present scenario is fascinating. Spread across seven chapters, the book provides an ethnographic narrative on the dera culture that is not only growing but its social welfare perspective is gaining precedence.    

The modern narrative on the deras is somewhat progressive. Indeed, many deras are run by self-proclaimed gurus as personal enterprises. There is little denying the fact that there is a vast reservoir of free-floating disgruntling individuals for whom such progressive orientation of the dera is the way forward. These individuals want these deras to operate on purely entrepreneurial basis, investing in brand-building through charity work like blood donation camps and mass marriages. Deras have become congregations for electoral politics. Politicians of all stripes are understandably warming up to such possibilities. It is no surprise that the political patronage these deras receive in times of political crises is critical.

The Deras is an absorbing study on the dera culture in Punjab, which has gained unique profiles over the course of time with the adoption of distinct rituals, ceremonies, traditions, slogans, symbols, auspicious dates, customs, prayer, religious rituals, and attire of baba. Together with mammoth physical infrastructure, the deras provide social mobility for socially discriminated and economically poor sections of society. The book provides all that contributes pathological reasons for mushrooming of these deras. 

Author Santosh Singh reasons that mushrooming of deras has more to do with the fact that subaltern identity has yet to get mainstreamed. As this has yet to happen, the aspirations for inclusion and equality are far from fulfilled. The phenomenon of deras needs to be seen from the perspective of generating a social capital, which contributes to the emancipation and empowerment of lower caste and middle-class people in particular.

The Deras 
by Santosh Singh
Penguin, New Delhi 
Extent: 196, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in The Outlook on April 19, 2025.

No time to die, James Bond

For over six decades, from 1962 till 2021, James Bond has been a fixture of global culture, universally recognizable by the films’ combination of action set pieces, sex, political intrigue, and outrageous gadgetry. No Time To Die, the last Bond film released in Sept 2021, had the ruthless and self-indulgent secret service agent ‘die’ for the first time. Bond’s death cannot be without an impeccable reason. The lingering question: Is life sucked out from 007 or is there a new life for the agent awaiting somehow? Are there reasons enough for the secret service agent to perish or are global changes too many for his life getting a meaning?  

Spanning the franchise’s history, from Sean Connery’s iconic swagger to Daniel Craig’ visceral interpretation of the superspy, James Bond Will Return offers both academic readers and fans a comprehensive view of the series’ transformations against the backdrop of real-world geopolitical intrigue and sweeping social changes. Six years between the film Spectre (2015) and No Time To Die (2021) so much had happened that the Bond, as a character, felt grossly challenged. The period was itself factitious: Trump presidency was transforming the world between 2017-2021, and Brexit have had its influence on Europe in 2020. Gender relations were changing too.

Cary Fukunaga felt that ‘you cannot change Bond overnight into a different person’. As someone who directed Daniel Craig in No Time To Die, Fukunaga argued that while you can definitely change the world but not the way he has to function in such a world. In theory this was acceptable but not in practice. Never were there more vocal calls for substantive changes to the franchise than ever before, suggesting instead that the series was turning ‘redundant’ if such changes were    not incorporated. The world had definitely changed at all levels.    

The twenty-five chapters in this book engage with the wide range in which the Bond franchise has achieved historical and cultural impact, navigating the repetitions and innovations over the years. Over six decades 007 has remained a perennial feature of most adulthood, in no small way in which it owes it to the character’s ability to create and remain relevant.  But this in no way explain why some critics, scholars, and even fans have been glued to the Bond movies for being sexist, elitist, and even racist. Needless to say, it created opportunities when there was no dearth of reasons to pursue them. Over time, however, the masculinity and femininity the series presented began to strike many viewers as outdated.

Change is inevitable, more so in the case of Bond. It escaped change for being slow, but each time it served newness in each new film. The Bond has demonstrated its ability to shift social and political coordinates, while retaining the core constitutive elements that have held fans together since 1962. James Bond has remained an enduring icon of both national and masculine, and that would remain a challenge to retain that identity.

James Bond Will Return is for true. Barbara Broccoli didn’t shy away from saying that the next Bond film would be ‘a reinvention of Bond'. 'We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time'. James Bond matters to the entertainment industry, society, culture, and scholarship, negotiating issues of wider geo-political importance.          

James Bond Will Return
by Claire Hines, Terence McSweeney and Stuart Joy (Eds)
Columbia University Press, USA
Extent: 328, Price: Rs. 2,808.

First published in Hindustan Times on April 12, 2025.

Let life be without unhappiness

There has never been as much unhappiness in human life as today. The fear of having less and desire of having more has contributed as much. To fret about something over which you have no control brings unnecessary distress upon yourself. Peering at the world today, it seems that there is turbulence ahead, because of tectonic shifts in economy and society which is leading to excesses of exploitation and indulgence. Wading through this maze may seem a way out, but unhappiness lingers all across and all along.      

Happiness in itself is nothing but is an emotive feeling that is attributable. Yet, one would like to get such a feeling. It generates a sense of self-esteem, which in itself is an important source of human happiness. To see that others hold us in high esteem can be a source of contentment. No surprise, therefore, most human beings like to display their better selves to the world to seek happiness and contentment. Much of our life is spent in finding such an elusive process. But former World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu thinks that reason, and logic, can guide humans to achieve happiness.       

It seems that reasoning can only take us closer to finding out what makes us happy, but that too on the surface. The capacity to reason, says Basu, is not only the most underrated but valued too. That’s why a lot of human woes, social and economic, stems from the absence of reasoning. But reasoning seems to have its limits, as happiness is beyond the purview of reason and logic. The human ability to reason falters when humans have to apply logic to human emotions. In this interconnected world, more than reasoning it is the influence of togetherness that need to be factored in. Even if interconnection causes happiness, it will last till interconnection lasts.

One would expect us to reason out of the root cause of unhappiness. In theory, it might seem possible but not in practice. It is beyond redemption when there is more than one reason for it or the reason itself is beyond repair. And we are not making any serious efforts as more than 50 percent of our time is spent in repeating our habit(s) Come to think about it, a remarkable number of habits get repeated every day and we are often proud of it. Ironically, most of us believe our habits lead us to take right and happy decisions. 

Drawing on her expertise as a clinical psychologist with a masters in neuroscience, Dr Sophie Mort concludes that in nine out of ten cases our habits do us good only in few cases. Who wants to follow sheep, but the system is so programmed that each one ends up following the flock? Around 2.8 billion people on Facebook, 2.3 billion on You Tube, and an estimated 1.8 billion on Instagram, whether qualified or not, share their views on living a happy life. Whether or not they are happy remains an open question!

Happiness has turned out to be a big industry. Not only have there been the Ministries opened to address the crucial issue of happiness, but happiness clinics have also opened up and happiness therapies too are doing a good business. Yet, happiness remains as elusive. ‘Get married; the research says it will make you happier’; ‘Ignore marriage, it’s likely to end in divorce’; ‘Buy a house and get on the housing ladder;’ ‘Live in a van, don’t do what society wants you to do;’ ‘You are enough as you are.’ Messages like this help avoid having regrets, the idea is to live life true to oneself. The oral therapies of the kind ease one out of status quo, though temporarily. 

A huge part our lives flows through our habit selves, says Prof. Wendy Wood. This is that part of us, which is powerful, which is reliable, and which is always there. We are stuck to our habits, quite often there is hardly any time to reason out of it. We all live habitually already, without being seriously aware of it. And because of that, a big part of who are you and why we do what we do is often ignored or is taken for granted. The many ways things could be done better get missed out. Samuel Johnson had rightly remarked: ‘The diminutive chain of habits are seldom enough to be felt, till they are too strong to be broken’.

The challenge is to avoid search for happiness, but to get rid of unhappiness. Let life be without unhappiness, remarked the Buddha.                                       

Reason to be Happy
by Kaushik Basu
Penguin RandomHouse, London
Extent: 214, Price: Rs. 500.

(Un)Stuck
by Sophie Mort
Simon&Schuster, New Delhi
Extent: 274, Price: Rs. 699.

Good Habits, Bad Habits
by Wendy Wood
Macmillan, London
Extent: 308; Price: Rs. 425. 

First published as Bibliography in The Hindu on March 20, 2025.

The unassuming grain

By 2050, cities will feed 70 per cent of the world population, which will by then have reached 9 billion. Though maize is most produced in the world, it is rice that is universally consumed. With a milled rice production volume of 522 million tonnes, rice is a staple food for over half of the world’s population. It is particularly important for countries like China and India, who are not only its the largest producers but consumers too. It is consumed in various forms, from steamed rice to rice flour, and is integral to many cultural cuisines and traditions. 

Few foods are as universal as rice, yet its story is anything but ordinary. ‘Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook.’ From the ancient paddies to kitchens and markets around the world, this unassuming grain has become both a dietary staple and a cultural cornerstone. In this engaging account, Chef Renee Marton unravels the rich history of rice, tracing its remarkable journey through centuries of trade, migration and culinary innovation. The origins of some of the rice dishes go as far back as the Moghul dynasties. Little gets realized that rice is a principal ingredient of Budweiser. 

Spread over five chapters the book explores cultural and culinary value of rice, influence of ancient trade on rice, its spread in the new world, and the emergence of the modern consumer. Cultural customs and rice rituals are no less significant. Rice and fertility are almost synonymous, bride and groom have it as the first food eaten. Rice explores how rice has shaped societies and cuisines, from sustaining mighty empire to inspiring arts. While Christ may not have ever talked about it, Krishna, Confucius, Buddha, and Muhammad had special liking for it. 

Rice has a fascinating history which began in the foothills of the Himalayan, in Southeast Asia, southern China and Indonesia. Its domestication evolved in India and China and subsequently spread in east Asia and rest of the world. The rice grains were reported growing some 15,000 years ago, and were put to non-edible uses as well. Glutinous rice, cooked as thick paste and mixed with lime and sand, was used as mortar that made up the Great Wall of China. In its journey through long history, rice also fed soldiers and prevented famines.

The importance of rice to society has been studied extensively. Rice has followed society wherever it went or evolved. And when it felt settled, rice pudding studded with raisins and dry fruits was served. For Chef Marton, the global history of rice is a valuable study of rice rituals and customs. Mouthwatering and tantalizing recipes from across the globe are not listed without reason, as these offer a captivating exploration of how this humble grain continues to define and connect us. Such has been the role of recipes that the widely popular sushi was acceptable as a form of tax payment, way back in 718 CE. 

Rice is a the highly adaptable cereal grass that grows in most environments. Irrigated rice accounts for 50 per cent of cultivated rice and represents 75 per cent of the little over 700 million tonnes of rice harvested. Under the changing climatic situation, however, irrigated rice has come under serious question. Water is a limiting fact, and so is methane emission from irrigated paddy fields. Methane is more potent as a greenhouse gas; it traps around 120 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. Rice will have to go through these challenges in the coming years.     

De-methanation has emerged as a new challenge for growing rice. Will rice be a less water guzzling crop, that will also promote de-methanation is the million-dollar question? The global history of rice does not address the emerging challenges. Rice talks about it as an ancient crop and focuses on the changes it has gone through the new world. However, imminent climatic challenges are what will determine the future of rice. 

Rice: A Global History
by Renee Marton
Pan Macmilllan, New Delhi
Extent: 143, Price: Rs. 450.

First published in the HinduBusiness Line on March 16, 2025. 

Failed reinvention

Set in Texas, this is a story of an Indian immigrant family of four, each of whom has broken free of the shackles of so-called happy co-existence called a family. Suresh and Lata have drifted after decades of marriage, and their grown-up kids Priya and Nikesh have set their sails in search of finding themselves. Navigating online dating, Suresh meets an attractive woman while Lata finds a professor at the college flirting with her newfound independence as a librarian. Nikesh pretends a seemingly perfect marriage whereas Priya harbors a clandestine affair. Each to their own, but not entirely as each one keeps a close eye on the other. Though the family is turned upside down, the glue of relationship still sticks. 

When relationships turn into rituals, lack of imagination triggers their downfall. Even in togetherness, there remains a strong sense of loneliness. Under such conditions, a part of everybody remains hidden in such failed relationships to act like a virtual time bomb ticking to rip things apart.  Feeling suffocating in each other’s company, a part of both Suresh and Lata hoped that there was actually someone out there in the world capable of making them feel joy, maybe even love. In divorce, they found a perfect opportunity for self-reflection and re-valuation. 

A bad relationship may be a two-way street, but divorce isn’t a bad marriage at the end. In this bighearted debut, Deepa Vardarajan pitches the narrative on the premise that every arrangement in life carries with it the sadness, and that there is a space and scope for reigniting relationships all over gain. Nothing is lost till it is lost. In this witty family tale the question that runs through it is: will the loyalty that once rooted the family be strong enough to draw them back together? Will the family members rise above their personal fulfilment, family entanglements, and reignited dreams?

One cannot fail to admire the layered complexity of this beautiful novel about a flawed yet unforgettable family—the interlocking ironies and wounds and strivings for love and clarity and accomplishment and growth, all so deeply embedded in the cultural milieu of the immigrant family. Every character in this engrossing story is as distinct as real, and one can easily draw similarities from daily life. Late Bloomers is a work of delightful, engaging reading.

In a moving narrative, Deepa Vardarajan details the internal predicaments of its characters as they come to terms with the stark realities of life. Their coming together is no less dramatic, the whole family gets to uncover one another’s secrets, confront the limits of love, and explore life’s second chances. The truth of life is unraveled to each one of them in its own little way. Late Bloomers may not have a happy ending to the story, but a promising beginning for sure.

There is a collective learning, and acceptance of common follies as a family. Everyone is found guilty of telling untruths – if not to one another, then to themselves. Certainly, everyone in family is found guilty of that. But probably everyone in the whole world is. Most of the time, what we think of as truth is threaded with self-serving distortions. Late Bloomers has everything you may ask for in a novel.  

Late Bloomers 
by Deepa Vardarajan
Random House, New York 
Extent: 352, Price: Rs. 650.

First published in Deccan Herald on March 16, 2025.

The footprints of wisdom and knowledge

Nalanda Mahavira may exist today only as ruins of old temples and monasteries; its legacy has an intellectual history that endures beyond its material existence. It may have ceased to exist in the early fourteenth century, but its reputation as a place of learning has spread across geographies ever since. Great scholars made significant contribution in the fields of philosophy, science, medicine, mathematics, astronomy and architecture. Notable among them were Nagarjuna, who advocated the philosophy of emptiness and, Aryabhata, the father of Indian mathematics. Much like Greece, Nalanda was a seat of learning in the east.

Son of the soil Abhay K brings to light the illustrious past of Nalanda and argues that its growing footprints in Asia, Europe, America and Australia will help it reach even farther in times to come. It was the greatest residential university of its kind with an age-old tradition of knowledge co-creation to overcome hatred and anger for achieving inner peace. Not without reason, Nalanda was an acknowledged seat of learning then. It still holds the potential to become a philosophical guide that incorporates the past wisdom into daily modern life.

Nalanda has been largely reduced to mounds of the then monasteries, but it does reflect that the leftover architecture of the time had attributes of an institution of learning which was then known as Mahavihara. The idea of a university is generally considered European but the advent of universities at Blogna, Paris, and Oxford during the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries were no different from Nalanda. The evolution of a Vihara, founded by Emperor Ashoka, into a well laid Mahavihara, inspired the courtyard structure in colleges and universities. Such a courtyard, argues the author, played a key role in advancing the recursive argument and scientific enquiry and expects that such scholastic method continues to fuel oral and written public debates.

The book chronicles the rise, fall and rebirth of Nalanda, the iconic seat of learning in Bihar. Its footprints seem to be growing across the world, representing an intriguing continuity of the Mahavihara. Overwhelmed by its multidimensional scholarly richness as evidenced by the intense academic engagement between past luminaries and foreign scholars, Abhay traces the new landscape in carving out the future of Nalanda. Grand in vision and vast in its scope, Nalanda University came into being in September 2014 as a multi-country international center to revive and relive the values that the Mahavihara once stood for.

Though a decade is no time to undertake a true assessment of a university, the academic credentials for it to excel as a seat of high learning seems somewhat elusive. While the upcoming campus might seem impressive for its design and layout on 455 acres of land in Rajgir, infrastructure alone cannot uphold the grandeur of its projected philosophical vision. The new university campus, in close proximity to the ruins of the majestic past, may hold some strategic advantage, but the logistics disadvantages are too many to be overlooked.

Rajgir and Nalanda were the ancient political, economic, intellectual and philosophical centers of ancient India which had all the necessary conditions for establishing the centers for higher learning and institutionalizing the tradition of scholarly debates and discussions. Today, it only has a historical value with a rich cultural past. Abhay should be credited for putting aside the past mysteries of the place in telling the credible story of Nalanda Mahavihara. It may have played a key role in the spread of Nalanda-grown philosophies across the east.

Nalanda is a place of immense historical and cultural significance, which the book brings to light. It is time that Nalanda creates a consciousness to grow.

Nalanda
by Abhay K
Penguin Random House, New Delhi
Extent:193. Price: Rs 699.

First published in the Hindu BusinessLine on March 07, 2025.

The ground beneath us

Prior to industrialization, land was humanity’s single most productive asset. The humans respected and lived on the land without caring much about who owned it. Much changed thereafter as a piece of land became a symbol of wealth and privilege for the rich and for the poor it meant dignified existence and livelihood security. No other form of wealth is comparable. Perhaps nothing could be closer to it, as the total value of all kinds of land on earth is currently estimated to be around $200 trillion. Its value might increase anytime as access to a piece of land is like stepping onto an escalator to cruise upwards.    

While value of land is invariably going to increase, the land area available may actually shrink in the coming decades. As climate is changing in unprecedented ways, previously desirable land may become grossly unusable. This will generate a rush to extract value from land that is lying in lowland areas likely to be submerged, and the land that is vulnerable to emerging environmental extremes. Growing human population, projected to peak at 10 billion in the coming decades, will create unmanageable land pressure. Consequently, privileged countries will harden their borders (they already doing so) thereby heightening inequality between countries. This dynamic is not far-fetched, much is getting real. 

With a sweeping scope across world history, Land Power offers intriguing insights and alarming truths about how land has been used to acquire social and political power. In the past two centuries, upheavals in land holdings has seen dramatic changes across the globe. Such changes ascertain who owns the land that determines a society’s future for centuries, that eventually sets the inhabitants on new trajectories. The monumental consequences of changes in land ownership during 19th century, called the Great Reshuffle, may have been over but some societies are still embarking on experiments to rewire land power. 

Michael Albertus, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, argues that land is as much a problem as a solution to resolve both inequities and injustices of land allocation and distribution. Land is power, but it in no way should fuels disparity, indignity, and destruction. But it has played opposing contrasting roles and continues to do so. Land Power explains how land reshuffling has led to dispossession of indigenous communities and ethnic minorities, paving the way for the world’s greatest social evils. While some countries are adopting to repair past land reshuffles, but these are still easy days. There is little denying that a better future can be made if land power is put in service of a whole society. 

Drawing on original research and on-the-ground fieldwork across several countries, Albertus argues that landholding is not only complex and highly unequal but is grossly underscored by sexism, racism and climate crises. The decision about who gets the land sharpens a society’s sexism, patriarchy raises it head. India offers a stark view of how land power can exacerbate the ugliest forms of gender inequity. As patriarchal and sexist as the society may be, it can become even more so when it sets out to use land power to stymie women.  

Most of the countries that have tried to empower women through land allocation efforts, as Columbia, have failed to make any significant progress. Gender biases persist in many countries like China, Soviet Union and South Africa. It is not surprising that land holding across most the world continues to favor men, with women being largely victims of prevailing biases. Women continue to remain on the sidelines. Women groups are trying to press for their rights, which is likely to transform the prevailing situation.

Population growth triggered land scarcity has given rise to inequity and injustice that the world is grappling to resolve. But what if the process reverses itself? With low birth rates spreading worldwide, an implosion in the global population is likely to weaken the land power. Most societies in Europe and in East and Southeast Asia are near or beyond peak population. The population of the United States is being propped up only by immigration, and the population of Japan, China, and Germany are declining. It will alter human relationship with land.

Vaulting across time and geography, Albertus provides a range of possibilities that are most likely to confront with. The narrow conception of individual ownership of land may wane in the years ahead. Will group allocation of land be the new reality? A new reshuffling of a shrinking population will provide breathing space for generating ideas for crafting a better future from the land. What we do with the land today can change our collective future. However, much will depend on alignment of timing with ideas. In some places on earth this has already started happening, but most of the countries seem to be missing out on these moments. Without doubt, land is indeed the resource on which human future depends.  

Land Power offers new insights into how public and private initiatives will guide us to carve a new future. It is a must-read book on land power as an economic power. This captivating book demonstrates that land may be both social and political power, but it has unseen power to design a new future for mankind. The book offers new insight into how public and private land initiatives in different countries can effectively safeguard ecosystems and allow flow of ecosystem services to the society.  Land Power is lively and timely, offers the shape of scenarios to come.    

Land Power 
by Michael Albertus
Basic Books/Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 321, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in the HinduBusinessLine on Feb 23, 2025.

Living in harmony with nature

The book opens with a story of an 18th century massacre in which as many as 363 Bishnois were beheaded by men who worked for the king, Abhay Singh, as they tried to protect trees that those men wanted to cut down for the king. More Bishnois were in the queue for sacrifice, but the news reached the palace, and the killing stopped. Such a story has never been told, and it is unlikely to be ever repeated. It remains the bravest act of nature conservation ever seen. The martyrs of village Khejarli in western Rajasthan were all Bishnois, led by a woman named Amrita Devi, who stood for the community commitment to live in harmony with nature. 

Who were the Bishnois? What had got them together to stage such a mass sacrifice? The Bishnois who laid down their lives were only following their guru Jambhoji who, during the 15th century unprecedented drought, had called them to live in harmony with nature. “A tree covered in greenery is my temple and my home.” In telling the extraordinary story of this desert-dwelling community, Martin Goodman, a professor of creative writing at the University of Hull, presents the Bishnois as the most ecologically conscience community in the world.   

The Bishnois have persisted with such a conscience ever since, following a life lived in harmony with nature. It is perhaps the only religion or the religious practice in the world that has environmental protection in its core. Their founding guru declared his place of divine residence to be ‘A tree covered in greenery is my temple and my home.’ The spiritual leader declared twenty one rules which are religiously followed till date, most famously followed by the woman who had led 363 villagers to lay down their lives while chanting ‘my head for a tree’.

Times have changed but not the values that remain dear to them. They do protect living beings at any cost, however, in modern times they have evolved into eco-warriors to ensure that the laws of the land are forcefully endorsed to protect all lives. To a Bishnoi, killing a monitor lizard is as hideous a crime as killing a tiger. Salman Khan learnt it the hard way. Charged for hunting a protected species of the blackbuck, the actor was booked for violation under a criminal offence. 

Goodman provides details of the case, highlighting how the Bishnois patience and perseverance was tested against Khan’s popular image and power. It took no less 68 appearances in the court 

over a period of twenty years to pronounce the verdict. In the years between the blackbuck killings and the actor’s guilty verdict, the Bishnois’ Tiger Force had teamed with law enforcers in perusing the case. The force has maintained information networks to bust illegal activities, so that a repeat of the 1998 blackbuck incident does not recur.   

My Head For A Tree is a story about the incredible relentlessness of the Bishnois. Their commitment to a cause isn’t time sensitive, it becomes their life. They see the natural world as a vital entity with rights of plants and animals equal to us, the humans. A Bishnoi woman breast-feeding an orphaned gazelle, chinkara, could be a common sight. And it is not done to create an identity for themselves, but to present what they firmly believe in. Their love for chinkara is profound, with 85 percent of its global population endemic to south-west Rajasthan.  

The Bishnois is an inspiring story that offers not only wisdom, but a concern to forge non-violent action. It is a book about people saving the planet, the message is embedded in what they do to safeguard nature. Goodman has been to their farms, their schools, their temples, and even animal shelters in narrating the ecological commitment and empathy. Pictures by Franck Vogel in the volume are relevant to the context. For people facing unprecedented challenge of rising temperature and desertification, the book has a subtle message for survival. 

My Head For A Tree is an engaging book that connects our glorious past with an uncertain future, in relating an extraordinary group of people and their practices to the impending climatic challenges. It is a book that fills a gap in the ongoing environmental debate. Within the incredible ongoing story about an amazing community lies the future story of human survival. The story of first eco-warriors, which now number no more than a million people, hold a strong message for the teeming millions.  

It is an essential reading for those who are concerned about our collective future. The Bishnoism holds a future that is dear to all of us. The Bishnois are born, and their practices can be followed to confront our present crises. 

My Head For A Tree
by Martin Goodman
Profile Books/ Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 270, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in New Indian Express on 9 Feb 2025