Will James Bond return?

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 

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

People are a mystery

Nita Prose has picked up from where she had left her debut murder mystery The Maid. The hotel remains the venue for Molly Gray, the maid, to clean up a murderous mess yet again. Known for keeping the guest rooms in a state of cleaning perfection, the hotel’s reputation has been sullied again by the death of a famous mystery writer moments before he gets up to address the press. That the teacup was laced with some poison seemed apparent but the motive and the person executing the sinister crime offers a pitch-perfect plot that is intriguing and enthralling. It is a slow but tasteful whodunnits rendering of any vintage. 

Devil is in the details, more so in a murder mystery that remains loaded with both innocuous and obnoxious but in which none is above suspicion. Having been relieved of any suspicion in the past, Molly remains concerned that despite being diligent in their work, the maids are assumed to be delinquents, murderers and thieves. Why is the lowly maid always to be blamed? The words carry layers of meaning that leave the reader seething and feeling sad about the society we have morphed into. Prose’s writing functions as mirrors for our internal landscapes.

The Mystery Guest makes for slow reading of an immaculately crafted narrative, which makes it hard to discover clues lying amidst what gets thought as kept asides. Not without reason was Molly surprised when the world-renowned celebrity author had missed noticing her dominating presence in the team making arrangements for the event. It unfolds later in the story that Molly knew the dead guest during her younger days and remembers some of the secrets which may hold the key to the mystery. But unlocking it means thinking about the past.   

It is not only the gentle observational quality of author's prose but her aphoristic brilliance that shines through the story. The control over language and choice of words helps create a visual imagery to unlock the mystery. A segment of Molly’s past flashes before her eyes to remind her of the idiosyncrasies of the celebrated author as she accompanied her granny for domestic work at his sprawling mansion. Much later it occurred to her that the celebrated author used talents of others to palm them off his own. The difference between a fraud and a predator is hairline.     

It goes without saying that making a choice between what is morally right and what is economically beneficial is tricky. At times, the choice gets set in the wrong place, focusing on one’s weaknesses instead of strengths. For making a lucrative choice, the celebrated author had to pay a price with his life. Prose reminds her reader that at the end of it all, people are a mystery that can never be solved. That is what makes The Mystery Guest truly enthralling. 

Molly’s take on life is enjoyable and reflective. The mystery is not about events that disturb people but the judgements concerning them. Nita Prose has evolved a style of her own in making the genre exquisite and enchanting. Every sentence is a treat to read, even when it is plumbing the bleakest truths of society and humanity. It is rollicking and emotional, tender and sharp, absurd and relatable. The writing is packed with sharp observations on the most eccentric human behavior, all propelled by a story that is slow-paced but addictive. Let it be clear that the mystery is not solved, till it gets solved. There are many a slip between the celebrated author’s lips and the poison-laced teacup.

The Mystery Guest
by Nita Prose
HarperCollins, London
Extent: 327, Price: Rs. 499.

First published in Deccan Herald on Feb 16, 2025.

Bishnois have message for everyone

Martin Goodman, a professor of creative writing, tells the extraordinary story of a desert-dwelling community of western Rajasthan who live in complete harmony with nature. The story dates back to 11 September 1730, in which 363 villagers led by Amrita Devi were beheaded by men who worked for the king and had wanted those trees to be logged. The massacre only stopped when the news reached the king, Abhay Singh. The martyrs of village Khejarli were all Bishnois, who were only following their guru Jambhoji who, during the 15th century unprecedented drought, had called them to live in harmony with nature.  

The Bishnois have persisted with such a conscience ever since, following it as a religion (perhaps the only one) that has environmental protection at its core. Their founding guru, Jambhoji (1451-1536), received a world-changing vision while in meditation under a tree. ‘A tree covered in greenery is my temple and my home.’ The spiritual leader set out the twenty-one rules in the sixteenth century which are religiously followed till date, most famously by a woman who had led 363 villagers to give their lives while chanting ‘my head for a tree’.

Times have changed but not the values that have remained dear to them. World over, men die for woman or for money. The same doesn’t hold good for Bishnois, who instead lay down their life to protect animals and trees. They do protect living beings at the cost of their lives, 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. The Bishnoi Tiger Force protects trees from loggers and animals from poachers. Even screen celebrity Salman Khan couldn’t escape their die-hard protective commitment. 

I have to say that Goodman’s timing with this release is timely, the story is steeped in ecologicsl issues and history. Despite its rich legacy, the story of the Bishnois has remained perhaps ‘a greatest story yet to be told’. Not anymore, the story about a community committed to protect the environment is out for the wider public. Its historical legacy notwithstanding, facts and values may have remained exclusive for Bishnois but their dedication to protect the trees and the animals can no longer remain confined.   

My Head For A Tree is a story about the incredible relentlessness of the Bishnois. Their commitment to a cause isn’t time sensitive, taken as a break from their regular lives; it becomes their life. They see the natural world as a vital entity with rights at least equal to ours. And that natural world includes other people as well as plants and animals. No wonder, a Bishnoi woman can be seen breast feeding an orphaned chinkara, a gazelle. And they don’t do it to create an identity for themselves, but to present what they believe in and practice.  

The Bishnois’ love of chinkara is profound. Around 85 percent of its global population live in the south-west Rajasthan. They flock to any waterhole but can also find enough moisture from plants and dew to survive days without drinking. Chinkara is now rightfully protected, not only in India but other countries like Pakistan and Iran. Khejri, the state tree of Rajasthan, is protected by law. The 363 martyrs at Khejrali weren’t forgotten while enacting such a law. What is more, if one tree is illegally felled then ten must be planted. 

It is an inspiring story that offers wisdom, concern and commitment. Spread across eighteen chapters, Goodman has been to Bishnoi’s farms, their schools, their temples, and animal shelters in giving the book a humbling touch of ecological commitment and empathy. Generous spread of pictures in the volume are not only relevant but enrich the narrative. If people across several countries face the unprecedented challenge of rising temperature and desertification, the Bishnois hold with them the message of survival not for themselves but for the community.

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 to the future climate collapse. Within the incredible ongoing story about a community lies the future story of survival of the mankind. The story of first eco-warriors, which now number no more than 6 lakh people, hold a message for all of us.  It is an essential reading for those who are concerned about our collective future, the Bishnoism that holds a future that is dear to all of us.                                      

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

First published in The Hindustan Times on Feb 6, 2025.