Death will not be our end…

Eve Ensler has been a phenomenon of our times. As an acclaimed author and a passionate activist, she has devoted her life to the female body – both as a source of human life and as an embodiment of human violence. Considered as one of Newsweek’s 150 Women Who Changed the World, Ensler initiated the world into multilogue on vagina –to talk about it, value it and protect it. She has been witness to the worst ever violence inflicted on women, her nerves saturated by the stories of destructed vagina and bleeding earth in the mineral-rich Congo.  

Finding the cancer in her body, Ensler realized that it was all pervasive – getting connected to the world through her body. “My body was no longer abstraction’, she felt, ‘as it connected me to the cancer of carelessness, the cancer of greed and the cancer of cruelty.’ Part reflective and part philosophical, Ensler transforms her pain into poetic prose of perseverance  Death will not be our end: indifference will be, dissociation will be and collateral damage will be our end. This book is like a CAT scan, a roving examination of moving images, experiences, ideas and memories. 

Ensler demonstrates that pain can indeed be transformative, provided we know which us wants to survive the pain to live and thrive in a new world. Perhaps, we all need chemotherapy to purge the badness that has been projected onto us but is never ours! This book is about reclaiming our bodies, after killing off the perpetrator who got inside us. Written with unflinching honesty, Ensler relives every moment of her past – her troubled family life, her flamboyant lifestyle and her commitment to female body – to reconnect herself to the world. 

In the Body of the World is a masterpiece.Immensely readable; it is a work of art that shows us a powerful new way of interpreting illness.  Wouldn't it be incredible if everyone could find the joy that comes with committing to our own goodness? That perhaps it is only way we could stop dividing ourselves into malignancies of various forms. Through her writing, Eve Ensler comes out as an embodiment of courage, conviction and commitment to take on the world yet again....Link 

In the Body of the World 
by Eve Ensler 
Random House India, New Delhi 
Extent: 220, Price: Rs 199

MPs, a pampered lot

Ever since the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) was launched in 1993, the exclusive privilege to the members for using an annual discretionary allocation to spend for public utility works in their respective constituencies has rarely been without its share of controversies. However, there has been no let up in members’ privilege as the annual allocation per member has been enhanced from the initial Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore now. 

This has been so despite three reviews by the Comptroller and Auditor General which found consistent violation of guidelines in executing the scheme. Independent surveys, on the other hand, found gross misuse of funds and siphoning off public money by organisations with dubious credentials entrusted with the task of implementing the works. If that wasn't enough, four MPs were suspended in 2005 for seeking commission to award works under the scheme. 

Despite a poor track record and a growing opposition to the scheme, the Supreme Court had pronounced a unanimous judgment in May 2010 whereby it had held the scheme valid within the framework of the Constitution. But it didn’t stop the recently published first-ever comprehensive book on the scheme titled ‘Public Money, Private Agenda’ by A Surya Prakash to conclude that ‘if MPs lack the discipline to conform to the guidelines, the MPLADS must be scrapped’.

As Members of Parliament in other democracies do not have funds at their disposal to spend on local area development and please their constituents, it is often questioned if such a scheme isn’t antithetical to the principle of separation of powers? Instead, Indian MPs continue to remain a pampered lot. The need for an enforceable code of conduct for MPs was felt decades ago but Parliament never got down to laying an ethical framework for the conduct of our Parliamentarians.

In the absence of a code of conduct, lawmakers have indulged in flaunting rules governing the scheme. Sample this: In Sikkim, funds from this scheme were used to construct anti-erosion bunds to protect the private property of the MP. In Bihar, funds from the scheme were used to build roads which were already constructed. In Himachal Pradesh, a multipurpose complex was constructed under the scheme but was handed over to private business. The list goes on!

Far from taking cognisance of such irregularities, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has recently suggested that MPLADS’ funds can henceforth be used for works on 'private lands'. Furthermore, the privileged members can now assign works without calling tenders and are at liberty to engage any agency, only clause being that the assigned party should fit into the subjective interpretation of having  'national reputation' . With an estimated Rs 21,300 crore riding on members for each five-year tenure of Parliament under the scheme, the chance that public money will be squandered for private purposes is tough to dispute!

A Surya Prakash, leading commentator on public issues, has painstakingly gone through voluminous annual reports of Lok Sabha Committee on MPLADS before concluding: ‘the chairman and members of the committee seem to get all worked up about what they perceive to be a downgrading of their role by the government. However, they bec­­ome tongue-tied when presented with data which shows their colleagues in poor light.’ 

No wonder, MPLADS continues to be popular with MPs  but it also can be misused as there is scope for corruption. While a majority of MPs utilise the scheme to choose projects that would help their constituents, there are many who see MPLADS as a milch cow. What is more worrisome is the absence of an administrative infrastructure at the district level to keep a watchful eye on the scheme, which can result in the misuse of funds under the scheme. And, it already has!

While transparency in awarding contracts and accountability of works in public interest is one part of the story, the other part relates to whether lawmakers with a national responsibility  get bogged down in village-level development in their constituencies. But if the trend of increase in MPLADS’ corpus is any indication, a further hike in allocation will force MPs to spend more time in their constituencies at the cost of their primary Parliamentary duties. Already, quality of debates in Parliament has suffered on account of a large number of members being absent from the sessions. But if the trend is allowed to persist, with MPLADS making a significant contribution, it will have negative impact on the quality of debates, the quality of questions to be raised during the ‘question hour’, and the contribution of members to various Parliamentary committees. There is more at stake than MPLADS.

Since the Supreme Court has declared the scheme to be constitutionally valid, it is now for the members and Parliament to examine the implications of the scheme in the light of the democratic practices. Parliamentarians need to realise that the credibility of citadel of democracy remains intact only when privileges and ethics are seen as two sides of the same coin. While they clamor for more privileges, they cannot escape being held accountable vis-à-vis their primary obligation to Parliament and the functioning of an effective democracy....Link

Public Money, Private Agenda
by A Surya Prakash
Rupa, New Delhi
Pages: 296, Price: Rs 395

Who pays when everything is for free!

The awe of network technology is overwhelming as it showers a variety of freebies, so much so that we wonder why stuff like music and movies were priced in the past. Such freebies come on account of us donating vital information and surrendering our privacy - like our interest, buying habits and cyber movements - that has created an economy in the hands of those who 'own the fastest computers with access to everyone's information'.

Little does anyone care because false hope is spread that the emerging information economy will benefit those who provide the information that drives it? If this were so, some 140,000 people employed with Kodak would not have lost their job when Instagram had acquired it; and Facebook would not have rested those 13 employees who made Instagram worth a billion dollars before buying it. Where did all those jobs disappear to and what happened to the middle-class wealth that was created? Haven’t we been witness to recession and unemployment instead!

Digital visionary and philosopher Jaron Lanier argues that we have been psychologically victimized by technologies that we 'have chosen to adopt'. But has there been much choice? Internet technologies promote the strength of democratized wisdom at the cost of killing individual voice and intellectualism. What you say on the internet is converted into dehumanized data, which makes the information aggregator rich and not the one who produces the information in the first place. This is exactly the wrong set of values that Lanier has been concerned about. Having invented the term virtual reality and having been part of the Silicon Valley, Lanier emphatically questions the self-destructive nature of the information economy.

Recognized as history's 300 greatest inventors, Lanier reasons the need for shaping technology to fit culture's needs and not vice versa. He suggests the following experiment: resign from all the free online services you use for six months to see what happens. You don’t need to denounce them forever, make value judgements, or be dramatic. Just be experimental. You will probably learn more about yourself, your friends, the world, and the Internet than you would have if you never performed the experiment.' Only by leading absorbing lives, as an individual and as a part of the society, can we outgrow our addiction to technology-driven consumerism!....Link

Who owns the future?
by Jaron Lanier 
AllenLane, UK
Extent: 360, Price: £ 20

The book of change

It is a story of those incredible nine years, between 1993 and 2012, that empowered 900 million people with wireless connectivity; it is a tale of technology transfer that generated a cascade of new occupations and jobs; and it is a saga of crony capitalism that subsumed five of the ten telecom ministers on charges of corruption. It is an unfinished but absorbing fairy tale of a country coming of age, from one telephone per 165 persons in 1991 to nearly two mobile connections per person in 2012. Cell Phone Nation offers an interdisciplinary analysis on how 'boundary between impossibility and possibility' got blurred and what helped people 'attain that was long denied' to them.

The mobile phone may have provided access to global flows of knowledge and mobilized social movements but it has altered local cultural practices and challenged gender relations in a country that is not only unjust and unequal but immensely complex too. Yet, for every increase of 10 per cent in mobile penetration the State Domestic Product reportedly grows by 1.2 per cent. Mobile phone has become an empowering tool in the hands of millions of Indians who otherwise may not have been part of an accelerating economy.

While providing a comprehensive account of how mobile phones have changed lives, authors Robin Jeffrey and Assa Doron do not lose sight of the likely health and ecological implications of radiation emitting mobile towers which have mushroomed across the country's vast landscape. Curiously, the impact of mobile towers on survival of house sparrows and honey bees is anything but shocking. Future generation may have to pay a price for the telecom revolution (and its leftover e-waste) currently underway in the country.

Despite its flip side, mobile phone has been a great equalizer in a country beset with caste and class disparities. But will it alter the well-entrenched hierarchy prevailing in the society or can it surmount physical barriers to transform the power structure? Or, will the power of cheaper mobiles only be used to make sexual harassment and economic crimes easier? The authors raise such compelling questions in a racey narrative that is lucid, edifying and engrossing....Link

Cell Phone Nation 
by Robin Jeffrey and Assa Doron 
Hachette India, New Delhi
293 pages, Rs. 499.

There can only be one winner!

Farmer suicides have become such commonplace in India that if Salim-Javed were to script the 1975 blockbuster Sholay today they could skip the explanatory dialogue on suicide 'angrej log jab marte hain, toh usse suicide kehte hain' (when foreigners die it is termed suicide). Successive crop failures and the burden of debt have forced thousands of farmers to consume their lives. Just change the name and the place, the script can hold on to its own.

Sudhakar Bhadra kills himself under similar circumstances. The powerful district committee of Mityala routinely dismisses the suicide and refuses compensation to his widow. Gangiri, his brother, makes it his life's mission to bring justice to the dead by influencing the committee to validate similar farmer suicides. Gangiri's struggle for justice treads through unequal turf. 'It is an unequal fight, but we have the dead on our side.'

Using a familiar plot, Kota Neelima scripts a gripping tale wherein political capital is made out of a social misery. For the political class, farmers are worth the electoral ritual wherein promises are made, but not to be kept. Even political attention following farmers' suicide doesn't last long. No surprise, battlelines get drawn as the protagonist battles for justice against the arrogant politician who fights to hold onto his seat of power, a family legacy. And as is in every battle, there can only be one winner! No rewards for guessing the loser.

While nature has its own way of taming great forces of change, by containing them in mundane characters, destiny waits to choose its villains and victims among the warriors. A victory at times may turn out to be facile for the winner but could easily help the loser climb a moral high ground from where it pricks conscience of the masses. 

Shoes of the Dead is an act of fiction, though not far from real life, which portrays the grim realities confronting the farming communities. It is a story that ought to be told every so often to stir the social and political conscience of people....Link

Shoes of the Dead
by Kota Neelima 
Genre: Fiction
Rainlight/Rupa, New Delhi
274 pages, Rs.495

The idea of self-limitation

Even if you haven't read E F Schumacher's seminal work Small is Beautiful, first published in 1973, you can still sense the influence those arguments have in the present. Joseph Pearce examines the multifarious implications of growing materialism in this consumer's paradise to conclude that small is still beautiful. Written with care, compassion and clarity, Pearce draws distinction between a 'citizen' and a 'consumer' - citizens are humans and have souls whereas consumers are economic functionaries linked to growth. Unless the ‘citizen’ is reclaimed out of the ‘consumer’ the world will slip into materialistic hedonism, proclaims Pearce.

Since families form the smallest and most beautiful part of any healthy society, Pearce examines modern economics from the perspective of 'families' - economics as if families mattered. While championing the idea of self-limitation, Schumacher knew that this necessary virtue is enshrined in the everyday realities of family life. It is, however, another matter that while families have shrunk in size their needs have become over-sized.

Examining all aspects of the economy as it impacts families, from free trade to biological warfare and from perverse subsidies to democratic dictatorship, the book peeps into those initiatives which have successfully shun away from fashionable hedonism and a development hangover. In a world where we are not expected to ask why, but merely to know how, Pearce helps the reader in asking compelling questions on the insufficiency of science.

Since 'good' as a term has been has been replaced with 'goods', we seem to know the price of goods but not the intrinsic value of 'good'. With lust, envy, avarice, gluttony and pride being the essential marketing tools, sole aim of technological innovations targets market-driven self-gratification. Four decades since the publication of the timeless classic Small is Beautiful, Pearce argues in favor of bringing teaching of traditional philosophy back on the national curriculum to challenge such growing trend. There could hardly be a timelier book than Small is still beautiful - it is pleasingly reflective and its literary style makes it a rewarding and gripping read....Link

Small is still beautiful
by Joseph Pearce
ISI Books, Washington
336 pages, US$ 8.68

Enigma of inclusive development!

Inclusive development has been differently understood, some consider it as a 'process' while for others it is a 'goal'. On both the accounts, it has remained a puzzle that policymakers and development professionals have been trying to unravel on the assumption that the quality of life in any country improves when, and only when, gross domestic product per capita increases. The monetary surplus thus generated can be capitalized to design social development programs for the poor. Backed by experience of being part of such development programs, Amarjeet Sinha asserts that public distribution system can be reinvented to deliver entitlements to social development for the poor, thus providing opportunities for the poor to develop their fullest human potential.

Enamored by limited success of some of the flagship social development programs, in the areas of nutrition, health care, education and livelihoods, the author pitches his hypothesis of paving a way for inclusive development on the strength of better 'service guarantee' for those who rely on it. Ironically, the strategy for reinventing the country assumes the conditions of the poor and the disadvantaged as 'given' and the onus of transforming their lives squarely resting on improving the performance of the 'system' only. Neither does it factor the legacy of failed institutions nor the unresolved challenges in scaling-up!

At this time when the idea of human development is shifting from the conventional 'social indicators' approach to the 'capability approach', An India For Everyone seems trapped in the hope of turning things around by fine-tuning the system that has thus far failed to deliver. The trouble with such an approach has been that it rarely captures the shape and texture of individual lives, what are people actually able to do and to be? Unless the complexities of human life and human striving are properly understood, social development programs may create an illusion of transformation without tweaking the lives of millions.

An India for Everyone seems first draft of a work-in-progress; its assumptions need to go through the rigour of analysis because development isn't about well-funded social programs - it is about whether people can live in a way 'worthy of human dignity'....Link

An India for Everyone
by Amarjeet Sinha 
Harper Collins, New Delhi
182 pages, Rs 299

The China syndrome

A global resource meltdown is indeed imminent. Never before have natural resources been scooped from across the world with such impunity. China's breathtaking commodity campaign, be it for fossil fuel, minerals, land or water, has ripped mines and mountains of its riches across the world.

At a hefty fee of US$3 billion, China's Chinalco is smothering fifteen thousand feet high Mount Toromocho in Peru for the last speck of copper; much to the shock of its lower riparian China is unilaterally diverting Brahmaputra and Mekong rivers to quench thirst of its rapidly urbanizing north; and China's growing stakes in leading petrochemical companies in oil-producing countries is akin to virtual takeover. The world is literally at China's feet!

China may have genuine reasons for its insatiable demand for resources, having lured resource-rich poor countries in its growth journey. Given the fact that China will add 400 million people to its urban population in the next decade, upward mobile Chinese will require a lot of arable land, a lot of usable water, a lot of energy, and a lot of minerals. What will happen when China ostensibly has access to all available resources and the rest of world doesn't? Dambisa Moyo wonders if China's stealth global incursions don't trigger global tensions!

Is the world prepared to face up to hard facts of a bleak commodity outlook? Chinese ascendancy may go beyond impacting the commodity prices; it is strategically positioned to not just alter the landscape of how business is done but also how countries themselves are run. Moyo's thesis doesn't seem far-fetched; seeds of such discontent have started surfacing in countries where China has gone full throttle with its extractive businesses. Winner Take All is a fact-filled penetrating inquiry on the emerging reality the world should be ready to face up to.

Lamenting the international community's patchy record of working together on issue of global relevance, Moyo only hopes that a 'slowing down of Chinese economy' may dampen its irresistible demand on world resources. Amongst recent books on China’s expansion beyond the Great Wall that I have read, Winner Take All makes a significant contribution but not without taking a toll on the reader with its mass of statistics....Link

Winner Take All
by Dambisa Moyo 
Penguin, UK
257 pages, $26

All may not have been lost…

It is an exceptional narrative on grief, woven around a stirring tale of personal loss and a moving account of incremental recovery. In few minutes on the early hours of December 26, 2004, Sonali Deraniyagala had lost her proud possessions - her two young sons, her husband and her parents - to the furious wave caused by the devastating tsunami.

It has been on ordeal for the daughter, the wife and the mother in her to survive the bizarre but brutal truth. Had an army of family and relatives not foiled her attempts to kill herself, the world would have been bereft of a stunning memoir that expands the notion of 'what love really means.' When life seems predictable, continuity is assumed.

With continuity of life broken, Sonali wonders if 'she could make murky the life she had with her family'. She crawls back into reality in bits and pieces, reliving each moment of togetherness. The red pen marks rising up the wall in their living room reminds her of the periodic exercise in measuring the boys' heights. She kisses those red marks as if kissing the tops of their heads! This can only make a tearful reading.

Out of unimaginable loss comes a haunting story, a moving account of piecing together a fractured life. 'Maybe yearning for them more freely gives me some relief,' Sonali reflects, 'I see my children's friends often now. They are bubbling over when we meet, I enjoy their sparkle. And they make my boys real, so they are not beyond my field of vision, as they were in those first years'. The strength of her prose lies in her taking the reader along in her journey, of converting streaks of emotions into bundles of courage.

Sonali Deraniyagala grew up in Colombo before she left to pursue a career in economics at the Cambridge, where she met her husband Steve. She teaches at the University of London but is currently visiting research scholar at Columbia University, working on issues of economic development, including post-disaster recovery. Contrary to her training as an economist, Wave holds promise as a work of literature. Sonali is a writer of extraordinary talent, the prose is simple, subtle and yet powerful.

Wave makes compelling reading; the author has narrated her inner turbulations with sincerity and honesty. One begins to feel connected with the author, sharing the depths of her grief as much as her efforts in pulling out of it. Within the pain and anguish are nuggets of deep reflections on the gift called life. She wants to be alone on birthdays and the anniversary of the fateful day. 'Alone, I am close to them, I slip back into life or they slip into mine, undisturbed'.

Written almost a decade after the tragic tsunami, Wave recaptures those dreadful moments frame by frame. Without doubt, it is an unforgettable book which tells us how to gather the threads of life when everything is seemingly lost!....Link

Wave
by Sonali Deraniyagala
Alfred A. Knoff, New York
230 pages, US$24

Water, water everywhere….not sure!

Popular perception on water doesn't hold much water, as it hinges around the technology of overcoming current scarcity for sustaining future supplies. With traditional wisdom around water on the verge of extinction, the discourse around water is somewhat of an aberration from its science. No wonder, questions from the audience that pop up during live television programs not only reflect gross ignorance but portray a skewed understanding on water as well. Like 'water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink', information on water is plenty but clear understanding is broadly missing. Is increasing water scarcity cause for growing water ignorance?

Water Drops is a compilation of some 160 radio broadcasts of 90 seconds each on all aspects of water, from its history to its hydrology and from its science to its politics. The weekly broadcast on a New York FM channel had commenced in early 2006 and lasted till 2008. Since then these essays have repeatedly been broadcast from an unknown number of radio stations and are available online too. Now in print, Water Drops has everything you ever wanted to know about water and water issues. It is Peter Black’s four decades of professional research and teaching experience captured in 90-seconds capsules, each offering cure for water ignorance.

You may like 'hot shower' but speaking on it meaningfully and that too for little over a minute can make you feel hot. One can perhaps write a volume on 'water balance' but making a diverse audience get a balanced sense of it could be daunting. And, think of 'black ice' to let your listeners get a sense of something we rarely encounter. This and much more, each of these radio broadcasts celebrates water and its wonder. Informative and even entertaining, Water Drops is an encyclopedic look at water in its various manifestations. As an activist, as a teacher and as an administrator, there come moments when one struggles to make a coherent sense of the issue for an audience. It is for such crucial moments that one may need Water Drops. It is a celebration of water, the elixir of all life.

Water Drops: Celebrating the Wonder of Water
by Peter E. Black
State University of New York Press, Albany
187 pages, $19.95

By dog, what about the river?

Nothing in this part of the world could be as magical as the mighty Brahmaputra, the father of all rivers in the sub-continent, an amazing labyrinth of treacherous cross-currents, whirlpools and ever shifting sandbanks. Flowing along it are lives, lifestyles and livelihoods of myriad cultures belonging to diverse religions and tribes entrenched within the ever-changing meanders of the river. The river not only gives life but it takes it away too. But no one blames the river. It is their destiny!

Tipped as the ‘last great Asian adventure', Mark Shand's journey on boat sweeping eighteen hundred miles through three countries could only act as a frontrunner to those (like this reviewer) planning to undertake a portion of the journey in the floodplains, from Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh to Guwahati in Assam. But it belies promise as the author invests better part of the otherwise interesting narrative in search of a 'river dog', and less about the river he had set out to explore.

Since the Chinese didn’t permit him to travel through the Tsangpo in Tibet, what would have been an exhilarating travel through the international border could not be accomplished. Nonetheless, the author provides edge-of-the-seat excitement in his search for one of those five hundred specially tagged logs that were thrown upstream of the river in Tibet during late nineteenth century to establish once and for all whether the Tsangpo flowed into the Brahmaputra after it disappears into the mountain gorges.

Though informative and entertaining, Shand's travel through the mighty river in India doesn't offer adequate tips to those who may wish to traverse this enormous water course on boat. Yet, it is perceptive travel writing that is loaded with eccentric excitement. Without doubt, the river is unique as it embraces the religions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam and nurtures hundreds of tribal beliefs along its treacherous course. At another level, it offers an amazing treatise on local, sub-regional, regional and global implications of the somewhat contentious flow of the river on communities, institutions, states and beyond. Having been on the footsteps of Mark Shand, though partially, one can safely suggest that if current trans-boundary imbroglio on harnessing its waters is any indication, there is nothing less than a status of ‘global heritage’ that can sustain its flow for future boat journeys of this kind....Link

River Dog: A Journey Down The Brahmaputra
by Mark Shand 
Abacus, UK
338 pages, $16.95

The approaching moment is about to pass...

For him the concept of time has not been the tick-tick of a wrist watch but the approaching moment that is about to pass. And he seemingly hasn’t allowed any moment to ‘pass’ without living a lifetime in ‘it’. No wonder, the poet in him stays relevant and contemporary even after five decades of penning down his first song – the unforgettable ‘mera gora ang lai le’.

Gulzar alias Sampooran Singh Kalra is a poet or shair first and lyricist later. He entered the world of cinema reluctantly and walked away by choice. As much a part of it as he is not, his poetry resonates beyond the fleeting moments on the celluloid because he writes to release his inner energy and to share his experience of life. Much of what he writes, therefore, has earthy smell that one can easily relate to.   

Conducted over twenty five skype sessions lasting for almost an hour each, Nasreen Munni Kabir has pioneered a rather successful concept in book writing that is not only convenient but cost-effective too. But credit must go to Gulzar for being clear, concise and reflective in his response. There is never a dull moment, the conversation is as much engaging as revealing. His poetry may have an element of mystery but not when it comes to opening his mind.

Had his life not turned to be what it is, Gulzar may have been sitting in some small shop in a small town selling fabrics - ‘I get a sort of sinking feeling in my heart’. But he chose not to tread on his parental business and followed his destiny instead. Yet, fabric remains an integral part of his life. He calls his daughter ‘Bosky’ – one of the finest fabrics that is both sober and elegant. And if this wasn’t enough, his home in Mumbai is named ‘Boskyana’. 

The conversation is an interesting mixture of poetry and prose. Gulzar is elegant with both, the writer and editor in him work in unison to produce amazing nuggets of wisdom. ‘I strongly believe writers must be aware of what is happening in the world and have a strong sense of values, believing in some kind of ideology is essential’. For Gulzar ‘writing’ has been no less than a euphemism for ‘being’, something which he has pursued with unfailing commitment and unfading passion.    

Kabir brings out the best in Gulzar by asking simple but well-researched questions. The narrative is racy but enriching, as the conversation traverses through his early childhood and a rather long journey as an accomplished poet. The conversation is free-flowing with loads of interesting anecdotes about Gulzar’s interaction with some of the finest exponents of poetry and music. The nature and quality of conversation makes it an absorbing reading.

One gets a glimpse into the poet’s mind but there is lot more that one would like to know. As for me, I would have liked to ask Gulzar the reason for him having given one-word title to most of the films he made, be it Parichay, Mausam, Kitaab or Angoor....Link

In the company of a poet: Gulzar
by Nasreen Munni Kabir
Rainlight/Rupa, New Delhi
206 pages, Rs 380

Sunshine, freedom and a little flower

Even if as a toddler you haven’t chased butterflies; even if as a student you haven’t studied Lepidoptera; and even if as a ‘sari’ connoisseur you haven’t fancied nature’s veritable hot couture, Butterflies can still enrich you with what may have missed you in life.

Inducted to family obsession at an early age, a toddler’s instinct was to become a profession for Peter Smetacek. And he crafts his lifetime passion and commitment into prose that is as much enriching as entertaining. Without doubt, it evokes empathy for butterflies and moths.

One of the finest read on Butterflies, the book sends me down memory lane when, as students of entomology, we would emulate eternal romantic Dev Anand in unsuccessfully chasing elusive butterflies. Quite often, it would be the common ‘cabbage white’ falling into our net.

The author tells us that most adult butterflies do not last beyond a fortnight, but not before sending out a message that ‘just living is not enough; one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.’ A toddler’s instinct in matter of chasing butterflies is perhaps borne out of such realization. No surprise, the toddler and the butterfly complement each other as symbols of ‘freedom’, neither of them enslaved to anyone.

As adults, however, butterflies evoke mischievous connotation to which Smetacek had once been an unintended victim. On the trail of Black Prince in western Nepal, his driving license was confiscated on grounds of him being a possible human trafficker. This and much more, Butterflies takes us into the world of these winged insects without any idea why they are colored, patterned and shaped they way they are.

Holding the largest private collection of butterflies and moths in India, the author infuses authenticity and authority in his writing. Even if one cannot make any sense of the myriad genera of butterflies, the narrative espouses belongingness to nature’s exclusive creation. Such is the magic of Smetacek’s writing that midway through the book one involuntarily starts looking beyond the window to catch a glimpse of a fluttering butterfly.

‘The fluttering of butterfly wings can affect climate changes on the other side of the planet,’ noted population biologist Paul Ehrlich had once remarked. Taking the argument further, Peter Smetacek convincingly proves that butterflies are indeed the indicator species that can help monitor slightest of change in the forest micro-climate, only if one could gauge the health of different types of forests using insect population.

Informative and engrossing, Butterflies is a real page turner. Without doubt, it is one of finest non-fiction writings I have read in recent times....Link

Butterflies on the Roof of the World
by Peter Smetacek
Aleph, New Delhi
224 pages, Rs 495

Questioning the tyranny of development!

Need it be said that the term 'development' has lived up to what President Harry Truman had presumed it to mean in his address to the US Senate in 1945 - to denote that a large part of the world was 'underdeveloped'. Within its broader framework a vast pool of professionals worked overtime to create an attractive vocabulary that includes terms like 'participation', 'empowerment', 'accountability' to keep the underprivileged mesmerized into believing that their concerns were being looked into. That we have more poor people than ever before exposes the hypocrisy of development which ensures that poverty persists.

Without doubt, development has remained a mischievous tool in the hands of development donors who have broadly been guided by what is known as the Bretton Woods system of economic governance. Over the years, however, the idea of development has got buried under the weight of its lofty ideology. Donors are getting increasingly concerned about the effectiveness of their taxpayers’ money. At this time when development itself has come under scrutiny, Robert Chambers' unsettling provocations should help locate a substitute for the term 'development'.

Though insightful and reflective, the short provocative essays remain confined within the framework of aid, participation and poverty. Without doubt, this framework has created development fatigue not only for those who preach it but for those on whom it is practiced. Global power dynamics and economic realities have gone through unimaginable transformation, and with it has changed the notion of poverty. That poverty is relative is a glaring reality of our times, when even the most impoverished is seeking 'freedom' and 'dignity' at the cost of 'aid'. More than 'provocations' the world needs 'transformation' in the manner in which 'development' has been perceived and delivered. 

Nothing short of substituting 'development' can undo what has thus far been unleashed in the name of development. Provocations for Development opens a Pandora's Box of development myths and fallacies that development thinkers and practitioners must engage with. The author doesn't insist that the book be read cover to cover. However, there is enough for the reader to feel provoked, at least five days a week for next fifty-two weeks....Link

Provocations for Development
by Robert Chambers
Practical Action Publishing, UK
224 pages, £8.96
(available online at www.developmentbookshop.com)

Don’t regret missing the deadline!

If you are someone who struggles with deadlines, gets distracted from the task at hand and surfs the web instead of paying the bills, this book promises to help you ride over your guilt of ‘postponing’ provided you are not an arrogant procrastinator or a habitual offender.

Derived from a Latin word meaning ‘to put off to tomorrow’, procrastination has been described as ‘one of the general weaknesses’ that prevail to some degree in every mind. Rather than lamenting, it is better to live with it because a structured procrastinator gets a lot done by not doing what s/he is supposed to do at a particular moment.

Socrates, like other Greek philosophers, was baffled with akrasia, the mystery of why people choose to do other than what they think is best for them to do? Not because we don’t know what is right, argues John Perry, but because a number of desires of various sorts are competing for control of our bodies and thought processes. Man might be a rational animal but when it comes to taking a call on multiple desires, one tends to take a ‘rationalizing position’.

A Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, John Perry celebrates the nearly universal character flaw by pointing out that procrastinators end up being doers at the end. For writing this small book of big essays, inspiration came from an eight decade old article by Robert Benchley in the Chicago Tribune titled ‘how to get things done’, in which it was stated that ‘anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work s/he is supposed to be doing at that moment’. With tongue-in-cheek wit, John Perry takes the argument further by advocating the acceptance of the obvious.

It is probably right that procrastination is a basic human impulse, but anxiety about it as a serious problem seems to have emerged in the early modern era. Several self-help books are on offer to help you stop procrastinating. John Perry has contrasting advice: ‘Pat yourself on the back for what you manage to do while enjoying the time others think you might have ‘wasted’. Taking a philosophical self-help call on akrasia, the author suggests that we realize the existence of structured procrastination to not only feel better about ourselves but to actually improve somewhat our ability to get things done.

Insightful and amusing, The Art of Procrastination has a positive view of what till recently has been considered a character flaw. No wonder, his first essay on ‘Structured Procrastination’ won the author 2011 Ig Nobel Prize in Literature. And for writing this book, John Perry followed the principle of procrastination – he completed the book at the cost of grading papers and evaluating dissertation topics of his students. Without doubt, he has done a perfect job with the book. And one is sure that less interesting work of grading papers and evaluating dissertations was eventually done. After all, why do keep something for tomorrow when it could easily be done the day after tomorrow!...Link


The Art of Procrastination 
by John Perry
Workman Publishing, New York
92 pages, $12.95

Beijing Consensus

The days of 'Washington Consensus' are seemingly over, as the world drifts towards what is now being called the 'Beijing Consensus'. China's trade with the world had touched an all time high of US $2.97 trillion in 2010; between 2005 and 2012 Chinese companies invested US$ 460 billion across the globe; and China is biggest global lender (ahead of the World Bank) with a credit portfolio of US$110 billion. All of this occurred when the western world was reeling under severe economic recession.

So overwhelmed it is with a likely world leadership status that Beijing didn't think twice before refusing White House offer of creating a G-2, a Washington-Beijing axis to take the lead in world affairs. To unveil this somewhat mysterious spread of Chinese influence across the world, two-China based journalists flew across 235,000 kilometers; travelled 15,000 kilometers on dangerous roads; and crossed eleven land borders to bring the chilling and largely unknown reality of globalization. From Myanmar to Sudan and from Kazakhstan to Venezuela, around 35 million citizens of Chinese ethnicity have fanned across the world to not only make a future for them but keep the Chinese economy in perpetual motion.

For it to maintain social stability, China needs to achieve at least 8 per cent annual growth, and therefore a constant supply of raw materials is needed to keep the 'factory of the world' and its 'rapid urbanization' from stagnating. With the help of its silent army of millions spread across the globe, the authors reveal, the Chinese development juggernaut is ruthlessly violating political, economic and environment norms in the countries where it is making huge investments for appropriating raw materials of all kind. With a troubled track record in human rights violation, the emerging world order under China sends shivers down the spine. Behind the glitzy world of economic growth is the Chinese model of growth masked by secrecy and censorship.

Not only is it a work of immense courage, China's Silent Army is an amazing book that brings out the disturbing side of China’s growing global influence. A must read book!....Link

China's Silent Army 
by Juan Pablo Cardenal & Heriberto Araujo 
Allen Lane, UK
349 pages, £25.

The Inside Story

Could a toilet cast a shadow on the quality of a democracy? One may wish to flush it away as irrelevant; but improvement in sanitation and consequent reduction in parasite stress has helped in building democratic societies with liberal values. Researchers have gone further to assert that countries with high levels of parasite-borne diseases were much less likely than others to have a robust democracy, individual freedom, equitable distribution of economic resources and gender equality. It might seem an unsavoury and puerile topic but development of human behaviour has lot to do with the practice of excretion.

A Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne, Nick Haslam kicks down the bathroom door to unravel a wide range of behaviors that are linked to excretory function. ‘Our intestines are not just meaty drainpipes through which our waste flows. They are emotional organs whose nerves communicate with the brain and respond to what it thinks, desires and perceives.’ In many ways, our personalities are manifest in our excretory habits.

The toilet is a space that is private but shared, anonymous but intimate, and linked in the mind to our bodies, our gender and our sexuality. Examining the psychological dimensions of all that is walled off from public gaze, from constipation to diarrhoea and from incontinence to toilet graffiti, Haslam provides cutting-edge research on the science of elimination. Without doubt, the bowel is an irritable organ that influences the brain in fascinating ways.

Bathroom have also been seen as natural laboratories for studying gender difference in ways of thinking, preoccupations, language use and communication styles. Loaded with earthy humour and clinical research, Psychology in the Bathroom opens a compelling window to the human psyche from hitherto unexplored perspectives. The topics covered in this amazing book are both intriguing and amusing. It uncovers ‘the irritable bowel’; has sympathy for ‘the nervous bladder’; considers ‘flatulence’ as a source of amusement; and views ‘latrinalia’ as a work of art.

Rarely have such diverse aspects of our private lives been documented and brought into public domain. Nick Haslam’s wonderful work deserves to be read widely....Link

Psychology in the Bathroom
by Nick Haslam
Palgrave MacMillan, UK
174 pages, £47.50

With apologies to Valmiki

The story is familiar but the script is fresh, brought forward to the age of sprawling malls and expanding metros. Breathing new life into the epic, Samhita Arni has recast the characters of Ramayana entangled in today’s world. Packed with political overtures, it smells of dynastic politics, democracy conundrum, gender disparity and rising inequality. Life is not as clean and simple in modern-day Ayodhya.

The mythological retelling of Ramayana is stylishly written, exploring the human side of its incarnated characters. Not only do masses get to hear their revered king live on television, journalists raise discomforting questions to the simian military chief at the press conference. As the powers-that-be shrug to hide the truth, people question the mysterious disappearance of their queen.

Gripping till the end, it is a narrative that has sub-stories which have rarely been told. The Missing Queen pieces together the untold stories of the wounded whose sacrifices and sufferings go unnoticed in the creation of a glorious nation-state. Sugriva’s political ambition, Angad’s embedded frustration and Surpanakha’s raging anger seem as much part of the story now as it might have been when the epic was first written.

War, in many ways, is merciful to men,’ writes Arni. ‘It makes them heroes if they are the victors. If they are the vanquished - they do not live to see their homes taken, their wives widowed’. While the brutal war was fought around Sita, she was sacrificed for the sake of the empire. Wasn’t Sita the price that Ram has, unwittingly, paid to rule an empire? The Missing Queen speculates many such questions in weaving a thrilling story.

Credit goes to Valmiki for not only creating timeless characters but carefully editing the script for any controversies. Those who read between the lines rewrote their versions of the epic, bringing objectivity to the one-sided narrative. No wonder, we have three hundred versions of Ramayana. The strength of the epic and its characters lie in them being relevant even today, provoking us to use the backdrop of the script to raise uncomfortable questions to the powers that be. The fact that we can feel the characters of the epic in our lives is a tribute to the imagination of the writer.

Having written her first book, The Mahabharatha: A Child’s View, at the age of eight, mythological retelling seems to be flowing in Samhita Arni’s pen. Many of the questions she has sought to explore in the book have crossed many a minds. Yet, there are many sub-stories yet to be told. Urmila’s version of Ramayana surely tops the list, her anonymous existence during those fourteen years when her husband was away. And who will not want to read the supreme sacrifice of Vibhishana, whose character has been conveniently underplayed in the creation of the empire. Clearly, there is more to the epic than what has been told and re-told down the centuries. Revisiting the epic brings in fresh insights, a process that reinforces faith of the reader and the believer in the characters....Link

The Missing Queen

by Samhita Arni

Viking, New Delhi

192 pages, Rs 399

Invoking the past master

Invoking the greatest teacher and classical thinker to provide the ideological underpinnings for ‘a manifesto for change’ reflects deep concern of the author to remain optimist when bad policy and inept governance has reduced the democratic structure into an arena for political maneuvering by the corrupt and their henchmen.

Chanakya may have lived through similar times 2,300 years ago to devise unparalleled administrative strategy to overthrow one king, crown the deserving and pave the way for establishing one of the greatest empires in the east. Pavan Varma doesn’t harbor any such intentions and restricts his insightful narrative to articulate a new vision of governance with the innate hope that the country, with its rich past, can reinvent itself yet again. ‘Chanakya's New Manifesto: To Resolve Crisis Within India’ is both prescriptive and suggestive with an actionable agenda to streamline governance, hone the democracy apparatus to make it more inclusive, purge corruption and install foolproof security – five pillars that have been weakened to the core.

Though Pavan Varma has been nowhere close to the 6,000 shlokas and sutras that Chanakya could dish out in Arthashashtra, his painstaking call for action is nevertheless insightful and visionary. The solutions he proposes are substantive, achievable within the existing constitutional framework. Having been part of the bureaucracy for over a quarter of a century, Varma is both practical and pragmatic in prescribing a role for every one of us in forcing the government to act.

Former diplomat, accomplished writer and now budding politician Pavan Varma provokes the reader to question the pathetic quality of life a vast majority is leading in the country today. Can change be postponed or avoided? To expect that the government will act on its own could be one of the greatest dreams because governments rarely act of their own volition. Manifest within ‘Chanakya’s New Manifesto’ are ideas of engagement for people from all walks of life.

Though the author proclaims that the book is meant for discerning youngsters - aged between 15 and 35 – the first and foremost challenge would be to make them read the ambitious manifesto in the first place. It has right intent but converting intent into action could be daunting. Varma doesn’t resist saying that unless there is unflinching resolve, conviction and courage, the idea of ‘New India’ may remain an idea only.

Pavan Varma’s reform agenda is comprehensive but readable only in parts. It may appeal to those who have already propelled themselves to make a real tryst with destiny. However, it is indeed an opportunity for the author, who has now plunged himself into active public life, to take the ‘manifesto’ to the people. No less ambitious but ‘Chanakya’s New Manifesto’ could well be the modern-day Arthashastra for transforming what most of us consider a ‘given’ situation....Link

Chanakya’s New Manifesto
by Pavan K. Varma
Aleph, New Delhi
248 pages, Rs 295

Will ripples turn the tide?

Experience has shown that fatigue of the mundane always takes fancy to creative ideas, howsoever small. Many such innovative ventures, be it an experimental school or a community bank, are conveniently put into 'game changing' category, with the hope that the world would be a better place should these get scaled up. It is another matter that the world is fast sinking into social, economic and political abyss, lacking moral and ethical courage to pull itself out of it. Will ripples caused by small initiatives turn the wave of destruction away? Moving from the corporate sector into the world of social entrepreneurs, Beverly Schwartz could only have been overwhelmed by it after meeting eighteen diverse social entrepreneurs from across the globe.

Combined with the depth of observations and analysis, Schwartz makes a compelling case for the need to build a supportive ecosystem for the system-changing ideas to bring about 'big picture' change. It means that the reach of small-scale innovation can only be expanded provided political and institutional capacities are conducive. Given the complex world we all live in, rarely does ecosystem allow fresh ideas to flourish. The odds are always stacked against 'change maker'.

At times, social entrepreneurs have been criticized for not acknowledging people as the drivers of change but for insisting upon ‘change’ to drive communities instead. The latter approach undermines local wisdom and traditional institutions at the cost of external intervention. Unless communities absorb the change, the change is unlikely to last long. It is here that social entrepreneurs have often got it wrong: far from being the catalysts of change they insist on themselves being the 'change'.

Despite being part of the Ashoka's global marketing team, Schwartz has tried to remain objective in her analysis. Predictably, she picked up successful social entrepreneurs whose ideas could withstand the test of success in the market. That successful social innovation must fit within the prevailing market structure is somewhat contentious. Far from being cure-all, markets have remained at the root of most ills affecting the society today. Unless social entrepreneurs succeed in creating ‘another world’, the ripples are quite unlikely to turn the tide....Link

Rippling 
by Beverly Schwartz
Jossey-Bass, John Wiley Imprint, USA
269 pages, US $ 27.95

Designed to last!

Rarely do present-day designs last - be it of a refrigerator, a washing machine, a laptop or a smart phone. Conversely, present-day designs are designed (not to last) to propel a consumptive pattern that is conducive for economic growth. In a world obsessed with ‘growth’, designers have been working overtime to churn out designs that can spurn profits, expand markets, reduce costs and increase sales. The relative cheapness of new designs entice a large population to fit into the clinical definition of ‘compulsive shopper’, oblivious of the fact that the lower prices do not include human and environmental costs.

Ann Thorpe, well known design strategist, provides intriguing insights to help the world transit from consumer-driven economic growth on to the path of sustainable consumption. Though she considers this book to be a 'work in progress', in reality it offers a contextualized toolkit for new generation of designers to research into the viability of ‘steady state’ economy.

'Our societal narratives about consumption need to change, argues Thorpe. Her book is loaded with interesting design innovations aimed at cutting down consumptive patterns in the developed world by a factor of 3-5, crucial to attain relative climate stability. Given the challenges of unsustainable economic growth, designers need to encounter the constraints of the real in search for scalable but sustainable solutions to practical problems. The idea of a ‘steady state economy’ may seem somewhat unreal but recent social activism across the world has prompted designers to play a role in weaving the status of well-being into experiences of daily life.

Thorpe cites working examples to prove that designers can indeed help slow the pace of consumerism by devising goods and spaces that offer alternative societal narratives about ownership and sharing. From barge-mountain floating swimming pool to lunar-resonant street light and from adaptive public reuse projects to parking-cum-temporary playground, there are range of design options that can not only confront economic growth but can build and strengthen social infrastructure for collective sharing and use. It is a book of the future, surely a 'brain-opener'....Link

Architecture & Design versus Consumerism
by Ann Thorpe
Earthscan, UK
242 pages, $39.95

Triumph of the Will

Guru Dutt not only viewed his life through camera but had perhaps scripted his end under arc lights too. The work and philosophy of enigmatic master craftsman of all times has been brought to life by Arun Khopkar in his scholarly work Guru Dutt: A Tragedy in Three Acts. The short but immensely reflective essays on three of his best films - Pyassa, Kagaz Ke Phool and Sahib, Bibi aur Gulam - cast light on this vastly talented writer, director and actor.   

Guru Dutt was an eternal romantic who, in his constant search for change feared 'success'. For him, success was the receipt for the sale of one's soul. The ultimate expression of self, Guru Dutt felt was to save oneself from the contagion of a rotten society. Else, one would need to compromise and embrace success. In Kagaz Ke Phool, the character in Suresh Sinha demonstrates what it meant not to compromise, even at the cost of destroying oneself. 

The conflict between man and society has engaged art in all forms through the ages. The films under reference bring the might, size and numbers of this faceless society, which crushes man, to light. The beetle crushed underfoot in Pyassa symbolizes this conflicting relationship between man and society. The artist in Guru Dutt used symbols to evoke a diversity of reflections of a situation, because he felt that a symbol could be suggestive of several shades of meanings, experiences and feelings. 

Without doubt, Guru Dutt was ahead of his time in content, style and technique. Using light and shade, Guru Dutt captured some of the finest images of loneliness on screen. Each image evokes multitudes of reflections, producing a set of imagined characters. Arun Khopkar details out how Guru Dutt uses the image of Christ, crucified, in many forms and on many levels in Pyassa. The character in Vijay is none other than the resurrected Christ, who presents himself at the function held to mark his first death anniversary.  

Guru Dutt went beyond the box office of success; the genius in him was in search for understanding each layer of the society as we (may) have known it. The characters that he created on the screen were from real life that would reject the idea that 'every man has a price' and instead project the 'value of individual existence’. Through such powerful images, Guru Dutt not only sharpens our sensibilities but leaves indelible mark on viewers' psyche. 

One cannot get to the depth of Guru Dutt's rich exposition of cinematic skills without reading Arun Khopkar's layered portrait of the troubled genius. I have considered Guru Dutt to be a mystic, a maverick filmmaker for whom art was more than just a thing of beauty. Far from it, as the book shows, Guru Dutt combined intricacies of the medium to bring his deep humanism and compassion for life on screen. Guru Dutt created a parallel reality through his films. 

It was a chance that I picked up 'Guru Dutt – A Tragedy in Three Acts'. It is a sheer delight to read Arun Khopkar's rich analysis of the genius and his work - raw and brilliant....Link 


Guru Dutt: A Tragedy in Three Acts
by Arun Khopkar
Penguin Books, India
153 pages, Rs 250

Easy to print, hard to deliver

Paper money has not been able to deliver on its promise. Ever since its link to gold was severed in 1971, paper money has been created at will or decree. It is therefore a claim on someone else, whether a bank or a government. Modern money is debt and debt is money. From unsuspecting individuals to national governments and from financial institutions to commercial banks, everyone seems to be under severe debt. While our parents still consider holding debt akin to sin, for individuals and governments it is a basic fact of modern life. Simply put, spending more than what has been earned is more of a norm than exception. 

How long will this trend continue? Philip Coggan argues that economic history has been a never-ending battle between borrowers and lenders. Ironically, it is the borrowers who have always won out in the end. Indeed that is the case as total global debt, held by governments, corporations and individuals has reached a whopping $190 trillion at the end of 2010 – more than 3.5 times the size of the total global economy. The trouble is, proposed solution to the issue of debt comes with side effects: devalued currency, trade barriers, and the risk of countries being reduced to a barter economy.  No surprise, therefore, that leading banks and governments are back to building ‘gold’ reserve as an asset to fall back upon. Seems the world is returning to its reliance on gold. Will it glitter yet again may turn out to be one of the greatest riddles of the 21st century!

One may not be a student of economics to read Philip Coggan’s illuminating account of the history of financial crises. There is nothing about money that cannot be understood by the person of reasonable curiosity, diligence and intelligence. Largest creditors have set the rules of the global economic game in the past. If it was Britain and the USA in the past, speculation is rife that it may well be China designing the new monetary system in near future. Spread over thirteen chapters, the book provides comprehensive understanding on money, its rapidly changing nature and the bubble economy it nurtures. 

Paper Promises is informative, thought-provoking and engaging. This is one book that deserves to be read because we are all victim of the financial system of which we are an integral part but seem to know woefully little about it....Link 

Paper Promises: Money, Debt and the New World Order 

by Philip Coggan 

Penguin Books, UK

302 pages, UK£ 10

Overcoming fear of living in fear

Every religion advocates ‘tolerance’ and yet religious intolerance has been on the rise. The undercurrent of religious intolerance is seemingly so strong to even challenge the prevailing religious symbols and practices. Banning of burqa in France, Belgium and Italy; regulation on headscarf in Germany, Holland and Spain; and restriction on constructing minarets with mosques in Switzerland are indicative of the manner in which islamophobia has gripped the world post 9/11. At times there might be real security issues but the fact that people have started fearing those who dress differently or who look strangers is something worth worrying about.

Martha C Nussbaum who is Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago argues the culture of fear threatens the constitutional and ethical foundations of liberal democracy. Fear is also somewhat of a political construct, targeting Muslims as its scapegoat. In reality, they have become scapegoats for people's economic insecurities. Failure of education to acquaint children with the world’s major religions at an early age has added to the prevailing anxiety.

Our current climate of fear shows that people are all too easily turned away from good values in a time of crises and invariably target minorities. Christians will not target Christians even while knowing that one amongst them murdered 76 in Norway, because they only have fantasies about Muslims being dangerous. Nusssbaum is convinced that countries most threatened by the economic crisis will see the most alarming growth of intolerant politics towards minorities.

Part philosophical and part persuasive The New Religious Intolerance advocates tackling the root cause of religious hatred through compassion and imagination. How often has this been said without tangible shift in the politics of hatred? That entire Europe has become less tolerant of religious heterogeneity may have strong bearing on the deep economic crises it is currently passing through. But will economic security alone lead to religious tolerance is a matter of deep conjecture? Whether dissociating politics from religion help us rise above the politics of fear?  Without doubt there are forces that see power in sustaining fear amongst communities, not allowing the fear of living in fear disappear from our lives!...Link

The New Religious Intolerance
by Martha C Nussbaum
Belknap/Harvard University Press, London
285 pages, US $ 26.95