1000 Years, 1000 People by Agnes Hooper Gottlieb, Henry Gottlieb, Barbara Bowers and Brent Bowers
Flywell Publications & Mosaic Books. Pages: xx+331. Price: not mentioned
What is common among Babur, Akbar, Mahatma Gandhi, Ramanuja, Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Ram Singh (of the Kuka Rebellion fame), Shah Jahan, MA Jinnah, Mother Teresa, Macaulay, Miyan Tansen, Clive, Tagore, Sri Ramana Maharishi and Srinivasa Ramanujam? These are thirteen Indians plus three others related to India who figure among top thousand men and women whose actions have had significant impact on the evolution of human civilization during the last millennium. If Babur founded the Mughal Empire in India then Akbar turned it into an enlightened entity. Similarly, Clive laid the foundations of the British Raj and Macaulay provided it with an enduring penal code. Ramanuja reinvigorated Hinduism by transforming it from a set of rituals aimed at liberating practitioners from the cycle of birth and death into a devotional faith. From a huge corpus of ragas Tansen selected four hundred and gave formal shape to them. Then there is the mathematician genius Srinivasa Ramanujan whose theorems had bemused the finest brains of his time. His ideas were so advanced that the world has been discovering their value gradually.
This is a valuable reference book for kids and adults alike.
The Tribune
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