Indian Prisoners of War in Pakistan compiled by Nafisa Ali et al
The Assn of the families of the Indian Prisoners of War &Trishul Publications, NOIDA. Pages: xvii+264. Price: Rs. 195/-
It’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ‘Chuck him out, the brute!’ /But it’s ‘Saviour of ’is country’ when the guns begin to shoot. --- Rudyard Kipling
When we idolize a soldier we rob him of all human attributes. We term him a sentinel, a savior and expect him to lay down his life for us while we get snug in our homes. But a soldier is human too with expectations: That his family would be looked after well in his absence; that the government would come to his rescue if he became a prisoner of war; that in life and in death his dignity would remain sacrosanct. These are the expectations that every self-respecting nation ought to meet readily. Alas! The contents of this book indicate otherwise. Those who became POWs during the 1965 and 1971 wars “were abandoned” and are still languishing in Pakistan’s jails. Their womenfolk in India had to become maidservants to sustain themselves. Worse, the babus shouted at them and shooed them away whenever they sought government’s help for locating and rescuing the missing soldiers. Flouting the Geneva Convention Pakistan hasn’t only retained the Indian POWs but also treated them in an inhumane manner. Nafisa Ali and her team have compiled heartrending details of the suffering of individual soldiers and their kin while presenting incontrovertible evidence of the existence of Indian POWs in Pakistan and the heartless apathy of successive governments. There’s lot of angst and anger in the hearts of those interviewed for this eye-opener. Let’s hope the grievances are redressed and straws in the wind prevented from becoming writings on the wall.
Ambedkar in retrospect edited by Sukhadeo Thorat & Aryama
Rawat Publications & Indian Institute of Dalit Studies. Pages: vii+360. Price: Rs. 725/-
Ambedkar remains eminently relevant to socio-political discourse as well as reality obtaining in today’s India. A contemporary of Gandhiji, he was an intellectual giant whose scholarship included, apart from law and constitution, such diverse subjects as sociology, anthropology, politics and comparative religion. As nation-builder, devising constitutional means for empowerment of Dalits is one of his enduring contributions. Although he sympathized with the leftist ideology and recognized that power flowed from private ownership of property he wasn’t prepared to go along with the class-war theory. He believed that, in the Indian context, caste was a more powerful tool for perpetuating exploitation and oppression. He was also a great votary of women’s emancipation. This book is a collection of erudite essays by scholars from India and abroad that try to understand Ambedkar’s variegated role as reformer, scholar and nation builder. A must read for all.
Ugly duckling by Amita Mukerjee
Revenge Ink, UK. Pages: 584. Price: US$ 14.99
Pretty, intelligent and gifted Mia Makarand is an Indian-American who marries a Frenchman and comes to Paris to make a career as interpreter. However, her low self-esteem plummets further when she faces snobs like Krup Hanselfolk, Henri Harcourt, Radha Kamathi etc. Life becomes difficult when bitchy colleagues do everything to put her down. Emotional over-reactions to attention-seeking, crazy, kinky-sex-maniac Graziella, arrogant, selfish, manipulative faux-artist Aphrodite and control freak Galina only add to her misery. But her agent/secretary Claudie’s support and her own inherent toughness help her overcome the odds. This sardonic, verbose novel is peppered with epithets, invectives, metaphors and similes ranging from banal to brilliant while the focused, racy narrative makes it an enjoyable page-turner.
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