riddle@im4u.UUCP (07/24/85)
>> Some time ago, a friend asked for a couple of books about India...
I'd like to echo some of Vallath Nandakumar's comments. R.K. Narayan not
only richly described Indian life, but he had an excellent eye for human
nature (especially in its Indian manifestations) and a rich sense of humor.
"Freedom at Midnight" by Collins and Lapierre is a piece of hackwork -- it
includes some of the basic framework of modern Indian history, blows a few
characters up into ridiculously exaggerated heroes and villains (especially
Lord Mountbatten), and then uses that as material for a supermarket
potboiler. V.S. Naipaul is a fine writer and a very sharp thinker, but he
goes to uncalled-for lengths to trash Indian culture at every turn. He sure
makes you think hard to refute his arguments, though -- good exercise for
the brain.
Here's one Indian writer whom no one has yet mentioned: Ved Mehta. I have
read only his political books, but he's supposed to have written some fine
memoirs, too. I can see why, knowing a bit about his unique life: he was
blinded at an early age in India, educated at one of the few schools for
blind children then operating, and eventually was packed up and sent as a
teenager to (of all places) rural Arkansas for a better education. As a
young man he hitchhiked (alone!) all over the U.S., attended some
prestigious university or another (Oxford? Cambridge? or one of the U.S. ivy
league schools?), and then broke into journalism. A curious characteristic
of his work is that it is extremely *visual*, with detail you wouldn't
expect from a blind person. More importantly, his writing about Indian
politics is extremely clear and vivid, even to non-Indians who don't have
much background.
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech}!ut-sally!riddle riddle@ut-sally.UUCP
--- riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sally, riddle%im4u@ut-sallysunil@ut-ngp.UTEXAS (Sunil Trivedi) (07/27/85)
From: dave@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA (Bharat Dave) Message-ID: <354@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA> > Sometime ago, a friend asked for a couple of books about India. So far, > I am sure to suggest the following three titles. > ... Any other suggestions ? Thanks. If considering books on the history of India, I can suggest the two (small) volume series from Pelican called "A History of India" [not a bad name]. The first volume was written by Romila Thapar (whom I had the chance to meet when she came to the University of Texas a few years ago). The second was written by Dr. Percival Spear. The first volume "traces the evolution of India before contact with modern Europe was established in the sixteenth century." The second volume "handles the Mughal and British periods." Has anyone found any other books covering the history of India worth reading? One problem with books on Indian history is that very little is covered on the pre-"Aryan" civilizations. It's like looking for pre-Christian Armenian history; the victors (Aryans in India and the Christian missionaries in Armenia [or Hayastan, in Armenian {Hayastani}]) considered their comings the beginning of the respective cultures. Sunil Trivedi P.O. Box 8057, Austin, TX 78713-8057 sunil@ut-ngp.ARPA ...!arpasite!sunil@ut-ngp.ARPA where arpasite is an ARPANET site | | | | | | | | | | | {ihnp4,gatech,allegra,nbires,boulder,ctvax,eagle,vortex,philabs,rice,ut-sally} | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-------+------+-------+------+-----+-----+-------+-----+------+ | ut-ngp!sunil