dave@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA (Bharat Dave) (07/22/85)
Sometime ago, a friend asked for a couple of books about India. So far, I am sure to suggest the following three titles. DISCOVERY OF INDIA by Jawaharlal Nehru (history, memoirs) FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT by Collins and Lapierre (journalistic, records the period around independence) MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie (fiction: rich in imagery, one of the best about India and the indians) Does anyone remember title of the book about tragedies of partition by Khushawant Singh ? There are some others like R. K. Narayan, V. S. Naipaul ...but I read most of them some years ago and don't remember any specific titles. Any other suggestions ? Thanks. -Bharat Dave dave@cmu-cs-cad.arpa
sridhar@tekig5.UUCP (S. Sridhar) (07/23/85)
> Sometime ago, a friend asked for a couple of books about India. So far, > I am sure to suggest the following three titles. > > DISCOVERY OF INDIA by Jawaharlal Nehru > (history, memoirs) > > FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT by Collins and Lapierre > (journalistic, records the period around independence) > > MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie > (fiction: rich in imagery, one of the best about India and > the indians) > > Does anyone remember title of the book about tragedies of partition by > Khushawant Singh ? There are some others like R. K. Narayan, V. S. Naipaul > ...but I read most of them some years ago and don't remember any specific > titles. Any other suggestions ? Thanks. > > -Bharat Dave > dave@cmu-cs-cad.arpa The book by Khuswant Singh is: A Train to Pakistan Among many of the RK Narayan's books some are: The Guide (made into a box-office hit *ing Devanand and Waheeda Rehman.) Man eaters of Malgudi, The painter of signs, Swami and friends. The only title of VS Naipaul that I remember is Areas of Darkness. Another relevant title may be : Bhowani Junction by John Masters Sridhar ...!tektronix!tekig5!sridhar
vallath@ucbcad.UUCP (Vallath Nandakumar) (07/23/85)
> Sometime ago, a friend asked for a couple of books about India. So far, > I am sure to suggest the following three titles. > > DISCOVERY OF INDIA by Jawaharlal Nehru > (history, memoirs) > > FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT by Collins and Lapierre > (journalistic, records the period around independence) > > MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie > (fiction: rich in imagery, one of the best about India and > the indians) > R. K. Narayan's books are rich in descriptions of Indian life: The Guide, The Painter of Signs and most of his other books come to mind. Rabindranath Tagore's short stories are pretty good too. There are also translations from Indian languages - Pathar Panchali (from Bengali), Chemmeen (from Malayalam) etc. Freedom at Midnight is an interesting book, but historically inaccurate. The only defence one could make is that everybody "interprets" history, and nobody who writes anything interesting chronicles it. V. S. Naipaul (if he's the guy from Trinidad) is a good writer technically, but he has mostly negative views about India, a sentiment I don't agree with in general. Vallath Nandakumar
das@orstcs.UUCP (das) (07/24/85)
The novel by Khushwant Singh about partition is "The Train To Pakistan". das@orstcs ...!hplabs!hp-pcd!orstcs!das
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-sallysohi@uicsl.UUCP (07/25/85)
The book by Khushwant Singh is called 'A Train to Pakistan.' It portrays life in a Punjab village and revolves around an affair between a Sikh guy and a Moslem girl. A word of caution, some of the details about the actual trains, i.e., the massacares are quite graphic. There are also several books of short stories written by Manohar Mulgaonkar which make quite interesting reading. Gurindar Sohi P.S Just heard on the news that Longowal and Gandhi have called a truce and Longowal has declared that the agitation against the government is over. Lets hope for the best.
sunil@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
paturi@psuvax1.UUCP (Ramamohan Paturi) (08/08/85)
A good book on ancient India which especially throws light on the period of synthesis between the existing the Indus valley civilization and the nomadic tribes from Asian steppes. It also deals with how this synthesis gave rise to Classical India. A Book which is a well reading for anyone interested in India's roots. "Ancient India: A History of its Culture and Civilization" by Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi Pantheon Books, New York (1966). PS: I can not resist myself the temptation to add that this book might be of more help to Sunil Trivedi (or people like him) as this book might make him come far more towards "historical truth" as he is far more distant from the "historical truth" (as is evidenced by his occasional comments on India's roots on the net). -Ramamohan Paturi Department of Computer Science (Penn State) psuvax1!paturi