Books of the Week - Saturday, 24th September, 2022

The Pashtuns: A Contested History
by Tilak Devasher 

About the Book
The Pashtuns are perhaps the largest ethnic group in the world without a country of their own. They inhabit a continuous stretch of land from the Hindu Kush to the Indus, across Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan used the Pashtun-dominated areas in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as a launching pad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and later during the US-led War on Terror.

In the process FATA was kept in a constitutional and informational black hole. The discontent finally burst in 2018 when the extra-judicial killing of a Pashtun youth led to widespread protests.

This book by veteran analyst Tilak Devasher fulfils a gap in the geopolitical understanding of South Asia, given the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the shifting power equations in the region.

About the Author
Tilak Devasher has taken to writing after he retired from the cabinet secretariat, Government of India, as special secretary in 2014. He is the author of two widely acclaimed books on Pakistan--Pakistan: Courting the Abyss (2016) and Pakistan: At the Helm (2018). During his professional career with the cabinet secretariat, he specialized in security issues pertaining to India's neighbourhood. Post retirement, he has continued to take a keen interest in India's neighbourhood, with special focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has written articles for various national newspapers and magazines and has also appeared on TV shows on leading news channels like India Today, Times Now, CNN News18 and Rajya Sabha TV.Devasher did his schooling from Mayo College, Ajmer, and studied history at St Stephen's College, Delhi, at the undergraduate level and at the University of Delhi at the postgraduate level.He is currently a member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) and a consultant with the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF).
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Books of the Week - Saturday, 17th September, 2022

A History of the World
By - Andrew Marr `

About the Book
Fresh, exciting and vividly readable, this is popular history at its very best.Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents and old prejudices are being challenged. In this truly global journey, political journalist Andrew Marr revisits some of the traditional epic stories, from classical Greece and Rome to the rise of Napoleon, but surrounds them with less familiar material, from Peru to the Ukraine, China to the Caribbean. He looks at cultures that have failed and vanished, as well as the origins of today’s superpowers, and finds surprising echoes and parallels across vast distances and epochs. A History of the World is a book about the great change-makers of history and their times, people such as Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, Galileo and Mao, but it is also a book about us. For ‘the better we understand how rulers lose touch with reality, or why revolutions produce dictators more often than they produce happiness, or why some parts of the world are richer than others, the easier it is to understand our own times.’

About the Author
Andrew Marr was born in Glasgow in 1959. He studied English at the University of Cambridge and has since enjoyed a long career in political journalism, working for the Scotsman, the Independent, the Daily Express and the Observer. From 2000 to 2005 he was the BBC’s Political Editor. He has written and presented TV documentaries on history, science and politics, and for many years presented the weekly Andrew Marr Show on Sunday mornings on BBC1 and Start the Week on Radio 4. He left the BBC at the end of 2021 to join LBC, Classic FM and the New Statesman. He lives in London with his family.
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Books of the Week - Saturday, 10 September, 2022

An Unlikely Police Chief:  
From and To Jaisalmer House
By B.L. Vohra

About the Book
An Unlikely Police Chief has the reminiscences of B.L. Vohra whose life in India started in a refugee camp in Delhi after his family was forced to move from Pakistan as a result of the horrors of the Partition. Undeterred by circumstances, the young Vohra who was a mediocre student worked hard and got into the prestigious Indian Police Service where he rose to become a three-star police chief. The book not only talks about his life but also gives a glimpse into the working of the Indian police and the many challenges the nation faces at present. B.L. VOHRA joined the Indian Police Service in 1967 and retired in 2004 as a Director General of Police. In his career, he has served in the Delhi Police, in Manipur, Tripura, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and in most Central Armed Police Forces. He was also Home Secretary of Manipur. He was awarded the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service, 'Guru Samman' by the Vice-President of India and many other medals and honours. He has authored 13 books.

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Books of the Week - Saturday, 03rd July, 2022

India, Bharat and Pakistan : 
The Constitutional Journey of Sandwiched Civilisation
By : J. Sai Deepak 

About the Book
India, Bharat and Pakistan, the second book of the Bharat Trilogy, takes the discussion forward from its bestselling predecessor, India That Is Bharat. It explores the combined influence of European and Middle Eastern colonialities on Bharat as the successor state to the Indic civilisation, and on the origins of the Indian Constitution. To this end, the book traces the thought continuum of Middle Eastern coloniality from the rise of Islamic Revivalism in the 1740s following the decline of the Mughal Empire, which presaged the idea of Pakistan, until the end of the Khilafat Movement in 1924, which cemented the road to Pakistan. The book also describes the collaboration of convenience that was forged between the proponents of Middle Eastern coloniality and the British colonial establishment to the detriment of the Indic civilisation. One of the objectives of this book is to help the reader draw parallels between the challenges faced by the Indic civilisation in the tumultuous period from 1740 to 1924, and the present day. Its larger goal remains the same as that of the first, which is to enthuse Bharatiyas to undertake a critical decolonial study of Bharat’s history, especially in the context of the Constitution, so that the religiosity towards the document is moderated by a sense of proportion, perspective and purpose.

About the Author
J. SAI DEEPAK is an engineer-turned-litigator, practising as an arguing counsel primarily before the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi. A mechanical engineer from Anna University, Sai graduated with a bachelor’s degree in law from IIT Kharagpur’s Law School in 2009, and has carved a niche for himself as a litigator in civil commercial and constitutional matters. He has been part of several landmark cases, such as those related to the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the Basmati Geographical Indications. In 2019, Sai was presented the Young Alumni Achiever’s Award by his alma mater IIT Kharagpur. Apart from delivering lectures on constitutional issues, he writes prolifically for leading newspapers and magazines. He is the author of the bestselling first book of the Bharat Trilogy, India That Is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution.
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