BOOKS OF THE WEEK - SATURDAY, 30 NOVEMBER, 2019

2019: How Modi Won India

By - RAJDEEP SARDESAI

About the book : 

On 23 May 2019, when the results of the general elections were announced, Narendra Modi and the BJP-led NDA coalition were voted back to power with an overwhelming majority. To some, the numbers of Modi's victory came as something of a surprise; for others, the BJP's triumph was a vindication of their belief in the government and its policies. Irrespective of one's political standpoint, one thing was beyond dispute: this was a landmark verdict, one that deserved to be reported and analysed with intelligence - and without bias. Rajdeep Sardesai's new book, 2019: How Modi Won India, does just that. What was it that gave Modi an edge over the opposition for the second time in five years? How was the BJP able to trounce its rivals in states that were once Congress bastions? What was the core issue in the election: a development agenda or national pride? As he relives the excitement of the many twists and turns that took place over the last five years, culminating in the 2019 election results, Rajdeep helps the reader make sense of the contours and characteristics of a rapidly changing India, its politics and its newsmakers. If the 2014 elections changed India, 2019 may well have defined what 'new India' is likely to be all about. 2019: How Modi Won India takes a look at that fascinating story, which is still developing.

About the Author :

Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist, author, columnist and news presenter with more than thirty years' experience in print and television news. Having begun his career with the Times of India in 1988, Rajdeep moved to NDTV in 1994. He was the founder-editor of the IBN18 Network, which started news channels like CNN-IBN. He is currently a consulting editor with the TV Today Network and anchors a flagship prime-time show. Rajdeep has won several awards for journalistic excellence including the Ramnath Goenka award, the International Broadcasters prize, the Asian TV award and the Prem Bhatia Political Journalism award (in 2019, for his general election coverage). He received the Padma Shri in 2008. He is the author of three previous books: 2014: The Election That Changed India; Democracy's XI: The Great Indian Cricket Story; and Newsman: Tracking India in the Modi Era. He lives in New Delhi. Narendra Modi; 2019; Elections; Hindu; BJP; Bharatiya Janata Party; Congress; Rahul Gandhi; Amit Shah; Rajdeep Sardesai

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BOOKS OF THE WEEK - 05TH, OCTOBER, 2019

A Genealogy of Devotion

By -   Patton E. Burchett

ISBN :  9780231196659
Price : Rs 799/-

 About the book

Patton e. Burchett offers a path-breaking Genealogical study of devotional (bhakti) Hinduism that traces its understudied historical relationships with Tantra, yoga, and Sufism. He focuses his analysis on the early modern period, when the rise of bhakti communities in North India transformed the religious landscape. In this book, Patton e. Burchett offers a path-breaking Genealogical study of devotional (bhakti) Hinduism that traces its understudied historical relationships with Tantra, yoga, and Sufism. Beginning in India’s early medieval “tantric age” and reaching to the present day, burchett focuses his analysis on the crucial shifts of the early modern period, when the rise of bhakti communities in North India transformed the religious landscape in ways that would profoundly affect the shape of modern-day Hinduism. A genealogy of devotion illuminates the complex historical factors at play in the growth of bhakti in Sultanate and Mughal India through its pivotal interactions with Indic and Persianate traditions of asceticism, monasticism, politics, and literature. Shedding new light on the importance of Persian culture and popular Sufism in the history of devotional Hinduism, burchett’s work explores the cultural encounters that reshaped early modern North Indian communities. Focusing on the ramanandi bhakti community and the tantric Nath yogis, burchett describes the emergence of a new and sufi-inflected devotional sensibility—an ethical, emotional, and aesthetic disposition—that was often critical of tantric and yogic religiosity. Early modern North Indian devotional critiques of tantric religiosity, he shows, prefigured colonial-era Orientalist depictions of bhakti as “religion” and Tantra as “magic.” providing a broad historical view of bhakti, Tantra, and yoga while simultaneously challenging dominant scholarly conceptions of them, a genealogy of devotion offers a bold new narrative of the history of religion in India.

About the Author

Patton E. Burchett is assistant professor of religious studies at the College of William and Mary.

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BOOKS OF THE WEEK SATURDAY, -07 SEPTEMBER, 2019

The Epic of the Buddha: 

His Life and Teachings

By - Chittadhar Hrdaya 

About the Book

This award-winning book contains the English translation of Sugata Saurabha (“The Sweet Fragrance of the Buddha”), an epic poem on the life and teachings of the Buddha. Chittadhar Hṛdaya, a master poet from Nepal, wrote this tour de force while imprisoned for subversion in the 1940s and smuggled it out over time on scraps of paper. His consummate skill and poetic artistry are evident throughout as he tells the Buddha’s story in dramatic terms, drawing on images from the natural world to heighten the description of emotionally charged events. It is peopled with very human characters who experience a wide range of emotions, from erotic love to anger, jealousy, heroism, compassion, and goodwill. By showing how the central events of the Buddha’s life are experienced by Siddhartha, as well as by his family members and various disciples, the poem communicates a fuller sense of the humanity of everyone involved and the depth and power of the Buddha’s loving-kindness.            

For this new edition of the English translation, the translators improved the beauty and flow of most every line. The translation is also supplemented with a series of short essays by Todd Lewis, one of the translators, that articulates how Hṛdaya incorporated his own Newar cultural traditions in order to connect his readership with the immediacy and relevancy of the Buddha’s life and at the same time express his views on political issues, ethical principles, literary life, gender discrimination, economic policy, and social reform.

About the Author

Chittadhar Hṛdaya (1906–1982) was one of twentieth-century Nepal’s most eminent poets. Born into a Newar family in Kathmandu, he devoted his life to writing in his native language of Nepāl Bhāṣā (also called “Newari”). He composed this epic poem about the life of the Buddha while imprisoned for five years for publishing a poem in Newari that was regarded as subversive by the Nepalese government, smuggling it out on scraps of paper hidden in a tin box. 

Todd T. Lewis isa Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross.

Subarna Man Tuladhar taught at and served as the chief administrator of the Administrative Staff College in Kathmandu. For over four decades, he has also been a private scholar who published articles and short stories in Nepāl Bhāṣā (“Newari”), Nepali, and English. Since 1979, he has also taught several dozen foreign scholars doing research in the Kathmandu Valley. The growth in Newar studies in western academia in fields such as linguistics, anthropology, and religion is due, in considerable measure, to the exceptional work of Subarna Man Tuladhar as an instructor who pioneered the modern teaching of spoken Nepāl Bhāṣā.

ISBN No.  9781611806199   Price Rs. 599.00 

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BOOKS OF THE WEEK - 24TH November 2017

The Nationalist

How A.M. Naik Overcame Great Odds to Transform Larsen 

&Toubro into a Global Powerhouse

by - Minhaz Merchant 

About the Book

This is the story of an extraordinary business leader, Anil Naik, and the company, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), he has served for 53 years and led for the last 18. Long coveted by the Ambanis and Birlas, L&T has an annual turnover of Rs 1,20,000 crore and a market capitalisation of more than Rs 1,60,000 crore. It is involved in several critical national projects: India's first nuclear-powered submarine; strategic weapon and missile systems; space exploration including maiden missions to the moon and Mars; global infrastructure; airports; metro rail systems; and nearly all of India's nuclear power plants. L&T's Hazira manufacturing complex, Vadodara's Knowledge City and the Kattupalli shipyard have become symbols of world-class Indian engineering and technology. Author Minhaz Merchant spoke to Naik over several months to construct a compelling narrative of a remarkable company and its chairman. What emerges is a portrait of a man whose work and life have been bedrocked on a deeply felt sense of nationalism, synonymous with helping to build a strong and self-reliant India. From a south Gujarat village to the chairmanship of L&T, Anil Naik's journey has been one of grit, determination, entrepreneurial leadership, 16-hour workdays and a unique management style. What emerges is a visionary leader who ringfenced L&T from corporate takeovers by creating an innovative employee welfare foundation and transformed L&T into a global technology and engineering powerhouse. Naik also emerges as a devoted family man and a generous philanthropist who has donated most of his personal income to charities through family trusts focused on healthcare, education and community service. Naik's father, Manibhai, a teacher who spent his life serving the rural poor, was his role model who taught him to be fearless and honest with the motto: 'If you are in the right, you have nothing to fear.' This is the story of a man who surmounted great odds to reach the pinnacle of success, says Merchant. It demonstrates more than anything else that honesty - the quality Naik prizes most - pays the greatest dividend of all in the end: the respect of your peers, the loyalty of your colleagues, and the affection of your family.

About the Author

Minhaz Merchant is the biographer of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the late industrialist Aditya Birla. He founded the pioneering media firm Sterling Newspapers Pvt. Ltd, which was later acquired by the Indian Express group. A widely published newspaper columnist, Minhaz's book, The New Clash of Civilizations: How the Contest between America, China, India and Islam Will Shape Our Century, was published in 2014. Recipient of the Lady Jeejeebhoy scholarship for physics, Minhaz lives in Mumbai with his wife Kahini. The couple have two children, Suhail and Tehzeeb.

ISBN : 9789352772889

Price : Rs.799.00

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