Archives: Press Reviews

Pramod Kapoor’s book begins by revisiting Calcutta in March 1965 — when Utpal Dutt staged his play, Kallol, at the Minerva Theatre, dramatising with flourish and alarum the Naval Mutiny of 1946. Dutt’s play historically coincided with the release of The Sound of Music in New York, Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming in London, and the commencement of Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam. Kallol (literally the

As rightly remarked by Shyam Benegal, a footnote in the history of the freedom movement has been turned into an exciting and important account in Pramod Kapoor’s 1946 Last War of Independence: Royal Indian Navy Mutiny. Pramod himself stumbled onto this forgotten story while researching for his book on Gandhi: “After the draft of the Gandhi book was done, I re-read the Royal Indian Navy

The 1946 uprising was serious. India was on fire because the British rulers were conducting trials of soldiers of the Indian National Army (INA) inside the expansive Red Fort in the Indian Capital. And then, the Naval mutiny was too hot to handle. The two incidents triggered the sending of the Cabinet Mission and the subsequent decision to grant freedom. Interestingly, two decades after India

IN STUDIO PORTRAIT with Flag, Trishul and Om Flag (2009), Pushpamala N stands in a simple tableau. Dressed as the goddess Bharat Mata, she holds her implements in front of a small-scale, brightly painted, sharped-tooth lion, which is placed in front of the Indian flag, which in turn is pinned open on the floral textiles hung on lines as a backdrop. Layered and repetitious, every

Misrakesi is Acharya Chanakya’s scribe in the Mauryan Palace and part of the royal administration; Misrakesi, with child, is carrying the future Senapati of the Mauryans; and Misrakesi, the new wife, is trying to fit into one of the most powerful families in the kingdom while battling both assassins and more intimate threats to her own happiness with Pushyamitra. Read an extract here.

Amrish chose cricket as one of the themes of his book because he wanted it to be light and meaningful at the same time. “When I say light, I mean a little witty and humourous,” he adds as a disclaimer. “As a cricket fanatic in my teens, I went through that process of euphoria mingled with despair that a sports fan goes through regularly and

Read an exclusive excerpt from Parvinderjit Singh Khanuja’s ‘SplendorsOf Punjab Heritage: Art From The Khanuja Family Collection’, whichrecounts how the establishment of a stable and prosperous state in thenorthwest Indian subcontinent by a native of the soil was a trulyremarkable achievement, considering the consistent upheavals and theover 1,000 years of alien rule that this region had experienced.

If a resounding rebuff were needed to that old saw that the only culture Punjabis know is agriculture, this book is extravagant proof. Produced in association with the Smithsonian’s Asian cultural history programme, it is a lavishly photographed and designed volume of Sikh art—miniatures, weaponry, coins, textiles, photographs and contemporary paintings among other memorabilia—that is the single-handed collection of one individual. Parvinderjit Singh Khanuja, an

A collection of artworks and historical memorabilia representing the cultural history of Punjab, ‘Splendors of Punjab Heritage’ is a delight to hold in your hands. Drawing on possessions with the US-based Khanuja family, it is rich in images — illustrations, photographs, maps, manuscripts — as also information on Sikhism, from which it draws its content.

Mr Tharoor writes, for many Indians, Pakistanis are merely estranged siblings “basically like us”, in appearance, ethnicity, cuisine, and music largely indistinguishable from northern Indian. For other Indians then Pakistan can never of the taint of the original sin of its creation. While India has its share of Hindu bigots, hostile to Muslim in general and Pakistanis in particular, Indian liberals weaned on a diet