General Awareness

BOOKS AND AUTHORS - July 2019

Jul 2019

Aug 10, 2019

Deep Halder's Blood Island - a series of recitations by those who remember the experience.

The 1979 Marichjhapi massacre is entirely forgotten and does not find a place even in history text books. Indeed, the magnitude of the historical negligence by the State and its citizens over killings in the lush mangroves of the Sunderbans has never been in focus. Few even know about it, and a handful have lived to tell the tale.
Though Blood Island opens and closes with a memory, it is a strictly journalistic endeavour and documents history well. From a shifting lens, the author gives a rounded view of the island that was once home to Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, and that eventually turned into a battleground.
The book charts the unfulfilled promises of the Jyoti Basu-led Left government in West Bengal and shows how the refugees were shifted from one terrible camp to another until they decided to make the island of Marichjhapi their home.
Justifiably,Blood Island does not hold back in its criticism of the government. Witnesses talk of the state-sponsored violence that killed thousands (although officially, the death toll is in single digits) gathered there. The book hints that the state action against harmless refugees was motivated by caste politics, that the animosity of the 'people's government' towards the group was influenced by their position in the social hierarchy.

Walking The Roadless Road: Exploring The Tribes Of Nagaland By Easterine Kire

Easterine Kire's timely book looks at everything from myths of origin, village structure, institutions, and clans to the festivals, rituals, and taboos of the tribes of Nagaland
It is this fear that prompted Easterine Kire to write Walking the Roadless Road: Exploring the Tribes of Nagaland. The book claims to be "a comprehensive history of the Naga tribes who live within the borders of Nagaland."
That the study has been limited to the 16 Nagaland tribes means prominent Naga tribes like Tangkhul and Mao (they are concentrated in Manipur's Ukhrul and Senapati districts) are excluded while non-Naga tribes like Kuki and Dimasa Kachari are included.
The book ambitiously attempts to trace the evolution of the tribes from their origin in antiquity to the 21st century.
However, more than half is devoted to the nature and culture of Naga society before the arrival of Christianity.
The tone is descriptive and the near absence of chronology gives the stories a feel of timelessness. In a way, this puts a question mark over the book's claim to be a historical study.
Nevertheless, this is a timely book that tries to encapsulate the tribal story and looks at everything from origin myths, village structure, and institutions like the morung and the Feast of Merit to the spiritual world, clan systems, festivals, rituals relating to birth, marriage and funerals, and the customary law practices and social taboos of each tribe.
The centrality of land to the Naga identity is also beautifully laid out.

Jul 28, 2019

A book, Anthropology And Sports

A book, Anthropology And Sports, written by Ajeet Jaiswal, who is part of the Department of Anthropology, Pondicherry University, was released.
The book was released jointly by Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Gurmeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University. The book stresses on the need to acquire anthropological knowledge.

Jul 25, 2019

Rushdie's Latest Novel Enters Booker Long List

New books by acclaimed writers Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood are among 13 longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. The list chosen from 151 novels includes eight women and five men.
Rushdie, a former Booker winner, is on the longlist for Quichotte, a novel to be published in September, 2019.
Atwood's The Testament is also due to be released in September, 2019.
The list includes a debut novel, Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister, The Serial Killer.
Quichotte is inspired by Don Quixote and narrates the story of an ageing travelling salesman who falls in love with a TV star and drives across America to win her hand.
Judges called it a "picaresque tour de force of contemporary America, with all its alarms and craziness".

Jul 10, 2019

Mrigendra of UP Has Written 135 Books

A 12-year-old child prodigy from Uttar Pradesh has written 135 books on subjects like religion and biographies of well known personalities including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Mrigendra Raj started writing books at the age of six and his first one was a compilation of poems.
He uses the pen name of 'Aaaj Ka Abhimanyu' and already has four world records to his credit.
He has written books after analysing 51 characters of the Ramayana. Each of his books runs into 25 to 100 pages. He even received an offer from the World University of Records in London for doctorate.

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