Shameful Flight,The Last Years of the British Empire in India, by Stanley Wolpert pp 231,OUP, 2006 This book by a serious scholar of India’s modern history,an authoritative writer on Gandhi and Jinnah,has now produced a book that would give us,Indians of the older and younger generations, a new perspective and a thoroughly balanced account of…
Reading and appreciating poetry
“”When will that shore appear from which at last we see..How all this came to pass and for what reason?” Reading poetry has been my pastime for long.All my life! Now it has become a passion for me and now it has become a serious pursuit.My tastes and temperament had shaped and changed me to…
Will there be confrontations between the executive and the judiciary?
Indian judiciary is again in the news,as it was during the days in the early 70s when Indira Gandhi was very much making news. Mr.Kuldip Nayar,the veteran journalist has raised the issue of such a possible confrontation(Asian Age 30,April 2007) in the current-goings-on. Nayar in fact puts in so succinctly:just thirty years ago,to be exact…
President Kalam ready for a second term?
Lalu Prasad Yadav justifies Emergency rule! Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stands isolated? Politics as a calling is never kind to indecisive leaders! Democracies: strong and weak democracies Dictatorships: ideologically-based and military dictatorships Democracies are facing new challenges everywhere. In India there are challenges now for our democracy, as coalition partners, the Left and the casteist…
Sir Isaiah Berlin – a biography
Sir Berlin was professor of political philosophy at Oxford during the late 50s. I used to attend his lectures as an undergraduate student. In his time Sir Berlin was considered the greatest living thinker of political and social issues. Being born in Russia and a Jew at that he was closely associated with events during…
School Journal of Education
This is a journal with a long history. It was launched long ago in 1965 as an ordinary school newsletter when I was running a rural school. Through the years it had evolved into several phases to its present format. Today this monthly magazine is read by schools, college and public libraries all over India…
Nanni A Palkhivala -Book Review
This is the latest biography of the eminent jurist. He played a leading role in interpreting the constitution of India. This is a beautifully written book by the veteran journalist M.V Kamath and gives a full account of the jurists many faceted skills and achievements. I have written of this elsewhere on this blog.
Nani A.Palkhivala
The multi-faceted genius of a lawyer. The book (Nani A.Palkhivala, a life by M.V. Kamath, Nani A.Palkhivala Memorial Trust, Hay House India, 2007, pp 524, Rs.595) is a rare one. A beautifully written book on a beautifully-lived life. The subject of the biography is a distinguished lawyer whose types are not born every time in…