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RECENTLY PUBLISHED LITERATURE RELEVEANT TO SOUTH ASIAN CONCERN
•
Islam Under Siege: Living Dangerously in a Post-Honor World
Akbar S. Ahmed
Polity Press, May 2003, 224 pp, $19.95, £12.99
In this groundbreaking
book, Akbar Ahmed, one of the world’s leading authorities
on Islam, who has worked in the Muslim world but lives in the West,
explains what is going wrong in his society by referring to Islamic
history and beliefs. Employing theological and anthropological perspectives,
he attempts to answer the questions that people in the West are
asking about Islam: "Why do they hate us?" "Is Islam
compatible with democracy?" "Does Islam subjugate women?"
"Does the Quran preach violence?" These important questions
are of relevance to Muslims and to non-Muslims alike. Islam Under
Siege points out the need for, and provides the route to, the dialogue
of civilizations...
•
The Cross & the Crescent: Christianity and Islam from Muhammad
to the Reformation
Richard Fletcher
Allen Lane, March 2003, 183 pp, £14.99
A short account
of the relations between Islam and Christianity from Muhammad to
the Reformation. The author argues that though there were trading
and cultural interactions between the two during the period when
Arabs controlled most of the Mediterranean world, neither side was
remotely interested in the religion of the other. "Christian
and Moslem lived side by side in a state of mutual religious aversion.
Given these circumstances, if religious passions were to be stirred
up, confrontation would probably be violent". Fletcher shows
how religious misunderstanding and antagonism between "the
peoples of the book" has been present since their earliest
encounters...
•
The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home & Abroad
Fareed Zakaria
Norton, March 2003, 270 pp, $24.00, £14.99
Democracy
has reshaped politics, economics, and culture around the world.
This provocative book asks, can you have too much of a good
thing? Today we judge the value of every idea, institution,
and individual by one test: is it popular? Or, more practically,
do the majority of those polled like it? This transformation
has affected not just politics but also business, law, culture,
and even religion. Every institution and profession in society
must democratize or die. Democracy has gone from being a form
of government to a way of life.
Like any
broad transformation, however, the trends that democracy unleashes
are not uniformly benign. Democracy has its dark sides, yet
to question it has been to provoke instant criticism that you
are "out of sync" with the times. No more. With an
easy command of history, philosophy, and current affairs, Zakaria
reinterprets our past and outlines our future. Woodrow Wilson
said the challenge of the twentieth century was to make the
world safe for democracy. This penetrating book challenges us
to make democracy safe for the world...
•
The End of India
Khushwant Singh
Penguin, January 2003, 163 pp, $17.95
Analysing
the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, the burning of Graham
Staines and his children and his children, the anti-Sikh riots
of 1984 and targeted killings by terrorists in different parts
of the country, Khushwant Singh forces us to confront the extreme
corruption of religion that has made us among the most brutal
people on earth. With sections of the Indian ruling coalition
openly supporting the divisive and retrograde agenda of Hindu
fundamentalists, it is the very idea of India that is at stake.
A brave and passionate book, this book is a wake-up call for
every Indian citizen concerned about his or her own future,
if not the nation's....
•
Kautilya Today
Jairam Ramesh
India Research Press, New Delhi, 2002
This
collection of Ramesh’s columns for India Today examines with
the author’s typical intellect and wit, the economic, social,
political and intellectual concerns of India and the wider world.
Ramesh touches upon a range of topics including federalism, exchange
rate mechanisms, the failure of secularism, the obstacles facing liberalisation,
the intricacies of budget-making, Indian agriculture, enterprise and
the public sector.
• Democracy and Dictatorship in South Asia: Dominant Classes
and Political Outcomes
in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Robert W Stern
India Research Press, New Delhi, 2001
Stern
examines the idea of coalitions of dominant classes in South Asia
in their historical context, and explains how they relate to current
political and communal realities in many parts of South Asia. Stern
examines the cases of Punjab and Bengal and the larger situation of
democracy in India, as well as modes of political action in Pakistan
and Bangladesh, and asks whether parliamentary democracy matters in
South Asia
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