Implosion

Implosion
Author: John Elliott
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2014-03-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9350297361
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The Great India Story by a respected international journalistSince independence in 1947, India has muddled through, turning confusion and adversity into varying degrees of success. From his experience and perspective as both a business and political correspondent, John Elliott examines how this came to be. At a time when there is a widespread clamour for change and for a new form of politics, he looks at how corruption has eaten into all aspects of Indian life and questions the decades of rule by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and suggests democracy provides a smokescreen for much that is wrong. He explores the impact of liberalization, traces the build-up of social unrest over corruption, women's rights, and the exploitation of land and the poor. He also reflects on the limitations of a hesitant foreign policy and looks in detail at why India's defence forces are so depleted.At the heart of the problem, he argues, is the 'quick fix' attitude known as 'jugaad' and the laissez faire acceptance of 'chalta hai' that together have eaten into the social and political fabric and heavily influence what India is, and is not, today. He uncovers a secrets 'M document' that mapped out the 1991 reforms, and reveals how was an unwitting spectator at a Pakistan briefing meeting for the 1991 Kargil war.Incisive and ambitious in its attempt to gather together the many strands that make up a controversial India narrative, Implosion is a timely contribution to the debate on nationhood,development, the exercise of power, people's rights and the changing demographics of a country facing a Tryst with Reality.

The Shortest History of India: From the World's Oldest Civilization to Its Largest Democracy - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History)

The Shortest History of India: From the World's Oldest Civilization to Its Largest Democracy - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History)
Author: John Zubrzycki
Publisher: The Experiment, LLC
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2023-11-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1615199985
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5,000 years of history—from the Bhagavad Gita to Bollywood—fill this masterful portrait of the world’s most populous nation and a rising global power. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. India—a cradle of civilization with five millennia of history, a country of immense consequence and contradiction—often defies ready understanding. What holds its people together—across its many cultures, races, languages, and creeds—and how has India evolved into the liberal democracy it is today? From the Harappan era to Muslim invasions, the Great Mughals, British rule, independence, and present-day hopes, John Zubrzycki distills India’s colossal history into a gripping true story filled with legendary lives: Alexander the Great, Akbar, Robert Clive, Tipu Sultan, Lakshmi Bai, Lord Curzon, Jinnah, and Gandhi. India’s gifts to the world include Buddhism, yoga, the concept of zero, the largest global diaspora—and its influence is only growing. Already the world’s largest democracy, in 2023, India became the most populous nation. Can India overcome its political, social, and religious tensions to be the next global superpower? As the world watches—and wonders—this Shortest History is an essential, clarifying read.

The Dynasty

The Dynasty
Author: Sunita Aron
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9385827103
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Why are surnames so important in politics? Should there be birth entitlements to inheritance of power in a democratic set-up? Must the offspring be given on a platter what the common people have to struggle for? Believers in meritocracy and equitable distribution of power would cry in chorus: ‘No’. Then why is India’s vibrant democracy stained with dynastic politics in which bereavement is also used to transfer power? The Nehru-Gandhi family has so far been singularly held responsible for this widespread political malaise. Rightly so! Had Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru not dithered when his daughter Indira Gandhi stood for presidentship of the Congress almost six decades back, dynastic politics would not have crept into our rich democracy and grown into a monster. What the father founded, the daughter fostered. Since then, innumerable dynasties – old and new, big and small, famous and infamous – dot the country’s political landscape today. Non-Congress parties, though equally guilty, have sporadically raised the issue of hereditary politics but never as intensely as in the watershed 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the voters debated and debunked the right to rule on the basis of birth certificate and not merit. They handed over the reins of the country to a non-dynast, Narendra Modi, punished the country’s grand old party for its non-performance and its scam-ridden tenure and, yet, elected many dynastic scions – a peculiar contradiction, but that’s what Indian politics is all about! This volume incisively analyses the unethical games politicians play to remain in power and grow into brands.

Imprisoned in India

Imprisoned in India
Author: James Tooley
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2016-11-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1785901990
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James Tooley has been described as a 21st-century Indiana Jones, travelling to remote parts of the developing world to track something that many regarded as mythical: private schools serving the poor. It was in the Indian city of Hyderabad that Tooley first discovered these schools, and wrote about them in his award-winning book The Beautiful Tree, which also documented state corruption and the attempts to shut the schools down. But the state was to exact revenge: upon returning to Hyderabad, Tooley was unjustly arrested and thrown into prison. Conditions in the prison were dire, and the jailers typically cruel and violent, but the other prisoners were extraordinarily kind. Chillingly, many had been in prison for years, never charged with anything, often victims of police corruption, too poor to go to court and secure bail. Imprisoned in India tells the story of Tooley's incarceration and subsequent battles with maddeningly corrupt Indian bureaucracy, which made him realise how fundamental the rule of law is to the workings of a good society. It's something we take for granted, but without which all human flourishing is threatened, especially for the poor. Tooley discovered, too, how the human spirit, even amongst those wrongfully imprisoned, can soar above the brutality and tyranny of those in power.

A River Runs Again

A River Runs Again
Author: Meera Subramanian
Publisher: Public Affairs
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2015-08-25
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1610395301
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"India has endured a century of clouds heavy with acid rain, and rivers so thick with industrial effluent that they catch fire. Pollutants from toxic pesticides seep through the rich soils of rural Punjab, where a "Cancer Train" shuttles droves of farmers sick with chemical poisoning to oncology centers in foreign states. Sixty percent of the population lives without access to potable water. India's ecosystem is on a precipice. In A River Runs Again, Meera Subramanian explores this environmental catastrophe through the five elements that make the building blocks of life--earth, water, fire, air, and ether"--

Asian Waters

Asian Waters
Author: Humphrey Hawksley
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1468314793
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“Seamlessly connects geography, history and great power intrigue across the entire Indo-Pacific region, increasingly the fulcrum of world history.” —James Clad, Director, Asian Security Programs at the American Foreign Policy Council In the sphere of future global politics, no region will be as hotly contested as the Asia-Pacific, where great power interests collide amid the mistrust of unresolved conflicts and disputed territory. This is where authoritarian China is trying to rewrite international law and challenge the democratic values of the United States and its allies. The lightning rods of conflict are remote reefs and islands from which China has created military bases in the 1.5-million-square-mile expanse of the South China Sea, a crucial world trading route that this rising world power now claims as its own. No other Asian country can take on China alone. In Asian Waters, award–winning foreign correspondent Humphrey Hawksley breaks down the politics—and tensions—that he has followed through this region for years. Reporting on decades of political developments, he has witnessed China’s rise to become one of the world’s most wealthy and militarized countries, and delivers in Asian Waters the compelling narrative of this most volatile region. Can the United States and China handle the changing balance of power peacefully? Do Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan share enough common purpose to create a NATO-esque multilateral alliance? Does China think it can even become a superpower while making an enemy of America? If so, how does it plan to achieve it? Asian Waters delves into these topics and more as Hawksley presents the most comprehensive and accessible analysis ever of this region.

The Routledge Companion to Travel Writing

The Routledge Companion to Travel Writing
Author: Carl Thompson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 506
Release: 2015-12-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1134105142
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As many places around the world confront issues of globalization, migration and postcoloniality, travel writing has become a serious genre of study, reflecting some of the greatest concerns of our time. Encompassing forms as diverse as field journals, investigative reports, guidebooks, memoirs, comic sketches and lyrical reveries; travel writing is now a crucial focus for discussion across many subjects within the humanities and social sciences. An ideal starting point for beginners, but also offering new perspectives for those familiar with the field, The Routledge Companion to Travel Writing examines: Key debates within the field, including postcolonial studies, gender, sexuality and visual culture Historical and cultural contexts, tracing the evolution of travel writing across time and over cultures Different styles, modes and themes of travel writing, from pilgrimage to tourism Imagined geographies, and the relationship between travel writing and the social, ideological and occasionally fictional constructs through which we view the different regions of the world. Covering all of the major topics and debates, this is an essential overview of the field, which will also encourage new and exciting directions for study. Contributors: Simon Bainbridge, Anthony Bale, Shobhana Bhattacharji, Dúnlaith Bird, Elizabeth A. Bohls, Wendy Bracewell, Kylie Cardell, Daniel Carey, Janice Cavell, Simon Cooke, Matthew Day, Kate Douglas, Justin D. Edwards, David Farley, Charles Forsdick, Corinne Fowler, Laura E. Franey, Rune Graulund, Justine Greenwood, James M. Hargett, Jennifer Hayward, Eva Johanna Holmberg, Graham Huggan, William Hutton, Robin Jarvis, Tabish Khair, Zoë Kinsley, Barbara Korte, Julia Kuehn, Scott Laderman, Claire Lindsay, Churnjeet Mahn, Nabil Matar, Steve Mentz, Laura Nenzi, Aedín Ní Loingsigh, Manfred Pfister, Susan L. Roberson, Paul Smethurst, Carl Thompson, C.W. Thompson, Margaret Topping, Richard White, Gregory Woods.

Scam Andhra

Scam Andhra
Author: John Elliott
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 23
Release: 2015-08-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9351367096
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Once seen by Jawaharlal Nehru as a microcosm of Indian culture - and in the 2000s by both US President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates of Microsoft as a focal point of India's booming IT industry - the southern city of Hyderabad is now a symbol of India's worst crony capitalism. This is the capital of Andhra Pradesh that will elect a new state assembly at the same time as the general election. John Elliott tells a story of dynastic political ambitions, personal greed, and the lauding of companies that grew fat on fraudulent land and other deals with a new form of corruption, especially during the past ten years of Congress rule. He traces the history from the time of the British and uncovers the origins of a new entrepreneurial community as significant as old business clans such as the Marwaris.

Climate Change

Climate Change
Author: Ranadhir Mukhopadhyay
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0128122412
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Climate Change: Alternate Governance Policy for South Asia provides an assessment of climate change issues through the socioeconomic lens of one of the world's poorest, most populous regions. Although climate change is a global issue, localized solutions have become increasingly necessary to address political, economic and cultural factors in underdeveloped regions. Identifying successes, gaps and shortcomings in existing policies and regional laws relating to climate change, this book evaluates the sustainability of current practices, examining mitigation strategies and suggesting a comprehensive, innovative model of sustainable policies and governance strategy specific to the region. While the book approaches climate change, policy and mitigation from a regionally-focused standpoint, it has an underlying philosophy of Think Global, Act Local, making it universally applicable to anyone interested in climate change and its effects. - Approaches climate change, policy and mitigation from a regionally focused standpoint - Includes mitigation approaches and solutions directly applicable to the sociocultural environment of South Asia - Provides a research-based compilation of relevant science, policy and social issues that are set alongside a critical assessment of data and practical examples - Authored by experts with extensive experience in geoscience and human development throughout South Asia

Courts and the Environment

Courts and the Environment
Author: Christina Voigt
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 455
Release:
Genre: Courts
ISBN: 1788114671
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This discerning book examines the challenges, opportunities and solutions for courts adjudicating on environmental cases. It offers a critical analysis of the practice and judgments of courts from various representative and influential jurisdictions.