by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Vikas Datta,
Title: The Way of the Strangers – Encounters with the Islamic State; Author: Graeme Wood; Publisher: Penguin Random House; Pages: 352; Price: Rs 499
It is very easy to dismiss terrorists, especially those of a fundamentalist religious persuasion, as a group of savages in unstable or failed states distorting their faith for their own purposes. But can this approach be applicable to the Islamic State (IS), or suggest how we can tackle its growing global threat?
The approach is totally wrong, argues journalist and academician Graeme Wood — and not only for the IS. As we have known from the “Global War on Terrorism”, America and its allies ignored the fact that ideologies cannot be fought militarily, but by proving they are wrong or that better ideas are available.
However, in the case of the Islamic State, says Wood, it is not that its adherents’ view of Islam is wrong, for all its usual activities — slavery, mutilation and extreme violence against non-Muslims and “apostate” Muslims (Shias, Sunnis, Sufis, secular, “insufficiently Islamic”, etc) who oppose them — are based on Islamic scripture and practice (in the faith’s initial days though).
Though a minority, uncompromising and apocalyptic view, it is Islamic — though a mindset not shared by the vast mainstream of Muslims, who seek to describe it as a travesty of their religion, he shows.
Then, given the number of educated professionals the IS has been recruiting from affluent and modern Western societies and elsewhere, it definitely strikes a chord among some in the Muslim community at large, he says.
“The breadth of the appeal of the Islamic State was shocking as its depth. Three generations of conservative Muslims from outside London, a skirt-chasing bachelor from South Australia, and tens of thousands of others had drunk their inspiration from the same fountains. In addition to the physical caliphate, with its territory and war and economy to run, there was a caliphate of the imaginations to which all these people had already emigrated long before they slipped across the Turkish border…”
And all these had been “persuaded by the same propaganda, and, in many cases, the same people”, argues Wood.
It is accounts of interactions with some of these people — spread over Egypt, Japan, Australia, the Philippines’ Mindanao, Britain, the US, including in Dallas (a short distance from the author’s own childhood home), and spanning an Egyptian tailor, who once worked in New York and stitched a suit for Paul Newman, an Italian-origin Australian who is now the top Islamist firebrand Down Under, a mild Japanese academician, a British IS apologist — though with no intention of travelling to its territory, among others, he uses in his bid to explain the IS phenomenon.
Woven in are the theology and theologians of the Islamic State, the role of former Baathists, its difference from its jihadi forebear, Al Qaeda and other Islamist parties, and a concise but incisive narration of Islam’s rifts and challenges that helped give birth to such ideologies.
Furnishing his accounts of interactions with these characters, the “visible surface of a cause that was stirring emotions and convictions of tens of millions of others, and that would continue them for decades to come, even if it lost its core territory in Syria and Iraq”, Wood also provides insights into IS’ influencing and recruiting techniques — e.g., focussing on the most incongruous, not pious possibilities, and others.
While he wonders at the jarring prospect of smart, even gentle and well-mannered, intelligent people with the most wicked beliefs”, he however tells us that “when someone says something too evil to believe, one response is not to doubt their sincerity but to expand one’s capacity to imagine what otherwise decent people can desire”.
That, he holds, is the “proper response” to the Islamic State, but while stressing understanding what primes it rather than advocating steps to combat it, Wood also admits that “the tragedy is that even those inverted visionaries who live to realise their error will never be able to undo the misery they have inflicted on so many others”.
However, despite Wood’s thesis of how the Islamic State has its roots in Islam, this is no anti-Muslim rant, but rather a warning — for other Semitic as well as other faiths — on how an uncompromising attitude on reprising past practice of a religion, even in different contemporary circumstances, is a definite recipe for bloodshed and strife.
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Mohammed Shafeeq,
Book: Return to Jammu; Author: V. Raghunathan; Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India; Price: Rs 399; Pages: 346
This is the engrossing tale of Balan, a kid from South India who grows up in the towns of Punjab, Jammu and Haryana. It captures the eventful journey of Balan’s childhood, his schooling, and the friends he makes and loses due to transfers of his father, serving in the Indian Army.
“Return to Jammu” is a first-person narration and with the timelines, places and real-life personalities and events, the reader gets a feeling that it is an autobiographical novel. The author clarifies that all characters and the story per se are fictional but confesses to borrowing liberally from many episodes of his childhood in telling the story.
“If you happen to be acquainted with me enough to perceive a passing resemblance of me in Balan, you would be right; and yet if you find the resemblance rather tenuous and liberally adulterated, you will be equally right too,” says the author in a preliminary note.
Balan, son of a junior commissioned officer hailing from Kerala and having Tamilian roots, is born in the Ambala cantonment in 1954. He narrates his story even before his birth, relying on family tellings.
The author has superbly captured the life of the kid in a cantonment, growing up with two sisters, his mother’s struggle to run the house on a tight budget and his father, a happy-go-lucky man, who avoids the responsibilities of a good husband.
He describes vividly how the family shifts to Jammu on his father’s transfer, giving even the minutest details of their belongings, and of their journey to Jammu via Pathankot.
Settled in Jammu, Balan is admitted into grade two, though just four years and seven months old. He remains younger and tinier than his peer group all through his schooling and even in college. Because of his diminutive size, he is saddled with sobriquets like pocket edition, Lilliputian and Madrasi, and sees his self-esteem falling dangerously.
It’s at Satwari near Jammu that he develops childhood friendship with many, most importantly with Jeevan Asha or Jeesha, who was two years older and also taller than him. Soon, however, Balan’s father is again transferred to Ambala and he is separated from his friends, especially Jeesha. He writes letters to his friends and receives responses from all, except Jeesha.
Overcoming all odds and with hard work, Balan completes his studies and joins the State Bank of India. Now a confident young man, he works hard and finally makes it to the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. (It was at IIM, Ahmedabad, that the author taught finance.)
There he comes across a girl called Jasmine Pundith. He believes she is his good old buddy Jeesha. Bu she shows no sign of recognition and when he tries to remind her about their childhood friendship, Jasmine tells him that she is a citizen of the US and has no link with Jammu.
Convinced that she is none other than Jeesha, Balan travels to Delhi to find out more about her family. He even returns to Jammu, where he meets her brother Niranjan. What Balan comes to know from him forms the climax of the story.
The book is worth a read also for the author’s eye for detail, whether it is canal system of Jammu, the picturesque Kashmir valley, especially Uri, the pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi, or a visit by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
(Mohammed Shafeeq can be contacted at m.shafeeq@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Kishori Sud,
Title: The Archaeoastronomy of a Few Megalithic Sites of Jharkhand; Author: Subhashis Das; Publisher: Niyogi Books; Pages: 127; Price: Rs 695
If you are interested in archaeology, culture-studies and tribal studies, you know what Subhashis Das has in store for you. If not, the pool of knowledge on the rich megalithic sites of Jharkhand leaves you in awe, teaching you that the state in eastern India is much more than waterfalls, Jain temples of Parasnath Hill and the elephants and tigers of Betla National Park.
Das’ begins with an insightful observation of the late Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Carl Gustav Jung: “Every man carries with him unconsciously the memory of ancient civilisations. Similarly, the rock is a fragment of the world’s memory.”
Jharkhand is one of the rare places in India where megalith-making continues today as a tradition. It has about 32 tribes of which four still continue with the ancient practice of megalith-building on the graves of the deceased.
The book sheds light on the fact that contrary to popular belief, not all megaliths are connected with death. While some of these served as commemoratives for special occasions or worked as boundary markers, some functioned as astronomical observatories.
A bit technical for a layman, “The Archaeoastronomy of a Few Megalithic Sites of Jharkhand” also tells you that the presence of hills on the horizon was a prerequisite for establishing megaliths.
Until now, such astronomical temples have only been found in the Hazaribagh and Chatra districts of Jharkhand. The author believes that more such megalithic temples exist elsewhere in the state, waiting to be discovered.
The text, loaded with technical terms and specific ratios and proportions, is supported by a number of images of artefacts, megaliths with detailed specifications like the size of the stones or rocks, distances and alignments.
The read is an extensive study on Menhirs, or standing stones; the large man-made upright stones found solely as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. The alignments of these also hint at ancestor worship and regeneration of the earth.
Interestingly, in ancient times, hills were revered as the breasts and the vulva of the “omnipresent Mother Goddess”. Das says this was the time when a large section of the world believed in the now almost obsolete fertility cults.
Das has also researched on the newly-discovered Katia Murbey megalithic site, located in Chatra district. He believes the site is not a conventional megalithic burial site. Although in a terrible state of ruin, the land on which the temple rests seems to be artificially raised — a plat form from which one can observe the sunrises and sunsets.
Das also makes the interesting observation that the megalithic complexes — which also functioned as astronomical observatories — gradually changed with the spread of Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism in later times.
(Kishori Sud can be contacted at kishori.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Vikas Datta,
Title: The Burning Maze (The Trials of Apollo Book 3); Author: Rick Riordan; Publisher: Puffin/Penguin Random House; Pages: 448; Price: Rs 599
The path from humanity to divinity may be long and hard — but it can be twice as excruciating in the other direction. And Apollo, the Greek god of the Sun (and music, poetry, prophecy, plague and healing too)-turned-flabby, mortal teenager, will now find out the hard way that his travails can affect others around him too – – irreversibly.
In the third installment of his adventures, set in the Percy Jackson expanded world of Graeco-Roman mythos, Apollo, or Lester Papadopoulos, as now he is, travels into the unnaturally hot southwest US to free another of his ancient oracles from the triumvirate of brutally vicious Roman Emperors. And it will be as fiendishly tough as the earlier two ventures, if not tougher.
For not only is the Emperor concerned the most sadistically vicious of all (ever more than Nero and Commodus, who we met earlier) or that the oracle eschews the usual ambiguous and confusing rhymes for more confusing word puzzles, but there is also a primal power that Apollo needs to tackle.
And that too in the Labyrinth, which is not a very salutary place to be, as we have learned from the initial Percy Jackson series.
Our godly-turned-mortal hero has to traverse “through mazes dark to lands of scorching death/To find the master of the swift white horse/And wrest from him the crossword speaker’s breath”. This too, “in thine own enemy’s boots”. (All these will give anyone with a half decent knowledge of the early Roman Empire the identity of the Emperor).
Using these ingredients, and characters from the previous two cycles, Rick Riordan spins another engrossing tale that brings together vivid depictions into divinity and human nature (across the spectrum, and into all ), some splendidly-aimed potshots at modern culture (especially its entertainment and consumer aspects) as well contemporary events presently in a radically different manner.
In this last case, there are the raging wildfires in southern California — and what caused and fuels them — that forms an interesting plot line here.
While half-blood heroine Meg McCaffrey gets a larger role here — and we learn more about her past and capabilities — there is Percy’s best friend, the satyr Grover Underwood from the first series and three from the seven-band Heroes of Olympus of the second cycle . However, there are changes in the status of a few of the earlier principal protagonists and even a final farewell or two (you have been warned).
Readers of Riordan’s earlier works will of course draw parallels with the third of the Percy Jackson series (“The Titan’s Curse”), which was also rather dark, with the deaths of some principal characters, but that is inevitable, since both are the midpoints of the series and the battle is still equally poised.
And while many points, lingering from early installments and even series, are dealt with, more emerge to make the next accounts eagerly-awaited to know what happened.
But, on the other hand, treating this as just only a contemporary rendition of Greek mythology is missing the point actually. Riordan, the “storyteller of the Gods” for his superb rendition of Graeco-Roman, Egyptian and Norse mythology in a modern millieu, is not only a skillful re-teller of these ancient myths, but rather extracts their essence for modern readers.
It is not about gods and their powers, or mortal heroes and their prowess, but rather the more fundamental issues — honour, pride, ambition, fear, belonging and friendship, loyalty, and above all, sacrifices, the uncertainty of life and fortune, or what differentiates powerful but rather indifferent celestial beings and more empathising mortals, and the importance of nature — that are important to the story.
And there is plenty of all these here, along with the splendid wit — which you can discover on your own, in Apollo’s rather snide manner (though he improves considerably across the course of the story).
The only problem is that now we face another year’s wait to understand what happened – – and further awaits — Camp Jupiter, of the Roman demigods, and who the soundless god is.
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By K.S. Jayaraman,
Book: Doing Science in India: My Second Innings; Author: Dr G. Padmanaban; Publisher: IISc Press; Pages: 124; Price: Rs 799
I may not have done earth-shaking science but I do have a sense of satisfaction that I have been useful to the society in a small way — Govindarajan Padmanaban.
While this statement reveals the humility of the well-known biochemist — GP to his friends — it hides the disappointments he faced in the latter part of his research career. “Doing Science in India — My Second Innings” (the first was published in 2008) — is a candid account of GP’s roller coaster ride in his profession after he retired in 1998 at the age of 60 as director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), about his latest work on malaria, and the science and technology (S&T) scenario in India.
A star in India’s biological sciences horizon, GP, now 80, has been a teacher, mentor, researcher and administrator, having produced 50 PhDs and published 150 papers. His group discovered the heme-biosynthetic pathway in the malarial parasite P.falciparum and showed it to be a drug target.
Many Indian scientists have been tempted by the glamour of the West — but not GP. “I worked at the bench physically for 31 years in IISc till I became its director in 1994,” he says. Post-retirement he managed to continue his work on malaria, thanks to honoraria he received from agencies like the Department of Biotechnology (DBT). His research opened up newer strategies to block malaria transmission and unearthed the potential of curcumin — derived from turmeric — as an adjunct drug for treating many diseases, including cerebral malaria.
While GP’s earlier book noted that science in India “is not a paying profession”, his second volume conveys the message that doing science in India can be troublesome even for acclaimed scientists once they cross 60 — the mandatory age for retirement in public-funded intuitions. GP, a recipient of the Padma Shri (1991) and Padma Bhushan (2003) besides the Bhatnagar Prize for Science (1981), found this out one fine day in 2016 when the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) prematurely withdrew its Fellowship to him at a crucial stage of his malaria research. Almost at the same time GP lost access to his erstwhile laboratory at IISc.
“In a span of two months I became a persona non grata without a laboratory and without an official address. I did go through a phase of deep disappointment,” writes GP. He considered quitting IISc but opted against it to avoid a scandal. Instead he decided to stay at IISc — thanks to a Fellowship offer from National Academy of Sciences at Allahabad — but continued his malaria project with his former student, Arun Nagaraj, at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) in Bhubaneswar. GP, who dreamt of building a centre of malaria research at IISc, says his research now continues with emails, skype, and personal visits to ILS.
“Though I have gotten over my disappointments, I cannot help mulling over a lost opportunity to build something dear to me at IISc where I have been working for the last 56 years,” he says. Keeping scientists out of the lab after the age of 60 (now increased to 62) is “a great loss” for Indian science, GP writes. There should be provision for contract appointments so that scientists can continue research in the same lab (after retirement), he says.
Though back in business, GP’s travails are not over yet. Despite hard data and publications in reputed journals, progress on clinical validation of the potential of curcumin as an adjunct drug to treat malaria has been “painfully slow”, he says. The drug controller “has been sitting on the clinical trial application for years for one reason or another”.
GP says he was also “harassed” by the National Biodiversity Authority for obtaining a US patent on artimisinin-curcumin combination therapy for malaria in 2010 without its clearance. Though the issue got resolved, “I am still struggling with regulatory agencies”, he says.
While his efforts to elevate curcumin as an adjunct drug are yet to bear fruit, GP is happy that DBT’s entrepreneurship programme — Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) — with which he was associated since its inception in 2012, is a grand success. “In a span of five years it has supported over 700 start-ups and 50 products have been commercialised. There is hope BIRAC can catalyse a revolution,” he says.
While trying to answer the question why India lags behind in science when its scientists have made a name outside, GP notes that commitment to S&T, particularly for basic sciences, is inadequate. “Research career has to be made attractive enough for youngsters to get into science.”
Another reason, he says, is “recognition in this country often comes with position. As a result, good scientists take up responsibilities that distract them from doing intense science”. GP lists biogenerics and science-based validation of herbal medicines among areas in which India can excel. Indian scientists should also move into newer, fast-developing areas like synthetic biology and gene editing, he says.
Despite attacks by activists, GP, who has an MSc in soil science and agricultural technology, is an ardent supporter of genetically modified (GM) food. It is “unfortunate” that Bt brinjal continues to be under an embargo and the fate of GM mustard is undecided, he says.
Padmanaban has also made a revelation that former minister Jairam Ramesh, who put the embargo on Bt brinjal, “ironically was the one who dragged me to defend Bt cotton introduction with the Karnataka government when he was chairman of the state Planning Commission.”
GP also feels that closure of US agri-giant Monsanto’s research centre at the IISc in 2000 “was a lost opportunity for public-private partnership that would have benefited Indian agriculture”.
“The only motivation that drives me is to do my best in any given situation and not get excited or depressed,” says GP.
Padmanaban, who practises music and claims to be a regular reader of the Bhagavat Gita — part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata — ends his memoir on a philosophical note. “I see no contradiction between desire to pursue science and belief in God and destiny.”
(K.S. Jayaraman is a veteran science journalist. He can be contacted at killugudi@hotmail.com )
—IANS
