by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Vikas Datta,
Title: Gorbachev: His Life and Times ; Author: William J. Taubman; Publisher: Simon & Schuster: Pages: 880; Price: Rs 799
A hundred years ago, Communism triumphed in Russia and the Soviet Union soon came into being — and it is already over a quarter of a century (on this day in 1991) since its collapse. Which of its leaders was responsible? Lenin, for laying faulty foundations? Stalin, for his excesses — while making it a super power? Khrushchev, for his impetuous decisions? Brezhnev, for stagnation? Or Gorbachev with his unsuccessful reforms?
As the last leader of the Soviet Union — after the brief stints of Andropov (who sought to start addressing the problems) and Chernenko — Mikhail Gorbachev still attracts the maximum praise — and blame — for his actions and their results. How justified is it?
What could he have done, done differently, or not done? Should he acted more firmly against the hardliners, backed the liberals more strongly, including not having that famous falling-out with Boris Yeltsin that made the latter an implacable enemy?
“The world is deeply divided when it comes to understanding Gorbachev. Many, especially in the West, regard him as the greatest statesman of the second half of the twentieth century. In Russia, however, he is widely despised by those who blame him for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic crash that accompanied it,” writes Taubman, the Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Amherst College and a Slavic studies and Cold War history expert.
It is indeed hard to figure out and Gorbachev, who is still around, knows this well. “Gorbachev is hard to understand,” the veteran leader, who refers to himself in the third person (like Julius Caesar and Charles De Gaulle, among others), told him.
But more than the question of responsibility, Gorbachev’s tenure also raises questions about his personal, political and ideological development, and why he thought and acted the way he did. And this is what Taubman, who has a Pulitzer-winning biography of Khrushchev to his credit, attempts to do in this magisterial work which draws on extensive access to Gorbachev as well as his close aides of the “Perestroika” era to address this point.
There have been books on Gorbachev before — right from the time he became the General Secretary. Dusko Doder’s “Shadows and Whispers” chronicles the era from Brezhnev’s last years to Gorbachev’s ascension. Then a plethora on the Soviet Union’s end, from David Remnick’s “Lenin’s Tomb” to Conor O’ Cleary’s “Moscow, December 25, 1991” to Serhii Plokhy’s “The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union” bring some focus on his background and rise.
But this goes much ahead in taking the entire eventful spectrum of Gorbachev’s life, right from his birth and circumstances to his time in the top post and the challenges he faced in power — till the one that proved impossible to surmount.
Most of all, Taubman seeks to answer how Gorbachev became the Gorbachev we know. “How did a peasant boy, whose high-flown tribute to Stalin won a high school prize, turn into the Soviet system’s gravedigger?… How did he become a communist despite the most rigorous imaginable arrangement of checks and guarantees designed to guard against someone like him?”
His most detailed but readable account of Gorbachev’s childhood, his education locally and in Moscow — which is especially illuminating — his rise up the party ladder, the circumstances of his getting the top post, and so on (in juxtaposition against the current political climate) offers some compelling answers to these questions.
Alongside, there are telling bits of information – Gorbachev’s romances, clashes with teachers, time in the prestigious Moscow State University, as a young regional Communist Party leader. While most happenings of his stint in power are known (the crucial Yeltsin episode is dealt in full), there are smaller but no less significant events – say, the aftermath of a German amateur pilot landing his microlight craft near the Red Square – that are dealt with.
And finally, it takes in Gorbachev’s post-Soviet life, especially his relations with his successors Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin.
Apart from being a most comprehensive biography, its real worth is in showing how even a system of conformity — bolstered by repression — can still throw up leaders with creativity, common sense, and morals.
This is Gorbachev’s real and abiding legacy.
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Vishav,
Book: Ideas for India: Faster, Higher, Stronger; Author: Bibek Debroy; Publisher: Wisdom Tree; Price: Rs 695; Pages: 192
What should one expect from a book by one of the country’s leading economists who is also the Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM)? If nothing more, perhaps a detailed analysis of the nation’s economic scenario, the major disruptions witnessed after demonetisation and the implementation of GST, the problems which plague the economy, some possible solutions and perhaps evidence-backed assurance that the economy would pick up in the near future.
“Ideas for India: Faster, Higher, Stronger” makes a half-hearted attempt to deliver on those expectations but fails. However, this is no fault of the author, considering that when he wrote the contents, he never meant for them to be a part of a book. And therein lies a part of the problem. The book, while extremely rich in information, facts, ideas and insights, fails to deliver as a comprehensive and cohesive literary work.
The book consists of 58 columns published in The Indian Express and Financial Express between April 2015 and July 2017. So technically, it’s written not by EAC-PM Chairman Debroy — as the panel was set up only in September — but NITI Aayog Member Debroy.
Even the author, in the preface, asks if it is a good idea to republish columns in the form of the book and says it’s possible to take a position on either side. “I deferred to their judgement,” he says, referring to the publisher and the readers.
Having read quite a few articles — which now constitute the book — when they were published for the first time in the newspapers, they struck a chord much more at that time than they do now as part of the book. But that could be because, as the author himself points out, “by their very nature, newspaper columns are newsy, pegged to something that is topical and, therefore, often of transient interest” as opposed to a book, which by its very nature, “is expected to have a longer shelf life”.
To be fair, however, the book is a treasure house of well-researched articles, full of relevant data, wonderful insights, apt anecdotes and interesting trivia.
As noted economist Vijay Kelkar rightly points out in the foreword, Debroy is a “polymath” and this book shows his “scholarship as well as his wide range of interests”.
This could be gauged from the fact that his articles cover a wide range of topics varying from goat farming to the alleged extinction of the Sanskrit language; from malnutrition to the shortcomings of GST in its current form; and from replacement of hot-cases with microwaves in trains to taxation on agricultural income.
In 58 chapters, spanning three pages each (rarely spilling over to a fourth), the book also discusses issues like Union-state relations, need for a time-use survey, scrapping outdated laws, medical tourism, Manipur’s prepaid power system, pendency of cases in various levels of judiciary, state of public toilets, court holidays and Sunday as a holiday, the infamous collapse of a flyover in Kolkata, spelling out of punctuation in telegrams and even his visit to a college in Bhubaneswar.
The point being made is the vast sweep of the book allows one to touch on a lot of relevant topics, apart from satiating some general curiosities, but denies one covering any single issue in detail.
In chapter “The Importance of Being Simple” (originally published on July 6 this year, less than a week after GST was implemented), Debroy talks about how ideally there should be a single tax rate for all goods and services and no items should be outside the tax net.
He argues against artificial thresholds (like for hotels with tariff above or below Rs 1,000) and zero per cent rate for a number of goods. He also argues that gains of GST happen when all items are included and there are no more than two or three rates.
“In working out compromise solutions, GST Council has deviated quite a bit from that goal. Concerns about rules (e-way bills, registrations, forms) are not that serious. They will sort themselves out, with tweaking here and there. Concern about the basic structure is more serious,” he writes in the only chapter about the landmark indirect tax reform.
In the chapter “Getting our goat”, Debroy talks about livestock census and explains how livestock data can be an indicator of development. At the fag end, he talks about the economic cost-benefit analysis of interventions in goat farming like breeding, healthcare, nutrition and marketing, albeit without going much into detail.
Even so, one should read this book because it offers a peek into the mind of one of the leading economists of the nation who also happens to be in the driving seat of the economy.
(Vishav can be contacted at vishav.v@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Vikas Datta,
Title: Pandoras Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong; Author: Paul Offit; Publisher: National Geographic: Pages: 290; Price: Rs 699
Science makes our life easier, healthier and longer — but not always. For like all human creations, it is a double-edged weapon that solves one problem but may create another, preserves but also degrades, and protects but also destroys. But is it only science, our facility to understand ourselves and our world and change it, that deserves blame?
Or it is the people who use (or misuse) it to their own ends, either by a genuine desire to do good (as they may see it) or a failure to heed possible perils by overconfidence, a sense of infallibility or even deliberate design that we must instead hold responsible?
The latter, says author Paul Offit, who draws an analogy with the story, from Greek mythology, of Pandora (who unleashed a series of evils into the world) to recount seven cases where science was not a saviour — despite initial benefits. Some of them will be most unexpected.
A doctor of medicine and a professor of vaccinology and paediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine and author of more than 160 papers for medical and scientific journals and six books, Offit says he got the idea when he and his son visited an exhibition about 101 world-changing inventions and found gunpowder and the atomic bomb among them.
“This suggested the possibility of another list: ‘101 Inventions that Changed the World — For the Worse’,” he said, adding he canvassed doctors, scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, sceptics and friends to provide a list of what they found to be the worst among them and obtained around 50 ideas.
Offit says that, at first, he thought he would limit the list to those which have caused the most deaths, eg explosives, or harm to the environment, eg Freon, but finally plumped for those “that were not only the most surprising (at least to me) but also ones whose impact is still felt today”.
These range from efforts to alleviate pain to trying to preserve the environment to deal with ailments, and he presents how their scientific causes were advanced without proper evidence and the horrible, unintended outcomes that resulted.
Presenting them in a most informative, yet lucid and engaging style, containing insightful sketches of the scientists (or other related stakeholders), and a wealth of small but telling details, Offit introduces the seven deadly issues before dealing with them to perk up our curiousity.
Take, for instance: “In 1901, a German scientist performed an experiment that revolutionised the food industry. A hundred years later, an editorial in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine stated, ‘On a per calorie basis, (this product) appears to increase the risk of heart disease more than any other macro-nutrient’.”
Or: “In 1916, a New York conservationist wrote a scientific treatise that caused Congress to pass a series of draconian immigration laws… Echoes of this treatise can be heard today when politicians like Donald Trump denounce Mexican immigrants, calling them ‘rapists’ and ‘murderers’.”
In the end, he outlines the lessons learnt from these issues in dealing with a series of current challenges including autism, e-cigarettes, cancer screening, and genetically-modified organisms.
Given how much the seven issues — and others — deal with political choices and decisions, it is inevitable that there will be some political comment, but Offit keeps it minimal, while his judgements and observations are incisive: “All scientists — no matter how accomplished or well known — should have unassailable data to support their claims, not just a compelling personality, an impressive shelf of awards, or a poetic writing style.”
And this is by no means an “anti-science” book, for Offit makes it clear that an instrument cannot be blamed if it is misused. His real target are some very famous scientists, including Nobel laureates, who went on to do or sponsor much bad or lethal science mainly because they could/would not admit they were wrong — or someone else was right.
But the lessons he outlines — like demanding the data, knowing the trade-offs, being cognizant of the biases of the time and cautious of overly quick and easy solutions — are applicable in many other fields too. What makes science better is that it learns from its mistakes.
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Vikas Datta,
Title: Rani Padmavati — The Burning Queen; Author: Anuja Chandramouli; Publisher: Juggernaut; Pages: 240; Price: Rs 299
There could scarcely be any Indian historical/myhtological character presenting more delicacy in artistic depiction as Queen Padmavati of Chittor, with any story of her tumultous life liable to invite a raging controversy or worse as a filmmaker and his cast have already learnt. But should she become a symbol of competing narratives than having her story told?
Bollywood, with its penchant for spectacle, simplification and sensationalisation, may have not succeeded in retelling this significant episode from late 13th-early 14th century India, but what about a gifted story-teller in an older medium? And there could be no one better than Anuja Chandramouli to tell the tragic story of this queen, in a compelling manner and with the modern sensibility she brings to bear.
In her first foray in a historical topic instead of the mythology and urban fantasy she has hitherto excelled in, Chandramouli shows the story that brings Rani Padmavati, Rawal Ratan Singh and Alauddin Khalji into a fatal clash was no “love jihad” as some vested sections would seek to categorise it.
As she presents it, it is indeed a story of love, proud traditions, honour, duty, patriotism, valour and conflict, but as it is about humans, not symbols, the noble motives are also supplemented by some more baser — and more prevalent ones — lust (for power), greed, envy, jealousy, fear, self-preservation, treachery, and so on.
And then there is the overwhelming yearning for a happy, peaceful life with someone we love.
Chandramouli begins with a prologue showing how Alauddin Khalji (depicted as cruel but clear-headed — and no psychopath) ascended to the Delhi throne, occupied by his uncle and father-in-law Jalaluddin Khalji, and dealt with the traitors who helped him, and also his wife, before launching her story proper.
We then follow the to-be queen Padmavati in her teenage years at her parents’ house, their discussion of her future, her father and uncle’s summons to their uncle and liege lord — along with her, her marriage as part of a political alliance to counter the expansionist aims of the Delhi Sultanate, and what this led to.
In parallel, we see Khalji’s plans to extend his realm, by any means possible, till people term him “Sikandar Sani” (or a second Alexander the Great), and also his energetic efforts to keep the Mongol hordes from over-running the subcontinent.
The author takes us on to the opportunities — and problems — following Padmavati’s marriage to (an already married) Ratan Singh, their marital life, along with the jealousy their closeness caused among the harem and court, and then the case of the despicable Raghav Chetana.
Action starts coming to a head when Ratan Singh acts against Chetana following his involvement in an episode of that era’s “sex tapes”, leading to the breaking of a high-profile marriage, the “honour-killing” of a blameless woman — and a rift in the realm.
However, Chetana, on the eve of his execution, is saved by a mysterious figure, who stuns him with the price he must pay. Soon he is in Delhi, telling Khalji of Padmavati’s beauty in a bid to convince him to invade Chittor and seize her.
Then follows the range of events most Indians are familiar with — Chittor’s siege and sacking, Ratan Singh’s capture and Padmavati’s self-immolation. But Chandramouli, who has consulted a number of authoritative history books, gives her story a unique but much plausible twist.
There is also a surrealistic dream scene — a particular motif of the author — and a rather unexpected but powerful ending a decade later, which shows how even a powerful ruler can succumb to ravages of time.
On the whole, this book, one of three the author has out simultaneously, combines a tender love story with some incisive political and historical insight, especially why the Rajputs failed to counter or defeat the “invaders” (who had already been around for a century), and offers a peep into Khalji’s mind — especially what later generations would think of his Chittor campaign.
This along with her deft characterisation, evocative descriptions, spirited dialogue, and adding other contemporary happenings (the case of Karan Vaghela of Gujarat and arrival of Venetian traveller “Malpua Poha”) makes this possibly the best examination of this episode.
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Vikas Datta,
Title: The Vanquished – Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917-1923; Author: Robert Gerwarth; Publisher: Penguin Random House UK; Pages: 416; Price: Rs 699
Not all wars end when the fighting does is a lesson that we still have to learn. The First World War was supposed, despite all the upheaval it caused and immense destruction it left across three continents, to be the “war to end all wars” and “make the world safe for democracy”. It didn’t — as subsequent history shows.
It was however not only the rise of extremist ideologies like communism or fascism, and the Second World War, whose origins can be traced to the consequences of World War I. For its shadows extend longer — the Cold War, decades of (continuing) violent instability in the Middle East, ethnic strife, and much of the 20th century’s subsequent course — all these owe to the happenings in its immediate aftermath.
And though some of happenings are known, a much greater part remain obscure. They also have never been treated in a collective and systematic matter, as well as what lessons they have for us — even a century later, and this is what historian Robert Gerwarth deals with here.
Beginning from the port city of Smyrna in September 1922, as Turkish troops retook it from the Greeks and exacted a bloody toll while British and French naval forces just stood there (as young Ernest Hemingway and others reported), his disturbing narrative chronicles war, revolutions and other violence across Europe and Asia, including those that began even before the war ended, to show how toxic legacies are born.
To say that World War I was followed by a period of peace, save the occasional aberration, as held by many including the likes of Winston Churchill, would only be true for the victors — and not even all of them, says Gerwarth, a Professor of Modern History at the University College Dublin.
But for others, especially the defeated powers and the varied people in their territory, it was far worse, he contends. German soldier and writer Ernst Junger, whom he cites at the beginning, put it best: “This war is not the end but the beginning of violence. It is the forge in which the world will be hammered into new borders and new communities. New molds want to be filled with blood…”
Between 1917 and 1920 — half of the period he covers, Gerwarth says that Europe “experienced no fewer than twenty-seven violent transfers of political power, many of them accompanied by latent or open civil war”. And, as he shows, a lot of the violence included pogroms, mass expulsions and other attacks against ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities as large, multicultural land empires disintegrated messily in defeat — and by the victors’ designs.
Dealing with Europe’s violent transition from world war to chaotic “peace”, he wanted to move “beyond the more familiar histories” of the Western Front to focus on people living in those countries that were on the losing side — the Habsburg, Romanov, Hohenzollern and Ottoman empires (and their successor states), as well as Bulgaria.
But “any history of the vanquished also has to include Greece and Italy”, for both nations, though on the winning side at the war’s end, didn’t get what they wanted. In particular, this includes a most perceptive account of the rise of Benito Mussolini — the Italian socialist-turns-fascist leader’s approach will seem eerily familiar even now.
While also dealing with the other areas — free Finland, messily reborn Poland, Spain — Gerwarth however does not only seek to to merely narrate the turmoil, in all its horrors, in areas other than Russia, and its revolutions and destructive civil war, or Germany, where communism’s spectre led to much brutality in a most well-ordered country.
The real lessons he brings out are the victors’ (chiefly Britain, France, and even the US) short-sighted, punitive policies towards their enemies, even when they had new democratic regimes, but especially their hypocrisy in dealing with Europeans and Asians differently (especially allies Japan).
Above all, he warns of a trend to create and reward differences rather than united co-existence — with rights for all sections, and that mere military victory, or war termination, is meaningless without skillful peace-making. Those are the lessons that resonate even now.
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
—IANS
