Gandhi, a devout Hindu, believed faith could nurture the civilizational harmony of India, a land where every religion had flourished. Jinnah, a political Muslim rather than a practicing believer, was determined to carve up a syncretic subcontinent in the name of Islam. His confidence came from a wartime deal with Britain, embodied in the 'August Offer' of 1940. Gandhi's strength lay in ideological commitment which was, in the end, ravaged by the communal violence that engineered partition. The price of this epic confrontation, paid by the people, has stretched into generations. M.J. Akbar's book, meticulously researched from original sources, reveals the astonishing blunders, lapses and conscious chicanery that permeated the politics of seven explosive years between 1940 and 1947. Facts from the archives challenge the conventional narrative, and disturb the conspiratorial silence used to protect the image of famous icons. Gandhi's Hinduism: The Struggle Against Jinnah's Islam delves into both the ideology and the personality of those who shaped the fate of a region between Iran and Burma. It is essential reading for anyone interested in modern Indian history, and the past as a prelude to the future.

Gandhi, a devout Hindu, believed faith could nurture the civilizational harmony of India, a land where every religion had flourished. Jinnah, a political Muslim rather than a practicing believer, was determined to carve up a syncretic subcontinent in the name of Islam. His confidence came from a wartime deal with Britain, embodied in the 'August Offer' of 1940. Gandhi's strength lay in ideological commitment which was, in the end, ravaged by the communal violence that engineered partition. The price of this epic confrontation, paid by the people, has stretched into generations. M.J. Akbar's book, meticulously researched from original sources, reveals the astonishing blunders, lapses and conscious chicanery that permeated the politics of seven explosive years between 1940 and 1947. Facts from the archives challenge the conventional narrative, and disturb the conspiratorial silence used to protect the image of famous icons. Gandhi's Hinduism: The Struggle Against Jinnah's Islam delves into both the ideology and the personality of those who shaped the fate of a region between Iran and Burma. It is essential reading for anyone interested in modern Indian history, and the past as a prelude to the future.

After more than seven decades, the burden of grief for those displaced and affected by the Partition of India in 1947 still bears heavy. The two pieces of land were carved by a mere stroke of ink on the surface of a map, but the resultant wounds ran way deeper, from one generation to the next. This is the story of India's independence and it cost the nation more than land, resources and lives. People on both sides of the dreaded Radcliffe line that divided India and Pakistan experienced a similar trauma. The riots, bloodbath, fear, cries for help, burning houses and the devastating displacement of millions is forever etched in memories of those who survived this nightmare. Yet, there are also some uplifting instances of the triumph, grit and determination, inspiring tales of love, kindness and the perseverance of the human spirit. Rajeev Shukla has gathered many such stories of Partition over the years-stories from people who went on to become prominent figures like prime ministers, presidents, industrialists, medical researchers, et al, in both India and Pakistan. From Manmohan Singh to Gauri Khan's maternal grandmother Champa Tiwari, from Taimur Bande, Syyed Imtiaz Humayun to Avtar Narain Gujral, the narratives in Scars of 1947 take you on a journey back to a point in time that left two nations scarred forever.

In July 1765 Robert Clive, in a letter to Sir Francis Sykes, compared Gomorrah favourably to Calcutta, then capital of British India. He wrote: 'I will pronounce Calcutta to be one of the most wicked places in the Universe.' Drawing upon the letters, memoirs and journals of traders, travellers, bureaucrats, officials, officers and the occasional bishop, Doolally Sahib and the Black Zamindar is a chronicle of racial relations between Indians and their last foreign invaders, sometimes infuriating but always compelling. A multitude of vignettes, combined with insight and analysis, reveal the deeply ingrained conviction of 'white superiority' that shaped this history. How deep this conviction was is best illustrated by the fact that the British abandoned a large community of their own children because they were born of Indian mothers. The British took pride in being outsiders, even as their exploitative revenue policy turned periodic drought and famine into horrific catastrophes, killing impoverished Indians in millions. There were also marvellous and heart-warming exceptions in this extraordinary panorama, people who transcended racial prejudice and served as a reminder of what might have been had the British made India a second home and merged with its culture instead of treating it as a fortune-hunter's turf. The power was indisputable-the British had lost just one out of 18 wars between 1757 and 1857. Defeated repeatedly on the battlefield, Indians found innovative and amusing ways of giving expression to resentment in household skirmishes, social mores and economic subversion. When Indians tried to imitate the sahibs, they turned into caricatures; when they absorbed the best that the British brought with them, the confluence was positive and productive. But for the most part, subject and ruler lived parallel lives. From the celebrated writer of the bestselling Gandhi's Hinduism: the Struggle Against Jinnah's Islam comes this extensively researched and utterly engrossing book, which is easy to pick up and difficult to put down.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, justly venerated as a Mahatma, dismantled the mightiest empire in world history through the inspirational power of three pivotal mass campaigns across two decades. In 1920 Gandhi liberated Indians from fear through the unprecedented mass mobilization of the non-cooperation movement. In 1930 he turned a pinch of salt into a metaphor for the punitive, heartless colonial exploitation of the impoverished. The 1942 call to 'Quit India' sent a final, unambiguous message to foreign overlords: Indians would prefer to die rather than live in British fetters. Once Gandhi had unchained India, history could no longer remain dormant. Akbar draws on historical archives and contemporary narratives to vividly depict the mass ferment and individual protest that swept across the subcontinent. The combination of meticulous scholarship with riveting storytelling, make Gandhi in Three Campaigns an unmissable fresh portrait of an icon and a time.

This research paper studies the portrayal of social unrest in Northeast India as depicted in the literary works of three prominent authors from the region: EasterineKire, TemsulaAo, and MitraPhukan. The novels selected for analysis include "A Terrible Matriarchy" by EasterineKire, "These Hills Called Home (Stories from a War Zone)" by TemsulaAo, and "The Collector's Wife" by MitraPhukan. The study aims to shed light on the multifaceted dimensions of social unrest, drawing from the rich cultural tapestry and historical context of Northeast India. The paper employs a comparative approach to analyze the narratives and themes that emerge in these literary works. It explores how each author's unique perspective and storytelling techniques contribute to our understanding of the complex issues of insurgency, conflict, displacement, and identity crisis that have characterized the Northeastern region of India. Through an in-depth examination of the characters, settings, and plotlines, this research paper uncovers the nuances of social unrest and its far-reaching impact on individuals, families, and communities within the context of Northeast Indian society.

2022 Current Affairs Success

Islamization is commonly seen as the work of Islamist movements who have forced their ideology on ruling regimes and other hapless social actors. There is little doubt that ruling regimes and disparate social and political actors alike are pushed in the direction of Islamic politics by Islamist forces. However, Islamist activism and its revolutionary and utopian rhetoric only partly explain this trend. Here, Nasr argues that the state itself plays a key role in embedding Islam in the politics of Muslim countries. Focusing on Malaysia and Pakistan, Nasr argues that the turn to Islam is a facet of the state's drive to establish hegemony over society and expand its powers and control.

Internationally well-known defence and strategic affairs analyst and awardee of several awards in the field of media, Lt Col. JS Sodhi (Retd) analyzes the rise of China economically and militarily since the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 and how China poses the greatest danger to world peace and world order, as not only does it challenge the superpower status of the USA, but it has also emerged as a superpower itself with unbridled economic and military prowess. With six wars on the horizon that China will wage in the next 39 years, it will be a challenge to contain China unless bold steps are taken immediately before it is too late.

Every generation needs to reinterpret its great men of the past. Akbar Ahmed, by revealing Jinnah's human face alongside his heroic achievement, both makes this statesman accessible to the current age and renders his greatness even clearer than before. Four men shaped the end of British rule in India: Nehru, Gandhi, Mountbatten and Jinnah. We know a great deal about the first three, but Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, has mostly either been ignored or, in the case of Richard Attenborough's hugely successful film about Gandhi, portrayed as a cold megalomaniac, bent on the bloody partition of India. Akbar Ahmed's major study redresses the balance. Drawing on history, semiotics and cultural anthropology as well as more conventional biographical techniques, Akbar S. Ahmad presents a rounded picture of the man and shows his relevance as contemporary Islam debates alternative forms of political leadership in a world dominated (at least in the Western media) by figures like Colonel Gadaffi and Saddam Hussein.