Gyan Prakash

An accomplished account of the Total Revolution movement initiated by Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1970s and the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. The author makes a significant point that this cannot be treated as an isolated moment in an otherwise glorious history of Indian democracy, as there were strands of such authoritarianism even before the collision of these forces; and (quoting Ambedkar), blind devotion may be fine in religion, but in politics is "a sure road to show more degradation and eventual dictatorship". In the words of a great poet, ask not for whom the bells toll. show less

Another look at the Maximum City through selected vignettes on how it evolved from a sleepy fishing outpost to the Portuguese invasions, the British Occupation, it's meteoric rise during the 19th century during the Opium and Cotton trade booms right to the present times when it's very survival is being brought to question.

Some of the chapters could have been shorter especially the very long drawn one about the sensational Nanavati murder trial. All in all an interesting read.

Another look at the Maximum City through selected vignettes on how it evolved from a sleepy fishing outpost to the Portuguese invasions, the British Occupation, it's meteoric rise during the 19th century during the Opium and Cotton trade booms right to the present times when it's very survival is being brought to question.

Some of the chapters could have been shorter especially the very long drawn one about the sensational Nanavati murder trial. All in all an interesting read.

Summary from Harper Collins website:

"A long-lost Sexton Blake mystery, 1920s detective fiction at its best

Historian Gyan Prakash of Princeton University stumbled upon part of the unpublished manuscript of Tower of Silence by Phiroshaw Jamsetjee Chevalier (or Chaiwala, as he called himself) in the British Library. After scouring several Mumbai libraries, he found the missing pages.

It is a thrilling tale that begins on a blistering April afternoon in Poona with the click of a camera shutter. show more An aerial photograph is taken from a small aircraft flying directly over the Tower of Silence. The Zorastrian community is thrown into turmoil and horrified grief at this heinous act.

Beram, a suave wealthy man who drives around in a Rolls Royce but is a devout Parsi, decides to exact revenge. Thus begins a sensational cat-and-mouse game between Beram and Sexton Blake, England’s most famous detective."

The biggest "mystery" in connection with this book, was the original author "Phiroshaw Jamsetjee Chevalier Chaiwala" himself. The book itself, was quite amateurish, with some supernatural phenomenon and detective tricks which were quite a bore, in search of a better word, a search I am not willing to conduct for the purpose of writing this review. The book was very racist, but the racism was so obvious and oversold, that it was more amusing than annoying. All in all, a forgettable read.

1.5/5 show less