From Publishers Weekly
BBC correspondent Tully, a Calcutta native who lives in New Delhi, describes India as a functioning anarchy, a corrupt, chaotic place whose denizens often must pay bribes even to get a bank loan. Free of the condescension or glorification that tinges much Western writing about India, this remarkable report captures the subcontinent's ache and promise in a series of clear-eyed sketches about the new wave of Hindu fundamentalism, a village wedding, the sanitized TV series Ramayan (based on the Hindu epic), the pandemonium of a religious festival, sectarian communist politics in Calcutta, and the central government's clumsy putdown of Sikh separatism. Tully views the tourist industry, cultural exchanges and the Roman Catholic Church as contemporary forms of imperialism. The title piece, a profile of an Indian parliament member, opens a window on one state's stagnant development, worker strikes, organized crime and stifling bureaucracies. Tully limns an India torn between rabidly imitating the West and clinging to traditional values.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A BBC correspondent and author of several books about India, Tully adroitly connects ten autobiographical experiences, or parables, to a new interpretive theme of modern Indian history. With the end of the Nehru dynasty and its pseudocolonial overtones, he senses India's resumption of its traditional heritage. An Indian wedding, the techniques of ancient sculpture, a Hindu religious festival, the televising of the Hindu epic The Rumayan , and a modern-day Indian woman's sati suggest support of Tully's theme of an India embracing its ancient values. Tully's graceful, sensitive prose treats these themes with dignity and respect. His views will be held by some with question and perhaps contempt but will be thoughtfully considered by readers versed in India's history.
- John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
