E-Paper
HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a biography of a Kashmiri leader who shaped the politics of twentieth-century South Asia, a photographic guidebook to the mammals, birds, reptiles, butterflies and plants found in and around the Corbett Tiger Reserve, and an English translation of selections from Hafiz, the most celebrated poet of the Persian language
A man both celebrated and reviled
The Kashmiri leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah (1905-82) is one of the best-known and most controversial political figures of twentieth-century South Asia. A fierce Kashmiri nationalist, Abdullah is best remembered for opposing the Dogra monarchy’s exploitative economic and political system; securing Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India in 1947; passing revolutionary land reforms as Prime Minister of J&K; and later for championing the cause of Kashmiri self-determination – as a consequence of which he was imprisoned for two decades – before coming to terms with the Indian government in 1975. He has been alternately celebrated as a patriot and reviled as a traitor in Kashmir, in India and in Pakistan.
In this richly researched and elegantly crafted biography, renowned historian Chitralekha Zutshi transcends these labels by placing Abdullah’s life in the context of critical global developments in the twentieth century. She deftly illustrates how his political trajectory – forged in the inequities of the princely state system and burnished in the flames of anti-colonial nationalism, Islamic universalism, socialism, communism, secularism, communalism, federalism and the Cold War – embodies the becoming of India itself. Based on new archival sources as well as oral histories, this book is as much a biography of one Kashmiri as that of an entire generation of leaders who shaped the politics and institutions of twentieth-century South Asia.*
A bouquet of a hundred quartrains
Lovers think they are searching for the one
Still wondering when wandering will be done
There is only one search beneath the sky
That of the love that merges You and I
And all our books are both the Truth and Lie.
The fourteenth-century Sufi poet Hafiz is the most celebrated poet of the Persian language, and yet his works are not widely read or easily available in English. His message is in the tradition of Rumi and Omar Khayyam, replete with metaphors where the distinctions between the divine and the earthly lover are deliberately vague.
This bouquet of a hundred quatrains is an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of his verse, as their exquisite nature is preserved in Farrukh Dhondy’s masterful translation.*
The many treasures of tiger country
Corbett Tiger Reserve is one of the premier wildlife places in India to see the Royal Bengal Tiger and Asian Elephant, and it has many other lesser-known treasures of life too. This guidebook comprehensively portrays Corbett Tiger Reserve as a wildlife repository, visual treat of the natural ecosystem and memorable ecotourism destination. It has been conceived to entice nature enthusiasts with the urge to understand nature and the ecosystem in a holistic manner. This photographic guidebook, through more than 1500 high-quality pictures, helps readers to identify about 700 species of animals (including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies, and others) and plants found in Corbett Tiger Reserve and its neighbouring forests.*
*All copy from book flap.
