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HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a book that repositions South Asia as democracy’s most vital terrain, a prison memoir on the relentless grind of injustice, and a classic volume on the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha
How democracy thrives in South Asia
South Asia is often seen as chaotic, volatile and even undemocratic. But former Chief Election Commissioner of India SY Quraishi argues in Democracy’s Heartland that no other region has embraced the democratic experiment as fully, or as fiercely, as South Asia.
From India’s electoral juggernaut to Pakistan’s power struggles, Bangladesh’s voter resilience to Nepal’s constitutional churn, Afghanistan’s downslide to Bhutan’s hesitant first steps, Quraishi offers a comparative tour of the subcontinent’s democracies, warts, wonders and all. Drawing on decades of first-hand experience, he combines sharp analysis with untold stories from the front lines of elections across the region.
What emerges is a definitive account of how democracy survives, adapts and even thrives in South Asia despite the odds. Bold, original and deeply informed, Democracy’s Heartland repositions the region as democracy’s most vital and contested terrain.*
The chilling realities of India’s prisons
Noted social activist Anand Teltumbde entered the Taloja Central Prison as accused number 10 in the Bhima Koregaon case and spent 31 months as an undertrial until he was released on bail. As an intellectual who was stripped of his freedom, he lays bares the chilling realities of India’s prisons in his gut-wrenching prison memoir. Part memoir, part diary, Cell and the Soul is a descent into the heart of India’s carceral state, ripping open the belly of the beast – the prison industrial complex – and exposing the brutal, pulsating injustice within.
From the echoing silence of his cell, Teltumbde writes of the criminalization of dissent and of the relentless grind of injustice. This is a raw, unvarnished testament of a man incarcerated for his convictions.*
A classic of religious literature
Old Path White Clouds presents the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha. Drawn directly from 24 Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese sources, and retold by Thich Nhat Hanh in his inimitably beautiful style, this book traces the Buddha’s life slowly and gently over the course of eighty years, partly through the eyes of Svasti, the buffalo boy, and partly through the eyes of the Buddha himself. Old Path White Clouds is a classic of religious literature.*
*All copy from book flap.
