HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a meditation on the nature of memory that’s also a chronicle of the author’s flight from Kashmir 34 years ago, an exploration of developments in Asian thought, art, and politics that defied EuroAmerican models, and the first volume of Romulus Whitaker’s memoir
Chronicle of a youth spent in exile
In March 1990, sixteen-year-old Siddhartha Gigoo is forced to flee his home in Safa Kadal, Srinagar, Kashmir. The preceding days have been full of fear and horror for the Gigoos — having seen friends and neighbours killed outside their homes. They could be next if they don’t leave. But they want to stay, even when faced with a looming threat to their lives. Siddhartha thinks his leaving is temporary and that he will be back home soon. Little does he know that his fate is sealed.What follows is a long, dark time — a camp existence and a struggle for survival.Thirty-four years on, Siddhartha chronicles the story of his flight from Kashmir and an entire youth spent in exile.A meditation on the nature of memory, A Long Season of Ashes is a book about a boy’ s journey of self-discovery.*
Political thought beyond European definitions
A concise new history of a century of struggles to define Asian identity and express alternatives to European forms of universalism.The balance of global power changed profoundly over the course of the twentieth century, above all with the economic and political rise of Asia. Asia after Europe is a bold new interpretation of the period, focusing on the conflicting and overlapping ways in which Asians have conceived their bonds and their roles in the world. Tracking the circulation of ideas and people across colonial and national borders, Sugata Bose explores developments in Asian thought, art, and politics that defied EuroAmerican models and defined Asianness as a locus of solidarity for all humanity.Impressive in scale, yet driven by the stories of fascinating and influential individuals, Asia after Europe examines early intimations of Asian solidarity and universalism preceding Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905; the revolutionary collaborations of the First World War and its aftermath, when Asian universalism took shape alongside Wilsonian internationalism and Bolshevism; the impact of the Great Depression and Second World War on the idea of Asia; and the persistence of forms of Asian universalism in the postwar period, despite the consolidation of postcolonial nation states on a European model.Diverse Asian universalisms were forged and fractured through phases of poverty and prosperity, among elites and common people, throughout the span of the twentieth century. Noting the endurance of nationalist rivalries, often tied to religious exclusion and violence, Bose concludes with reflections on the continuing potential of political thought beyond European definitions of reason, nation, and identity.*
Reptile raga
A legend in the arena of wildlife conservation and affectionately hailed as the “Snakeman of India”, Romulus Whitaker has had a lifelong love affair with the “fierce creatures” that share our planet. This first volume of his fascinating memoir brings the India of the 1950s and the US of the 1960s to life.When his mother married and moved to Mumbai, Whitaker was transplanted from a conventional childhood in the US to what was for him the exciting world of India. At boarding school in Kodai, he kept a pet python under his bed and realized that all he really wanted to do was work with snakes. Sent to the US for college, Whitaker preferred snakes to lecture halls and left to work in a snake farm. The adventures that ensue are hair-raising and often hilarious.Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll tells the story of a boy who would become one of the greatest conservationists of his generation, discovering the wonders of India’s extraordinary natural world.*
*All copy from book flap.
