Book Review: Jail Diary and Other Writings by Bhagat Singh

 

This is a very important collection of Bhagat Singh’s works. Singh was an Indian Communist revolutionary executed by the British colonizers in 1931. His age at that time was 23. He wrote his diary in the last two years of his life. After his execution his jail diary was handed over to his father. The first chapter in this book is on the problem of Punjab’s language and script. His statements, letters, hunger strike demands, pamphlets and petitions are part of this collection.

Singh says that centuries of warfare and Muslim invasions had dried up the literature of Punjab. He says that Muslims totally lack Indianess that is why they want to propagate Arabic script and Persian language. Singh says that Punjabi people themselves refuse their own captivating language.

In one of his statements Singh is of the view that a radical change is necessary to reorganize society on socialist basis. Regarding the LCC Ordinance Singh says that misrepresentation is and has always been the best instrument in the hands of the government to meet their enemies. Further in the book he strongly advocates against imperialism. He believes it to be exploitative. Singh’s letter to his father is also published as a chapter in this book.

Singh’s message to young political workers is to adopt Marxism as ideology. He wants them to work among people, organize workers and peasants and for the Communist party. He praises Lenin’s political acumen. Moreover, in another chapter he accuses British Labor leaders of betraying their struggle. He says that they have been reduced to mere hypocrite imperialists. Singh says that for him compromise never means surrender. This book a must read for those who want to study South Asian history.

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Book Review: The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

 

Ambedkar says that the Hindu civilization produced three social classes. These include the criminal tribes, the aboriginal tribes and the untouchables. The number of these classes is about 85 million. Among these the Untouchables are about 50 million. The author is of the view that Hindu civilization gauged in the light of these social products could hardly be called civilization. Furthermore, he says that the Hindu does not regard the existence of these classes as a matter of apology or shame and feels no responsibility to inquire into its origin and development. The existence of such classes should be more a cause of shame than pride.

The author says that today all the scholarship is confined to Brahmins. They could not rise against the doctrines in which they were brought up. In this book the author advances a thesis on the origin of Untouchability. He himself considers it a novel thesis. It comprises that there is no racial difference between the Hindus and the Untouchables. Untouchability has no racial basis and it also has no occupational basis. The distinction between the Hindus and the Untouchables in its original form, before the advent of untouchability, was the distinction between Tribesmen and Broken Men from alien Tribes. It is the broken men who subsequently came to be treated as Untouchables.

According to the author Untouchability sprung from two things. One was the hatred of the Broken Men as Buddhists by the Brahmins. Second was the continuation of beef-eating by the Broken Men after it had been given up by others. Ambedkar concludes that Untouchability was born some time about 400 A.D. It was born out of the struggle from supremacy between Buddhism and Brahmanism which has completely molded India’s history. The study of which has been sadly neglected by the students of Indian history.

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Book Review: Buddha or Karl Marx by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar

 

The editorial committee of this book found three different typed copies of an essay on Buddha and Karl Marx in loose sheets. The essay is divided into sub topics. This includes basis of the ideas of Buddha and Karl Marx. With that, the author compares Buddha and Marx. Furthermore, in the book withering away of the state is also discussed.

Marx and Buddha were divided by 2381 years. Ambedkar believes that having read both Buddha and Marx, a comparison is what he should do. The author believes that Buddha was born a democrat and died a democrat. He stresses that Buddha was of the view that ‘each man should be morally so trained that he may himself become a sentinel for the kingdom of righteousness.’ Ambedkar says that the communists themselves admit that their theory of the state as a permanent dictatorship is a weakness in their political philosophy. He further says that Russians do not seem to be paying any attention to Buddhism as an ultimate aid to sustain Communism when force is withdrawn.

Buddha’s method was to change the mind so that whatever he does is without force of compulsion. Ambedkar believes that Russian dictatorship would be good for all backward countries, but this is no argument for permanent dictatorship. This form of dictatorship he believes, paid no attention to spiritual values. Ambedkar stresses that man must grow materially and spiritually. He opines that equality will be of no vale without fraternity or liberty. Ambedkar concludes that all three can coexist if one follows the way of Buddha.

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Book Review: That Untraveled World by Eric Shipton

 

The Untraveled World is the autobiography of a famous mountaineer and explorer named Eric Shipton. Shipton was born in 1907 in Ceylon, where his father was a tea planter. The author shares his experience from East Africa. In Kenya he arrives in 1928, where his first job was an apprenticeship on a large coffee farm at Nyeri. Further in the book he discusses his visit to Himalaya and Karakoram mountains. It was during the rule of Muhammad Nazim Khan that Shipton visited Hunza.

In 1940 Government of India offered the post of British consul-general in Kashgar to Shipton. Shipton says that Kashgar post was founded in 1888 by Younghusband. The first incumbent George MacCartney held the appointment for twenty-five years.  Personally for me, the chapter on Kashgar is very interesting as it gives insight to the political and social environment prevalent at that time. Shipton accepted another position of consul-general at Kunming in Yunna. Shipton also shares his experience of treks to Everest. In the concluding chapters the author discusses competition in the mountaineering field and wildlife. He believes that Karakoram, Kuen Lun, Alaska, Southern Andes are the field of fresh endeavor even for the traditional mountaineer.

Shipton says: “The springs of enchantment lie within ourselves: they arise from our sense of wonder, that most precious of gifts, the birthright of every child. Lose it and life becomes flat and colorless...”

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Book Review: The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic by Paul Bergne

 

In October 1917 the Bolshevik Revolution broke out. During this period much of Central Asia was ruled by autonomous rulers such as the Emir of Bukhara and the Khan of Khiva. By the 1920s the khanates were converted into People’s republics. In 1924 Stalin the then people’s commissar for nationalities redrew the frontiers on ethno-linguistic lines. Among these was the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan- the land of the Uzbeks.

Turkic Uzbeks were not the only ones living in Uzbekistan. There was a considerable number of Persian speaking population. Bergne writes that, in opposition to Uzbeks the Tajiks first gained an autonomous oblast (administrative region) within Uzbekistan, then an autonomous republic and in 1929 got the status of a full Soviet Union Republic. The new government had to survive the civil war which followed the revolution, build a new country in a remote terrain, create a Tajik identity (which did not exist before).

The author has tried to document as to how the idea of Tajik state came into form and how the birth of the Tajik nation took place.

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Book Review: Terrorism: Theirs and Ours by Eqbal Ahmad

 

This publication is part of the special open media pamphlet series edition. The first section includes an edited transcript of a public talk Ahmad delivered at the University of Colorado in 1998. The second section is an edited excerpt from Ahmad’s interviews with David Barsamian published in the book Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire.

Ahmad points out the problem with the definition of terrorism. He says that he examined twenty official documents on terrorism, but none of them offered a definition. Moreover, he says that we approve the terrorism of those groups whom officials do approve. Eqbal Ahmad advises America to avoid double standards. He says that a superpower cannot promote terror in one place and expect to discourage terrorism in another place. Ahmad says that there is a fundamental principle of politics, which is that when power has no countervailing forces balancing and checking it, it is always abused. He discusses the issue to Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir and other conflicts in which international powers were involved. This brief publication is a glimpse of Ahmad’s near prophetic sense.

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