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Roll Call Of The Luminaries
Read more here: Roll Call Of The LuminariesOutlook | December 29, 2003 Every graduate course prescribes a book of essays. This book deserves to be there. I once chanced upon Churchill’s Great Contemporaries. I read the essays again and again, always with profit and pleasure. Churchill’s prose and his perceptive observation of the great and famous, whom he saw at close range, surprised…
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The Finger Is In Place
Read more here: The Finger Is In PlaceOutlook | April 28, 2003 The whole world uses fingerprinting, do they know the footprints lead to Nadia? Shakespeare said of rulers, “The evil lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.” We love to talk of the wrongs done by the British. Yet it would be churlish not to accept their…
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Mogulnama: Rangoon Dur Ast
Read more here: Mogulnama: Rangoon Dur AstOutlook | April 7, 2003 In a well-researched book, Cheema resurrects the six major padshahs of the period 1707-1857. We all grew up on Mughal history. Babar, Ibrahim Lodi and Panipat; Akbar and Fatehpur Sikri; Shahjahan and the Taj; and, of course, the austere, pious but narrow-visioned Aurangzeb. This great drama was played out from…
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His Princely Detachment
Read more here: His Princely DetachmentOutlook | October 15, 2001 Madhavrao Scindia, like his father, held a liberal, tolerant, catholic view of cultures and people. Madhavrao Scindia is no more, hurled from the sky by a cruel destiny. A young and energetic life with many possibilities in the future has been snuffed out suddenly, literally out of the blue. After…
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Living On Hot Air
Read more here: Living On Hot AirFor Outlook | September 1, 2001 It was absurd to give MPs a salary of Rs 400 per month in 1954. Were they expected to live on air? Under the Indian Constitution, Parliament is authorised to determine the salaries and allowances of key functionaries such as the President, the Vice-President, judges, Union ministers, and the members…
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End Of An Insurrection
Read more here: End Of An InsurrectionFor Outlook | August 13, 2001 She was hope for women down there. Her death symbolises victory for oppression. Phoolan Devi is dead. Brutally shot down on her doorstep, coming home from Parliament for lunch. Sitting on a balmy summer day on the river bank in Cambridge, I find it difficult to believe. But it is…
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The Hardy Boys, Before Exile
Read more here: The Hardy Boys, Before ExileFor Outlook | June 25, 2001 Lives of an inimitable people, documented in inimitable Khushwant style If I am not mistaken, Khushwant and Raghu had done a small book on the Sikhs as an introductory primer long ago. This is a much more ambitious effort for the coffee tables, away from the Punjab, particularly beyond India.…
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Complex: a national commitment
Read more here: Complex: a national commitmentThe Tribune | September 23, 1991 The foundation stone of Goindwal Nucleus Industrial Complex was laid in 1981 after considering the objectives of providing employment in rural, backward areas to youth. The historical and religious importance of Shri Goindwal Sahib was a significent factor in deciding the location of India’s first Nucleus Industrial Complex. A…
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Some thoughts on development
Read more here: Some thoughts on developmentThe Tribune | April 13, 1988 It is an old truth now that the Punjab is the country’s leading producer of surplus foodgrains. Ever since the start of the Green Revolution in 1967, the Punjab has continued to contribute a major part of the procurement by the Food Corporation of India. Over the period 1985-87,…
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Comments for MARKFED
Read more here: Comments for MARKFEDThe Tribune | June 23, 1986 I extend my good wishes to MARKFED on the occasion of its Annual General Meeting. Cooperatives in Punjab have played an Important role in development of agriculture and MARKFED has always been in the lead. By assuring timely availability of fertilizers and inputs it has made it possible for…
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Need for diversification of agriculture in Punjab
Read more here: Need for diversification of agriculture in PunjabThe Tribune | March 16, 1986 Economic change is a continuous and universal process, and its speed and intensity depend on the obtainable situation from country to country and region to region. In order to provide gainful direction to the development of economic activities, the Government of India and the State Government immediately after Independence…
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Another Nostalgic Masterpiece
Read more here: Another Nostalgic MasterpieceThe Tribune, Chandigarh | June 17, 1981 RETURN TO PUNJAB, 1961–1975, by Prakash Tandon. Vikas, Delhi. PP 227. Rs. 50. Prakash Tandon is a remarkable and lucky Punjabi. Born near the Bullokee headworks, within hearing of the music of “Ravi dian chhallan”, he spent his childhood in Punjab. His father worked as an irrigation engineer,…
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Shahjahan’s Fascinating City
Read more here: Shahjahan’s Fascinating CityThe Tribune, Chandigarh | May 16, 1981 Delhi Between Two Empires, 1803-1931 by Narayani Gupta. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Pp 260. Rs. 90. This is an absorbing book, of excellent and meticulous scholarship, something one does not come across often in our publications. I had seen the young Cambridge historians, men like Baker and…
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The great martyr
Read more here: The great martyrThe Tribune, Chandigarh | May 2, 1981 SHAHEED BHAGAT SINGH by K.K. Khullar. Hem Publishers, New Delhi. Pp 154, Rs. 50. It is 50 years since Bhagat Singh made the supreme sacrifice for India’s freedom. His memory has not faded with time. On the contrary, it has been reinforced and re-invigorated. He remains the beau…
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A Fascinating Land
Read more here: A Fascinating LandThe Tribune, Chandigarh | November 22, 1980 HERMIT KINGDOM – LADAKH by Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia.Vikas, New Delhi, Pp. 186. Rs 295. In her book on Kulu, Pamila Chetwode has referred to its ancient name Kulanthapura, the end of the habitable world. The ancients had a valid reason for giving this name to the rich, well-watered…
