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Literary Review
Bookwatch
BY ANITA JOSHUA
Into the Mirror: The Untold Story of Mukhtar Mai, Bronwyn Curran, UBS Publishers, Rs. 325.
Truth lies somewhere in-between
The alleged gang rape of Mukhtar Mai — an illiterate Pakistani village woman — in the summer of 2002 perfectly fit the stereotype the post 9/11 world had created of Islamic societies. Here was a young woman whose rape was ordained by a tr
ibal council to atone for a crime committed by her brother.
Bronwyn Curran, AFP’s Islamabad-based news editor for Afghanistan and Pakistan at that time, was the one who picked up a dispatch from a stringer and broke the story to the world. It immediately caught the imagination of the world as Mukhtar Mai registered a case against her alleged rapists; thereby challenging the age-old practice of “vani” and “swara” which allows families to give away their daughters to resolve feuds.
Two years down the line, Curran returned to the story; meeting Mukhtar Mai for the first time. Living in the midst of the warring families, the Australian journalist found that there was more to the story. Not once does she suggest that Mukhtar Mai was not wronged. Nor does she overlook how Mukhtar Mai turned her experience into a catalyst for change. But, according to Curran, she was not the only victim.
Wading through court records of the trial, Curran reconstructs not just Mukhtar Mai’s account of what transpired on June 22, 2002, in Mirwala, but also the version of her “assailants”. No mean job. Not only did Curran have to deal with language barriers, more importantly, she knowingly swum against the tide. If only she had been a lot less repetitive.
In her endeavour, Curran has found support in cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan, who indicates in his foreword that the course of the trial may well have been dictated by the Pakistani establishment’s need to be politically correct and thereby curry favour with the West.
Surgery of the soul
Satyagraha, Savita Singh, Publications Division, Rs. 560.
A coffee table book on Mahatma Gandhi probably goes against the grain of the frugal lifestyle preferred by the Father of the Nation but this is the format that Publications Division has chosen to tell the story of his “Satyagraha” in its
centenary year.
Set in sepia tone, the book has been billed as a “modest endeavour” with no claims of being a “comprehensive account” of all that Gandhi said and did. Today, as the word “satyagraha” is used randomly to mean any protest action, the Director of Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, Savita Singh, tries to trace its evolution; honing it in his South African laboratory and turning it into an effective weapon of non-violence against colonialism.
Arguing that “satyagraha” is a force that has come to stay, Singh also dwells on how Gandhi’s legacy has been carried forward by the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. A commemorative volume, the narrative draws heavily from some of the major works on the subject, and — needless to say — Gandhi’s own writings.
Doubling up as an account of the freedom struggle, the narrative gets wonderful pictorial support; not just in the form of photographs but copies of dated newspaper clippings, satyagraha leaflets issued by Gandhi, his letters to Tolstoy and Gokhale among others, and government correspondence relating to him.
Info-nuggets
The Penguin Yearbook 2008, compiled and edited by Derek O’Brien, Penguin India, Rs. 150.
A Johnny-come-lately in the world of yearbooks, The Penguin Yearbook 2008 is evidently conscious of its competition if the publisher’s note is anything to go by. Seemingly taking a dig at the veteran among yearbooks — t
he Manorama Yearbook — Penguin claims, and rightly so, to offer a ready-reckoner free of advertisements.
Updated till November 1, 2007, it boasts of having completely revised the sections on politics, economy, science… After all, isn’t that the minimum to expect of any yearbook? Particularly one that is coming out of a leading publishing house and put together by a quiz-master of considerable repute, Derek O’Brien.
Into its fourth edition, the 2008 Yearbook has some new offerings — 60 defining moments of Independent India and 100 Indians who made modern India — to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence. Though it may not please some sections, Mohammad Ali Jinnah is featured as one of the 100 Indians who made modern India by virtue of having played a key role in defining the boundaries of the country.
Jinnah’s inclusion apart, this list — which includes a fair number of living individuals — is bound to be questioned for the notable absentees including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh whose earlier incarnate as Finance Minister is seen as an important milestone in the country’s journey to the 21st Century. Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, whose politics is confined primarily to Maharashtra, finds mention while L.K. Advani, who spread a similar brand of politics across the country with his rath yatra, fails to make it.
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