BOOKWATCH
From a snail mail archive
ANITA JOSHUA
Either by default or by design, Yours Sincerely,
K. Natwar Singh's collection of
letters, seeks to show that he's not a man to
be trifled with even if he is out of political
reckoning now. He is, after all, a man who
can rightfully claim to have been on regular
letter-writing terms with the likes of former
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, her
aunt Vijayalakshmi Pandit, lone Indian
Governor-General C. Rajagopalachari, Nirad
C. Chaudhuri, E.M. Forster of Passage
to India fame and Chinese author Han Suyin.
That he corresponded with them regularly
is evident from this collection
primarily of letters received by him. Most
have references to letters written by him
but because he has chosen to edit himself
out of the collection, the gaps are glaring.
The rare instances where Singh has included
his letters, the attempt appears to
be to portray himself as someone who has
always held his ground against the odds;
not just as a politician but also a career
diplomat.
A classic case is the letter to then Prime
Minister Morarji Desai in 1978 protesting
"the extreme austerity of your reply" to
Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda's
praise of Mr. Singh as India's High Commissioner
to Zambia. Not one to let matters
rest, he laboured the point in another
letter; a note that reveals him to have always
been quick to bristle. Almost three
decades later, nothing appears to have
changed as is evident from his response to
the show cause notice served on him by
Defence Minister A.K. Antony acting in his
capacity as chairman of the Congress Disciplinary
Action Committee. Commenting
on the irony of being under scrutiny by a
man (Mr. Antony) who had earlier been
expelled from the Congress, the down-butnot-
out Mr. Singh demanded that his case
be handled by party president Sonia Gandhi
herself.
Iran: A rare view
Media is growing exponentially, both
numerically and in terms of delivery
mechanisms for dissemination of news.
Alas, this seems to have had an adverse
effect on content as media has fast acquired
the herd mentality of impalas with
the `other' voice finding little or no outlet
in the cacophony of sound bytes that the
Fourth Estate has come to represent globally;
particularly on security-related
issues.
A Johnny-come-lately in this arena, India
is no different. So, kudos to Daanish
Books for getting to the country Targeting
Iran, a collection of interviews conducted
by David Barsamian for Alternative Radio
- a weekly one-hour public affairs programme
offered free to all public radio
stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South
Africa, Australia and on short-wave on Radio
for Peace International in a bid to provide
a platform for diverse views.
While Noam Chomsky needs no introduction
in India and his views are well
known, Edvand Abrahamian is one of the
leading historians of Iran. Author of Iran
Between Two Revolutions, his fear in 2006,
when the interviews were conducted, is
that while America may not want to repeat
an Iraq in Iran, "miscalculation, misjudgment
and misperceptions" may just lead to
a war; more so if the two sides go to the
negotiating table with hardline views.
Then there is Nahid Mozaffari, editor of
the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Persian
Literature. She speaks about life in Iran; the
country's intellectual life, the development
of cinema in the post-Islamic Revolution
period, the high rates of heroin
addiction among the youth, the women's
movement, the rap scene.. What makes
this book an easy read is its Q&A format,
allowing the reader to skip what may not
be of interest and speed-read.
An empress and a lost princess
For the most part, Victoria Gowramma: The
Lost Princess of Coorg is the story of a
little-known character of Indian history.
But, in the process, the book reveals a side
of Queen Victoria that few would associate
with the empress known for presiding over
a rather strait-laced era.
Queen Victoria in this book comes
across as a warm and caring individual who
took charge of the Coorg princess. Gowramma
and her father - the exiled Raja of
Coorg, Veerarajendra - were the first Indian
royals to land in Britain in 1852. Not
only did the empress give the 11-year-old
her name, she kept a close watch on her
upbringing and proved to be an indulgent
godmother even when Gowramma openly
flirted with European princes and fell inand-
out of love with all and sundry.
Even when her grand plans to arrange
the marriage of Gowramma with Maharaja
Duleep Singh of Punjab - youngest son of
Ranjit Singh - came to naught, Queen Victoria
did not abandon the two Indian blue
bloods who had converted to Christianity.
This, when the marriage was designed as a
strategy to encourage voluntary conversion
to Christianity among upper castes in
India.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
