Courtesy: Sage Publishing
This book offers a bird’s-eye view of India’s strivings to forge close relations with the East, but covering a vast region and swathe of history has inherent drawbacks. The result is a haphazard narrative, focusing more on the contemporary period and lacking in insight or analysis
Courtesy: Bloomsbury
This book’s premise is that Donald Trump’s attempt to withdraw from various agreements, supposedly harmful to America’s interests, is an opportunity for regional players to come into their own. The author’s presentation of facts dazzles, but his recommendations are unspecific
Courtesy: Harper Collins
This is a grippingly written account of a not very widely documented episode from the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971: ‘Operation X’ was a naval commando operation, executed by a brave band of Bangladeshi freedom fighters. But it also marked a turning point in the war – and in the way India was to fight future wars
Courtesy: Penguin
The apparently disparate themes that Hardeep Singh Puri analyses in this book cohere under his overarching thesis about delusional decision-making and its unexpected consequences, be it Brexit or the rise of populist leaders. His analysis includes an examination of the democratic process, the role of the media and the elusive nature of definitions
Courtesy: Vij Books
Former ambassador Dilip Sinha’s book comes at a time when there is a call for greater transparency and accountability in the functioning of institutions the world over. The United Nations Security Council, a vestige of post-Second World War structures, has had no real meaningful reform. The author deals with this and other thorny questions
Courtesy: John Murray
Demography has an important role in economic and political history, it has an impact on political thinking and changing populations influence the balance of power between different countries. The book is especially good at British, British colonial and European demographic history, but its weakness is its Euro-centrism
This vivid portrait of socialist India, by giving primacy to the political background that determined Indira Gandhi’s responses, is different from the yearly ritualistic denunciations of her and the Emergency. It also has a story-teller’s flair, making it accessible to readers born well after 1975
Courtesy: Penguin Books Limited
An earnestly, but objectively written, biography of the late prime minister gives credit where it has been denied: PVN was the principal architect of the economic reforms that put the country on a destiny-changing path of growth, while being up against a restless party, hostile Parliament, and an apathetic public.
Courtesy: Allen Lane
An obsession with the narrow and the personal has prevented us from integrating climate change into the literature of our time. In his latest work, Amitav Ghosh forces us to confront the realities of ecological decay by examining how climate change is dealt with in fiction and in politics.
Courtesy: Aleph Book Company
In the last of a trilogy of books, Shashi Tharoor's volume of 100 articles poses numerous question and critiques of the one-year old Modi government, while also offering "Shastra" on a range of topics. However, in many cases his criticism are unfair and easily applicable to the previous Congress government