The Hindu on Books Love stories, a history of Delhi, talking to Ruth Ozeki and more

Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter. Syeda Bilgrami Imam writes in the preface that what gave rise to the book was a request from a publisher friend for a monograph on Sir Ali, law member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council in British-ruled India as also Prime Minister of the State of Hyderabad, and Lady Imam and their “fateful discovery” of each other in 1918. “The book devotes much attention to the destruction of a way of life, a deliberate and brutal effacement causing one to pause a while and draw comparisons with present times and the travails being visited upon this city in the guise of urban renewal.” Read Rakhshanda Jalil’s review of Swapna Liddle’s The Broken Script here An anthology of essays, In Hard Times: Security in a Time of Insecurity, runs through India’s defence preparedness with a to-do list. The need of the hour is a ‘whole-of-the-nation’ approach that inculcates a sense of harmony, calm and modesty, which works towards putting the economy on a higher growth trajectory.” Read Dammu Ravi’s review of In Hard Times — Security in a Time of Insecurity here In Political Economy of Colonial and Post-Colonial India, Aditya Mukherjee, among other issues, discussed the growing challenge of religious communalism. Read Ziya Us Salam’s review of Aditya Mukherjee’s Political Economy of Colonial and Post-Colonial India here Spotlight At the recent Jaipur Literary Festival, Radhika Santhanam caught up with the American-Canadian writer Ruth Ozeki who is also a Zen Buddhist priest.