The Fiction of Fact-Finding: Modi and Godhra


Manoj Mitta - 2014
    And none has been subjected to as much fact-finding, especially under the monitoring of the Supreme Court. Sifting through the wealth of official material, this book contends that the fact-finding - riddled as it was with ambiguities and deceptions, gaps and contradictions - glossed over crucial pieces of evidence and thereby shielded the powers that be.Scrupulously researched, The Fiction of Fact-finding exposes a range of unasked questions which helped Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi procure a clean chit. The book is written by Manoj Mitta, a senior journalist who has been tracking legal and human rights issues over 25 years.

The King in Exile


Sudha Shah - 2012
    Exhaustively researched and gracefully written, The King in Exile tells a story of compelling human interest, filled with drama, pathos and tragedy... [It] heralds the arrival of a writer of non-fiction who is both uncommonly talented and exceptionally diligent... One of the great merits of [the book] is that it is completely free of jargon and theorizing. It is in essence a family story, centred on five women whose lives were waylaid by history' Amitav Ghosh in his blog 'The captivity of Burma's last king and the fall of the Konbaung dynasty: a compelling new account'. In 1879, as the king of Burma lay dying, one of his queens schemed for his forty-first son, Thibaw, to supersede his half brothers to the throne. For seven years, King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat ruled from the resplendent, intrigue-infused Golden Palace in Mandalay, where they were treated as demi-gods. After a war against Britain in 1885, their kingdom was lost, and the family exiled to the secluded town of Ratnagiri in British-occupied India. Here they lived, closely guarded, for over thirty-one years. The king's four daughters received almost no education, and their social interaction was restricted mainly to their staff. As the princesses grew, so did their hopes and frustrations. Two of them fell in love with 'highly inappropriate' men. In 1916, the heartbroken king died. Queen Supayalat and her daughters were permitted to return to Rangoon in 1919. In Burma, the old queen regained some of her feisty spirit as visitors came by daily to pay their respects. All the princesses, however, had to make numerous adjustments in a world they had no knowledge of. The impact of the deposition and exile echoed forever in each of their lives, as it did in the lives of their children. Written after years of meticulous research, and richly supplemented with photographs and illustrations, The King in Exile is an engrossing human-interest story of this forgotten but fascinating family.

Operation Cactus


V.P. Malik - 2013
    Within hours of receiving an appeal for assistance from the Government of Maldives, Indian troops rescued President Abdul Gayoom and foiled a coup d’état attempt by rebel forces led by Abdullah Luthufi and assisted by the Tamil secessionist group from Sri Lanka, the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). On the notice of a few hours, the Indian military put together a strong task force that flew non-stop over 3,000 km, from Agra to Malé, and restored the Maldives’ government’s control over its capital.In this book, General V.P. Malik, Chief of the Indian Army from 1 October 1997 to 30 September 2000, tells the story of this coup and the alacrity, expertise and meticulousness with which it was executed. In the process he focuses on the decision-making processes that were followed at the political and military strategic levels as well as at the operational level. He writes about defence and military diplomacy and provides a historical as well as futuristic perspective on India’s higher defense management.

Polity Tricks: Learn and Remember Indian Constitution


Vinay Bansal - 2019
    Tricks will help you to understand, learn and remember Indian Polity and Constitution. Mnemonics used in this book are very unique. This book will help to cover other subjects such as Social Science, Political Science, Public Administration, Constitutional Law, Legal Reference and Current Affairs in a better way. This Textbook and eTextbook will be useful for UPSC, PPSC, HPSC, State Competitive Examinations, SSC, Banking, Clerical and all other Government Examinations. In short, this book is a sure-shot formula for success with its tips and tricks. Contents: Title Page Objectives What is the need for a political system in a country? Schedules of Indian Constitution  The Preamble The Union and its Territory: Part I (Articles 1- 4) Citizenship: Part II(Articles 5- 11) Fundamental Rights: Part III (Article 12-35) Directive Principles of State Policy: Part IV (Article 36-51) Fundamental Duties: Part IV-A(Article 51A) Union : Part V (Article 52-151) Other important Articles of the Indian Constitution Extended learning

The Rough Guide to India 6


David Abram - 1994
    The 24 page full-colour introduction includes stunning photography of the country''s many highlights. The guide has comprehensive accounts of every attraction, from fast-paced Delhi and the sacred sites of the Ganges plain to the Moghul splendour of Agra and the shell-sand beaches of the south. There is also practical advice on activities as diverse as boating through the Keralan backwaters, hiking through the high-altitude deserts of Ladakh or treatments at an ayurvedic spa. The listings sections provide hundreds of insider reviews of the best hotels, hostels, restaurants, bars, shops and museums in every city and village. The authors also give an informed insight into India''s history, politics, religion, music and cinema, providing a valuable context to the reader''s trip.

Legal Confidential: Adventures of an Indian Lawyer


Ranjeev Dubey - 2015
    Dubey slogs his way through the corridors of Delhi’s trial courts and realizes that the legal system is anything but fair. He stumbles upon a strange world of corruption, sleaze, adultery, eloping couples and clients willing to pay for legal services ‘in kind’. He survives the ‘killing field’ of litigation for twelve long years, biding his time. When he gets an offer to join a law firm, Dubey believes he has finally arrived. But has he? The world of Indian corporate law is one of intense power-play and the merciless pursuit of revenue. In this sinister world of destructive politicking, Ranjeev becomes enemies with the big sharks who own the law firm. What follows is an explosive showdown. In this dark, racy memoir, the now-well-known corporate lawyer exposes the world of the black robes with his trademark wit and leaves you wanting more. If you had to read only one book about the world of lawyers and the Indian legal system, Legal Confidential would have to be it!

On Meditation: Finding Infinite Bliss and Power Within


Sri M. - 2019
    

The Kama Sutra Diaries: Intimate Journeys through Modern India


Sally Howard - 2013
    From the heat of anti-rape protest on the streets of New Delhi to the cool hills of Shimla, playground of the Raj; from a Gujurati retirement home for gay men and eunuchs to a busy sex clinic in Chennai; from patriarchs to matriarchs; GIGs (Good Indian Girls), BIGs (Bad Indian Girls) and the fleshpots of Bombay, she accompanied by feisty Delhi girl Dimple lifts the bed sheets on India's sexual revolution. And it's a revolution that's full of fascinating surprises and contrasts; for India - the land that gave us that exuberant guide to sexual pleasure, the Kama Sutra - is also the land where women remain cloistered in purdah while teenage girls check out porn online; where families bow down to a conjoined phallus and vagina, the Shivaling, while couples fear to hold hands in public; and where the loveless arranged marriage is still the norm. Colourful, compelling, confounding, The Kama Sutra Diaries reveal what India has to tell us about modern-day love, sex and sexuality.

Securing India The Modi Way: Pathankot, Surgical Strikes and More


Nitin A. Gokhale - 2017
    Gokhale provides the most intimate and sweeping account yet of Team Narendra Modi's approach to national security and foreign policy initiatives. Drawing on internal memos, as yet classified information, meeting notes and hundreds of hours of interviews with key players in the national security team, Gokhale brings alive inside stories of decision-making at the highest levels in the government. Painstakingly researched, the book details hitherto unknown aspects of the planning and execution of the surgical strikes, revamping of New Delhi's policy towards China and Pakistan, India's renewed global policy focus on Middle East, Prime Minister Modi's attempt to leverage the Indian diaspora worldwide and his attention to smallest of details besides focusing on some small but far-reaching steps taken to secure India in every possible way -on land, space, cyber and maritime domains.

Blood Brothers: A Family Saga


M.J. Akbar - 2006
    Akbar's amazing story of three generations of a Muslim family —based on his own—and how they deal with the fluctuating contours of Hindu-Muslim relations. Telinipara, a small jute mill town some 30 miles north of Kolkata along the Hooghly, is a complex Rubik's Cube of migrant Bihari workers, Hindus and Muslims; Bengalis poor and 'bhadralok'; and Sahibs who live in the safe, 'foreign' world of the Victoria Jute Mill. Into this scattered inhabitation enters a child on the verge of starvation, Prayaag, who is saved and adopted by a Muslim family, converts to Islam and takes on the name of Rahmatullah. As Rahmatullah knits Telinipara into a community, friendship, love trust and faith are continually tested by the cancer of riots. Incidents—conversion, circumcision, the arrival of the plague of electricity—and a fascinating array of characters: the ultimate Brahmin, Rahmatullah's friend Girija Maharaj; the worker's leader, Bauna Sardar; the storyteller, Talat Mian; the poet-teacher, Syed Ashfaque; the smiling mendicant, Burha Deewana; the sincere Sahib, Simon Hogg; and then the questioning, demanding third generation of the author and his friend Kamala, interlink into a narrative of social history as well as a powerful memoir. Blood Brothers is a chronicle of its age, its canvas as enchanting as its narrative, a personal journey through change as tensions build, stretching the bonds of a lifetime to breaking point and demanding, in the end, the greatest sacrifice. Its last chapters, written in a bare-bones, unemotional style, are the most moving as the author searches for hope amid raw wounds with a surgeon's scalpel.

Ambedkar's India


B.R. Ambedkar - 2020
    Ambedkar's most prominent speeches on caste and the Indian Constitution. "In the fight for Swaraj, you fight with the whole nation on your side. In fighting caste system, you stand against the whole nation—and that too, your own." Annihilation of Caste is one of Ambedkar's best works in putting together how caste as a system has been eating up the roots of a rich cultural melting pot like India. "Bhakti in religion could lead to salvation. But in politics, Bhakti is a sure road to eventual dictatorship." The Grammar of Anarchy reflects Ambedkar's ideas on how we need to pave the way for Independent India. It reflects his deep love and aspirations for India and its people. "...the sub-divisions [of caste] have lost the open-door character of the class system, and have become self-enclosed units called castes." Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development is an in-depth study of how classes went on to become castes and sub-castes to dot the Indian social system. This powerful narrative is a radical eye-opener.

Bloody Heroes


Damien Lewis - 2006
    This is the story of the trials and exploits, the victories and defeats, of one of those units. This book takes us from the first ever assault against a terrorist ship carrying weapons of mass destruction to attack London, to the epic siege of the terrorist-held Qala-I-Janghi fortress in Afghanistan. In the interim, our half-a-dozen soldier-characters deliver suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars in cash to 'friendly' Afghan warlords; they penetrate the towering heights of the uncharted Naka Valley, where allied intelligence has identified the mother of all terrorist training camps; they fight in the labyrinthine tunnels running beneath the Afghan mountains; and they risk all to rescue their fellow soldiers from a downed aircraft stranded on a snow-blasted mountain peak. The book culminates in the single battle in which more terrorists were killed than any other in Afghanistan: the siege of Qala-I-Janghi, an ancient mud-walled fortress used to imprison the most dangerous Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. The battle for Qala-I-Janghi would last a staggering eight days, from the moment of the first shots being fired at the start of the uprising to the hour that the fort yielded up the last Al Qaeda fighters. It is a battle in which over 500 terrorists would die - but which would also claim the life of a US serviceman and dozens of Northern Alliance allies, with scores of severely wounded British and American soldiers. And in the final denouement, this savage battlefield turns out to be populated by the most ultimately shocking enemy - John Walker Lindh, the white American Taliban who held out in the forts' bunker until the very last. At the same time as the story of the fort siege played out on TV screens all across the world, our band of British and American special forces were involved in a secret, deadly dual to rescue their fellow men - a duel that only one side could win.

Adrishya - True Stories of Indian Spies


EPIC Television's popular - 2017
    Some remain invisible, away from direct combat and yet risk their lives to protect the honour of their king and country. These are the faceless heroes of war—the spies—who collect classified information about the enemy, skilfully helping the ruler and the government of the land to safeguard their own territory.Packed with action, Adrishya is a collection of India's greatest spy stories. It captures the lives of spies—extraordinary men and women—through the danger, the fear and the triumphs. It narrates their heroic acts and follows them as they travel through dangerous landscapes, slip into disguises and hoodwink enemy soldiers. Starting off with India's first spy from the Mahabharata to the RAW officials of the 1971 war, this book is a collection of real spy stories which will entertain and inspire at the same time.

A Short History Of The Philippines


Teodoro A. Agoncillo - 1969
    

Hridayastha


Alka Mandke - 2004
    Nitu Mandke - his ideology, philosophy and the story of his inspiring life. My most heartfelt wish is that this site helps you in some way; whether it is direction, guidance, inspiration or just admiration.