Publisher's Weekly Review
In this spin-off from his eponymous BBC radio show, Khilnani (The Idea of India) embarks on an idiosyncratic and lively journey across 2,500 years of Indian history, offering bite-size essays on the lives of 50 exemplary figures whose achievements and afterlives have influenced contemporary Indian identity. Khilnani is joyously and unabashedly political in his choice of subjects; engaging with the Indian past in all its complexity is particularly important, he notes, in light of current political trends that seek to reduce what it is to be Indian "into a single religious concoction." The essays place such well-known religious figures as the Buddha and Hindu monk Vivekananda alongside political activists "Red Annie" Besant and Jyotirao Phule. What unites them is Khilnani's argumentative yet playful tone, as well as his sensitivity to the ways in which historical memory can be constructed, appropriated, and reappropriated. If the book has one flaw, it is its structure, with each essay barely skimming the life of its subject. Is six pages really enough for an account of the life of the Buddha, even a highly condensed one? Length aside, Khilnani's essays are provocative and serious, a worthy rebuttal to the image of Indian history as "curiously unpeopled." (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
How does one capture the multifaceted complexities of a country like India? Historian Khilnani (The Idea of India, 1998) presents a novel approach: weave a tapestry of 50 figures from the country's rich and ancient history that serves not only as an innovative introduction to the world's largest democracy but also a gauge to evaluate how that past informs the present. Here, then, is a peek at freedom-fighter Subhash Chandra Bose, who is regularly cited as an icon worth emulating by India's contemporary nationalist movement. As a counterbalance of sorts, we have the Muslim emperor Akbar, named by the country's liberals as a ready rebuttal to Hindu nationalist arguments that Muslim rule in India was an unremitting dark age for Hindus. The well-researched yet short chapters cover a lot of ground with ease, and Khilnani succeeds in achieving his goal of emphasizing the continued relevance of history. This unusual view of India also spotlights how different factions of raucous contemporary Indian society use the past as ballast to further their own agendas for the future.--Apte, Poornima Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
INCARNATIONS: A History of India in Fifty Lives, by Sunil Khilnani. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $18.) India's history, as it is usually told, is "a curiously unpeopled place," Khilnani writes. He offers an overview of the country's 2,500-year history through 50 short biographies of people who shaped it. Some figures, like Buddha and Gandhi, are well known, but he also focuses on poets, artists and social reformers. IDAHO, by Emily Ruskovich. (Random House, $17.) In this debut novel about grief, secrets, and violence, a woman tries to uncover what happened to her husband's first wife - and the circumstances of his daughter's mysterious death. As our reviewer, Smith Henderson, said, "Ruskovich's language is itself a consolation, as she subtly posits the troubling thought that only decency can save us." WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, by Cathy O'Neil. (Broadway, $16.) O'Neil, a mathematician and former Wall Street analyst, offers a frightening look at the algorithms that regulate and shape people's lives. Whether you're applying for a loan or a job, machines make decisions at critical junctures with little oversight, and with profound consequences. THE CASTLE CROSS THE MAGNET CARTER, by Kia Corthron. (Seven Stories Press, $23.95.) Two pairs of brothers - one white in rural Alabama, the other black, growing up in Maryland - come of age in the mid-1900s, against a backdrop of World War II and the civil rights era. Our reviewer, Leonard Pitts Jr., praised Corthron: "There are whole chunks of writing here that are simply sublime, places in which one gets swept away by the way she subverts the rhythm of language to illuminate the familiar and allow it to be seen fresh." THANK YOU FOR BEING LATE: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, by Thomas L. Friedman. (Picador, $18.) Three major forces - technology, globalization and climate change - are accelerating at a rapid clip, with significant effects across the world. Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist, explains each of these shifts with humanizing anecdotes. THE PATRIOTS, by Sana Krasikov. (Spiegel & Grau, $18.) It's and Florence Fein is bound from Brooklyn to the Soviet Union, hoping to align herself with the socialist cause. Florence soon finds herself on Stalin's list of enemies, but her loyalty to the revolution doesn't waver. Decades later, her son travels to Russia, determined to learn more about Florence's past - and to persuade his own American son to return to the United States.
Choice Review
Many great kings, queens, educators, politicians, actors, musicians, freedom fighters, religious thinkers, social reformers, and others made a mark throughout Indian ancient, medieval, and modern history. Khilnani (King's College London) has selected 50 great Indians to represent their achievements and contributions. Each chapter features a different individual and how that person impacted the country and the world. The selected list includes Buddha; Kings Ashoka, Akbar, and Shivaji; Queen Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi; poet Rabindranath Tagore; freedom fighters Gandhi and Subhas Bose; religious leader Guru Nanak; actor Raj Kapoor; movie director Satyajit Ray; Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; industrialists Jamsetji Tata and Dhirubhai Ambani; and many more. Each chapter is based on the author's visits to many places in India, including forts, temples, Bollywood studios, mills, slums, and interview sites. The book includes references, many black-and-white and color photographs of Indian leaders, and a map of united India showing birthplaces of individuals included in the book. Khilnani brings to life many forgotten leaders in various fields who helped India overcome difficult times and made India a great nation and a leader in technology in the 21st century. For all academic library history collections. Summing Up: Essential. All academic levels/libraries. --Ravindra N. Sharma, Monmouth University
Library Journal Review
India's historical narrative is elucidated through the lives of the story writers themselves in this companion volume to the BBC's eponymous radio series. Challenging the perception of India's vast chronology as a "curiously unpeopled" saga devoid of actual change makers, Khilnani (politics, King's Coll. London; The Idea of India) explores key turning points through illuminating narrative profiles rather than rote recitation. Including orthodox and adventurous choices, each individual is the incarnation or embodiment of different abstract ideas, personalizing India's struggle through their journeys across more than two millenia. Many comprehensive treatments, such as John Keay's India, are far too in-depth for all but the most academic audience. Khilnani's humanization of India's rich history brings it within reach of the amateur and scholar alike. Readers will be aided by the additional detailed maps showing the birthplaces of subjects. Many chapters depict regional struggles whose importance is diminished without adequate references. However, despite these lacking elements, the text remains a seminal and largely unparalleled work suitable for enthusiastic and informed readers. -VERDICT The cultural, political, and religious evolution of India as told through its people will engage and educate. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]-Jessica Bushore, Xenia, OH © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
