Anti-colonialism, corruption dominate bookshelf

Book: "From the Ruins of Empire"; Written by
Pankaj Mishra; Published by Penguin-India;
Price: Rs.699
The Victorian period, viewed in the West as a time of selfconfident
progress, was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe.
Foreign soldiers and merchants tore apart great
empires which had once formed the heart of civilisation.
As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal
Empire, burned the Summer Palace in Beijing, or humiliated
the bankrupt rulers of the Ottoman Empire, it was
clear that a vast intellectual effort would be required for
Asia to recover. Pankaj Mishra's new book tells the story of
a remarkable group of men from across the continent who
met the challenge of the West. Incessantly travelling, questioning
and agonising, the group both hated the West and
recognised that an Asian renaissance needed to be fuelled
in part by engagement with the enemy. Through many setbacks
and wrong turns, a powerful, contradictory and ultimately
unstoppable series of ideas were created that now
lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party
to al-Qaeda, from Indian nationalism to the Muslim brotherhood.


Book: "Ending Corruption: How to
Clean Up India"; Written by N.Vittal;
Published by Penguin Books India;
Price:Rs.499
The 2010 mega-scams created a crisis of trust in
governance and the leadership. Seeking solutions,
N. Vittal analyses the record of institutions involved
and traces the roots of the growing rot to
the decline of accountability in public life and the
lack of transparency in governance, besides the
general greed and decline in integrity. As a prominent
insider in the government for over four
decades, he believes that greater transparency
and use of technology and ensuring there is no alternative
can reform our system. The curb on use
of money power in state elections and the 2010
landmark judgment in the case of P.J. Thomas's
appointment as Central Vigilance Commissioner
are such steps. Through greater application of the
Right to Information, strengthening of watchdog
bodies like the judiciary or the Central Election
Commission, and choosing people of integrity
and commitment to man them, besides an alert
civil society and media, the author is optimistic of
a clean India.