AIDS Sutra: Untold stories from India
edited by Negar Akhavi
Random House, 2008
Any book with an introduction from Bill and Melinda Gates, a foreword from Amartya Sen and essays by Salman Rushdie, Shobhaa De, Kiran Desai and Amit Chaudhuri must be worth the read. However, while some of the stories here are interesting, others are fluff pieces for a 'concept' book. There is much to be learnt about a serious problem, and Sonia Faleiro and Siddhartha Deb successfully get under the skin of that problem with their rich pieces. In fact, though, these are not actually 'untold stories', but are too often well-known stories that do not seem to shift public policy one way or the other. No one in this book tackles that issue – not even Amartya Sen, who ends his essay, uncharacteristically, with a call for personal responsibility. (Vijay Prashad)
Alchemy of Iniquity: Resistance and repression in India's mines, a photographic enquiry
edited by Rakesh Kalshian
Panos South Asia, 2008
Soot-covered Adivasi and migrant labourers toiling in the collieries of Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand; hillsides, filled with opencast mines, transformed into a treasury of tree stumps; iron-ore dust sprinkling a reddish tint over vast landscapes and human settlements – these are only a few of the images depicted in this poignant photographic collection. The compilation allows readers to undertake a journey through what can at times seem to be three completely different worlds, though adamantly covering the same physical space. Beginning from Adivasi communities living a seemingly harmonious existence with their environment; moving on to the rapacious corporate state-assisted extraction of bauxite, coal, iron and other valuable minerals from resource-rich lands; and finally ending with sometimes-bloody Adivasi resistance movements against displacement and exploitation. These focused photographs reveal the devastation in a stinging manner, achieving much more than words could have done. (Smriti Mallapaty)