Zealous Reformers, Deadly Laws:
Battling stereotypes
by Madhu Purnima Kishwar
Sage Publications, 2008
One has come to expect the outrageous and outlandish from Madhu Kishwar, one of India's best-known feminists (balk though she would at this appellation). This compendium of essays – from Manushi, India's first feminist magazine, launched in 1978 during the heyday of the women's movement in the country – is a collection of Kishwar's diatribes over the past 30 years. Kishwar analyses the failure of laws relating to dowry, domestic violence, sati, quotas for women, censorship and inheritance rights, but notably does not include pre-natal sex selection and rape – two areas in which enacting or amending the law has contributed in some measure to tackling these evils. While attempting to understand why laws passed to enforce women's rights have been less than successful, there is undoubtedly a need to critically review strategies, introspect and modify campaigns according to changing times. However, stripping social reform of its historical context, taking potshots at the women's movement and spouting wisdom in hindsight cannot form the basis of a serious analysis of legislative reform in India. (Laxmi Murthy)
The Girl with the Golden Parasol
by Uday Prakash
Penguin, 2008
Prakash tells the story of Rahul, a small-town student at a university in Madhya Pradesh. There, he and his friends are victimised by the goondocracy that has terrorised the campus, eventually causing one of their Manipuri friends, Sapam, to commit suicide – just a few days after his brother, a teacher, was mistaken as a 'terrorist' by the Indian security forces, and was executed. Rahul's life changes when a Brahmin minister's daughter, Anjali, walks into his life. At times, the attempt to pack this 205-page book with themes of nepotism, state terrorism, casteism, thuggery, globalisation and liberalisation seems a bit over the top. (Neha Inamdar)