The sudden crop of urbane books on Garhwal have brought forth strident criticism from certain locals, indignant at outsiders daring to say more about this neglected corner of the Himalaya. For some reason, Japanese, American and German writers who have produced picture books on Kashmir, Nepal and Sikkim never got around to doing justice to Uttarakhand. Three Indian names have now completed the panorama, the photographers Gurmeet Thukral and Ashok Dilwali and the well known author Ruskin Bond.
The sudden crop of urbane books on Garhwal have brought forth strident criticism from certain locals, indignant at outsiders daring to say more about this neglected corner of the Himalaya. For some reason, Japanese, American and German writers who have produced picture books on Kashmir, Nepal and Sikkim never got around to doing justice to Uttarakhand. Three Indian names have now completed the panorama, the photographers Gurmeet Thukral and Ashok Dilwali and the well known author Ruskin Bond.
The general criticism about their books is that they are of the "coffee table" genre, a valid point in view of the prohibitive cost of such glossy productions. But to damn them for highlighting the beauty of the Garhwal and for using the best in printing technology seems unreasonable. The authors deserve praise rather than blame for seeking to expose the sublimity of the scene in high quality publications.
If they had focussed on the deplorable social conditions obtaining in the hills, perhaps an outcry would have been understandable. These books, obviously meant to attract the foreign market, do not wash dirty linen in public. One detects in the criticism more political ideology than honest appraisal of the publications.