BOOKS BY M J AKBAR

TINDERBOX : THE PAST AND FUTURE OF PAKISTAN

Future unrosy Was Partition always going to be violent? Jan 20th 2011 | from PRINT EDITION The Economist WHEN India and Pakistan began, in 1947, they shared many of the same peoples and a legal and administrative history going back five centuries. What explains their subsequent divergence, with India now broadly stable and prosperous and Pakistan crisis-ridden? According to M.J. Akbar, an erudite Indian journalist who is a Muslim, “The idea of India is stronger than the Indian; the idea of Pakistan is weaker than the Pakistani.” - Read more in Reviews   TINDERBOX : THE PAST AND FUTURE OF PAKISTAN BY M J AKBAR PUBLISHER: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS INDIA: TINDERBOX : BOOK PAGE & EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK - Buy Here (available at all crosswords and online stores) Also Buy at Amazon: Write your Review/Thoughts EXCERPTS FROM TINDERBOX : PAST AND FUTURE OF PAKISTAN

SHADE OF SWORDS

Prophet Mohammed's wisdom 'Ink of a Scholar is more holy than the blood of Martyr' is right said! Great Faith, Great Reveleations, Great Concern, Great Efforts and a 'Bold, Outspoken Voice by MJ, the Shade of Swords traces the roots of Jihad - 'It is not an invitation to kill; it is an invitation to die'. Islamic faith demands in a holy war, the blood of faithful in the defense of their faith and this is Jihad. MJ traces the origins of Jihad, a research of hard work that has a fantastic, gripping story journeying across across centuries and continents, written after the fall of Moscow.

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KASHMIR BEHIND THE VALE

This book delves deep into the past for the roots of Kashmiriyat, the identity and culture that has blossomed within the ring of mountains for thousands of years.

Kashmir lies at the edge of India’s borders and at the heart of India’s consciousness. It is not geography that is the issue; Kashmir also guards the frontiers of ideology. If there was a glow of hope in the deepening shadows of a bitter partition, then it was Kashmir, whose people consciously rejected the false patriotism of fundamentalism and made common cause with secular India instead of theocratic Pakistan. Kashmir was, as Sheikh Abdullah said and Jawaharlal Nehru believed, a stabilizing force for India. Why has that harmony disintegrated? Why has the promise been stained by the blood of rebellion? The Book shows Kashmir’s struggle in the century to first free itself from feudal oppression and then enter the world of modern India in 1947. Placing the mistakes and triumphs of those early, formative years in the perspective of history, the book says how the 1980s have opened the way for Kashmir’s hitherto marginalized secessionists. Both victory and defeat have their lessons; to forget either is to destabilize the future. Kashmir and the mother country are inextricably linked. India cannot afford to be defeated in her Kashmir.

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- KASHMIR: BEHIND THE VALE

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RIOT AFTER RIOT

Earlier, I visited numerous riot- torn cities , towns and villages -Jamshedpur, Moradabad, Sarthupur, Meerut- to discover what lay behind the outbreaks of communal and caste violence that have taken place in India after Partition . In riot after riot, I pen down my findings that the basic cause for the communal frenzy is the same: poverty , economic deprivation and a history which has been perverted and misused by religious zealots.

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- Riot After Riot

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- Nehru - Making of India

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Traces the history of India since the Partition in 1947, and analyzes the current political situation and India's future : Amazon.com Synopsis
India: The Siege Within is the account of achievements of India’s secular democracy as well as its vulnerability and failures. I've elaborated the origins and nature of the strains on Indian unity which have deep roots in history.

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- India : The Siege Within

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BYLINE

"Journalism is the only profession that permits you to travel without making you a travelling salesman. You become, in a way, a travelling purchaser...Words are the currency of this transaction: You buy images with words, and then you pass them with words as well" - M.J. Akbar

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M J AKBAR'S BYLINES FROM 2004
 

HAVE PEN, WILL TRAVEL: Observations of a Globetrotter  BY M J AKBAR

An enjoyable travelogue — a compilation of articles describing the author’s journeys to places all over the world. Many of these had originally been published in Akbar’s columns. The author travels the world extensively and, in his inimitable style, proceeds to write about it, giving us a glimpse of places that we may never get to see. Aside from visiting different continents like Africa and America, Akbar also explores the furthest corners of India. His witty observations and keen insight make the book engaging and informative at the same time.

 

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BLOOD BROTHERS BY M J AKBAR ((Last Published 2006)

- Buy Here - Read Review Blood Brothers  by M J Akbar Blood Brothers | MJ Books & BB Reviews SHADE OF SWORDS Book Blurbs: “A skilfully crafted family saga down three generations packed with information of events in the country and the world, particularly changing Hindu-Muslim relations. It could be a textbook on how to write, mix fact, fiction and history. It is beautifully written; it deserves to be in Category A1.” Khushwant Singh Author & Historian   “I enjoyed M.J.Akbar’s Blood Brothers [as though it were] my own biography... It is an exquisitely written narrative of truth disguised in fiction and ends on a note that is deeply moving and unforgettable.” Sunil Gangopadhyay Pre-eminent Bengali novelist   “M.J. Akbar’s Blood Brothers is a marvellous work of history in the form of a deeply engaging story of a Muslim family in Bengal. The exploration of the complex interface between Muslims and Hindus over the last 150 years has the freshness of a first-person experience which it actually is. A work of considerable charm, grace and insight. A worthy companion to his earlier book shade of swords on the Islam/West encounter.” Shyam Benegal Renowned film-maker

Blood Brothers is M.J. Akbar’s amazing story of three generations of a Muslim family – based on his own – in Telinipara and how they deal with the fluctuating contours of Hindu-Muslim relations.   Telinipara, a small jute mill town some 30 miles north of Kolkata along the Hooghly, is a complex Rubik's Cube of migrant Bihari workers, Hindus and Muslims; Bengalis, poor and 'bhadralok'; and Sahibs who live in the safe, 'foreign' world of Victoria Jute Mill. Into this scattered inhabitation enters a child on the verge of starvation, Prayaag, who is saved and adopted by a Muslim family, converts to Islam and takes on the name of Rahmatullah. As Rahmatullah knits Telinipara into a community, friendship, love, trust and faith are continually tested by the cancer of riots. Incidents - conversion, circumcision, the arrival of plague or electricity - and a fascinating array of characters - the ultimate Brahmin, Rahmatullah's friend Girija Maharaj, the workers' leader Bauna Sardar, the storyteller Talat Mian, the poet-teacher Syed Ashfaque, the smiling mendicant, Burha Deewana, the sincere Sahib, Simon Hogg, and then the questioning, demanding third generation of the author and his friend Kamala - interlink into a narrative of social history as well as a powerful memoir. Blood Brothers is a chronicle of its age, its canvas as enchanting as its narrative, a personal journey through change as tensions build, stretching the bonds of a lifetime to breaking point and demanding, in the end, the greatest sacrifice. Its last chapters, written in a bare-bones, unemotional style are the most moving, as the author searches for hope amid raw wounds with a surgeon's scalpel.

MJ IN DIFFERENT MOODS (PHOTO GALLERY)

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