ISBN: 9780374173210

A vivid, often surprising account of South Asia today by the author of "An End to Suffering" In his new book, Pankaj Mishra brings literary authority and political insight to bear on trav… Mehr…

A vivid, often surprising account of South Asia today by the author of "An End to Suffering" In his new book, Pankaj Mishra brings literary authority and political insight to bear on travels that are at once epic and personal. Traveling in the changing cultures of South Asia, Mishra sees the pressures--the temptations--of Western-style modernity and prosperity, and teases out the paradoxes of globalization. Avisit to Allahabad, birthplace of Jawaharlal Nehru, occasions a brief history of the tumultuous post-independence politics Nehru set in motion. In Kashmir, just after the brutal killing of thirtyfive Sikhs, Mishra sees Muslim guerrillas playing with Sikh village children while the media ponder a (largely irrelevant) visit by President Clinton. And in Tibet Mishra exquisitely parses the situation whereby the Chinese government--officially atheist and strongly opposed to a free Tibet--has discovered that Tibetan Buddhism can "be packaged and sold to tourists.""""Temptations of the West "is a book concerned with history still in the making--essential reading about a conflicted and rapidly changing region. Media >, [PU: Farrar, Straus and Giroux]<

2006, ISBN: 9780374173210

New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006. First Edition. Hardback. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dw, now mylar-sleeved. Particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean … Mehr…

New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006. First Edition. Hardback. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dw, now mylar-sleeved. Particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong.; 8vo 8"" - 9"" tall; 323 pages; 323 p. ; 24 cm. Essays first appearing in slightly different forms in The New York Review of Books, Granta, The New York Times Magazine, and the Guardian Weekend Magazine. Contents: Benares : learning to read -- Allahabad : the Nehrus, the Gandhis, and democracy -- Ayodhya : the modernity of Hinduism -- Bollywood : India shining -- Kashmir : the cost of nationalism -- Pakistan : jihad globalized -- Afghanistan : communists, mullahs, and warlords -- Nepal : the ""People's war"" -- Tibet : a backward country. Subjects: Mishra, Pankaj - Travel - South Asia. South Asia - Description and travel. South Asia - Civilization - Western influences., New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006, 0<