Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine Written by Issam Nissar, Stephen Sheehi, Salim Tamari

This is an exclusive book that has taken shape out of organizing, researching and writing about the Photography and Displaced History of Palestine in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, by the three authors.

STORYLINE
Palestine, also called as Holy Land, has been one of the few countries in the world which has been photographed and archived by many Armenian and Arab photographers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Wasif Jawhariyyeh, a local musician, photographer, collector cum petty officer in the British administration of Jerusalem. He collected over 900 rare photographs from both European and local photographers in seven albums and archived them under the title Tariq Filastin Al-Musawwar or “The Illustrated History of Palestine”. The entire collection is divided into seven volumes which depicts the history of Palestine centred around its capital city Jerusalem (Al-Quds). Its Volume One opens with a photograph of the social networks of Jerusalem and their relationship with Palestinian elites, other provincial capitals, and Istanbul. Volume Two has photographs of the arrival of the British, Palestine’s new rulers, World War 1, Arab delegations, Faisal, Abdullah, negotiations, and the breakdown to the riots of Nabi Musa. Volume Three documents the violent occupation of Palestine, the Revolt of 1929, the rise of Zionist militarism and British oppression, and the internationalization of the Palestine. Volume Four is dominated by Zionist settlement, colonial occupation, and violent resistance. Volume Five comprises of large portraits of Palestinian social life around personalities and elites, social hierarchies and social networks. Volume Six rely on Orientalist images, postcards, expatriate, and static images: happy peasants, building projects, processions and religious ceremonies. The final Volume Seven continues a photographic tour of Jerusalem, building a visual tour from inside the city outward to its surroundings, linking it to Palestine and its geography.
These photographs are not just mere evidences of a particular time space but an exploration of Palestinian political, cultural and social lives. Wasif’s collection had started in 1924 comprising of many photographs of Palestine’s landscapes, buildings, people, customs, annual celebrations and historic events from famous local photographers of that time namely Khalil Raad, Garabed Krikorian, Issa Sawabini, and Daoud Saboungi. The photographs clearly capture the unjustified coloniality of the Ottomans to start with, followed by the British and then finally the Zionists. On the visual level, the photographs narrate a story of Jerusalem in which the ruling and elite classes of the Ottoman empire play a central role.
Photographs like the famous Jaffa port in 1868, Khalidi library in Jerusalem, hanging of a prisoner of war near Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem, arrival of first Ottoman war plane in Palestine, surrender of Jerusalem to the British by Mayor Husseini, destruction of Jewish homes in Jerusalem by Palestinian Arabs etc, speak about the transformation of a peaceful Palestine into a war-torn place with the advent of British colonials and Zionist immigrants from Europe. Also, numerous photographs of famous personalities of the ruling class of Ottomans, the British and Zionist stalwarts of the region add more to the story of Palestinian aristocracy. The famous photograph of Sunduq al-‘ajab (the Magic Box), by Khalil Raad, the ancestor of the magic lantern, also known as the Persian Box is one of my favourite photograph in the collection. For poorer children, and some adults, this was the cinema of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Wasif Jawhariyyeh’s seven albums function as bearers of memory, as well as testimonials for a time. They document almost five decades, during which Jerusalem and Palestine changed hands from a large Ottoman Empire to a much smaller entity ruled by the even larger British colonial empire. This time witnessed the start of Jewish Zionist immigration to the country and ended with the complete disappearance of Palestine from the map of the region. Wasif himself was a musician who played an instrument called ‘oud’. He was a singer and instrumentalist too. He participated in many musical performances staged by travelling theatrical groups from Egypt. Wasif’s albums are not just historical memories but testimonials of rejection and partition, displacement of their Holy Land right from Ottoman’s Orientalism to the British Colonialism. Jawhariyyeh’s arrangement of photographs represent the social relations and political history of Jerusalem and to a larger extent, Palestine. In doing this, the albums undertake, by default, a process of undoing, reworking the Orientalist and colonial visual narratives that erase Palestinians from their Holy Land and creation of the state now known as Israel.

My favourite quote in this book: It has been a mistake to see photographs as artifacts of the past and as documents of history alone. Rather, they survive as material objects that bind the past and present as they bind the present and future. A surviving image, in Didi-Huberman’s words, “is an image that, having lost its original use, value and meaning, nonetheless comes back, like a ghost, at a particular historical moment: a moment of ‘crisis,’ a moment when it demonstrates latency, its tenacity, its vivacity, and its ‘anthropological adhesion.’

Pros: The reader is taken through a visual journey right from the Palestine’s originality to its occupation and erasure from World Geography by the Zionist immigrants cum settlers. Some of the rare photographs can be found in this book which might not be available elsewhere for ready reference to a Palestinian studies student. Kudos to the authors for their efforts to compile such a transition of Palestine.

Cons: The book speaks about only Wasif Jawharriyeh’s collection of Palestinian photographs starting in 19th century but should have also carried a brief history of the Holy Land pre-nineteenth century when it was the land of the original Jews and used to be the land where Jesus walked until 33AD and was a Christian/Jewish state until the advent of Islam sometime in the 7th Century.

My rating: 3.5 out 5
 

Laburnum For My Head : Short Stories by Temsula Ao

Laburnum For My Head : Short Stories by Temsula Ao

Born in Jorhat, Assam, the author is a member of Sahithya Academy, a Padma Shri award winner, Professor of English and also a Dean at School of Humanities and Education, North Eastern Hill University of Shillong. She breathed her last in 2022. She has many writings to her credit some of which highly recognized are These Hills Called Home : Stories from a War Zone and Laburnum for my Head, a collection of local short stories. She uses simple English and all her stories are quite native and nature-blended with sentiments and culture of the people of North Eastern States of India.

STORYLINE

Laburnum for My Head: A short story based upon a widow called Lentina, highly obsessed with splendour and beauty of a bright yellow flowering tree called Laburnum. She is so attracted towards the glory of this Laburnum’s full bloom that she decides to plant it near the head of her grave after she dies. For this she buys a small plot of land adjacent to a graveyard from her relative and entrusts the job to her driver cum confidant, named Babu. After years of efforts by Babu, who understood her mistress’s final wish, he successfully grows a beautiful flowering Laburnum plant in one corner of the  plot earmarked for Lentina’s final resting place. In the meantime, Lentina’s health deteriorates and finally passes away the night after hearing the long awaited news of her favourite Laburnum bloom at her favourite eternal resting place, from Babu.  

Death of a Hunter: This is a short story about a highly talented village hunter called Imchanok, who is constantly troubled by a wild boar that feeds on his and his neighbours’ paddy fields every time the crop is ripe for harvesting, causing him huge financial losses. Though Imchanok has saved the village earlier by hunting down a wild elephant and monkey destroying the same paddy fields and crop, he somehow gets into a depression seeing them die a slow painful death, with his bullet. But when finally he shoots down the monster boar with the help of his villagers, he gets so saddened and guilty that he finally quits his hunting profession forever after giving the animal’s tooth, a proper rituals laden burial.

The Boy Who Sold an Airfield: A short story about a boy called Pokenmong, who ran away from his home and settled down as a house help in a far-off village of Assam. The story narrates as to how this clever lad dupes an entire village and makes a fortune out of a small hand written paper given to him by the American soldier whom he was working for, at the time when they were evacuating an airfield after the Indo-Burma war. The adjacent village headman being illiterate, mistakes the paper for ownership deed of the airfield and buys it from Pokenmong, only to be surprised later when government officials inform him that it was only a piece of paper containing ownership of some used  furniture, shoes and an old jeep of the American soldiers. 

The Letter: One of the most poignant short stories I ever read. Its about a small village somewhere in Assam which is troubled by extortionists belonging to a group posing themselves as underground government (anti-Government). Amongst the villagers lives a poor laborer, whose hard-earned wages, are taken away forcibly by these crooks which he saved for his son’s education purpose. This dejected angry laborer now tries the same method of extortion with the villagers, one day, in a disguised attire of the underground government. But to his surprise, he will be confronted by the local youth and beaten up to death. The story ends with the local youth discovering the letters of his son begging to send money for his exam fee in the pocket of dead man.  

Three Women: An emotional story of three women in the same family. Lipoktula (grandmother) is raped when she was young by a local politician when her husband was out at farm. She gives birth to Medemla, due to the pregnancy caused by that secret rape, who later falls in love with the politician’s son. Knowing this Lipoktula disallows the marriage of Medemla, as the boy is none other than his brother. Medemla, under ignorance of this secret, remains spinster for the rest of her life. Later she adopts Martha, who is orphaned at the hospital Medemla is working to enjoy the void created in her life. The story ends with Martha giving birth to a child after getting pregnant through her lover, even before marriage. The sexual and spiritual emotions of a woman towards a man’s physical touch, law of attraction, intimacy and absurd power of sex are so well narrated by the author through the hearts of Lipoktula, Medemla and Martha.

A Simple Question: A Short story about an illiterate, smart daughter of a village headman, in a remote village of North Eastern India, living with her family under constant fear of extortion, sandwiched between Indian Government and Nagas fighting for independence. Being from the family of village headman, their husbands are constant victims of atrocities from both sides on the grounds of suspicions of allegiance to either side. Her simple and brave question to the Deputy Commissioner once, when she denied to leave the place of arrest of her husband and his subsequent release elicits the stupendous bravery of this simple illiterate village woman in challenging the basic military confidence of the officer in the land that doesn’t belong to him.

Sonny: A beautiful tragic love story of a woman journalist, abandoned by her lover Sonny, on the pretext of his larger motive to fight for independence of his land from Indian occupation. The fathomless depth of a woman’s love towards the man she loves is wonderfully chronicled in this story. The journo, on her visit back to her hometown after several years of separation is suddenly encountered with assassination of her ex-lover by his peers. She is forced to leave the place immediately instead of attending his funeral with the final love letter and secret floppy disk to be aired on her television channel, but, only to permanently store it in her locker without checking the content of that disk. With that action, she closes the chapter and memories of Sonny in her future life and from the world, forever.

Flight: A very short story narrated from within an ugly caterpillar picked up by an ailing little boy called Johnny, as a pet, after his father agreed to his request, maybe as a last wish. The caterpillar’s woes of being locked in a small box by Johnny only to be checked once in a while and its emotional detachment from the sick boy while flying off into its own universe from Johnny’s room, after being metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly, are absolutely tear-shedding towards the end.

Pros: Each and every story in the book has a marvelous emotion and sentiment attached. The reader is taken deep into abyss of personal attachment to his life somewhere, in every story. The author seems to have dived deep into every emotion of a woman in her life. Else, such feelings are impossible to put on paper and pen.

Cons: Most of her stories are women-centric. There should have been an ear to the man’s side also.

My favorite quote from this book : ‘If you want to gain from investments in land, go for inconspicuous plots, but ones which have future prospects. That way no one will pay attention when you buy it, and when the town expands, your holdings will appreciate in value many times over.’

My rating: 3.5 out of 5  

PAKISTAN – COURTING THE ABYSS By Tilak Devesher

 

PAKISTAN – COURTING THE ABYSS By Tilak Devesher

Tilak Devesher, a retired top bureaucrat of Government of India turned writer specialised in security issues pertaining to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. After his retirement, he focussed on writing articles for some major news dailies and television channels of India. Currently, he is well known for his in-depth knowledge about Pakistan and its current scenario. He appears frequently in many talk shows and podcasts in Indian television channels and has quite a big subscriber base in social media.

STORYLINE
The book begins with the birth of Pakistan movement in the final phase of British period in colonial Indian subcontinent. The story of Pakistan right from the conception to present stage has been elaborately explained with umpteen number of references being quoted from various invaluable books, articles, letters written by stalwarts of the period. The reader is taken through a variety of incidents that took place pre and post independence with a clear understanding of how a once proposed prosperous Pakistan by its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has turned out to be a disastrous failed State due to a weak and corrupt political leadership coupled with a strong and religious Army. Every aspect of the society like Pakistan’s identity crisis; its ideology revolving around anti Hindu and anti India propaganda; it’s constant suppression of basic rights to provinces like Balochistan, Khyber Pakthunkwa and Sindh, domination of Punjabis in acquiring lion’s share of the country’s resources and budgetary allocations; rise of its Islam-centered Army as the saviour and custodian of the country’s security and development; radical Islamization of its society with limited scope for peaceful co-existence of other minority religions; growth of sectarianism within Muslims amongst Sunnis, Shias, Deobandis, Ahmadias, Barelvis etc; birth and rapid venomous progress of madrasa culture in propagation of radical Islam into the minds of the youth of the country; subsequent rise of terrorism amongst the unemployed youth after completion of madrasa education; massive mismanagement of natural resources like its river and ground water with most of most of it preferred to Punjab but other provinces ignored; defective education policy with most of basic education focussed on Islamic knowledge rather than maths, science and social studies required by the industry for employment opportunities; structural weaknesses in economic policy of the country; uncontrolled growth of population without proper stategy to reap the dividends of the young; the Army’s quest for parity with its powerful neighbour India on economic and military fronts; its quest for domination over another neighbouring country Afghanistan through Taliban, for strategic control over its resources and spread of its radical Islamic ideology against India and Soviet Union; its unquenchable quest for dependence on monetary and military assistance from China and USA to be on par with India’s might; and finally it’s never-ending nose-dive into the abyss of destruction and instability of its economy under the cover of being a nuclear powered country that might permanently annihilate the entire region if allowed to fail as a State.

My favourite paragraphs in the book
According to Rehmat Ali, Pakistan was an acronym composed of Punjab, Afghania (NWFP), Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan.
According to Narendra Singh Sarila if Col Elahi Baksh, the doctor who attended on Jinnah during the last phase of his illness in August– September 1948 at Ziarat near Quetta, is to be believed, he heard his patient say: ‘I have made it [Pakistan] but I am convinced that I have committed the greatest blunder of my life.’

Pros:
One aspect that is worth praising in this book is about the author’s unambiguous analysis of Pakistan’s political and military policies. Though the author is of the Indian origin, there appears not a single instance where he directly involved his Indian views about the transformation of Jinnah’s creation into a falling comet within six decades of its birth. Can be used as a rich resource for students and enthusiasts to learn about the statistics of Pakistan’s journey into chaos and failure as an economy.

Cons:
Though much has been spoken about Afghanistan, not much has been covered about Pakistan’s obsession for Kashmir, its history and current scenario. Similarly, more information should have been given about Bangladesh’s breakaway with ample facts. This is the only void, as per me

My rating : 4.5 out 5

ASHOKA – The Search for India’s Lost Emperor by Charles Allen

ASHOKA – The Search for India’s Lost Emperor by Charles Allen

Charles Allen was born in present-day Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, where six generations of his family served under the British Raj. Though his formal education was in England and Italy, he was more of an Anglo-Indian after he came back to India with his parents later. He was more of a travel writer in his early days of writing and took affiliation to Buddhism when he was in Nepal. He turned into a fulltime historian later with his interest in Indian history. He was an ardent supporter of Dalit rights in India and an opposer of Brahminism. He wrote more than a dozen books about India and its historical past. Died in 2020 after finishing his last book ‘Aryans’.

StoryLine:

Ashoka (Without Sorrow) the Great or Ashokavardhana, was the son of Bindusara and grandson of Chandragupta Maurya. Ashoka was the true emperor of India as his kingdom extended from Eastern Persia on the north-west to Bengal in the north-east and from Kashmir in the North to Karnataka in the South. The book speaks about his greatness in managing such a huge territory comprising of several vassal princely states single handedly through his weapon of “Dharma”, also called as Moral Law. Though he was a ruthless and cruel king in his early stages of usurping the throne of Magadha by killing his half-brother Sumana, he later converted to Buddhism under the influence of one of his cousins, Nigrodha, and adopted a policy of non-violence and good governance through moral laws of teachings of Lord Buddha. Though not much of his rule is mentioned in this book, the importance of Dharma in his rule had been spread across the country and neighboring countries like Nepal, Afghanistan, Persia, Tibet and South East Asian countries through his Rock Edicts, Minor Rock Edicts and Pillar Edicts. The author is of the strong opinion that many of the present popular Hindu temples are built upon Buddhist structures. He is also of the opinion that the Brahmanical Hinduism has suppressed the voice and spread of Buddhism which is much older and thus the greatness of Ashoka erased from history, since he challenged the caste based Brahmanical order.

Many interesting facts about Ashoka’s times were described in detail. One such fact is about destruction of the world famous Nalanda University and its exquisite library by the ruthless Muslim invader Mohammad Bhaktiyar, just because he didn’t find a copy of Quran in its collection. The library is said to have burnt for months. The book also elicits the fact about how a standardized script called Brahmi has been carved out of ancient Indian scripts Pali, Prakrit and Sanskrit and the same inscribed on to Edicts of Ashoka across the length and breadth of his Empire. The author has meticulously brought out the facts and figures related to the origin of Buddhism in fourth century BC and its spread across the subcontinent in the later periods through Ashoka the Great. Lots of information is brought regarding how Ashoka’s grandfather Chandragupta usurped the throne of Magadha from the Nanda kings, with clever plotting of his mentor Chanakya (Brahmin author of Arthashastra) and with the help of associates of Alexander the Great of Greece. Though Ashoka was also called as Chandashoka (The Angry Ashoka) though his terrible deeds in suppressing his opponents, he is said to have become a pious and ardent follower of non-violence taught by Sakhyamuni Buddha, after his conversion to Buddhism from Hinduism.

Almost each and every surviving ancient historic sites (stupas), manuscripts, edicts and sculptures of Ashoka’s period were deeply studied and analyzed to the core by various British archeologists and historians like Sir William Jones, Horace Hayman Wilson, Buchanan, Colin Mackenzie, James Princep, Markam Kittoe, Brian Hodgson, Dr Fuhrer etc during in the 19th century, through their prestigious research organizations Asiatic Society of Bengal and Archeological Survey of India. Such interpretations have been beautifully presented in the book with corresponding illustrations. It was from these findings that it is established that Ashoka could take Buddhism to as far as Greece, Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, Bhutan, China, Burma, Combodia etc through his appointed special classes of religious officers called “Dharma Mahamatras”. The author even took account of the recordings of Chinese travelers HuenTsang and Fa-hein to confirm the exact dates of Ashoka’s reign. It was observed that almost all the Ashokan edicts were located at remotest and isolated places away from big towns as a precaution from being destroyed by the forthcoming dynasties who might act against Buddhism or be pro-Brahmin. The wonderful idea of carving his doctrines on to rock instead of cloth or leaves in those days, should be given credit as the former would last for ages compared to the latter.

The death of Ashoka in final days was said to be very pitiful as he lost all his personal wealth due to countless donations and gifts in gold, silver and copperware to Buddhist monks for their welfare and construction of Buddhist monasteries, stupas, edicts and other welfare measures of his kingdom. Thus, Mauryan empire under Ashoka the Great is said to be the first Welfare State of the then known civilized world of ancient eras. Eventually, the great Ashokan dynasty came to a sad end after Pushyamitra Shunga from the Shunga dynasty killed last of the Mauryan ruler Brihadrata and destroyed most of the Buddhist monuments and edicts in order to erase the religion from history.

Ashoka the Great would be remembered as the man who first forged India into a single nation state, and thus has a real claim to be its founding father; the first Indian ruler with a distinctive, identifiable voice; the pioneer of non-violence, the first proponent of conquest by moral force alone, whose words remain absolutely, unequivocally, unique among rulers as a statement of governing principles. Hence, the twenty-four-spoked wheel known as the chakra, or ‘Wheel of Law’, which was set at the centre of the Indian tricolour; and, for its national emblem, the Ashokan capital excavated at Sarnath in 1904– 5 showing four lions standing guard over four chakras, representing the ‘lion’s roar of the Buddha’ spreading to the cardinal directions. These symbols were expressly chosen to represent the new, secular India, free of any specific religious affiliation, to create a country governed by righteousness. Ashoka’s doctrine of governance had three main goals: non-violence as a means of achieving ends, allowing conquest by Dharma only; freedom of religious expression with respect for the views of others; and the promotion of the ‘essentials of all religions’ based on proper behaviour, consisting of purity of heart, self-control, firm devotion, respect for each other, generosity, good deeds, gratitude, restraint, impartiality, not injuring or harming others, and forgiving those who do wrong ‘where forgiveness is possible’.

My favourite Rock Edict no 13: Truly, Beloved-of-the-Gods (Ashoka) desires non-injury, restraint and impartiality to all beings, even where wrong has been done. Now it is conquest by Dharma that Beloved-of-the-Gods considers to be the best conquest … I have had this Dharma edict written so that my sons and great-grandsons may not consider making new conquests, or that if military conquests are made, that they be done with forbearance and light punishment, or better still, that they consider making conquest by Dharma only, for that bears fruit in this world and the next.

Pros: This book is an extensive research-based historic template of the life of King Ashoka, his predecessors and successors with almost accurate timelines. Credit should be given to the author for reviving the lost memories of the great Emperor of India who had given a uniform civil code in the 3rd century BC itself when rest of the western world was still in its nascent stages of good governance. Illustrations of rock edicts, pillar edicts, archaeological sites, monuments, souvenirs, coins belonging to Ashokan period at right parts of the book, excites the reader to dig deeper into the book without wink of an eye.

Cons: The author seemed to be strongly anti-Brahman and seemed to have a strong opinion that the fall of Buddhism in India is mainly due to the tyranny of pro-Brahmanical rulers after Ashoka, which might not be true. His opinion of Buddhist temples being converted into Hindu temples is also not proved with evidences anywhere in the book. His final linking of Dalit icon Dr. B R Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism with his opinion seemed out of context and immaterial.

My rating : 4.5 out 5 

THE BLUE EYED AFGHAN By Stephen F Cole

 

THE BLUE EYED AFGHAN Written by Stephen F Cole

The author seems to be a simple man who liked to travel a lot, hitch hike, and is always in search of adventure. Having got bored with his long sales career, took to writing and this could be one of his first books. Does not like to reveal his whereabouts due to security reasons.

STORY LINE:

This book is about how a poor young Afghan national, who loses all his family, in the turmoil during Taliban rule in Afghanistan is saved and taken back to London by a British military officer, to live with his family, thenceforth. This blue-eyed Afghan, called Babur, is for the first time exposed to the taste of true democracy and lives on to securing his life as a good citizen through highest education from London University. He loves London and its people but hates the ongoing religious radical attempts of Islamic preachers in order to bring the country under Sharia Law, just like the way it was at back home. Though he has nothing to do with the murder of one such radical Islamic preacher Abu Hamza, he is framed to be the prime suspect by two influential anti-religion and anti-Government Britishers, the real killers, to create religious conflict and hatred between Muslims and Christians using latest drone technology and dangerous chemicals by killing hundreds on both sides and subsequently gain political power through their own new political party called Fresh Start. This plot gets identified by the British Detective Agency and they hunt down the real culprits behind the entire episode. But, finally, one of the two perpetrators end up becoming the Prime Minister of UK after winning an election, while the other gets killed in a Police operation. The book has lot of truths revealed about how politics and hunger for power decide the life of innocent citizens. Also, a lot of hatred is spewed on Islam and its ideology, which might be not true, but for a few who have been radicalised through hate speeches. He seemed to have represented the voice of a common Britisher who enjoys democracy and freedom of speech.

Pros : The ugly face of politicians in converting a peaceful and lawful land into a riot laden, hatred filled State is well elicited in this book. The reader gets to know how once a peaceful United Kingdom is reeling under the pressure of religious conflicts between two major religions of the world, only because some greedy power mongers of the country would like to occupy the political power, by appeasing the immigrants’ vote bank. The reader can come across some of the most relevant and beautiful quotes relating today’s life of a common man vs the politics of a country.

Cons: The editing of this book seems to be flawed as there are many grammar errors throughout. The author seems to be one of the victims of the Government policies and hence wrote this book to vent up his anger on the Government as well as Islamic radical mindsets. The title doesn’t justify the story as Babur’s role in this entire story is almost negligible, except for the benefit of doubt of how he could have got blue eyes, having being born in an Asian country, once invaded by the blue-eyed Alexander the Great, from Greece. Food for thought!

My favourite Quote in the Book: “The planet is 2 billion years old and our occupation of it is has lasted a tiny fraction of that time, it is a fantastic miracle that we are here at all, instead of being content with that, most of that time has been spent trying to wipe each other out, most slaughtered in the name of God. Thank God”

My rating: 2.5 out of 5