Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond

Author - Pankaj Mishra ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Picador was reviewed on 6-Oct-2008.

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1) Paperback Book Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond by Picador. This is Mishra´s weakest book so far. First, the title of the book has no relation to its content. But that would have been forgivable if the content were OK. Unfortunately content is a series of incoherent ramblings that fail to build into a proper theme. In each section, the author starts with great promise but soon gives in to the demands of pop journalism. For example, in his treatment of Kashmir, he delves into the history and present of Kashmir with some empathy but then as if under some compulsion to draw sensational insights starts, on a purely speculative trail. Take the example of Chittsingpura....Kashmiri Muslims would not have got anything from massacre of Sikhs...foreign dignitary is visiting India...presto! Indian security forces must have organized the massacre to gain world sympathy. No evidence is offered. No proof is required. Hunch is enough.

At several places he can barely hide his intellectual snobbery. Since he has read some famous English literature critic, those who haven´t must be philistines. Ironically, his entire claim to represent the viewpoint of the dispossessed is based on anti-intellectualism and hypocrisy. In all his works he has been using his somewhat dispossessed back ground as his trump card to speak on their behalf. However, anyone who has ever visited India can vouch for the fact that his background is nowhere proletariat from Indian standards. He is appalled at how post independence bureaucrats of India have smoothly slipped into the shoes of their colonial masters, but does not offer any alternative. The fact that the authority of post colonial bureaucrats flows from the democratic choice of the people is of no value to him.

Anyone who is really interested to understand present day India would do well to stay away from Pankaj Mishra. Mishra is still entrapped in his soft-marxist, student union leader perspective. His writings have an exotic value but nothing beyond that. I would recommend Ramchandra Guha´s India After Gandhi: The History of the World´s Largest Democracy to gain an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of the subcontinent.¤

2) Paperback Book Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond by Picador. The title appears to derive from André Malraux´s 1926 The Temptation of the West, though I´m not sure why. Regardless of its provinence, the title (especially the subtitle) is inaccurate, and has confused better and more educated readers than I. It would more accurately be titled Essays on Strife in the Subcontinent. This would have the virue of accuracy, as well as alerting the reader that this is a collection of essays that are not well-integrated. The 1-page preface promises something the book doesn´t deliver, and is highly inadequate as a device to unify the book. Mishra´s overall project would have been much better served by a chapter-length preface that provided contexts for each piece and showed how each fit into and supported his contention. I still might have disagreed that he had demonstrated his point, but I would have had a better sense of what he thought he was demonstrating. This doesn´t mean that the essays aren´t sometimes interesting or useful, but that they neither fit the title nor cohere; as such, Mishra does not reach the audience he intends.

I was expecting a more socioanthropological text, but this a largely a collection of essays on politics. Mishra says these essays "seek to make the reader enter actual experience: of individuals ... and of the traveler" (i), but this goal is not realized by a number of the essays, which often offer page after grueling page of facts about Indian political history, for example, with no subheadings, no citations, no index, no individual or traveler narratives, and a certain amount of jumping around and repetition. The lack of an index is particularly annoying and makes the book useless as a reference should one want to use it for background when reading other authors of the subcontinent (Jhumpa Lahiri, for example). The lack of citations makes it impossible to evaluate Mishra´s contentions or to understand where they fit in the broader discourse of Indian-Pakistani relations, for example.

I am troubled as well by the notion of "temptations of the West" as ostensibly illustrated here. Histories of other Asian countries demonstrate considerable strife, brutality, abuse of power, corruption, and lack of respect for others´ welfare emanating from and enacted by the colonial powers of the East long before Western colonization and influence. I am willing to be convinced, but Mishra does not take up the argument that this is a Western phenomenon rather than a universal one. The question of how to modernize in a way that integrates two cultures rather than subsuming one is vital and fascinating. However, Mishra generally does not address it, which was my greatest disappointment in a book that I thought would have this issue as a major focus.

The only "temptation" I can spot is Mishra´s often-repeated concern that colonial powers offer education but there are then no jobs for the people who have been educated. This is an important and realistic concern, but one that might have been best served by an historical comparison, if one exists, to the relationship between education and vocation under colonial China, for example. As it stands, and without context, Mishra´s complaint sounds like an indictment of providing education to the prolitariat. I assume that this is not what he intends, but that is how it reads without further elaboration.

Each essay in and of itself is interesting (though some are long, dry slogs for a reader who was not expecting 10-page recitations of historical facts between encounters with "individuals" or "the traveler"), but suffers from the reader´s ongoing question of what each has to do with "temptations" or "the West." I am sure that I am missing a great deal here; Mishra´s writing is highly regarded and taken seriously enough that he is the focus of some bitter disputes. For a reader with no or little background, however, it is hard to see what is special or interesting about Mishra´s ideas. Though I read a great deal of history, and am conversant on several broad topics in Asia´s political history, I cannot help but think that had this book´s marketing been more accurate, I would not have picked it up. Having picked it up and read it in its entirety, I am incredibly frustrated by Mishra´s lack of an orienting frame. By all means, read this if it looks interesting to you, but read 20 pages before you buy it to be sure it´s what you think it is.¤

3) Paperback Book Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond by Picador. This travelogue/reportage is extremely well written with very deep analysis of the social forces that rule these places of geopolitical importance. Mishra has invoked the history in brief for each place to explain why the society there is turning the events in some particular way. He also explains how the hegemonic powers are causing tension in the lives of the people living there. However the title is a total misnomer, and does not convey the true value of this book. This book does not give a list of "what to do´s" if you travel those places. It reports what the author saw happening in those places, tried to get interviews of some key players and explains the socio-historic background of the regions.¤

4) Paperback Book Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond by Picador. Pankaj Mishra writes like he is having a long and detailed conversation with you. After spending a few weeks reading this book, I feel that he is a close member of my social circle. He is a true journalist - he does not preach, he allows you to draw your own conclusions. His facts will knock your socks off. This is stuff we never hear in our world of Fox News.¤

5) Paperback Book Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond by Picador. Mishra is an Upper Caste Hindu Journalist who tries to show us the conditions of the States of the Indian Subcontinent as a result of Globalization and Modernization through his eyes and experiences. We follow him as he interacts with people in different castes, politics, Bollywood Entertainment, the Police, the Military, Militias, education, and simple peasants.

We get a history of Indian/Pakistani Politics since 1948 from his experiences. We get a simple understanding of how India has florished while Pakistan has floundered. Of how the Congress party of Nehru and the Gandhi´s have been overcome by the rise of Hindu Nationalist parties like the BJP.

He visits the Kashmir and we can see how it became India´s Northern Ireland with the exception that both sides are armed with nuclear weapons. The Troubles there are similar but the killing is magnified 10 fold as no human rights groups manitor the Indian nor the Pakistani armies for human rights violations.

We get a glimpse of the Bollywood scene in Mumbai. How it is similar to the Holywood Studio system of the 40´s(maybe the 30´s as each film seems to have a song and dance number). We get an understanding of what is acceptable on film in that culture and why there was such a hue and cry recently over Richard Gere´s kiss in public.

Mishra´s strength is that he lets his subjects tell the story of their lives and how the World has changed around them. His most compelling sections are where he relates his own life experiences. I recommend the book as an excellent glimpse into the cultures of South Central Asia.¤

6) Paperback Book Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond by Picador.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 3-Nov-2008, 03124264109780312426415, 2X0-100-500-721-XWB-0UB-8

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