What do You think about The Age Of Kali: Indian Travels & Encounters (2000)?
Two very bad chapters in this book has compelled me to give this a 1 star1. In the chapter about Awadh Dalrymple goes on a nostalgia overdose and portrays Awadh as the best kingdom in the entire history of India. The fact is that Awadh was a disaster the rulers were opium addicts and made a mess of the empire which eventually paved the way for the British to overtake. Not even a single word about this in the entire essay, instead too much patronizing. Also Do you realize that the haveli and what not stand to symbolize the oppression the ruling classes imposed? 2. Dalrymple visits a tense Bangalore during its anti westernization protest and writes a completely biased point of view. What ever the hell 'fear of modernization' means, all the author had to was just spend a little time to find the truth rather than just write his confirmation bias. If he had put even a little bit of effort he would have realized that the issue was exclusion. The new elite having a language barrier discriminating the local vernacular populace.
—Dayanand Prabhu
http://nhw.livejournal.com/861712.html[return][return]The Age of Kali, to be honest, is a bit disappointing. First off because of the form - it is a collection of pieces written for different journals at different times in the 1990s, and there is occasional repetition from one piece to the next, with no overall guiding structure. Second, because of this, the book lacks any synthesising introduction or conclusion, apart from a page at the very beginning explaining the concept of the Age of Kali, the Kali Yuga.[return][return]Having said that, what you are left with is a series of very readable, vivid, in-depth essays on particular places, personalities or events; we start with sectarian violence in Bihar, and end with the Bhutto family. The book is mainly about India, but there are excursions also to Sri Lanka, R
—Nicholas Whyte
A collection of journalistic essays, written mostly in the 1990s, about the Indian subcontinent (primarily India, but there are also chapters about Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the island of Reunion). There are interviews with prominent politicians, interviews with a good many people bemoaning changes that have occurred during their lifetimes (many of them upper-class people angry that they no longer enjoy the privileges they once did), and spotlights on some of the more severe issues facing modern India. They are all fascinating topics, and Dalrymple tries hard to provide a fair view of his subjects. Perhaps the best feature of the book is how he tries to show the reader how each section of the country that he writes about has its own unique culture and identity; something which is too often missed by the eye of outsiders.As to the book's negative points, I'll quote another Goodreads reviewer (Mihir), who has put it perfectly: "William shines a clear spotlight on the evils that have plagued the country- casteism, outdated beliefs like Sati, the growing economic disparity, corruption, and general break-down of the moral fabric. While the book points out India's excesses very succintly, William's spotlight never shines as strongly on what has worked for the country, what is worth admiring in India and what is worth being proud of... The land that William has so deftly painted a picture of in this book is in no way facsinating or lovable. His picture is of a once beautiful, now crumbling and broken land, and a degenerate, hamstrung society."Perhaps we shouldn't expect otherwise. Dalrymple has the instincts of a journalist, and we all know that journalists tend to report on bad news far more than good; because it sells, it's attention-grabbing, it's more interesting... and also, perhaps, because we can often learn more from the things that go wrong than the things that go smoothly. This book isn't a balanced view of modern India, and doesn't try to be. As long as the reader bears this in mind, though, it can certainly help broaden one's understanding of the country, and is a captivating read.
—Joel
