The Spirit of India (Penguin, Rs 225) by Ramin Jahanbegloo attempts to capture only the lives of India’s nationalist heroes, pushing the subalterns to the periphery. Gandhian and Nehruvian policies are interpreted through a modern political prism — in terms of events such as Godhra — but the mere enumeration of theories cannot do justice to this Iranian author’s lofty scheme. Satyajit Ray and Vinoba Bhave find a place in the pantheon, but nothing new is said of them. This book is a handy guide if one were to examine the limitations of an outsider’s reading of India. The author himself, and his “emotional depth” as Ashis Nandy puts it, constitute the book’s theme.

Bone China (Harper Perennial, Rs 295) by Roma Tearne looks at the clichéd ideas of migration and the diasporic experience. The text, unfortunately, is replete with hackneyed phrases like “delicate bone china”. In the book, the political crisis in Sri Lanka under colonial occupation is reflected through the crumbling marriage of the protagonist, Grace de Silva, who along with her family immigrates to Britain to escape the terror. The end is predictable as alienation and nostalgia help the woman mend her broken ties.

RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi (Sage, Rs 195) by Aditya Mukherjee, Mridula Mukherjee and Sucheta Mahajan juxtaposes three crucial issues — the RSS and its academic propaganda, Gandhi’s assassination and the Hindu communal ideology conceived by Savarkar and Golwalkar. The persistence of communal unrest in India lends contextual relevance to this book. Politically motivated additions and deletions in text books, the conspiracy to justify Gandhi’s assassination and the supremacy of Hindu dogmatism are commented upon to unravel dark epochs of Indian history. The inclusion of more essays and diverse opinions would have been appreciated.

Anecdotes from a Diplomat’s Life (EastWest, Rs 250) by P.J. Rao offers pleasing insights into a diplomat’s life. It begins with Rao as a poor boy struggling to succeed, and then touches upon other aspects of his life: his stint with journalism and diplomacy. Rao’s many experiences abroad and the close ties he forges with the people there help dispel the notion that international diplomacy is always driven by cold logic.