Book Review: Caravans by Scott C Levi

Upon arriving in Central Asia, the Multanis would take up residence in one of several locations.
Caravans tells the fascinating story of tens of thousands of intrepid Multani and Shikarpuri merchants who risked everything to travel great distances and spend years of their lives pursuing their fortunes in foreign lands. From the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, these merchants lived as guests in cities and villages across Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran and Russia. Setting aside the belief that caravan traders were simple peddlers, Scott S Levi examines the sophisticated techniques these merchants used to convert a modest amount of merchandise into vast portfolios of trade and money lending ventures. Caravans also challenges the notion that the rising tide of European trade in the Indian Ocean usurped the overland 'Silk Road' trade and pushed Central Asia into economic isolation. In fact, as Levi shows, it was at precisely the same historical moment that thousands of Multanis began making their way to Central Asia, linking the early modern Indian and Central Asian economies closer together than ever before.

Caravans is part of the The Story of Indian Business series edited by Gurucharan Das. Written in simple narrative style this book is an presents an essay on the traders and the practice. Although the book essentially touches the history of the business in foreign lands, there were further scopes to fulfill the needs of inquisitive readers looking for more exhaustive knowledge on the subject. This is a good book and would definitely appeal to the interested reader as a primer.

Book Information
Author:Scott C. Levi
ISBN:9780670087303
Binding:Hardcover
Publisher:Penguin Books India
Year of Publication:2015
Number of Pages:Approx 200 with cover


Book Review: Caravans by Scott C Levi

Good Read. I had received the review copy from Random House India. Thank you Random House India for giving me this opportunity. You can buy this book at Flipkart in case you live in India.
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Book Review: God's Traitors

Throughout the four-day search for him, Gerald hid in an Owen-built priest-hole beneath the chapel fireplace.
A woman awakes in a prison cell. She has been on the run, changing her lodging every few days but the authorities have tracked her down and taken her to the Tower of London. She is placed in solitary confinement and interrogated about the Gunpowder Plot. The woman is Anne Vaux - one of several ardent, extraordinary, brave and at times, utterly exasperating members of the Vaux family. The year is 1606.

God's Traitor is an interesting and gripping account that explores the Catholic predicament in Elizabethan England through the eyes of the aristocratic Vauxes of Harrowden Hall. It presents with a historian's detachments how Catholicism was criminalized in England of Queen Elizabeth I. Ordered by the Pope to resist the Queen and by the Queen to renounce the Pope, the time period in history had to face an agonizing conflict of loyalty. In an age of assassination and Armada, Catholics who chose faith were increasingly seen as the enemy within. Written in simple yet engaging narrative style this book presents a tale of raids and escapes, homes and torture chambers, secrets and lies, acts and consequences. This book is highly recommended if you are interested to read about this time period in general and the subject in particular.

Book Information
Author:Jessie Childs
ISBN:9781847921567
Binding:Hardcover
Publisher:The Bodley Head
Year of Publication:2014
Number of Pages:Approx 450 with cover


Book Review: God's Traitors

A collector's edition. I had received the review copy from Random House India. Thank you Random House India for giving me this opportunity. You can buy this book at Flipkart in case you live in India.
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Book Review: The Death & Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi

We have seen how in executing the Father of the Nation Nathuram did what, in a sense no Hindu had dared to before him.
The Death & Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi is an explosive and original analysis of the assassination of the 'Father of the Nation'. Who is responsible for the Mahatma's death? Just one determined zealot, the larger ideology that supported him, the Congress-led Government that failed to protect him, or a vast majority of Indians and their descendants who considered Gandhi irrelevant, and endorsed violence instead?

In this meticulous study, the author has presented an account which can be considered more meditative than mere factual presentation of a national tragedy that haunts till today. Linking death of the Father of the Nation to different socio-political events, philosophical interpretation of the tragedy - the author establishes many lines of inquiry and studies in this book. In addition, he explores consequences and impacts of the tragedy that had shaped the time then and afterwards. A brilliant book and a remarkable work of research and analysis.

Book Information
Author:Makarand R. Paranjape
ISBN:9788184006803
Binding:Hardcover
Publisher:Random House India
Year of Publication:2014,2015
Number of Pages:Approx 350 with cover


Book Review: The Death & Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi

A collector's edition. I had received the review copy from Random House India. Thank you Random House India for giving me this opportunity. You can buy this book at Flipkart in case you live in India.
Read More