Contested Lands: Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka

by Sumantra Bose

Overview

The man whom Indian nationalists perceived as the “George Washington of India” and who was President of the Indian National Congress in 1938–1939 is a legendary figure. Called Netaji (“leader”) by his countrymen, Subhas Chandra Bose struggled all his life to liberate his people from British rule and, in pursuit of that goal, raised and led the Indian National Army against Allied Forces during World War II. His patriotism, as Gandhi asserted, was second to none, but his actions aroused controversy in India and condemnation in the West. Now, in a definitive biography of the revered Indian nationalist, Sugata Bose deftly explores a charismatic personality whose public and private life encapsulated the contradictions of world history in the first half of the twentieth century. He brilliantly evokes Netaji’s formation in the intellectual milieu of Calcutta and Cambridge, probes his thoughts and relations during years of exile, and analyzes his ascent to the peak of nationalist politics. Amidst riveting accounts of imprisonment and travels, we glimpse the profundity of his struggle: to unite Hindu and Muslim, men and women, and diverse linguistic groups within a single independent Indian nation. Finally, an authoritative account of his untimely death in a plane crash will put to rest rumors about the fate of this “deathless hero.” This epic of a life larger than its legend is both intimate, based on family archives, and global in significance. His Majesty’s Opponent establishes Bose among the giants of Indian and world history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674262232
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	04/10/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Sumantra Bose is Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Table of Contents

Introduction List of Maps 1. Sri Lanka 2. Cyprus 3. Bosnia 4. Kashmir 5. Israel and Palestine Conclusion Notes Acknowledgments Index

What People are Saying About This

In a bold and valuable book, Sumantra Bose defines the new frontiers of peacemaking in contested lands.

Thomas Boudreau

In a bold and valuable book, Sumantra Bose defines the new frontiers of peacemaking in contested lands.

— Thomas Boudreau, American University

Editorial Reviews

Sumantra Bose's book Contested Lands is about battles for political sovereignty in some territories around the world that have proved especially intractable. A scholar who has already written books on the Kashmir dispute and the war in Bosnia in the 1990s, Bose has now put together a highly readable account of what is at stake in these lands—Israel and Palestine, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Bosnia, and Cyprus. The most stimulating aspect of Bose's approach is that he takes the long historical view of these struggles, devoting a healthy 50-page section to each. By doing so, he reverses the built-in iniquities of both newspaper journalism, which because of its attention to the present moment can be superficial, and of op-eds and other polemical writing, which—for reasons of space or ideological perspective—often simplify matters. Yet, it is through these distorting and perishable forms that most of us put together an understanding of the situation in Israel or Palestine or Kashmir. To read Bose's book is to understand (with some dismay) that our responses to these issues are usually more rhetoric than reason. Bose also supplies a wealth of closely argued insights that open up the complexities of these contested lands in productive ways...The exceptional breadth of his book, the insights he generates through his comparative approach, and the lucidity and cogency of his style mark out Contested Lands as a work of unusual distinction.

livemint.com - Chandrahas Choudhury

Devotion to positive change stands as the hallmark of Contested Lands. Bose is neither an idealist nor a partisan nor a cynical realist. He does not purport to possess the panacea for disputed territories. But, throughout this precarious moral terrain, his intellectual honesty and sense of evenhanded purpose admirably hold steadfast.

PopMatters.com - Barry Lenser

[Bose's] disciplined comparative approach yields sensible conclusions and recommendations regarding durable peace processes.

Choice - J. P. Smaldone

In a bold and valuable book, Sumantra Bose defines the new frontiers of peacemaking in contested lands.

Thomas Boudreau

[Bose's] disciplined comparative approach yields sensible conclusions and recommendations regarding durable peace processes.--J. P. Smaldone "Choice" (10/1/2007 12:00:00 AM)

Devotion to positive change stands as the hallmark of Contested Lands. Bose is neither an idealist nor a partisan nor a cynical realist. He does not purport to possess the panacea for disputed territories. But, throughout this precarious moral terrain, his intellectual honesty and sense of evenhanded purpose admirably hold steadfast.--Barry Lenser "PopMatters.com" (10/24/2007 12:00:00 AM)

Sumantra Bose's book Contested Lands is about battles for political sovereignty in some territories around the world that have proved especially intractable. A scholar who has already written books on the Kashmir dispute and the war in Bosnia in the 1990s, Bose has now put together a highly readable account of what is at stake in these lands--Israel and Palestine, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Bosnia, and Cyprus. The most stimulating aspect of Bose's approach is that he takes the long historical view of these struggles, devoting a healthy 50-page section to each. By doing so, he reverses the built-in iniquities of both newspaper journalism, which because of its attention to the present moment can be superficial, and of op-eds and other polemical writing, which--for reasons of space or ideological perspective--often simplify matters. Yet, it is through these distorting and perishable forms that most of us put together an understanding of the situation in Israel or Palestine or Kashmir. To read Bose's book is to understand (with some dismay) that our responses to these issues are usually more rhetoric than reason. Bose also supplies a wealth of closely argued insights that open up the complexities of these contested lands in productive ways...The exceptional breadth of his book, the insights he generates through his comparative approach, and the lucidity and cogency of his style mark out Contested Lands as a work of unusual distinction.--Chandrahas Choudhury "livemint.com" (12/8/2007 12:00:00 AM)

In a bold and valuable book, Sumantra Bose defines the new frontiers of peacemaking in contested lands.--Thomas Boudreau, American University

From the Publisher

Devotion to positive change stands as the hallmark of Contested Lands. Bose is neither an idealist nor a partisan nor a cynical realist. He does not purport to possess the panacea for disputed territories. But, throughout this precarious moral terrain, his intellectual honesty and sense of evenhanded purpose admirably hold steadfast.
— Barry Lenser

PopMatters.com

Sumantra Bose's book Contested Lands is about battles for political sovereignty in some territories around the world that have proved especially intractable. A scholar who has already written books on the Kashmir dispute and the war in Bosnia in the 1990s, Bose has now put together a highly readable account of what is at stake in these lands—Israel and Palestine, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Bosnia, and Cyprus. The most stimulating aspect of Bose's approach is that he takes the long historical view of these struggles, devoting a healthy 50-page section to each. By doing so, he reverses the built-in iniquities of both newspaper journalism, which because of its attention to the present moment can be superficial, and of op-eds and other polemical writing, which—for reasons of space or ideological perspective—often simplify matters. Yet, it is through these distorting and perishable forms that most of us put together an understanding of the situation in Israel or Palestine or Kashmir. To read Bose's book is to understand (with some dismay) that our responses to these issues are usually more rhetoric than reason. Bose also supplies a wealth of closely argued insights that open up the complexities of these contested lands in productive ways...The exceptional breadth of his book, the insights he generates through his comparative approach, and the lucidity and cogency of his style mark out Contested Lands as a work of unusual distinction.
— Chandrahas Choudhury

livemint.com

[Bose's] disciplined comparative approach yields sensible conclusions and recommendations regarding durable peace processes.
— J. P. Smaldone

Choice