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Title: Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre ISBN: 0-00-638851-5 Pub. Date: 1997 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 (37 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A Biased presentation of Indian History
Comment: I have finished reading this book few days back and still wondering that I read a history book or a fiction novel. I must say that this book was quite an interesting read. I've spent most of my life in India and know its history quite well. Though I picked this book for just another good read but it left a sour taste by the end. I can't help thinking the biased picture being presented to the people who are not aware of the Indian histroy very well. Authors have certainly try to project an image for Britishers emphasizing their reluctance to give away India but not mentioning the exploitation done to Indians for 400 years. Readers are made to believe that British gave up India as mother sends her child abroad for higher studies. Page after page it describes about the blessing that British Raj proved to be for India. I think they could not avoid talking about Jallianwaala bagh tragedy but they did make it a point to blame it on a single person and remove any possibility of it symbolizing the general attitude of raj towards Indians. They couldn't risk writing anything against Gandhi but they glorified Mountbatten as the war hero of all times and put Gandhi assassins in the most pathetic description. .....
Rating: 3
Summary: Very well researched but prejudiced
Comment: The book starts with a very impressive history into how the British first entered India and gives some startling facts, hitherto, unknown to me about the Indian history. Besides narrating the tale of Indian freedom struggle, the book does give good and well researched details of the structure of India, the time of Maharajas, an account of her various provinces like the Punjab and Bengal, some of the mythological explanations for the beliefs of her people etc. But I must say all the good work put into the extensive research and an effort to write the book as a legendary piece of literature about India, go waste, when a knowledgeable Indian finds biased facts, an effort to glorify English by presenting only the facts which do so, an attempt to justify everything done by British by concealing the atrocities brought about by them during their so-called Raj in India and by skipping very conviniently any virtues of Indian masses despite the difficulties before them, their accomplishments and virtually anything besides the facts such as their squatting habits, religious extremisms, being ignorant, illiterate and incompetent. By the end of the book, the reader is left with a great impression of the Englishmen and especially Louise Mountbatten and an aversion towards India and Indians. Indians are, and were at the time of the freedom, much more competent, intelligent, resourceful, advanced and civilized than as depicted in the book, surely not to forget the fact that there are still many people in Indian masses who really do need more education and exposure. But it could be made a more just book by presenting both the sides, instead of just the negative one.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great book, but so much information
Comment: This was a great book - one of those that you start recommending to your friends when you're only halfway through. It's quite dense, with meticulous historical detail about a one year period, but as long as you have the patience to stay engaged through the topics you're less interested in, the payoff is worth it. It's a book that makes you feel that you were shamefully uninformed before you read it, and that you need to absorb as much history as possible so you'll never be uninformed about non-American history again. This reads like fiction not only because it's engaging storytelling, but because it seems impossible that the authors know this much detail about everything without having made it up themselves.
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Title: O JERUSALEM by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre ISBN: 0671662414 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 15 May, 1988 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre ISBN: 0446355569 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 07 May, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Is Paris Burning? by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre ISBN: 0446392251 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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Title: Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru ISBN: 0195623592 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: A Thousand Suns by Dominique Lapierre ISBN: 0446675954 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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