Page 76 - EW April 2021

Books

challenge is to restore, ered decisions, The Battle
empower and renew the of Belonging is a timely EAT THE BUDDHA: THE STORY
very institutions of civic reminder that to create OF MODERN TIBET THROUGH
nationalism that the BJP orderly, just, egalitarian THE PEOPLE OF ONE TOWN
has commandeered and and peaceful societies, citi- Barbara Demick
weakened. These are the zens have an obligation to GRANTA BOOKS, LONDON
institutions that can best engage with public issues Rs.599; Pages 352
protect minorities and the and speak up on matters of
marginalised, that protect national importance.
free speech and expression This enlightening
of unfashionable opinions, polemic makes a strong — for a decade. There,
that elevate the principles case for preservation and she will fall in love with a The locale of this book
and values above the protection of the basic Chinese boy, eventually is Nagaba, a town
interests of politicians in structure of the liberal, settling back East in his known for its unruli-
power, that offer shelter inclusive and egalitarian native Nanjing. ness. Following lives
and aid to the vulnerable, Constitution endowed When the liberal 1980s that live around this
and so create the habits upon us by the founding arrive, she becomes a star municipality, the au-
and conventions that make fathers of the nation. It teacher and then a tool of thor gives us a history
democracy the safest of is a timely reminder that a Communist Party that of Tibet as a whole
political systems for ordi- continuous vigilance is seeks to publicise Ti-
nary people to live under,” indeed, the price of liberty. betan success stories. The a town known by the
writes Tharoor. DILIP THAKORE Panchen Lama, mainland Chinese for its unruliness.
More specifically, China’s most powerful A decade ago in a period
Parliament, state legisla- Tibetan, takes a liking to of exceptional social ten-
governments; the judiciary Under dragon her and arranges for her sion, it earned the dubious
tive assemblies and local
appellation of the self-
study in Dharamshala.
and media whose legiti- While there (with half her immolation capital of the
macy and powers are be- shadow family still in China), the world. Following lives that
ing steadily eroded. These Tiananmen Square mas- revolve around this munic-
are the institutions whose NE OF THE MOST sacre changes the mood of ipality — teenage monks
independence guaranteed prominently fea- politics at home. She stays from the local monastery,
by the Constitution must Otured characters in India, where she can be nomads moving about its
be protected in the final in Barbara Demick’s new found today, an elected outskirts, scrappy entre-
analysis by the people and, book is called Gonpo. Born representative to the Ti- preneurs quick to embrace
especially the educated in 1950, a year after Mao betan government-in-exile. the market economy, a
middle class. Zedong declared a ‘New Gonpo’s story is typical princess — Demick gives
Empowerment and China’, she is the daugh- of what Demick, a long- us a history of this town
protection of independent, ter of a King in Amdo, a time correspondent of the and, by extension, of Tibet
carefully conceptualised region on the eastern end Los Angeles Times, strives as a whole.
institutions against the of the Tibetan Plateau in to achieve in her work: as- A pawn of the British
whims and fancies of what is modern-day Sich- sembling a cast of charac- in the days of the Great
strongmen and ephemeral uan. When the Red Army ters from a small locale to Game, after dissolution
governments, is the theme arrives later in the 1950s, tell the story of a people of His Majesty’s empire
song of this timely and her father is deposed and as a whole. Her first book, following the end of the
thoroughly updated book. sent to Chengdu to be Besieged, followed lives Second World War, Tibet
Against the backdrop of neutralized and re-edu- spent on a street in war- finds itself without a
an increasingly apolitical cated. During the Cultural torn Sarajevo. Her second, patron (unlike, say, the
citizenry easily distracted Revolution, he will commit Nothing to Envy, explored Mongolians who had
by tall promises and grand suicide after his wife, the the fate of six North Kore- the Soviets to shepherd
circuses organised by the queen, disappears. ans from a coastal city as them into statehood),
ruling dispensation which Gonpo, meanwhile, they struggle to navigate and as a result, subject to
is incapable of adequately with her bad class back- life under the repressive an emboldened, highly
comprehending the long- ground and suspect ethnic totalitarian regime. militaristic Maoist China
term consequences of its status, is sent to the end of In Eat the Buddha the bent on expansion and
often hasty and ill-consid- the earth — arid Xinjiang locale is Ngaba, in Amdo, consolidation. The new

78 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2021