Deferment Notice and Redefining the Aim

I am deferring the review of the book, "Akalis, A Short History" by J. S. Garewal.


I am constraint to do it because of non-academic situation in the college where I teach. I am forced to return the book and those books which were required to verify the contents in the book in order to evaluate the book.


I have now redefined the aim of this blog. I will take up only those books which I will personally buy or receive as a complimentary copy. Now I will take each book individually. Secondly, I buy such books which help me to prepare my notes for teaching purpose and fulfill the demands of the syllabus which I will teach. Therefore, the range of the issues and topics will be limited by it. In case, I find such topic, which has relevance to the subject of history but not concerned with my teaching activity, then I will compare and evaluate with such books and information that is available online. I am not against libraries but this is what I am envisaging for coming days. I understand that it will limit my sphere and leave lot many sources out of preview but it will be like that.


My next book is "Women in Modern India" by Geraldine Forbes published under the project of The New Cambridge History of India. First of all, for me, it is the second book on the same topic which I have read till this day. Earlier, the reading on this topic was done from other books which had information on this topic but there the topic was merely a part of some other project.


My earlier book on this topic was written by Manmohan Kaur, titled, "Role of Women in Freedom Struggle". According to Geraldine Forbes, the contents are not reliable. I have read this book nearly five years back. I had prepared notes on it. As far I remember Manmohan Kaur had written her preface that the work remained short of right evaluation because some of the papers were not accessible in archives. There was some kind of restriction about which she had mentioned. Secondly, the whole layout was in form of small biographies. However, it was there, that I had learned about some of ‘women in history’ for the first time. However, I will not touch that book here. I will only concentrate on the contents of the book of Ms. Forbes and look out for the various concepts, constructs and reference frame used by the author to evaluate the Women in Modern India. She had given an elaborate Bibliographic essay, which will be kept in mind while saying and commenting on the book. Finally I will make notes and give it here. I will also post the copy of notes on M. A. History blog.


I am facing the technical problem concerning this blog which I have encountered in case of my General studies blog. Well, it can be tackled but I create unnecessary hurdle. The template of the blog gets effected if you make many changes to it. Your postings get pushed down. The overall appearance of the blog is disturbed. It creates some dissatisfaction. Anyhow, I feel, I will be able to correct in case of this blog. My other blog sumir sharma is intact where I have picked the same design. I hope to correct it also.