India Today Books [Rough Roads]

The automobile invasion in India over the past three years has actually made life more difficult for consumers in many ways. Choice is one thing, to make up one's mind is another. In this situation, there was a great need to educate the public beyond the self-glorifying advertising campaigns of the car makers, and the strictly-for-the-dedicated-road-enthusiast writings in a couple of industry magazines. What are these cars anyway, beyond the shine? Do they drive well? Is it worth considering a Peugeot over a Zen or a Cielo over an Escort? Who has a better service and spares set-up? How safe is safe? A whole range of questions that we need to ask but rarely know whom to.

Murad Ali Baig, the unabashed automotive freak, has admirably filled this slot. His columns, mainly in The Times of India, have not always been good, but they have been informed and informative -- necessary even.

Now, 85 of these have been collected and published as a book. A pity. Columns don't always make for books. And one on cars is not always a mirror that, unlike a commentary on political economy, can endure beyond a time-frame. It is a reference, a guide, a critique, a suggestion, a review. Many of Baig's columns have been all that and more. If you read the one this week or the next, they will strike you as authoritative, if sometimes rambling, but written by a person who cares passionately about cars and wishes others would too. But for a layperson, to pay money and buy a book and read a column that says, "Milestones of India's Auto Industry. 1898: The first car on India's roads, probably a Peugeot", or in 1998, read a piece titled "Cielo -- India's first prestige car", outdated by years, is pointless. This is a vanity publication. If you are a Friend Of Baig, buy it. If you're anybody else, read his columns. You'll get a lot more out of them.

AUTHORSPEAK: GEORGE GHEVERGHESE JOSEPH

Multi-cultural Crusader
An anti-racial theory on maths becomes controversial
By M G Radhkrishnan

George Gheverghese Joseph, 59, is not a name known to many people. But silently and with rare determination, the author has been making waves in the West with his acclaimed book, The Crest of the Peacock (Penguin, 1987), which focuses on the anti-racial theory of mathematics. "By non-racist maths, we mean that the curriculum must recognise that all cultures engage in mathematical activities and no single one has a monopoly," says Joseph, who was recently on a tour to his native Kerala. His book brings out in detail the magnificent heritage of non-western mathematics. "The utterly baseless presumption that Europe was the source of all knowledge had provided the rationale for its dominance of the rest of the world," he says. The author lists a host of examples -- for instance, the theory of Pythagoras -- to illustrate the non-European origins of scientific and mathematic theories attributed to western scholars.
After the Crest of the Peacock came Multi-cultural Mathematics (OUP). "Things have changed in the British education system since the '60s," says Joseph. "And I would not call them racist now." The author speaks from experience, having been both a student and then a teacher in the University of Manchester. Strangely, according to him, the last bastions of Euro-centrist education today appear in former colonies like India. Nevertheless, Joseph also warns against the dangers posed by revivalist forces in these countries to replace the system with equally fallacious theories of Indo-centric or Islam-centric systems.
The author, an orthodox Syrian Christian, has started work on a biography of his grandfather George Joseph, the long-time associate of the Mahatma, who had been editor of Motilal Nehru's Independent and of Young India while Gandhi was in prison. "He was probably the first Indian Christian to have actively joined the nationalist movement at a time when the community had been opposing the movement." The book, tentatively titled The Giant Without Footprints and to be published by the end of the year, will explore George Joseph's many facets including his differences with Gandhi and Nehru. With Gheverghese Joseph's deep understanding of history, he can be expected to make a smooth transition from writing on multi-cultural mathematics to holding forth on the complexities of the freedom movement.

February 2, 1998