RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE MONTH- OCTOBER
History is not all about textbooks. It is Literature and Cinema that make history more interesting and appeals to a larger number of people. Here are some recommendations, movies and books that you should see and read.
5 Movies on American Revolution by MEGHNA PATHAK
1) American Patriot
There are two stories running parallel to each other in this movie; the colonist fighting a war for independence from Great Britain, and a war between the two main characters; Benjamin Martin, a widowed colonial farmer raising seven children, and Colonel William Tavington, the leader of a British unit called the Green Dragoons. The year and setting for the movie is 1776 in South Carolina.
2) Sons of Liberty
The movie talks about the contribution of Haym Salomon to the success of the American Revolution. Salomon was one of the principal financiers of the colonists' fight for freedom. Haym Solomon was a Spanish and Portuguese Jew who immigrated to New York from Poland to become an American patriot and financier of the American Revolution.
3) The Patriot
It is 1776 in colonial South Carolina. Benjamin Martin, a French-Indian war hero who is haunted by his past, now wants nothing more than to live peacefully on his small plantation, and wants no part of a war with the most powerful nation in the world, Great Britain. Meanwhile, his two eldest sons, Gabriel and Thomas, can't wait to enlist in the newly formed "Continental Army." When South Carolina decides to join the rebellion against England, Gabriel immediately signs up to fight...without his father's permission. But when Colonel William Tavington, British dragoon, infamous for his brutal tactics, comes and burns the Martin Plantation to the ground, tragedy strikes. Benjamin quickly finds himself torn between protecting his family, and seeking revenge along with being a part of the birth of new, young, and ambitious nation.
4) Revolution
New York trapper Tom Dobb becomes an unwilling participant in the American Revolution after his son Ned is drafted into the Army by the villainous Sergeant Major Peasy. Tom attempts to find his son, and eventually becomes convinced that he must take a stand and fight for the freedom of the Colonies, alongside the aristocratic rebel Daisy McConnahay. As Tom undergoes his change of heart, the events of the war unfold in large-scale grandeur.
5) Last of the Mohicans
The story is about a dying tribe called the Mohicans in which only two are left as well as one adopted white man. These three men refuse to enter the militia for Britain in 1757 for they want freedom. On their way to Kentucky, they intercept Indians attacking a small regiment of British including the two daughters of an British Colonel on their way to a fort. The three men lead the survivors to the fort while two love stories take place but the French and Indian War continues.
1) American Patriot
There are two stories running parallel to each other in this movie; the colonist fighting a war for independence from Great Britain, and a war between the two main characters; Benjamin Martin, a widowed colonial farmer raising seven children, and Colonel William Tavington, the leader of a British unit called the Green Dragoons. The year and setting for the movie is 1776 in South Carolina.
2) Sons of Liberty
The movie talks about the contribution of Haym Salomon to the success of the American Revolution. Salomon was one of the principal financiers of the colonists' fight for freedom. Haym Solomon was a Spanish and Portuguese Jew who immigrated to New York from Poland to become an American patriot and financier of the American Revolution.
3) The Patriot
It is 1776 in colonial South Carolina. Benjamin Martin, a French-Indian war hero who is haunted by his past, now wants nothing more than to live peacefully on his small plantation, and wants no part of a war with the most powerful nation in the world, Great Britain. Meanwhile, his two eldest sons, Gabriel and Thomas, can't wait to enlist in the newly formed "Continental Army." When South Carolina decides to join the rebellion against England, Gabriel immediately signs up to fight...without his father's permission. But when Colonel William Tavington, British dragoon, infamous for his brutal tactics, comes and burns the Martin Plantation to the ground, tragedy strikes. Benjamin quickly finds himself torn between protecting his family, and seeking revenge along with being a part of the birth of new, young, and ambitious nation.
4) Revolution
New York trapper Tom Dobb becomes an unwilling participant in the American Revolution after his son Ned is drafted into the Army by the villainous Sergeant Major Peasy. Tom attempts to find his son, and eventually becomes convinced that he must take a stand and fight for the freedom of the Colonies, alongside the aristocratic rebel Daisy McConnahay. As Tom undergoes his change of heart, the events of the war unfold in large-scale grandeur.
5) Last of the Mohicans
The story is about a dying tribe called the Mohicans in which only two are left as well as one adopted white man. These three men refuse to enter the militia for Britain in 1757 for they want freedom. On their way to Kentucky, they intercept Indians attacking a small regiment of British including the two daughters of an British Colonel on their way to a fort. The three men lead the survivors to the fort while two love stories take place but the French and Indian War continues.
Books: Russian Literature Novels by MEGHNA PATHAK, II YEAR
1) The Idiot: By Fyodor Dostoyevsky Returning to Russia from a sanitarium in Switzerland, the Christ-like epileptic Prince Myshkin finds himself enmeshed in a tangle of love, torn between two women—the notorious kept woman Nastasya and the pure Aglaia—both involved, in turn, with the corrupt, money-hungry Ganya. In the end, Myshkin’s honesty, goodness, and integrity are shown to be unequal to the moral emptiness of those around him.
2) Crime and Punishment: By Fyodor Dostoyevsky The talented Alex Jennings creates an atmosphere of gripping psychological tension and brings a variety of characters to life in this new audio edition of a crime classic. When the student Raskolnikov puts his philosophical theory to the ultimate test of murder, a tragic tale of suffering and redemption unfolds in the dismal setting of the slums of czarist, prerevolutionary St. Petersburg. Through the story of the brilliant but conflicted young Raskolnikov and the murder he commits, Fyodor Dostoevsky explores the theme of redemption through suffering.
3) Death of Ivan Ilyich/ Master and Man:
By Leo Tolstoy This book combines Tolstoy’s most famous short tale, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, with a less well known but equally brilliant gem, Master and Man. Both stories confront death and the process of dying: In Ivan Ilyich, a bureaucrat looks back over his life, which suddenly seems meaningless and wasteful, while in Master and Man, a landowner and servant must each confront the value of the other as they brave a devastating snowstorm. The quintessential Tolstoyan themes of mortality, spiritual redemption, and life’s meaning are nowhere more movingly and deftly explored than in these two tales.
4) Warsaw 1920
Lenin’s failed Conquest of Europe: By Adam Zamoyski The dramatic and little-known story of how, in the summer of 1920, Lenin came within a hair's breadth of shattering the painstakingly constructed Versailles peace settlement and spreading Bolshevism to Western Europe. In 1920 the new Soviet state was a mess, following a brutal civil war, and the best way of ensuring its survival appeared to be to export the revolution to Germany, itself economically ruined by defeat in World War I and racked by internal political dissension. Between Russia and Germany lay Poland, a nation that had only just recovered its independence after more than a century of foreign oppression. But it was economically and militarily weak and its misguided offensive to liberate the Ukraine in the spring of 1920 laid it open to attack. Egged on by Trotsky, Lenin launched a massive westward advance under the flamboyant Marshal Tukhachevsky. All that Great Britain and France had fought for over four years now seemed at risk. By the middle of August the Russians were only a few kilometers from Warsaw, and Berlin was less than a week's march away. Then occurred the 'Miracle of the Vistula': the Polish army led by Jozef Pilsudski regrouped and achieved one of the most decisive victories in military history. As a result, the Versailles peace settlement survived, and Lenin was forced to settle for Communism in one country. The battle for Warsaw bought Europe nearly two decades of peace, and communism remained a mainly Russian phenomenon, subsuming many of the autocratic and Byzantine characteristics of Russia's tsarist tradition.
5) One day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich:
By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union.
Sourced and compiled from: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/17853.Greatest_Russian_Novels_of_All_Time
1) The Idiot: By Fyodor Dostoyevsky Returning to Russia from a sanitarium in Switzerland, the Christ-like epileptic Prince Myshkin finds himself enmeshed in a tangle of love, torn between two women—the notorious kept woman Nastasya and the pure Aglaia—both involved, in turn, with the corrupt, money-hungry Ganya. In the end, Myshkin’s honesty, goodness, and integrity are shown to be unequal to the moral emptiness of those around him.
2) Crime and Punishment: By Fyodor Dostoyevsky The talented Alex Jennings creates an atmosphere of gripping psychological tension and brings a variety of characters to life in this new audio edition of a crime classic. When the student Raskolnikov puts his philosophical theory to the ultimate test of murder, a tragic tale of suffering and redemption unfolds in the dismal setting of the slums of czarist, prerevolutionary St. Petersburg. Through the story of the brilliant but conflicted young Raskolnikov and the murder he commits, Fyodor Dostoevsky explores the theme of redemption through suffering.
3) Death of Ivan Ilyich/ Master and Man:
By Leo Tolstoy This book combines Tolstoy’s most famous short tale, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, with a less well known but equally brilliant gem, Master and Man. Both stories confront death and the process of dying: In Ivan Ilyich, a bureaucrat looks back over his life, which suddenly seems meaningless and wasteful, while in Master and Man, a landowner and servant must each confront the value of the other as they brave a devastating snowstorm. The quintessential Tolstoyan themes of mortality, spiritual redemption, and life’s meaning are nowhere more movingly and deftly explored than in these two tales.
4) Warsaw 1920
Lenin’s failed Conquest of Europe: By Adam Zamoyski The dramatic and little-known story of how, in the summer of 1920, Lenin came within a hair's breadth of shattering the painstakingly constructed Versailles peace settlement and spreading Bolshevism to Western Europe. In 1920 the new Soviet state was a mess, following a brutal civil war, and the best way of ensuring its survival appeared to be to export the revolution to Germany, itself economically ruined by defeat in World War I and racked by internal political dissension. Between Russia and Germany lay Poland, a nation that had only just recovered its independence after more than a century of foreign oppression. But it was economically and militarily weak and its misguided offensive to liberate the Ukraine in the spring of 1920 laid it open to attack. Egged on by Trotsky, Lenin launched a massive westward advance under the flamboyant Marshal Tukhachevsky. All that Great Britain and France had fought for over four years now seemed at risk. By the middle of August the Russians were only a few kilometers from Warsaw, and Berlin was less than a week's march away. Then occurred the 'Miracle of the Vistula': the Polish army led by Jozef Pilsudski regrouped and achieved one of the most decisive victories in military history. As a result, the Versailles peace settlement survived, and Lenin was forced to settle for Communism in one country. The battle for Warsaw bought Europe nearly two decades of peace, and communism remained a mainly Russian phenomenon, subsuming many of the autocratic and Byzantine characteristics of Russia's tsarist tradition.
5) One day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich:
By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union.
Sourced and compiled from: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/17853.Greatest_Russian_Novels_of_All_Time
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE MONTH- SEPTEMBER
MOVIES:
1. Ben Hur
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic historical drama film set in ancient Rome, directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd,Jack Hawkins, Hugh Griffith and Haya Harareet. It won a record 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, an accomplishment that was not equalled until Titanic in 1997 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003.A remake of the 1925 silent film with the same name, Ben Hur was adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The motion picture was the most expensive ever made at the time, and its sets were the largest yet built for a film. The picture contains a nine-minute chariot race which has become one of the most famous sequences in cinema. The score composed by Miklós Rózsa was highly influential on cinema for more than 15 years, and is the longest ever composed for a motion picture.
2. To kill a mocking bird
Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice. Based on Harper Lee's classic novel (which is often assigned to kids in junior high school), TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is set in a small Alabama town in the 1930s and follows the story of the Finch family -- 6-year-old Scout (Mary Badham), her older brother Jem (Philip Alford), and their widowed lawyer father Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck). Two parallel story lines follow Atticus' difficult decision to defend a black man who has been accused of raping a white woman, and the two young Finches' fascination with their mysterious -- and rumored to be dangerous -- recluse neighbor, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall). Atticus and his children face disapproval and worse from those who believe the accused is guilty, with or without a trial. And Scout and Jem discover that someone is leaving strange little gifts for them in a tree near their home
3. Battle of Algiers
The Battle of Algiers (Italian: La battaglia di Algeri; Arabic: معركة الجزائر; French: La Bataille d'Alger) is a 1966 war film based on occurrences during the Algerian War (1954–62) against The French Government in North Africa, the most prominent being the titular Battle of Algiers. It was directed byGillo Pontecorvo. The film has been critically celebrated and often taken, by insurgent groups and states alike, as an important commentary on urban guerilla warfare. It occupies the 120th place on Empire Magazine's list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.[1] Algeria was eventually liberated from the French, but Pontecorvo relegates that to an epilogue. He concentrates instead on the years between 1954 and 1957 when the guerrilla fighters regrouped and expanded into the casbah, only to face a systematic attempt by French paratroopers to wipe them out. His highly dramatic film is about the organisation of a guerrilla movement and the methods used to annihilate it by the colonial power.
4. Shawshank Redemption
Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency. The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spends nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover despite his claims of innocence. During his time at the prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, and finds himself protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money laundering operation.Despite a lukewarm box office reception that barely recouped its budget, the film received favorable reviews from critics, multiple award nominations, and has since enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. It was included in the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movies 10th Anniversary Edition.
5. Do Bigha Zameen
The story revolves around a farmer Shambu Mahato (Balraj Sahni), who lives with his wife Parvati `Paro’ (Nirupa Roy) and son Kanhaiya (Rattan Kumar) in a small village that has been hit badly by a famine. After years of drought, the region finally gets rain, leading to the farmers to rejoice. Shambu owns two bighas (a unit of land measurement where 3 bighas is 1 acre) of land, which is the only means of livelihood for the whole family. The local zamindar (landlord) Thakur Harnam Singh (Murad) partners with some city business men to construct a mill on his large parcel of land, which in return would profit them and bring prosperity to the village. The only problem is that in the middle of Harnam singh's land lay Shambu's meager two bighas of land. Directed by Bimal Roy, it was the first film to win Filmfare award and first indian film to win an international prize at Cannes Film Festival.
MOVIES:
1. Ben Hur
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic historical drama film set in ancient Rome, directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd,Jack Hawkins, Hugh Griffith and Haya Harareet. It won a record 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, an accomplishment that was not equalled until Titanic in 1997 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003.A remake of the 1925 silent film with the same name, Ben Hur was adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The motion picture was the most expensive ever made at the time, and its sets were the largest yet built for a film. The picture contains a nine-minute chariot race which has become one of the most famous sequences in cinema. The score composed by Miklós Rózsa was highly influential on cinema for more than 15 years, and is the longest ever composed for a motion picture.
2. To kill a mocking bird
Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice. Based on Harper Lee's classic novel (which is often assigned to kids in junior high school), TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is set in a small Alabama town in the 1930s and follows the story of the Finch family -- 6-year-old Scout (Mary Badham), her older brother Jem (Philip Alford), and their widowed lawyer father Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck). Two parallel story lines follow Atticus' difficult decision to defend a black man who has been accused of raping a white woman, and the two young Finches' fascination with their mysterious -- and rumored to be dangerous -- recluse neighbor, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall). Atticus and his children face disapproval and worse from those who believe the accused is guilty, with or without a trial. And Scout and Jem discover that someone is leaving strange little gifts for them in a tree near their home
3. Battle of Algiers
The Battle of Algiers (Italian: La battaglia di Algeri; Arabic: معركة الجزائر; French: La Bataille d'Alger) is a 1966 war film based on occurrences during the Algerian War (1954–62) against The French Government in North Africa, the most prominent being the titular Battle of Algiers. It was directed byGillo Pontecorvo. The film has been critically celebrated and often taken, by insurgent groups and states alike, as an important commentary on urban guerilla warfare. It occupies the 120th place on Empire Magazine's list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.[1] Algeria was eventually liberated from the French, but Pontecorvo relegates that to an epilogue. He concentrates instead on the years between 1954 and 1957 when the guerrilla fighters regrouped and expanded into the casbah, only to face a systematic attempt by French paratroopers to wipe them out. His highly dramatic film is about the organisation of a guerrilla movement and the methods used to annihilate it by the colonial power.
4. Shawshank Redemption
Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency. The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spends nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover despite his claims of innocence. During his time at the prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, and finds himself protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money laundering operation.Despite a lukewarm box office reception that barely recouped its budget, the film received favorable reviews from critics, multiple award nominations, and has since enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. It was included in the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movies 10th Anniversary Edition.
5. Do Bigha Zameen
The story revolves around a farmer Shambu Mahato (Balraj Sahni), who lives with his wife Parvati `Paro’ (Nirupa Roy) and son Kanhaiya (Rattan Kumar) in a small village that has been hit badly by a famine. After years of drought, the region finally gets rain, leading to the farmers to rejoice. Shambu owns two bighas (a unit of land measurement where 3 bighas is 1 acre) of land, which is the only means of livelihood for the whole family. The local zamindar (landlord) Thakur Harnam Singh (Murad) partners with some city business men to construct a mill on his large parcel of land, which in return would profit them and bring prosperity to the village. The only problem is that in the middle of Harnam singh's land lay Shambu's meager two bighas of land. Directed by Bimal Roy, it was the first film to win Filmfare award and first indian film to win an international prize at Cannes Film Festival.
BOOKS
1. India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
written by Ramchandra Guha, the book narrates history of Indian nation after it gained independence from the British. It was chosen as Book of the Year by The Economist and also won the 2011 Sahitya Akademi Award for English. Amagisterial account of the pains, the struggles, the humiliations, and the glories of the world's largest and least likely democracy, Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi is a breathtaking chronicle of the brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation and the extraordinary factors that have held it together. An intricately researched and elegantly written epic history peopled with larger-than-life characters, it is the work of a major scholar at the peak of his abilities.
2. Mayflower:
A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick explores the first fifty-five years of the Pilgrims' life in the New World. Philbrick particularly focuses on the social and economic relationships between the English and their Native American neighbors. The two groups evolve from distrust to a cooperative alliance to a bloody war within this short time frame. Their actions and beliefs would shape the development and structure of the country that would become the United States. Philbrick traces this history from the Pilgrims' departure from England to the death of Philip, the Pokanoket leader, in King Philip's War.
3. A wonder that was India
This book, The Wonder That was India, was written in 1958 by a British historian A. L. Basham. It traces the history of India from the ancient times to just before the arrival of the Muslim invaders. This book is comprehensive in its coverage of Indian history. It looks at every aspect of Indian society and culture. The Wonder That was India covers everything from religion, governance, social evolution, literary traditions, philosophy languages, and science.
4. Sea of poppies
The novel, Sea of Poppies, is first book of the trilogy Ibis and has been written by the Indian author, Amitav Ghosh. The novel deals with life in Calcutta and on the banks of river Ganga preceding the Opium Wars. This novel earned a Man Booker Prize nomination for the author. The book Sea of Poppies is set in the 1830s earlier to the Opium wars and involves the lives of Deeti who is a common villager, Zachary Reid who is an American sailor, an opium trader Benjamin Bumham, Paulette who is a French orphan, and a zamindar named Neel Rattan Halder.
5. Indian Summer
The stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, liberated 400 million people from the British Empire. With the loss of India, its greatest colony, Britain ceased to be a superpower, and its king ceased to sign himself Rex Imperator. Behind the scenes, a secret personal drama was also unfolding, as Edwina Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru began a passionate love affair. Their romance developed alongside Cold War conspiracies, the beginning of a terrible conflict in Kashmir, and an epic sweep of events that saw one million people killed and ten million dispossessed. Steeped in the private papers and reflections of the participants,Indian Summer reveals, in vivid, exhilarating detail, how the actions of a few extraordinary people changed the lives of millions and determined the fate of nations.
1. India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
written by Ramchandra Guha, the book narrates history of Indian nation after it gained independence from the British. It was chosen as Book of the Year by The Economist and also won the 2011 Sahitya Akademi Award for English. Amagisterial account of the pains, the struggles, the humiliations, and the glories of the world's largest and least likely democracy, Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi is a breathtaking chronicle of the brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation and the extraordinary factors that have held it together. An intricately researched and elegantly written epic history peopled with larger-than-life characters, it is the work of a major scholar at the peak of his abilities.
2. Mayflower:
A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick explores the first fifty-five years of the Pilgrims' life in the New World. Philbrick particularly focuses on the social and economic relationships between the English and their Native American neighbors. The two groups evolve from distrust to a cooperative alliance to a bloody war within this short time frame. Their actions and beliefs would shape the development and structure of the country that would become the United States. Philbrick traces this history from the Pilgrims' departure from England to the death of Philip, the Pokanoket leader, in King Philip's War.
3. A wonder that was India
This book, The Wonder That was India, was written in 1958 by a British historian A. L. Basham. It traces the history of India from the ancient times to just before the arrival of the Muslim invaders. This book is comprehensive in its coverage of Indian history. It looks at every aspect of Indian society and culture. The Wonder That was India covers everything from religion, governance, social evolution, literary traditions, philosophy languages, and science.
4. Sea of poppies
The novel, Sea of Poppies, is first book of the trilogy Ibis and has been written by the Indian author, Amitav Ghosh. The novel deals with life in Calcutta and on the banks of river Ganga preceding the Opium Wars. This novel earned a Man Booker Prize nomination for the author. The book Sea of Poppies is set in the 1830s earlier to the Opium wars and involves the lives of Deeti who is a common villager, Zachary Reid who is an American sailor, an opium trader Benjamin Bumham, Paulette who is a French orphan, and a zamindar named Neel Rattan Halder.
5. Indian Summer
The stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, liberated 400 million people from the British Empire. With the loss of India, its greatest colony, Britain ceased to be a superpower, and its king ceased to sign himself Rex Imperator. Behind the scenes, a secret personal drama was also unfolding, as Edwina Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru began a passionate love affair. Their romance developed alongside Cold War conspiracies, the beginning of a terrible conflict in Kashmir, and an epic sweep of events that saw one million people killed and ten million dispossessed. Steeped in the private papers and reflections of the participants,Indian Summer reveals, in vivid, exhilarating detail, how the actions of a few extraordinary people changed the lives of millions and determined the fate of nations.