Book details

Temptations of the West

How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond

Author: Pankaj Mishra

Temptations of the West

Temptations of the West

$11.99

About This Book

A vivid, often surprising account of South Asia today by the author of An End to Suffering


In his new book, Pankaj Mishra brings literary authority and...

Page Count
336
Genre
On Sale
06/12/2007

Book Details

A vivid, often surprising account of South Asia today by the author of An End to Suffering


In his new book, Pankaj Mishra brings literary authority and political insight to bear on travels that are at once epic and personal. Traveling in the changing cultures of South Asia, Mishra sees the pressures—the temptations—of Western-style modernity and prosperity, and teases out the paradoxes of globalization. A
visit to Allahabad, birthplace of Jawaharlal Nehru, occasions a brief history of the tumultuous post-independence politics Nehru set in motion. In Kashmir, just after the brutal killing of thirtyfive Sikhs, Mishra sees Muslim guerrillas playing with Sikh village children while the media ponder a (largely irrelevant) visit by President Clinton. And in Tibet Mishra exquisitely parses the situation whereby the Chinese government—officially atheist and strongly opposed to a free Tibet—has discovered that Tibetan Buddhism can "be packaged and sold to tourists."
Temptations of the West is a book concerned with history still in the making—essential reading about a conflicted and rapidly changing region.

Imprint Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

ISBN

9781429954648

In The News

“Mishra's book is in the best tradition of Buddhism, both dispassionate and deeply engaged, complicated and simple, erudite and profoundly human.” —Adam Goodheart, The New York Times Book Review on An to Suffering

About the Creators

Temptations of the West

Temptations of the West

$11.99