Lett's analysis is rather superficial, and ultimately, not satisfactory.

Tunku Vardarajan in the India today says, India: a Mosaic is a con job. The word "mosaic" suggests a variety in the book. Instead the book talks about "bleeding-hearted" essays. According to him, the articles in the book were published elsewhere and are "profoundly stale." From my reading of the book i found the book to be a "do not buy."

While reading the introduction I came to realize that this author does not understand the essence of any of the world's religions. Throughout the entire piece, he compares and contrasts Hinduism with a composite "religious category" entitled "Judeo/Islamic/Christain" religion. He protrays this category as being less of value when compared in Hinduism (states basically nothing positive through the entire book about this "category"). Also, these three religions are VERY different, hence, they are three different religions. For instance, he states that this category believes that "heaven" is for "saved souls" , etc. - which is only the composite "Christain" way of viewing "heaven". Jews do not get "saved" at all let alone believe in such a "heaven", etc. This books also has warped versions of the myths and then presents warped essays about the meaning of these myths. Because I know a great deal about this lovely religion I could ignore the mistakes and have learned through his use of wonderful visuals (Hence 2 stars not 1). But I do not recommend individuals who are new to this religion to read this book though - anything by David R. Kinsley and John Keay ( Indian Historian ) is wonderful.

The book has some excellent articles by the archaeologists but, on the other hand, it has a rehash of the failed philological theories regarding the Indian linguistic area. Overall a very uneven package where the editor raises some good questions in the beginning but soon after lapses back to old ways of thinking.

Ths book will best be appreciated by fans of deconstructionism. Really an essay on the philosophy of power, expropriation, and image, this book took a potentially riveting topic, with ample documentation, and presented it in a dreary way. The opportunities to make this an enlightening delight were thrown away, presumably in the name of academic rigor. The use of figures is excellent, although an inadequate relief from the relentlessly scholastic text. Author Matthew Edney debates Edward Said, et al, in the precise role map-making had in the subjugation of peoples. Both Said and Edney agree that self-delusion was a by-product of colonial research; Edney argues that the Britons were less successful as researcher-controllers than Said might claim, because of imperfect understanding. This is silly: the economic motivations for colonizing India are obvious; if you want to colonize a place, you need excellent maps. Edney spends 450pages ignoring that, and probing instead European fixations on gathering knowlege as if it were a category of penis-envy. Accounts of early geodesy and cartography are mostly bureacratic; there's very little science here. Unfortunately, this wonderful topic will need to wait for a better book.

Seemed promising, but very disappointing. Very british perspective-- what about Panjabi view points?

The book starts off weak but I continued reading since I'm fairly open minded regarding most writing styles. I wanted to give the author as much lateral movement as possible but I found this book to be poorly written. Early on the author exposes his political biases with statements such as "Sikh capitalist Farmers" and states that they were largely responsible for the Punjab problem.

Since the author is a professor at Simon Fraser University my expectations were needlessly raised with respect to an objective perspective of the "Punjab Problem". I was disappointed because there was little research or analysis evident in this book, statements like "dangerous alliance of 'Godmen' and 'Goons'" goes against the standards of academic objectiveness. The war for independence in Punjab as any conflict is a complex one, combining all of the following; religion, economics and divergent political objectives. This book falls under the "Publish or Parish" umbrella where Professors all over the world are forced to churn out endless volumes that serve no useful purpose.

The best book I've come across regarding the unrest in Punjab has been "Fighting for Faith and Nation Dialogues with Sikh Militants by Cynthia Keppley Mahmood". I disagree with some of her conclusions but it is well researched and thought provoking, as I thought the current book I'm reviewing should have been. I purchased "Fighting for Faith and Nation Dialogues with Sikh Militants" a few years ago online through Amazon so it might still be available or you should at least be able to pick up a used copy. If you still want to buy "Sikh Ethnonationalism and the Political Economy of the Punjab" save your money, you can have mine I'm willing to give it to you for free." Happy Reading.

The worst book ever written on India. If you already knew something about India, you'd see Crossette hadn't a clue what she was talking about. If you knew nothing about India, you'd learn nothing about it by reading her book, either. A gem from this book: Indians don't play American football, tennis or baseball, so they do not like sports. No, I am not making this up. Apparently, she has not heard of the cricket fanaticism in India. -by Philip Oldenberg, professor at UC Berkeley

It is hard to find 1 positive sentence in every 500(make it 1000) sentences in the book written about a country famous for love, peace and believer of simple life.

But belive me, If you are an Indian (and preferably hindu), after reading the book full of bashing India and Hinduism, You would become more patriotic and assert more strongly on Hinduism. Probably that would be the biggest disappointment to the author.

True, there are flaws in anything and everything in world. But the author seems to have faced some bad incedence during her stay in india. May be that is why the book had to carry so much bad of India. All most all lines are interestingly sarcastic(but readable) throughout and positive aspects are cleverly and intentionally ignored on every issue touched.

Marriages lasting incredibly longer in India are not appreciated much. So is India's friendship with Russia, and India not giving into Amerika. Shiny Abraham missing international games due to her preganancy is something the author doesn't approve of. The most popular game CRICKET has no place in the book having a special chapter 'Play Fields of India'. Forget about the best batsman and bowler of world that India has produced in cricket. So also are chess and Billiards. The NRIs are considerred as people extracting professional satisfaction without personal commitment to their adopted countries.

How ever unfortunately some of things presented are TRUE. Indians should not mind accepting them. This book (almost absolutely anti India) gives a chance to Indians to rethink their system full of corruption and all those dirty things.

Everything is seen in Amerikan eye and mind. Hence strong mockery/criticisation of Indian foreign policy. And top of all - the bad hindu India. The book is too much of criticising, to change India if at all the author intended to.

If you wish to read about India from someone who hates it, this is the book.

The issue the book takes up is extremely interesting, and though the name suggested a strong bias I hoped for the book to have some factual value, I was dissapointed. The book is highly biased and one sided, and some of the facts are dubious at best.