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Indian Express
12 hours ago
- General
- Indian Express
‘Earliest Indians were migrants…India has been connected to the world from the very beginning,' says historian Audrey Truschke
A quarter of humanity today is made up of South Asians, and for the rest of the world, their lives are constantly being shaped by South Asian culture—be it through films, spices, yoga or religion. US-based historian Audrey Truschke begins her monumental work tracing 5,000 years of Indian history with this crucial reminder to her readers about the impact the subcontinent has made upon the globe for millennia. Truschke's India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent (published by the Princeton University Press) begins with the much-discussed and debated Indus Civilisation, and goes right up till the post-Independence period, including the caste wars of the 1990s and the rise of the Hindu right. Throughout her re-telling of Indian history, Truschke reminds her readers of the vital connections that India has maintained with the world from the very beginning of its existence, through migration, trade and cultural exports. The earliest of Indians, as she reveals, were migrants who built the foundations of urban civilisation and shaped the oldest literary tradition of the region in the form of the Vedas. She also underlines the necessity of understanding the past of the subcontinent through the lens of the marginalised, particularly through the voices of women and the oppressed castes. In an interview with Truschke talks about her findings of the Indus Civilisation, the use of literature written by women to tell the story of Buddhism, as well as the dark side of the history of Hindu nationalism. Excerpts from the interview: Q. Your book title suggests that it is about 5,000 years of Indian history. How and why did you decide on this specific number? Audrey Truschke: For the last century, the conventional beginning of Indian history has been about 4,600 years ago with the Indus Civilisation. That is where I begin my narrative. We rounded up for the title, because publishers like round numbers, so that is where the 5,000 comes from. I do not adhere to this time frame strictly, however. I do start in earnest with the Indus Civilisation, which began around 2600 BCE. But before that, I give a brief account of how people populated the subcontinent in the first place. And that story goes back 1,20,000 years. Q: Why do you choose to begin with the Indus Civilisation? Truschke: The beginning of Indian history geologically goes back millions of years when the subcontinent was formed; the Himalayas are still rising today from the crashing together of two tectonic plates. Human history in India goes back a more modest 1,20,000 years. I begin the book with recorded human history, devoting attention in earnest first to the Indus Civilisation, which was robust enough that it left behind significant material evidence for us to work with. Not all of the past is recoverable. But history is a positivist discipline. We work with the evidence we have. And so there is no value judgment that the Indus Civilisation was somehow more important than other groups of people doing other things in India around the same time. It is simply that they are the ones for whom we have significant material evidence to reconstruct their lifestyles. Q: We know that there is a lot of politics around the Indus Civilisation lately, with different political parties trying to appropriate it around religious or regional lines. How do you respond to that? Truschke: I think every single political party in India will be disappointed with my take on the Indus Civilisation. I know there is a huge push right now for it to be a Dravidian civilisation. There is no positivist evidence that shows that. It is plausible, but a lot of things are plausible. The bottom line is we don't know much about who the Indus Civilisation people were. We know they built cities. We know how they lived. We know a fair amount about their diet. These are certain things that are recorded in the material and skeletal records. But we don't fundamentally know who they were, except that they were from northwestern India. That was a long time ago, and we really don't know how the Indus people map onto modern linguistic, political, and ethnic groups. For those who are making modern political claims, that comes with all the limits of political claims. But insofar as some people are trying to make a historical claim, they need to be a little bit more realistic about the evidence. Q: There is a section in your book where you speak about the first Indians. Could you elaborate a bit on who the first Indians were? Truschke: I am taking from Tony Joseph there, who has an excellent book called The Early Indians. The first Indians were not actually the first Homo Sapiens to set foot on the Indian subcontinent. That would be the group that came 1,20,000 years ago. But they all died out. About 65,000 years ago, another migrant group came. They came eastwards roughly from Africa and entered the subcontinent, and some of those people survived. They have left behind a genetic lineage that is shared by some, not all, modern Indians. It is especially strong in South India. We call them the first Indians because they are the first ones to make it. Q: You also write that you have included a diverse representation of voices, especially those of women and the oppressed castes, in your telling of Indian history. Could you give a few examples? Truschke: Like many historians right now, I too think it is so important to have a more diverse set of voices when we are looking at the past. The thing is, it is hard because the people who tend to be recorded tend to be members of dominant social groups. In South Asia, that means they tend to be men, they tend to be upper caste, and they tend to be Hindu. I am looking for people who don't fit that bill. I think it is important to find diverse voices to explain key shifts in South Asian history. For example, when I cover the advent of Buddhism about 2,400 years ago, I cite from the Therigatha, which is a collection of poems and hymns by Buddhist women, collected in the early centuries BCE. Later on, I bring in female voices, for example, when I talk about the Hindu reform movements and criticisms of Hinduism that arose in the 19th century. I do talk about some of the men, such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Vivekananda, but I also talk about Pandita Ramabai, a Brahmin woman who later converted to Christianity. It is harder to bring in voices from the oppressed castes. From ancient India, for instance, we have very little to nothing that was actually written by Shudras and Dalits. It is not until later that we get texts authored by Shudras and Dalits, but I at least try to bring in texts about them. For example, I have a section where I am talking about caste in the 17th century, and I talk about some Shudra kings. I also print part of a Telugu drama written around 1700 CE. It is written by an upper caste individual, but it depicts a Brahmin in a very poor light. It depicts this Brahmin who is lusting after a Dalit woman and is abusing his Brahmanical privilege. He cites Sanskrit verses to her and plays with religion to try to lure the Dalit woman. This is not a Dalit voice, but at least it is a Dalit character. You work with what you have for the historical evidence. There is no getting around the fact that dominant groups are better represented in the South Asian historical record. That is true of all histories in all parts of the world, but that does not absolve historians of doing the hard work of trying to recover what we can, both about and from the perspective of less-discussed, less-represented groups. Q: You also write that India, throughout its ancient and medieval history, has had global connections. Could you elaborate on some of the key historical moments when India's connections with the world were of key importance? Truschke: India has been connected to the world from the beginning and throughout. How people get to India is a story of repeated migrations. The Indus Valley Civilisation had extensive trade connections with Mesopotamia and, possibly through Mesopotamia, with ancient Egypt. The people belonging to Vedic society, which was founded and flourished after the Indus Civilisation, were also migrants. They came from outside into northwestern India and composed the Vedas. The Vedas are an Indian composition, but the language group of that community does have roots from outside originally. People, things, and ideas also left the subcontinent. And South Asia then has some remarkable cultural exports starting in the few centuries before the turn of the CE era. Of course, Buddhism is probably the most well-known one, which travelled both on the sea trade routes and along the Silk Roads, surviving ultimately largely outside of the subcontinent. There are also stories, such as the Panchatantra, and games like chess and Parcheesi that are still popular across the West today. Then there is Sanskrit that travels east to Southeast Asia. All of this attests to India and the subcontinent more broadly being part of an interconnected world. Q: We know that history in India has become a major topic of debate. How would you say your book addresses the current politics around history in the country? Truschke: Firstly, I think my book is pretty staunchly, openly, and decidedly a non-nationalist history, down to the title. As I say in the introduction, the India that I refer to in the title is not the modern nation state of India. The modern nation state of India was born yesterday from a historian's perspective. It is less than a century old. I use India in the title and throughout most of the book, until the last couple of chapters, in its historic sense of the subcontinent. It is a geographical designation, and it very much includes Bangladesh, Pakistan, and southern parts of Afghanistan. I realise that is going to be a little uncomfortable for a lot of readers who are really used to India being the modern nation state with militarised borders, an army, and a set of nationalist symbols. The second way in which I address nationalism—and I think this will be particularly important for younger readers, under the age of about 30 or 35—is by giving a fair amount of the history of Hindu nationalism. I think Hindu nationalists do not like talking about their own history. There are some dark parts of that history, the Nazi loving stuff, the fascist stuff, the fact that it is largely a European import, and the fact that it was unpopular for most of its existence. Forty years ago, no respectable Indian would touch Hindu nationalism. I think that is very hard to understand if you are 30 years old and living in Hyderabad or Bombay or Delhi or Ahmedabad or wherever, and Hindutva is what you know. My book charts that history, among many other facets of Indian and South Asian histories. Adrija Roychowdhury leads the research section at She writes long features on history, culture and politics. She uses a unique form of journalism to make academic research available and appealing to a wide audience. She has mastered skills of archival research, conducting interviews with historians and social scientists, oral history interviews and secondary research. During her free time she loves to read, especially historical fiction. ... Read More
The Hill
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Supreme Court disclosures detail millions in justices book payments
Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here The Supreme Court justices' annual financial disclosures were released Tuesday, revealing millions of dollars in combined book payments to the justices in 2024. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson took in the most, disclosing a nearly $2.07 million book advance from Penguin Random House, which published her memoir, 'Lovely One,' in September. Jackson received nearly $894,000 the year prior. Jackson has been on a nationwide book tour between court sessions. She reported her publisher reimbursing her for more than a dozen tour stops between the release and Dec. 31. The tour has continued into 2025. Justice Neil Gorsuch, meanwhile, reported just $259.95 in royalties for his 2009 book 'The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia,' published by Princeton University Press. That book has returned similar payouts for the last several years. His 2024 book 'Over Ruled,' published by HarperCollins, brought in $250,000 in royalties. He reported receiving the same amount from the publisher in 2021 and 2023. And Justice Sonia Sotomayor received a $60,000 advance and nearly $74,000 in royalties from Penguin Random House, which has published her series of children's books. Earlier this year, the company announced it was publishing Sotomayor's newest book, 'Just Shine,' in September. Two retired justices also reported book payments. Retired Justice Stephen Breyer, who published a book last year defending his legal pragmatism, reported more than $130,000, while retired Justice Anthony Kennedy received nearly $32,000. Kennedy is one of three justices with known book projects in the works: The justices' book earnings and their tours have come under greater scrutiny in recent years, fueled by a 2023 Associated Press investigation detailing how Sotomayor's staff pushed colleges and a library to purchase copies of her book when she visited. Federal law places a roughly $33,000 cap on the justices' outside income — each of the three Trump-appointed justices brought in just under that amount from teaching engagements last year — but the cap notably does not apply to book royalties. The justices' many books have had ramifications outside their earnings, too. Last month, five justices' recusals forced the court to decline an appeal in a copyright lawsuit against author Ta-Nehisi Coates. That was likely because four of the five justices who recused — Jackson, Gorsuch, Sotomayor and Barrett — have book deals with Penguin Random House, whose parent company Bertelsmann is a party in the case. (If it sounds familiar, that's because we wrote about it in The Gavel.) The book earnings stood out as most interesting in financial disclosures that were otherwise par for the course. While last year's disclosures revealed new rental properties, newly reported trips and even Beyoncé tickets for Jackson — from Beyoncé — this year's disclosures had few revelations. It could signal that the justices have heeded calls to rein in gifts and travel, especially without disclosing it in their annual financial reports. Or, it could just mean the justices had a rather boring year. And we still don't have Justice Samuel Alito's disclosure, as he received a 90-day extension, just like he requested in previous years. Welcome to The Gavel, The Hill's weekly courts newsletter from Ella Lee (elee@ and Zach Schonfeld (zschonfeld@ Email us tips, or reach out to us on X (@ByEllaLee, @ZachASchonfeld) or Signal (elee.03, zachschonfeld.48). E. Jean Carroll's runway For E. Jean Carroll, the courtroom where she took President Trump to trial was one of 'New York's great runways.' In her memoir released Tuesday, 'Not My Type,' Carroll puts fashion at the crux of her chronicle of the two civil jury trials that unfolded in the high-ceilinged, navy-blue-carpeted courtroom where she won nearly $100 million in damages plus interest. Despite no cameras being allowed, Carroll said she took extensive efforts to craft her 'look' for the New Yorkers who would decide whether her claims that Trump sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s were credible. The goal? Convince them that Carroll, now 81, was attractive enough to be Trump's target. 'Whenever I am thinking about the trial and worrying that I am too concerned about how I look, I remember that Trump's defense is 'She's not my type,' and how I look is the very center of the case,' Carroll wrote. Carroll detailed spending more than $600 a day on hair and makeup, bringing on a personal stylist to create her trial outfits and even scheduling plastic surgery before trial only to call it off a couple days beforehand. And her legal team decided that Carroll should cut her hair in a bob, like the one she wore at the time of the assault, after three mock juries agreed something sexual happened in the Bergdorf Goodman dressing room between her and Trump — but believed Carroll had wanted it. 'We demonstrate that when you go to court, forget the facelift, do the hair and makeup,' Carroll wrote. Her chaotic, often-amusing account details the fashion of the trials' other characters, too, particularly that of Alina Habba, one of Trump's personal attorneys who now serves as New Jersey's interim U.S. attorney. Carroll repeatedly emphasizes Habba wore a ring with a diamond as big as a Ritz cracker — Chapter 1 is titled, 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz' — and even complimented the attorney's blue-pantsuit look at the second trial's closing arguments. Carroll always included 'Esq.' after writing Habba's name as an apparent pejorative dig at her legal acumen. 'Alina Habba, Esq. looks so pretty with her dark hair pulled into a low bun—the humble-brag of a beauty!' Carroll wrote. (We can confirm Habba was quite proud of that outfit. In the courtroom that day, she told Zach she had saved the outfit for closings, but she had struggled earlier in the week to come up with new looks since a COVID-19 outbreak meant the trial was dragging on longer than expected.) Carroll also details in the book what she'll do with the money she won. Pledging to make Trump 'very, very mad,' she says she'll be giving most of it to things he 'despises,' like climate and abortion groups. With the humor and wit Carroll's readers have come to expect from the former magazine writer, her memoir grapples with the complicated question that loomed over her case: what does it take to be believed as a woman alleging assault, especially when the accused perpetrator is as powerful as Carroll's? Trump denies Carroll's account. The release of her book comes as her cases heat up again. Last week, the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the jury's verdict from Carroll's first trial. Trump's team vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court next. Meanwhile, a 2nd Circuit panel is expected to rule in the next week on whether Trump's Justice Department can step in for him in the second case, which would mean the federal government, not Trump, would pay the $83.3 million Carroll won. The panel is expected to rule in the lead-up to Tuesday's oral arguments on Trump's appeal of the verdict. Trump mum on clemency as Menendez reports to prison Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) reported to prison Tuesday to begin an 11-year sentence for trading his political clout for lavish bribes, acting as a foreign agent of Egypt and a flurry of other crimes of corruption. Until today, the senator had one last hope to avoid prison: a pardon from Trump. Despite the once-powerful Democrat's apparent overtures to gain the president's sympathy, Trump has remained mum. Menendez made a final public appeal last week. In a winding post to X, now pinned to his profile, he assessed 'how weaponization works' and portrayed himself and Trump as two comrades unfairly targeted by crooked prosecutors bent on making a name for themselves. Weeks earlier, the New Jersey Democrat suggested that his opposition to former President Obama's foreign policy efforts resulted in the federal corruption charges filed against him 2015, which were ultimately dropped after a jury failed to reach a verdict. 'So these experiences, as well as those under the Biden administration, where Obama's influence was still prevalent through his surrogates, lead me to understand why President Trump believes the Justice Department was Weaponized against him and his supporters,' Menendez wrote, slamming the two past presidents to come from his political party. And after a judge handed down his sentence, Menendez uttered four words to reporters that most other Democrats would not: 'President Trump was right.' 'This process is political, and it's corrupted to the core,' Menendez said in January, just days after Trump had returned to the White House. 'I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.' Yet, nothing from Trump, who has not openly ruled out clemency for the ex-senator but also has not endorsed it. Menendez's apparent efforts to earn the president's favor weren't without merit. Other Democrats have made the same bid — and successfully. Such efforts paid off for New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), whose criminal case was dismissed after Trump's Justice Department made the request to a judge following months where the mayor seemed to be cozying up to the president. Plus, at the end of his first term, Trump commuted the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), who was convicted of an array of corruption charges — including attempted extortion of a children's hospital for campaign contributions and trying to sell Obama's Senate seat after he was elected to the White House in 2008 — and sentenced to 14 years in prison. In February, Trump took his clemency one step further and pardoned Blagojevich, as well. The former governor has described himself as a 'Trump-ocrat.' But until Trump decides otherwise, Menendez will serve out his sentence at a federal prison in Pennsylvania, less than three hours from his New Jersey home. The Gavel requested comment from his lawyers Tuesday. The court has 21 opinions left to release this term Mistaken FBI raid lawsuit revived The Supreme Court unanimously revived an Atlanta family's lawsuit seeking damages for a botched FBI raid on their home. However, they put off deciding the legal challenge's ultimate fate. In 2017, federal agents smashed through Trina Martin's front door while executing a search warrant for an alleged violent gang member — but they had the wrong address. A flash-bang grenade startled Martin and her boyfriend at the time out of bed as the agents approached them with guns raised. Her 7-year-old son screamed from another room. She sued over the incident in 2019. But a district court dismissed the suit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld that decision. The justices sent the case back to the 11th Circuit to reconsider whether the lawsuit, which accuses the agents of assault and battery, false arrest and other violations under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), can move forward. School disability claims The Supreme Court unanimously sided with a teenage girl with epilepsy in a ruling that disabled children bringing education discrimination claims do not need to clear a higher legal bar than other plaintiffs suing under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Minnesota teen Ava Tharpe's family sued Osseo Area Schools in Minnesota. In the court's opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged that disabled children face 'daunting challenges on a daily basis.' 'We hold today that those challenges do not include having to satisfy a more stringent standard of proof than other plaintiffs to establish discrimination,' he said. Combat disability payments The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that military retirees with combat-related disabilities are not time-limited to file claims seeking payment. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the statute establishing the combat-related special compensation program displaces the normal six-year window, siding with Navy retiree Steven Soto. 'Where, as here, the statutory scheme involves a small group of particularly deserving claimants, it is not extraordinary to think that Congress wished to forgo a limitations period,' Thomas wrote. IN: Challenge to NJ AG's subpoena to anti-abortion clinics The Supreme Court took up two new cases at its recent conference, both of which we've highlighted in previous editions. In First Choice Women's Resource Centers v. Platkin, the court will review a network of anti-abortion clinics' bid to quash New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin's (D) subpoena seeking donor records. Platkin's office is investigating whether First Choice violated state consumer fraud laws. Lower federal courts ruled First Choice's free speech challenge was not ripe because it could be brought in state court, but the group says it creates a 'Catch-22' scenario that prevents a federal judge from ever reviewing the subpoena's constitutionality. First Choice is represented by the Christian conservative legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The group played a significant role in efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade and regularly notches Supreme Court victories, including recently on behalf of a Christian web designer who wished to refuse making same-sex wedding websites. 'The lower courts have wrongly held that First Choice is relegated to state court to present its constitutional claims. We are looking forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court and urging it to hold that First Choice has the same right to federal court as any other civil rights plaintiff,' ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley said in a statement. Platkin said First Choice has refused to answer questions about its operations for years, defending the subpoena as lawful but stressing the Supreme Court is only considering whether the clinics' have sued prematurely. 'Non-profits, including crisis pregnancy centers, may not deceive or defraud residents in our State, and we may exercise our traditional investigative authority to ensure that they are not doing so—as we do to protect New Jerseyans from a range of harms,' he said in a statement reacting to the news. In the second case, Chevron USA. v. Palequemines Parish, Chevron and Exxon Mobil are seeking to move a lawsuit filed by Louisiana parishes to federal court. The parishes won $745 million in state court earlier this year by holding the companies liable for production of crude oil along the Louisiana coast dating back decades, but the companies say the federal officer removal statute gives them the right to move the case. OUT: Copyright suit against Ed Sheeran The Supreme Court declined to revive a lawsuit against Ed Sheeran that accused the pop star of unlawfully emulating the late Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On' when Sheeran wrote his hit 'Thinking Out Loud.' In Structured Asset Sales v. Sheeran, the court left intact a lower ruling finding that Sheeran isn't liable because Gaye's earlier tune was too mainstream to be legally protected. Petitions to take up cases that the justices are keeping a close eye on. Catch-up In other news Don't be surprised if additional hearings are scheduled throughout the week. But here's what we're watching for now: Today: Thursday: Friday: Monday: Tuesday:
Forbes
04-06-2025
- Science
- Forbes
When The Sahara Was Green By Martin Williams — Review
The fascinating but little-known history of how the Sahara was transformed from a pleasant green and fertile land into the largest hot desert in the world. Green Sahara. (Collage by Kuat Abeshev. Credits for images used in the collage: Photo by David Clode ... More on Unsplash; Photo by Mark Eder on Unsplash; Photo by David Clode on Unsplash.) It is probably unimaginable to most of us to learn that there was a time only 5,000 years ago, when the Sahara was not a desert at all. Instead, it was a green and fertile woodland and vast grassy savannah that hosted a plethora of lakes and rivers, and home to countless dinosaurs that roamed freely across the land. Later, prehistoric hunters and farmers lived in the Sahara alongside a veritable zoo of iconic African wildlife, including elephants, giraffes, hippos, a variety of gazelles, Nile perch, crocodiles, aurochs, Neolithic cattle, turtles, and an enormous collection of large trees and plants. All this, according to earth scientist Martin Williams, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Adelaide and a world authority on climatic and environmental change. In his captivating memoir, When the Sahara Was Green: How Our Greatest Desert Came to Be (Princeton University Press; 2023/2024), Professor Williams shares stories from his lifetime devoted to researching and exploring the Sahara Desert to provide us with a fascinating and readable overview of the surprisingly complex climate and geography of the Sahara. Professor Williams discusses the evidence that supports the answers that scientists know to some very basic questions, including; why was the Sahara previously much wetter than it is now, and will it become wetter again? ('Not for a long time,' p. 180). Did humans contribute to the Sahara's desertification? ('NO!' Pp. 143; 144-145). And where does all that sand come from? (Chapters 5 & 6). Paperback cover: When the Sahara Was Green by Martin Williams (Princeton University Press, ... More 2023/2024). Professor Williams points out that the Sahara Desert isn't actually all sand. Contrary to popular belief, sandy areas comprise only about 20% of the Sahara. Much of the Sahara consists of gravel along with extensive plateaus and – yes – rocky mountains. Divided into three parts, this readable history begins when the supercontinent Gondwana first appeared 7 million years ago, and follows its journey as it broke apart into major land masses: South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Zealandia, Arabia, and the Indian subcontinent. Professor Williams also explores and explains ancient glaciations, historic sea level fluctuations, the geological and climatological reasons for why the Green Sahara dried out and became a desert, and how the very old basement rock underlying Africa still influences what happens on the surface today. Compelling writing and profound knowledge are carefully combined with deep history, decades of field work, personal observations and experiences. In this meticulously researched book, Professor Williams explores a wide variety of topics from the geological and climatic changes that influenced human evolution and created the Sahara as we know it, to modern environmental and political issues that confront us today. Throughout the entire book, Professor Williams' fundamental knowledge of the region's geology, archaeology and ecology makes this book rewarding and fascinating reading. The book includes lots of maps, photographs, drawings and diagrams to illustrate the regions and concepts that Professor Williams discusses in the text. One piece of advice I have is to use sticky notes as bookmarkers for maps 1, 2 and 3 because you will be referring to these maps many times as you read the book. I was perhaps most surprised by all the ancient human artifacts, pottery – some packed with fossilized fruits – arrowheads and other stone tools, and even some fossilized bones from ancient humans as well as the animals they interacted with, just lying on the surface of the sand or gravel. Mind-boggling. The anecdotes and first-hand experiences described herein make for tremendously compelling storytelling, and could only come from someone who has spent his life researching and working in the region. Professor Williams exhibits an astonishing depth and breadth of knowledge throughout the entire book, and is generous with his explanations of the scientific evidence to the reader. The Sahara Desert is a powerful warning of what the entire world is facing and the conclusions the author reaches have far-reaching implications beyond north Africa, especially as climate change progresses ever more rapidly. This important book is highly recommended for everyone interested in environmental history or law, or prehistory, and students of any of the sciences will learn a lot from reading it. © Copyright by GrrlScientist | hosted by Forbes | Socials: Bluesky | CounterSocial | Gab | LinkedIn | Mastodon Science | Spoutible | SubStack | Threads | Tribel | Tumblr | Twitter
Irish Times
30-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
The Greek Revolution and the Violent Birth of Nationalism: A ‘crooked line' leading to war and independence
The Greek Revolution and the Violent Birth of Nationalism Author : Yanni Kotsonis ISBN-13 : 978-069121526 Publisher : Princeton University Press Guideline Price : £30 The bicentenary of the 1821 start of the Greek war of independence from the Ottoman empire has prompted several academic studies, chief of them Mark Mazower's The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe. The war (which continued until 1827) is now referred to as 'the Greek Revolution' because it indicates the creation, on liberal lines, of the first modern state in Europe. Well, almost. The author acknowledges that the 'Septinsular Republic' of the seven principal Ionian islands (1800-1807) was 'the first modern Greek state', even though Greece itself had not yet come into existence, and the islands looked across at a mainland that remained under Turkish rule. Kotsonis excellently details the way that the 'revolution' simmered while the imperial powers of Russia, Britain and France weighed up their territorial options: the war of independence could not have opened if diplomatic conditions had not permitted it. It was a 'crooked line' rather than a straight one, leading directly to war and then independence. The impetus may have come from Greeks in Odesa, but the decisions were made by the great powers, as they were at Vienna in 1815 and Versailles in 1918-19 and, as we see only too horribly today, on the future of Ukraine (where the Greek 'revolution' began!) READ MORE On the nature of 'violence', Kotsonis offers that it was caused, and justified, by the concept of a unified Greek-Christian state whose primary purpose was to defeat and eliminate the Muslim Turk. 'It was a Christian war of liberation from an alien, Oriental power.' [ Old-fashioned Greece has no chance of becoming truly developed Opens in new window ] This seems to explain how Greece became, then and now, the border of Europe and its bastion against immigration, which is largely Muslim. As a historian's argument, this is both simplistic and naive, ignoring as it does the chessboard profile of the Balkans. His story ignores the entire 'Great Idea' (first enunciated in 1844) which aimed to embrace all ethnic Greeks and directly or indirectly caused the Balkan wars of 1912-13 and the disastrous Asia Minor campaign of 1920-22, which humiliated and bankrupted Greece morally and politically. The modern state was created by the fiat of the Russian, British and French empires. The author, although Greek in origin, is a Russian specialist (at New York University) and his bias in this book towards the Russian contribution to Greek independence is overwhelming and at times alarmingly overstated. His assertion that 'Greek independence became a certainty because of Russian arms and diplomatic persistence' is simply unsustainable. One 'Russian' fact is, however, inescapable: the 'revolution' was conceived in Odesa, which, like Taganrog, Nizhyn and Kherson (now fought over by Ukraine and Russia), was originally a Greek city, and remains a matter of concern for diasporic Greece today. Kotsonis's book needs to be read alongside Liberalism after the Revolution: the intellectual foundations of the Greek state c. 1830-1880 by Michalis Sotiropoulos because the emergence of violence and that of liberalism have coincided throughout modern Greek history and have bedevilled the creation of a modern democratic state up to the present day. Kotsonis tells us that 'Solidarity within the elite' had effectively suppressed discontent, which was certainly true of the well-established landowners and tax-gatherers under Ottoman rule of mainland Greece. It remains true of conservative Greece today, and explains the virtual exclusion of the Left from political life. It also explains the continuing presence of discontent and the undercurrent of violence (which frequently breaks the surface) within the Greek state which is, admittedly, not within the scope of this book. In Kotsonis's thesis, war and nationalism were synonymous, but he seems to discount the continuing presence of violence. To refer in his epilogue to Pontic Greeks coming into the new state, without referring to the violence (both physical and mental) which that influx has occasioned, is to limit his argument about how 'violence' exists in the modern state. Kotsonis acknowledges that the consequences of creating the state of Greece 'are still with us' and that the status of modern Greece is 'up for grabs'. He can say that '1821 is a current event' and that 'the Revolution is still with us and there are new stories to be told', but he doesn't tell them, although his references to his research make it clear that he knows what they are. The insistence throughout this book on the polarisation of Christian and Muslim conceals the fact that languages, faiths, cultures and, indeed, landscapes themselves can never be defined by nation states (as Kapka Kassabova shows in her recent Elixir: in the Valley at the End of Time). Kotsonis's writing is casual, and refreshingly unacademic, but the lack of a bibliography is disappointing, and the author's suggestions for further reading are surprisingly superficial. Richard Pine's books include Greece Through Irish Eyes (2015) and The Eye of the Xenos: Letters about Greece (2021). He contributes Letter from Greece to The Irish Times.
Hindustan Times
24-05-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Doctors by Nature: An exclusive excerpt from a book about how animals heal themselves
Here's the good news: even by replacing just 10 percent of our lawns with diverse plant gardens, we can boost biodiversity, maintain insects, and provide medicinal plants for our pets. We may even use these gardens to grow medicinal plants for human use, which would help curb the overharvesting of some medicinal plants in the wild, and recreate the natural pharmacies that traditional healers rely on. Because of all these benefits, local and national governments are increasingly developing initiatives for individual households to create native habitats. In Germany, the Thousands of Gardens—Thousands of Species project aims to create oases of biodiversity, including gardens, balconies, and open spaces with a goal to curb insect declines. The project is funded in part by Germany's federal government and partners with seed companies, nurseries, and garden centers to provide seed packages to participants. In Minnesota, the Lawns to Legumes program provides grants to homeowners to develop natural gardens. In my home country of the Netherlands, an organization called The Pollinators provides free bags of seed mixes to create insect gardens. In (the American state of) Georgia, my new adopted home, I am on the board of directors of the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, a nonprofit organization that aims to expand pollinator habitats. Initiated by former first lady Rosalynn Carter, the trail was established in 2013 and grew to almost two thousand gardens in the first ten years of its existence. As an organization, we provide guidance on what plants to use and how to maintain the gardens. We encourage people to plant native milkweeds to support monarch butterflies. My own lab provides milkweeds and other plants for participants in the metro-Atlanta area. It may seem like a small thing to create a garden, but if enough people do it, we can recreate a lot of much-needed nature. One common theme in this book has been that animals need choices. They do not just need shelter and food. They need medicine. And to get that, they need access to a diversity of plants and other natural products. Preserving nature is the best way to maintain their choices, and so is providing diverse gardens to pets, zoo animals, and our neighborhood insects. So, as you are building your garden, I invite you to take a moment to witness the spectacles of the natural world that will unfold there. Live in the moment and witness that ant, bee, or butterfly that visits your garden. Watch your cat or dog frolic in the flowers. And as you are watching, ask yourself: What is the animal doing? Is it eating? Is it drinking? Is it finding shelter? Or, maybe: Is it collecting medicine? (Excerpted with permission from Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves by Jaap de Roode, published by Princeton University Press; 2025)
