BOOK REVIEW : BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

                                      

                                        Author        :         V Ragunathan

                                                                     Veena Prasad 

                                      Publishers   :         Harper Collins India

                                      ISBN NO    :         9789351772644

The book is a compilation of story of twelve outstanding British gentlemen from colonial India with an exception of Mark Tully. The authors, though not historians have toiled hard through research and internet surfing to put forth the dedication of all those. Britishers who loved India and went beyond the call of their duty and gifted India with timeless gifts. The fact that they were barely out of teens, away from their families & native land in a place with different culture, climate, food and religion did not deter them from their goal of achievements.

The book is not a historical account or biographical text. The main focus of the book has been the contribution of these dozen men to our land ‘India’ . Accounts of what they did outside India for other nations have not been included. Focus & relevance has further been preserved by keeping away details of family. The book has a well documented and dated bibliography which the readers may refer for their further research. What the authors have included in this book are stories that need to be told & retold.

Journalists need to dwell on historical facts at numerous times to make stories of today, relevant to the past. The task of linking rivers and damming the rivers are so fresh, but one would not relate them to Arthur Thomas Cotton, the grand visionary who planned to do so; way back in 1830 – building further, on the gift of Grand Annicut on Kaveri river by Chola dynasty in second century BC.

My interest in journalism prompted me to open the last chapter on Mark Tully the name we so fondly know of the Anglo India who headed the BBC office in India. Next was the story of William Jones who laid the foundation stone of Asiatic society in India and and then came the chapter on James Prince the Historian. Although the order in which I read the book is not the order in which the chapters have been laid out, it is a suggestion that the book may be read as laid out by the authors.

Not only is the content of the book very informative, it is also laid out in a  very lucid, easy to understand language. It is important for any student of journalism to understand the gifts of Britishers; though most of them were with British interests in mind, they have been investments for centuries to come. What we must appreciate is not just the infrastructure that they left behind, but ‘The System’ created for every institution to function by, education, railways, roadways, canals, ports, Anglo saxon legal system, governance and not to forget the English language. The engineers who laid the corner stones for India’s development from a third world nation to a future industrial superpower were British.

Laid out in hard copy of two hundred odd pages – The front cover aptly depicts a symbol of success ‘A railway engine’ and the back cover depicts a bullock cart. Efforts of both the authors are experienced while reading & understanding the book. It is indeed an inspiration for today’s generation and a treasure trove for journalists.