Year of the Golden Pig Reading 22: "Temptations of the West: How to be modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond"

Whenever I travel somewhere I like to pick up a book about the region. Since I am going to India at Christmas, I decided to read a little more about the region. This book, by Pankaj Mishra, was the perfect read to find out what the situation was like on the ground for the countries covered. The book was mostly focused on India, and I learned a lot about the rise of Hindu nationalism there. In India, Muslims are killed by Hindus. History has a way of sorting things out and in India the Hindus are currently trying to reclaim their heritage by killing Muslims, who they see as invaders. Remember they are mostly just the same Indians, but with a different religion. No reason to kill really.

The book has a nice overview on Bollywood, what is wrong in Kashmir, focused a bit on the Afghani problems, both in Pakistan and in Afghanistan proper, and then too quickly focuses on Nepal and Tibet. Those last chapters seemed kind of tacked on. They could have easily made up another book.

So now I am looking forward to my trip. After this one I really want to read more about the situation in Afghanistan. I has pricked my interest.