JUST HALF A WORLD AWAY

by Jean Lyon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 1954

Here is a book about India by an American journalist who traveled long and far throughout the nation- long enough to take us more than once to the great city of Delhi and the tiny village of Duganpur, far enough to include Simla and Malabar in her search for the New India, Miss Lyon sought to understand the old, and she found much to wonder at, to admire, to give pause. Reporting on the human level, she reveals an India rich with diversity and rippled with conflict. As the old order seeks to wed the new, Rahjputs try to fit feudalism into politics and young men work in the villages for community development. Miss Lyon interviews Nehru and Bowles; talks with a back-to-the-Vedas Hindu, a patriotic Muslim who faces minority problems, a young newsman married in the old tradition; travels with a saint who preaches land reform, a doctor who removes cataracts en masse; visits a Nayar tharwad in Malabar and an ashram in Benares; celebrates Kathakali with the poet Vallathol; witnesses Congressional elections and a famine; tells of the plans for Chandigarh. The pride in India's past -- in Sita's way, in caste, in philosophy sometimes counters the desire to give India her proper place in the modern world but also spurs the Indians to become a self-directed nation. This is a warm and human picture of many of the peoples who go to make up India's millions, how they feel about their world and what they are doing with it.

Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1954

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Crowell

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1954

Categories: NONFICTION