Stick to your knitting

Lord Desai's book reminded me of another by a Moroccan sociologist, the late Fatima Mernissi

Last week, quite out of the blue, P B Mongia, a former professor at the Delhi School of Economics and an old friend, sent me a 2014 book by Lord Meghnad Desai. It is called Who Wrote the Bhagwad Gita. The sub-title says that it is a secular enquiry into a sacred text.

The book, which is quite excellent, is also very critical of the Gita. But it is excellent not merely because it is critical. It makes some very interesting points, and raises some very interesting questions.

That’s not surprising, considering Lord Desai takes his cue from the historian extraordinaire, D