(Oxford University Press – 252 pages)

Reviewer – Luke Brown

Having seized power of Russia in the 1917 Revolution and being subsequently disappointed that it didn’t have a snowballing effect on Europe, the murderous, tyrannical, communist dictator Lenin decided that it was through the East that he could hope to conquer the West. As Britain was considered his biggest rival for power, British India was his initial target for fomenting revolution that he hoped would then sweep the region in order that his vision of total control could be achieved throughout the world. Setting The East Ablaze is primarily concerned with this attempt, and the opposition to it by the British.

Like his other works, Peter Hopkirk ensures that the characters who populate this story receive the greatest attention, at rightly so. The most intriguing one, Colonel Frederick Bailey, whom had previously visited the holy Tibetan city of Lhasa with the legendary Francis Younghusband, was to play a vital role in combating the Russian threat. A master of disguise and a skilled operative (who, in a bizarre set of events, to effect his escape from the hands of the Bolsheviks, managed to get himself hired by their secret services to track himself down), he was a constant thorn in the side of the Bolsheviks. M.N. Roy, an Indian revolutionary, who became a member of the Comintern, was also, at times, a thorn in the side of the British, as he schemed to spark off a revolution in British India, and throw off the yoke of India’s British colonial masters. In addition, a brutal civil war was under way in Russia and beyond, between the Red Bolsheviks and the White Russian counter-revolutionaries. One such counter-revolutionary was Paul Nazaroff who had a torrid time escaping from the clutches of the likes of the Cheka, the secret police. Further east, a psychopathic and brutal White Russian baron, Ungern-Sternberg, with his visceral hatred of Bolsheviks and Jews, was attempting to take control of Mongolia (he was under the delusion that he was a re-incarnated Genghis Khan) for its use as a base to bring about a Greater Mongolia, and also from which to attack the Bolsheviks.

Aside from an extraordinary cast of characters, this period of intrigue was characterised by enough misinformation, psy-ops and treachery to fill a multitude of spy novels, and these are detailed expertly. All in all, Setting The East Ablaze is highly recommended, principally for throwing light on this little-known aspect of 20th century history, all in Hopkirk’s trademark witty and discerning style

(Penguin – 193 pages)

Reviewer – Luke Brown

Sometimes a book is published that is virtually unreviewable. Not because it is a mess, but rather because one can not do it justice. Published in 1979 and still being reprinted, Karma Cola is one such work. Recommended to me by someone who had just left India, the subject of the book, I was handed a passage to read. It detailed the story of an English aristocrat who had heard about a guru in the mountains who was reported to be able to turn urine into scented rose water. And so this Englishman went out to find the guru and sampled his wares, which, it turned out, smelt and tasted remarkably like urine.

Although the book is widely known for its collection of stories of western disciples seeking out mystical gurus and their tailor-made truths, it is its study of how India discovered that they were quite hip after all (in the eyes of some westerners) while they were turning to western culture, makes it a must read. Although the times have changed since it first came out, its biting and well-observed satire mixed with Gita Mehta’s electric writing style (on occasions reminding me of Tom Wolfe) stand out. But I’ve said too much. Here is an early passage from this most funny and insightful work that will give a taste of where she is coming from and where her book is going:

“American mass-marketing had penetrated so fast to the Indian interior that its experts were invited by our government to popularize contraceptives with the same panache. While population control and pop culture raced hand in hand through the Indian countryside, we of the cities and the universities were getting restless, too. But just when the accelerator seemed within our reach, the unthinkable happened.
The kings of rock and roll abdicated.
To Ravi Shankar and the Maharishi.

As the sitar wiped out the split-reed sax, and mantras began fouling the crystal clarity of rock and roll lyrics, millions of wild-eyed Americans turned their backs on all that amazing equipment and pointed at us screaming,
“You guys! You’ve got it!”
Well, talk about shabby tricks. We had been such patient wallflowers and suddenly the dance was over. Nobody wanted to shimmy. They all wanted to do the rope trick.
The lines were kept open in spite of the political static.
“Excuse me, operator, what did they say? What have we got?”
“Hello, India, my party is saying you have the Big Zero.”
Mao had lost out to Maya. The revolution was dead.

So we tagged along with the Americans one more time. Not because of right thought, right speech, right action. But because of the rhythm section. Never before had the Void been pursued with such optimism and such razzle dazzle. Everyone suspected that whatever America wanted, America got.
Why not Nirvana?”