Mother India : Selections from the Controversial 1927 Text, Edited and with an Introduction by Mrinalini Sinha

Rating:
Summary: Reading propaganda in its context
Review: Katherine Mayo originally published her book, _Mother India_, in 1927, when not only was there still a "British India", but there were still people who thought it was a good thing. This review is based on that original work. I do not know how this new paperback edition has been edited, but since "Mrinalini Sinha (Editor)" has been added to the authorship, I assume there are some differences. In the original work, Mayo, no fan of Mr. Gandhi, outlined in well-documented detail the problems of India at that time (child marriages, health problems caused by lack of hygiene, caste rigidities, the economy, etc.) and presented solutions from a western point of view. She was also no fan of Hinduism, but there is no attack in the book on the religion per se, only on the negative effects that she felt flowed from it. She is a good writer and the book is very easy to read. The political parts were not as interesting to me as the parts about the social problems. Hopefully the editor deleted some of the more tedious passages of old politics. For the most part, I found it fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: Non-PC? -- but still an interesting book
Review: Katherine Mayo originally published her book, _Mother India_, in 1927, when not only was there still a "British India", but there were still people who thought it was a good thing. This review is based on that original work. I do not know how this new paperback edition has been edited, but since "Mrinalini Sinha (Editor)" has been added to the authorship, I assume there are some differences. In the original work, Mayo, no fan of Mr. Gandhi, outlined in well-documented detail the problems of India at that time (child marriages, health problems caused by lack of hygiene, caste rigidities, the economy, etc.) and presented solutions from a western point of view. She was also no fan of Hinduism, but there is no attack in the book on the religion per se, only on the negative effects that she felt flowed from it. She is a good writer and the book is very easy to read. The political parts were not as interesting to me as the parts about the social problems. Hopefully the editor deleted some of the more tedious passages of old politics. For the most part, I found it fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: Reading propaganda in its context
Review: This is a great take on the original "Mother India" written in the 1920s by Katherine Mayo. Sinha notes that Mayo's book, in spite of being one of the most viciously racist and imperialistic (and badly written) books ever, served as a guide for US policy makers until the 1980s! Going by Sinha's analysis, it's pretty clear that Mayo was more demagogue than scholar, and very interesting that lots of people cared about her views. That alone makes it worth examining what Mayo said. Sinha takes a good look at (a) Mayo's career and political leanings, (b) new research about her sources of "information" about India, (c) possible sources of funding for her book, and (d) what Indians at the time had to say about it. Through all this, Sinha does a great job of contextualizing Mayo's book, and provokes readers to think about the powerful seduction that oversimplified (dis)information and propaganda hold for the uncritical mind. In the first part of the book, Sinha presents background and analysis. The rest of the book consists of excerpts from Mayo's original text.