Rating: 
Summary: A another Satanic verses?...
Review: Although the content of this book is interesting what has been even more fascinating is the reaction to this book by hindu nationalist who seemed to be so affronted by this book that it has been forbidden in one state in India, condemned by a leader of a hindu nationalist party (BJP) the then Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee and riots. (This type of reaction is almost akin to the reaction to the "Satanic Verses") Why?, the reasons are many but just to concentrate on the literature, here are some of the observations made on the Shivaji narrative by Laine: 1) That Shivaji came from a "broken family", with separated parents. 2) He had a harem. 3) That his ambition was to build a kingdom, not liberate a nation. And 4) That he did little to change the "cosmopolitan Islamicate world" he lived in. With this in mind, one can see how hindu nationalist who have been brought up on their traditional "heroic" narrative seem to be so affronted by this book but unfortunatly the violent reaction to this book is one of the many violent reactions towards authors who offer an interpretation that doesn't conforms with nationalist dogma. (...) This is indeed a brave book, is this another "Satanic Verses"?, I think so...
Rating: 
Summary: a book unworthy of so much attention
Review: An insignificant man writes a book about a great warrior, a great king and more than that a great human being. He throws mud on the man who lifted the moral of millions and millions of his followers with his courageous deeds.
The great king who was aware that the kingdom was not a property of his sons and relations but belonged to the common citizens of his state. The king who was thinking well beyond his times and who was aware of the environmental degradation and wanted his citizens to take care of the trees and plants, of the crops when his soldiers were traveling through the fields of the farmers, who did not treat women of the enemies as property to be enjoyed but as ladies to be respected. This author had nothing to discuss about these issues. But cracks filthy jokes about a soul who was a light in the utter darkness of the political situation of that time. This so called christan writer has the birthright to malign the idol of the pagans from the east. After all that is what he has been taught from his childhood. Anything, which is respectful to the idol worshipers of the east, must be disgraced by the Christian scholarship. Amen!
Rating:
Summary: Forgive Laine O Lord
Review: Authors who are concerned about consequences of their work, including its impact on their careers, must write with greater responsibility. Better not to inflict grave injury on a civilizational quest for honour and dignity after centuries of oppression and pejorative labelling. Which is exactly what JL has done, by interpolating nasty comments not borne in his citations, for e.g. when he falsely mentions Shivaji's 'concubines'; by making objectionable casteist remarks against all Indian historians; by presnting western research without comment, but imputing false motives to Indian scholars; by talking of the latter group as hagiographers, while treating the former as unbiased researchers. Hence flawed premise and questionable methodology is obvious. Does not mention the context of Aurangzeb's fanatical Islamic rule, a serious flaw in setting the stage of this study. A plain apologia for Islamists. In fact, a cruel book. Should have better used his (non-existent) scholarly skills to study Christian myth making like studying false 'miracles' of Mother Teresa for one, and the motives of canonization, that too of a white woman in a colored continent! Questionable scholarship, more like an out-and-out swindle, in collaboration with the OUP!
Rating: 
Summary: Average
Review: Average would be the word to describe this book and such, it's a book one shouldn't go out to buy but borrow... (Though that aside, one has to point out that this book is certainly not for those die-hard ethnocentrists who are easily offended by a book that takes a differing perspective from the one they take)
Rating:
Summary: Its a fiction not a research into history
Review: Going through the book makes one wonder if the author James Laine ever referred to the references listed at the end of the book. Its surprising that people claiming themselves to be scholars can come up with such a load of false claims, historical blunders to say the least. Read in a news article that Laine himself admits that he has very cavalierly presented gossip and innuendo without an iota of documentary substantiation, and then on that basis, proceeded to construct his flawed thesis.
You are better off without wasting time and money on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Congrats James William Laine !!
Review: I had the chance to study this book accidentally.
I can't tell if it is the correct version of history or not. But it was intresting and nice language. I don't know why the Indians are so angry about 'just a book'.If some one bashes Jesus here in US we don't care that much. And most of these guys are in the West.They better grow up.Congrats James William Laine !
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Summary: Shivaji on the Mall in Washington, DC
Review: I have read this Lainebaby's book from cover to cover. Legerdemaine! But simply not skilled enough. Why would anyone go to all the trouble to buy this piece of hash? Seems like his Grudge 1 is against Hindu immigrants in the US bringing up their children on the unifying and heroic legends of Shivaji from their homeland... as is being told on too many websites, even with colorful illustrations, mind you! Papa Laine doesn't approve of this. He particularly doesn't like the idea of Babasaheb Purandare presenting his Janta Raja show on Shivaji on the Mall in Washington DC. He doesn't like Lata Mangeshkar collaborating with Purandare. He doesn't approve of the Brihan Maharashtra Mandal, an organization for Maharashtrians living in North America, or its official website. He disapproves of Madhukar Joshi,, when the latter makes contemporaneous references to Shivaji as a successful manager, who in fact set up the earliest Mall in history on Fort Raigad, where you 'drove through on horse-back'. Takes the sheen off Texans... Grudge 2 is that it was Shivaji against Islamic invaders. The story of repeated destruction of Hindu temples and widespread pillage and rapine doesn't go well with his own cracks. Anyway, it is not history that he is here bothered about, see? He just wants to take the shine off Janta Raja. Makes one wonder what the BMM (and BMMOnline.Org) has done to incur so much of a tantrum from JL, as an American and a Christian. He doesn't accept the record that Shivaji's army was in fact a crucible of secular Indians fighting colonial rule, and it included adherents of various castes and sects, including indigenous Muslims. He puts forth a seemingly psecular argument of where should the descendants of Islamic invaders look, why they got no place in this on-going telling and retelling of an everlasting legend? Fair justice, since Papa Laine doesn't want to study Urdu, Persian or Arabic to study the legends of Akbar, Afzal Khan, Aurangzeb or Tipu Sultan. Nor does Papa wish to visit the lands of his forefathers to take a scimitar to the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon, Gaul or Nordic tales of bravery that continue through even more spectacular efforts in say, Hollywood. Or even Star Wars. Better to delete an irritating piece of Maharashtrian history. Papa will first attack native historians on trumped up charges, to show how their caste affinities prevent them from being objective, unlike the colonial and neo-colonial myth-makers who are descended into Indology pure and milk-white! Papa stoops very low, to burn in his own sorry version, in a no-holds barred attack on the main pillars of the Shivaji legend. No, he is not telling a new story; he is just taking a few cracks at the old one. And to hell with history. He wants to have his own cracks immortalized and not the original story. In doing this, he gets adequate support from quislings who will sell their own mothers to the firang for a few dollars. Papa meets his match in the Sambhaji Brigade, who are equally unschooled to the niceties of intellectual give-and-take. Amen
Rating:
Summary: Utterly Boring Disgusting Crap - no Quality what so ever
Review: I love reading histroy - not just the history of my culture but other cultures as well. So after the anger that rose about this book, thought I will first read the book and then make comments. So I bought the book and found it boring, uninteresting and can't think of any good reason to recommed this book to any one. Can James please answer why he even bothered and went through the pain to learn Marathi etc only to put forward his unrespectful views about a King who has served and will continue to serve as an inspiration to generations of Maharashtra? I do not mind some one finding the facts from the history and I am aware that it may not always be what you would like to hear. However, why Shivaji? Why did he not do some research to find out who after all was the father of a Jewish boy? Wouldn't that have made sense?
Rating:
Summary: Utterly Boring Disgusting Crap - no Quality what so ever
Review: I love reading histroy - not just the history of my culture but other cultures as well. So after the anger that rose about this book, thought I will first read the book and then make comments. So I bought the book and found it boring, uninteresting and can't think of any good reason to recommed this book to any one. Can James please answer why he even bothered and went through the pain to learn Marathi etc only to put forward his unrespectful views about a King who has served and will continue to serve as an inspiration to generations of Maharashtra? I do not mind some one finding the facts from the history and I am aware that it may not always be what you would like to hear. However, why Shivaji? Why did he not do some research to find out who after all was the father of a Jewish boy? Wouldn't that have made sense?
Rating:
Summary: What the BBC says
Review: Indian officials have decided to seek the arrest of an American scholar who has written a controversial biography of a historic national figure.
James Laine, who teaches religious studies at a US university, has written a book on Shivaji, a 17th Century warrior venerated in western India.
The government of the western state of Maharashtra said it would seek the assistance of Interpol to arrest him. It says the book smears Shivaji's image, and is insulting to India. 'Slanderous remarks' Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil said that a "criminal offence has been registered against" Professor Laine, who teaches religious studies at Macalester College in Minnesota. The AFP news agency quoted Mr Patil as saying the book contained allegedly slanderous remarks against Shivaji and his mother. Maharashtra has banned Professor Laine's book Shivaji: The Hindu king in Islamic India, which was published last year. The ban imposed in 2003 was supported by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who said that it should be extended nationwide.
"We not only condemn it, but also warn the foreign author not to play with our national pride," Mr Vajpayee told an election campaign rally in Maharashtra on Saturday.
Speaking from Minnesota, Professor Laine said that the case had been brought against him because of the forthcoming general elections.
"It is obvious that the politicians who are behind this are doing it to make political capital - especially when a different court earlier threw out the case against me," he told BBC News Online.
In January, members of a little-known hardline Hindu organisation vandalised a research institute in the western city of Pune, alleging that it had assisted Professor Laine for his book on Shivaji.
The state government's decision to seek his arrest follows demands by some state politicians to ban a book written 60 years ago by the country's first premier, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Local BJP leaders say Nehru's book Discovery of India also demeans Shivaji.
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