This wide-ranging book sweeps away several religious, cultural, social and historical cobwebs. Fashionable correctness in all its forms is firmly rejected. Many received notions are proved to be false and famous iconic figures are shown to have had failings that affected the region’s future. Encountering South Asia: Definitions and clarifications, therefore, may be shocking to some and uncomfortable to others. Nevertheless, all who read this book will be impressed by its rigorous research, cogent arguments and lucid logic. It will certainly provoke wide debate. Written in engaging and persuasive prose this book is an education on South Asia.

Of All The World’s Major Regions South Asia is surely the most misunderstood and misinterpreted. Worse still, India lovers embrace India with little or no understanding of the country. The ancient Hindus, much given to philosophy, mathematics, art and astronomy, seem to have had no time for the writing of history. Hence one’s dependence on Greek, Chinese and later, Muslim sources. The arrival of the Europeans, however, was a turning point in India studies. The pioneering researches of the Orientalists cannot be overestimated. It is no exaggeration to claim that European scholarship bestowed on the Hindus a definite distinction, even, tragically, a sense of haughtiness and self righteousness.

Europeans besotted with India in general and Hinduism in particular, a prize example being Annie Besant, beheld nothing but the wonders of India and the supreme excellence of its civilization. On the other hand, a number, of Muslim and other commentators, notably the first Mughal emperor Babur, found the subcontinent extremely unattractive. They perceived India as a caste-ridden country inhabited by idolaters steeped in stygian darkness, sin and superstition. The truth, perhaps, lies in the chasm between Besant and Babur. India, moreover, is finally on the move. The rate of economic and social change accelerates each year, a phenomenon that will be discussed in the author’s next book.

Since 1947, ‘India studies’ and ‘Pakistan studies’ have become exercises in political spin and vilification. Myths and legends are held up as facts and prejudice is buttressed by so-called historical research. In the cause of creating a national identity and a particular vision of greatness, dangerous doctrines and unpalatable events are either ignored or nimbly explained away. Truth is being sacrificed at the altar of expediency.

This wide-ranging back sweeps away several religious, cultural, social and historical cobwebs. Fashionable correctness in all its forms is firmly rejected. Many received notions are proved to be false and famous iconic figures are shown to have had failings that affected the region’s future. Encountering South Asia: Definitions and Clarifications, therefore, may be shocking to some and uncomfortable to others. Nevertheless, all who read this book will be impressed by its rigorous research, cogent arguments and lucid logic. It will certainly provoke wide debate.

Reginald Massey has authored many works on India. His books on Indian classical music and dance are required reading for all those who study these subjects. He wrote and produced Bangladesh I Love You, a film which starred the boxing phenomenon Muhammad Ali.

Azaadi! , his collection of stories and histories concerned South Asia after 1947, the year of Indian’s independence and the creation of Pakistan. His poetry collection Lament of a Lost Hero and Other Poems chronicles subcontinental society in the post-independence period.

Born in Lahore, in British India, he lives in Britain where over many years he has been journalist, critic, director-producer, broadcaster, lecturer and activist, He is currently completing South Asia: The Twenty-first Century and the Future, a sequel to this book. In 2008, he was Writer-in-Residence at the USB think tank at Wolsberg chateau, Switzerland.

His wife, actress Jamila Massey, collaborated with him on three books: The Music of India, The Dances of India and The Immigrants, a novel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.