Book Reviews : PETER L. SCHMITTHENNER, Telugu Resurgence: C.P. Brown and Cultural Consolid ation in Nineteenth-Century South India, Delhi: Manohar, 2001, pp. 324

Abstract

’Parsi lustre on Indian soil’. Although the author has done an enormous amount of reading on the Parsis and sifted through legal materials which are not easily accessible, the end result is, on the whole, disappointing. The reader in search of details on the legal history of the Parsis will undoubtedly find nourishment in this work, but the author does not appear to have had any ambitions beyond the reconstruction of this legal history. Of recent books about the Parsis, of which there are few, T.M. Luhrmann’s The Good Parsi stands out as more focused and informed by a better knowledge of social science theory. The Parsis certainly deserve more attention from historians and social scientists, taking into account recent developments in methodology of studies of ethnic communities. Future studies might undoubtedly benefit from some of the empirical research done by Jesse Palsetia, especially as far as legal problems are concerned. But it remains a mystery how such a raw piece of research could have been published as a book by a reputable publishing house like Brill.