Jigsaw Bits

He concludes the book with a chapter on British ghosts—Warren Hastings' haunted house in Calcutta and haunted houses in various hill stations. Those used to a cut-and-dried version of history would find the book very absorbing. Despite the title, not many Mughals find a place in the book. Only three essays are about Mughals—two on the Taj, one on Bahadur Shah Zafar. The book skims the surface of modern Indian history and comes up with an occasional gem or two. But there are no notes, no bibliography, little to indicate the source of Swamy's information. To quote from the preface: "My 50-year-old collection of newspaper clippings and archival materials collected from libraries all over the world were irretrievably damaged by the heavy rains on 10 June 1990." A pity, for with references, the book would have been valuable source material.