Book Review of: Nazlkramullah. Ganga Jumuni: Silver and Gold, A Forgotten Culture. Bengal Publications, 2013

Abstract

Respected artist Naz Ikramullah comes from a noted pedigree when it comes to writing in general, and writing by women in particular. Her mother, the late Begum Shaista Ikramullah was one of the sub-continent’s most revered female political figures. The first South Asian woman to receive a foreign doctoral degree, she served as foreign ambassador to several countries, including Morocco. Mrs. Ikramullah authored two informative books; her autobiography, From Purdah to Parliament, and Behind the Veil. One of her other daughters, Princess Sarvath of Jordan, wrote the foreword to an edition of Daulat Hidayatullah Haroon’s biography of her late father, Abdullah Haroon. At the recent Karachi Literature Festival, while launching her book Ganga Jamuni, Ms. Ikramullah noted that being primarily an artist, she never considered herself capable of writing a book until urged to do so by the eminent Bangladeshi jurist, Dr. Kamal Hossain. Her debut literary endeavor examines the confluence of two divergent streams of culture in South Asia, the Hindu and the Muslim—hence the book’s title, which indicates a merging of the golden with the silver.