Out of the Third World by Ashok Sharma
Over a half- century ago, Ashok, a shy 18-year old Indian student from Tanzania, a third world country in East Africa, goes to England with the grand ambition to become a medical doctor. His travails are compounded by his poor command of British English and study difficulties at the Woolwich College in London, where he enrolls to study for his prerequisites for medical school admission. During his first year, his problems are compounded by the backdrop of hostility arising from a tumultuous period in the British history triggered by an apocalyptic-sounding rhetorical speech, dubbed The Rivers of Blood, delivered on April 20, 1968, by Enoch Powell, a prominent British politician. In his speech, Powell, a powerful orator and an intellectual, demands an immediate halt to immigration into Great Britain of non-white people from the new Commonwealth countries which were Great Britain's ex-colonies, and wants those already immigrated and settled in the country voluntarily repatriated with generous stipends. His support ratings among the native British population topped over 70 percent, including massive demonstrations in his support by dock workers; traditionally the back-bone supporters of the then ruling left-leaning labor party. This was in spite of Powell being a right-wing politician belonging to the opposition conservative Tory party, whose chief, Edward Heath had fired him as the shadow defense minister, calling his speech racialist in tone and likely to exacerbate racial tensions. At the Woolwich College, the impressionable Ashok inadvertently befriend Norbert Eliumelu, a sly, smooth-talking, immaculately dressed Nigerian in his thirties, who is also studying for his prerequisites for medical school admission. Norbert, a social-butterfly with tremendous communication skills, has already enamored himself to the students and the staff at the college. Ashok starts to feel confident and supported by his burgeoning friendship with Norbert and feels some of his stardust sprinkling on him. The bonhomie takes an ominous turn when Norbert suddenly disappears from the college at the end of the first year. He reappears at the end of the second and final college year at Ashok's rented place to cajole, threaten and bribe him into a carefully crafted highly nefarious, illegal, unethical and risky quid pro quo plan that would guarantee both of them placements at medical schools--a very onerous task for a foreign student in Great Britain 50 years ago. Out of the Third World is a chronicle of the travails, tenacity and grit against overwhelming odds and adversity faced by Ashok to succeed. If you think you have heard and read everything, then you may not have, until you have read this book Virtually every page is guaranteed to entertain you.
Sharma, Ashok: - Ashok Sharma is a Fellow at the Australia India Institute (AII), the University of Melbourne. Prior to joining the AII in May 2015, Dr Sharma was a lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland, where he taught Great Power Relations and International Security and Conflict. He was a Visiting Academic at the University of Waikato and an Endeavour Post-Doctoral Fellow at Australian National University.
He is currently the Adjunct Faculty at University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra; Deputy Chair of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Auckland Branch; and a Fellow at the New Zealand-India Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington.
Dr Sharma has taught Political Science at Delhi University College and worked with strategic and foreign policy think tanks based in New Delhi, namely the Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Air Power Studies and Centre for Land Warfare Studies. He did his BA (Hons) in Political Science from Ramjas College, Delhi University and MA in Political Science, MPhil, and PhD in American Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
His broad research is in international relations and security studies with a focus on ethnic lobbying in US foreign policy, US-India relations, Indian foreign and security policy, India's domestic politics, great power relations, Asia-Pacific security, international security with an emphasis on terrorism, nuclear issues, and energy security. He has extensively published chapters in edited collections,
think tank papers and articles in peer reviewed journals such as Asian Affairs, SAIS Review of International Affairs, Israel Affairs, South Asian Survey, and for wider dissemination in the periodicals and reviews such as The Conversation, New Zealand International Review, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and Australian Outlook.
He is currently the Adjunct Faculty at University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra; Deputy Chair of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Auckland Branch; and a Fellow at the New Zealand-India Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington.
Dr Sharma has taught Political Science at Delhi University College and worked with strategic and foreign policy think tanks based in New Delhi, namely the Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Air Power Studies and Centre for Land Warfare Studies. He did his BA (Hons) in Political Science from Ramjas College, Delhi University and MA in Political Science, MPhil, and PhD in American Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
His broad research is in international relations and security studies with a focus on ethnic lobbying in US foreign policy, US-India relations, Indian foreign and security policy, India's domestic politics, great power relations, Asia-Pacific security, international security with an emphasis on terrorism, nuclear issues, and energy security. He has extensively published chapters in edited collections,
think tank papers and articles in peer reviewed journals such as Asian Affairs, SAIS Review of International Affairs, Israel Affairs, South Asian Survey, and for wider dissemination in the periodicals and reviews such as The Conversation, New Zealand International Review, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and Australian Outlook.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781733691215 |
| ISBN 10 | 1733691219 |
| Title | Out of the Third World |
| Author | Ashok Sharma |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Meadow Grove Publishing |
| Year published | 2019-04-04 |
| Number of pages | 286 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |