The lousy formatting has ruined the book.
Kindly note that the Hindi version of this book is live. It is available at the link https://amzn.to/2moSmkk .
The ASIN no is B07FN71L62.
The statement is a comment on the book by Sumir Sharma, the author of this blog. The title of the book is “History of Constitution of India: Charter Acts and Company Rule in India”.
First, let us see the contents of the book.
It has eight chapters and two Appendix. They are as follows.
Chapter 1: The Brief History of the East India Company.
Chapter 2: The Regulating Act, 1773
Chapter 3: Pitt’s India Act, 1784
Chapter 4: Charter Act, 1793
Chapter 5: Charter Act, 1813
Chapter 6: Charter Act, 1833
Chapter 7: Charter Act, 1853
Chapter 8: Act of Better Government of India 1858
The book contains 78 printed pages of A4 size. However, it is presently available in ebook format.
There are two Appendix. In Appendix I, there is an essay on the sources which are used for writing the contents of this book. In Appendix II, the suggestions are provided to make the book more interactive.
The book is developed as a textbook. It is written in a narrative style. On every topic, the content is written in point format. For the point format, it is meant that every paragraph explains its main heading. The paragraph is given a heading or a number. It helps in writing the answers in the examination. The purpose is that the readers and the students can quickly develop an answer to any question on the topics explained in the book.
When it is said that it is written in a narrative style, it means that the facts are given and explained. There is a less number of quotations and references to the document. It is a textbook which aims at helping the students to write an answer with confidence. Such a style of writing helps the student to focus on the core fact which is expected to be written. The author believes that first provide the fact. If the student reproduces the fact, then he or she explains the question. The quotations and references are an inseparable part of history writing. However, liberty is taken while framing the content and this aspect is omitted. It is called a narrative style by the author.
The book is written to fulfil the requirements of the students of the Post Graduate course in History of Punjab University. It meets the need of the Paper HIS 213: Constitutional Development in Modern India 1773 – 1947 Unit I and Paper HIS 211: Modern India Political Process, Unit III.
The content of the book is also relevant to the students of Indian Polity and Indian Constitution pursuing the course of Post Graduate in Political Science. It is also suitable for the students of Law course.
The content of the book is equally relevant to General Studies Main paper II. The content provides material for the first section which reads, “Indian Constitution – historical underpinnings, evolution …”
The book is also relevant for undergraduate classes honours course.
There is a need to mention the framework of the first chapter which is "The Brief History of the East India Company". In most of the popular textbooks, this topic is explained. In almost all the books, the story begins with the arrival of Portuguese in India. Many writers have started with earliest times of European history. In the case of this book, the chapter begins with the fundamental question. It has tried to answer that what made England organise a commercial corporation to trade with East Indies. It is followed by a brief survey of the ups and downs of the company up to 1773.
Now, something about the title of this post which is that "Bad formatting has ruined the book". The book is self-published by the author with Kindle Direct Publication. The KDP provides the software to format the manuscript for the book. The author has failed to make the right use of the software.
Further, there are many mistakes in the use of punctuation marks. In addition to that two or three lines are repeated at some places. This mistake has crept in due to the writing method of the author. The author generally writes his manuscript in Open Source Word processor. Then, he transfers it to MS word sheet. The reason is that KDP software gets added to MS Word as an add-on feature. The author also uses a grammar check software. Therefore, after writing an essay is shuttled between different software to make it readable. In this process, such a fault sneaks in.
In any case, the author plans to retain this book out on the sale on Amazon. It may help other self- publisher writers to watch for the shortcomings. Presently, I am not going to revise this book. However, I will rewrite it after a duration, and then I will remove the mistakes.
The book explains the Charter Acts as the historical background of the History of the Constitution of India. It is evident that my next volume will be on the legislation during the Crown rule in India. I will soon publish the relevant next volume. I am presently working on that volume.
I will also write the Hindi version of this volume and release it in June 2018.
To make this book interactive, I am going to reproduce a part of the book on my blog at undergraduatehistory.blogspot.in. I will attend to their queries related to the content of the book. I am ready to provide pdf copies of individual chapters to any reader free of cost who may require it for printing purpose. The relevant instructions are given in Appendix II.
An Update: The Book is now available in Print format also. However, it is available only in the USA, the UK, Demark, Spain, Italy and Japan. For Indians, it will cost too high. Kindly avail the epub format. If any page is required in printable format then kindly email me as instructed in Appendix II of the book. The ISBN number of the printed book is as follows: ISBN-13: 978-1983046834 ISBN-10: 1983046833
Second Update: The Paperback of the book is now available in India also. However, it is printed in the US and imported by Indian distributors. Therefore, the price is too high. It costs ₹565/- including taxes and courier charges. The link is given as follows:
Third update: The book has been reformatted. Kindly read the preview here. Do a favour by writing a comment on the Amazon page of this book and give a ranking.
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