One could hardly imagine a richer and more exciting life than that of Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984), a scholar who may rightly be considered one of the fathers of modern Oriental Studies and the central protagonist of Fascist cultural policy in Asia. From his first expeditions from the Himalayas to the Ganges, to his encounters with leaders such as Gandhi, Tagore, the Dalai Lama, Subhas Chandra Bose, to his role as Mussolini's spokesman in India and Japan-Tucci's is a human adventure tied inextricably to the history of modern Italy, which he himself helped to forge. An adventure retraced in the pages of this book that reads like an adventure novel.
About the Author: Enrica Garzilli is a specialist of Indology and modern Asian studies, editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Tantric Studies and the Journal of South Asia Women Studies, a former professor at the universities of Delhi, Perugia, Harvard, and Turin, and author of the first official biography of Giuseppe Tucci. She graduated in Sanskrit (Doctor, 110/110) from the University of Rome La Sapienza with Raniero Gnoli, Giuseppe Tucci's most beloved pupil, and studied with other of his renowned students as well, including the art historian Mario Bussagli, and the famed Tibetologist Luciano Petech. In 1989 she published her thesis, The Spandasamdoha of Ksemaraja, a critical edition and translation of the 12th-century philosophical text in Sanskrit. Following graduation, she went on to take a post-doc Master in Computer Science for the Humanities at the University of Rome La Sapienza, and later received a post-doc Master in History from the University for Foreigners of Perugia. Among her professors were the great historians Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli and Jacques Le Goff. She was also the recipient of a fellowship from the Cultural Exchange Program between the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government of India, as Research Affiliate at the University of Delhi. During her fifteen-year teaching career, she has been a professor at various Italian and foreign universities, teaching principally Sanskrit, Indian Studies, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen, History of Indian Law, Human Rights, and the History of Asia. From her initial studies of ancient South Asia-India and Nepal-she has since broadened her geopolitical and temporal horizons to cover contemporary times and countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet (or what is now the Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang, a region of the People's Republic of China). While teaching, she persisted in her studies and was admitted to the Graduate Program at Harvard Law School as a Visiting Researcher (y. 1994-1996), attending courses on International Law and Human Rights. Thanks to her years spent in Asia, she has become increasingly interested in contemporary politics, its institutions and its relations with the West. From 2002 she began researching and publishing on contemporary India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since 2006 she has been publishing on Asia in leading Italian newspapers and magazines such as Limes, the Institute for International Policy Studies, Il Sole 24 Ore, and Il Fatto quotidiano.