Blind Spot

Blind Spot: Hidden Biases Of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji And Anthony G. Greenwald from Penguin Books India.

I know my own mind. I am able to assess others in a fair and accurate way. Blindspot is the authors metaphor for the portion of the mind that houses hidden biases. Writing with simplicity and verve, Banaji and Greenwald question the extent to which our perceptions of social groupswithout our awareness or conscious controlshape our likes and dislikes and our judgments about peoples character, abilities and potential.

In Blindspot, the authors reveal hidden biases through handson experience with the Implicit Association Test, a method that has revolutionized the way scientists learn about the human mind and that gives us a glimpse into what lies within the metaphoric blindspot.

The good people in the title are the many people who strive to align their behavior with their intentions. The aim of Blindspot is to explain the science in plain enough language to help wellintentioned people achieve that alignment.

In our Literature section, Rs. 599, in hardcover, 272 pages, ISBN: 9780670086764

Partition

The Pity of Partition: Mantos Life, Times and Work Across the India-Pakistan Divide by Ayesha Jalal from Harper Collins, India.

Saadat Hasan Manto (19121955) was an established Urdu short story writer and a rising screenwriter in Bombay at the time of Indias partition in 1947, and he is perhaps best known for the short stories he wrote following his migration to Lahore in newly formed Pakistan. Today Manto is an acknowledged master of twentieth-century Urdu literature, and his fiction serves as a lens through which the tragedy of partition is brought sharply into focus. In The Pity of Partition, Mantos life and work serve as a prism to capture the human dimension of sectarian conflict in the final decades and immediate aftermath of the British Raj.

Ayesha Jalal draws on Mantos stories, sketches, and essays, as well as a trove of his private letters, to present an intimate history of partition and its devastating toll. Probing the creative tension between literature and history, she charts a new way of reconnecting the histories of individuals, families, and communities in the throes of cataclysmic change. Jalal brings to life the people, locales, and events that inspired Mantos fiction, which is characterized by an eye for detail, a measure of wit and irreverence, and elements of suspense and surprise. In turn, she mines these writings for fresh insights into everyday cosmopolitanism in Bombay and Lahore, the experience and causes of partition, the postcolonial transition, and the advent of the Cold War in South Asia.

The first in-depth look in English at this influential literary figure, The Pity of Partition demonstrates the revelatory power of art in times of great historical rupture.

In our Biography section, Rs. 599, in hardback, 265 pages, ISBN: 9789350297896

Boundaries of Religion

Boundaries of Religion: Essays on Christianity, Ethnic Conflict, and Violence by Rowena Robinson from Oxford University Press (India).

Religion is deeply intertwined with modern Indian society and polity. Boundaries of Religion is a collection of essays that brings together critical writings by Rowena Robinson spanning the past two decades that map the course of community interactions and ethnic and religious conflict in India. The author looks at Hindu-Muslim ethnic violence under the shadow of majority-minority politics; popular Christianity and the varying forms of intercultural engagement emerging out of conversion; the sharing of traditions across boundaries; and the battles over religion, conversion, and secularism in contemporary India.

Focusing on the study of non-Hindu communities, this book, at first, looks at Christians, and their field of interaction with Hindus, bringing to the fore the various manifestations of religion in ritual and practice specifically, and, the ways in which periodic violence reshapes the Muslims' understanding of themselves and their relations to other communities and the state. The memory of violence imprints itself on the awareness of times, the use of space, dress codes, and the mobility of both men and women. Analysis is made of how violence disfigures relations of kin and family, distorts asocial and economic trajectories of individuals and households, and deforms the everyday. The book brings out the gendered consequences of ethnic violence and strategies of survival.

In our Religion section, Rs. 850, in hardcover, 318 pages, ISBN: 9780198090403

Routledge Books,

Ramchandra Gandhi: The Man and His Philosophy by A. Raghuramaraju from Routledge India.

Ramchandra Gandhi, famous for his rich and varied interests, left behind a large corpus of writings, both philosophical and non-philosophical. Introducing the readers to the creative Indian philosopher, this volume highlights the principal thrust of his works; critically locates them within larger political, philosophical, literary, and socio-cultural contexts; and accounts for his lasting influence.

For the first time, essays on Ramchandra Gandhi’s earlier works and later writings have been brought together to take stock of his contribution to contemporary Indian thought as a whole. Written by philosophers as well as those from literature and the social sciences, the essays record his experimental ventures both in form and content, and shed light on key themes in language, communication, religion, aesthetics, spirituality, consciousness, self, knowledge, politics, ethics, and non-violence.

In our Philosophy section, Rs. 895, in hardcover, 368 pages, ISBN: 9780415824354



One Planet to Share: Sustaining Human Progress in a Changing Climate by United Nations Development Programme from Routledge India.

People in Asia-Pacific will be profoundly affected by climate change. Home to more than half of humanity, the region straddles some of the world’s most geographically diverse and climate-exposed areas. Despite having contributed little to the steady upward climb in the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, some of the region’s most vulnerable communities — from mountain dwellers to island communities — face the most serious consequences.

Poverty continues to decline in this dynamic region, but climate change may undercut hard-won gains. Growing first and cleaning up later is no longer an option, as it once was for already developed countries. Developing nations need to grow and manage the climate consequences. They must both support resilience, especially among vulnerable populations, and shift to lower-carbon pathways. Emerging threats, whether from melting glaciers or rising sea levels, cross borders and demand coordinated regional and global action.

There may be some uncomfortable trade-offs, but the way forward is clear — it lies in sustaining human development for the future we want. When people have equitable access to basics such as livelihoods, energy, health and pollution-free air, greater climate resilience and improved emissions management will follow. This Report outlines where transformation begins: in cleaner, more efficient production, in fair and balanced consumption, and in both rural and urban areas. Through better institutions, more accurate knowledge and changed attitudes, Asia-Pacific societies can find smarter strategies for adapting to a warmer world.

In our Development Studies section, Rs. 495, in hardcover, 263 pages, ISBN: 9780415625708


Education for Fullness: A Study of the Educational Thought and Experiment of Rabindranath Tagore by H. B. Mukherjee from Routledge India.

Rabindranath Tagore is remembered today chiefly as a poet, and his fame as a poet has often eclipsed his great contributions to other fields of literature and life — especially education. Tagore pondered deeply on the fundamental problems of education — aims, curriculum, method, discipline, values and medium — and wrote and experimented on them freely and extensively. Tagore is perhaps the only literary genius in contemporary history who devoted a major part of his life to thinking about education and creating an educational institution of international significance. Also, the institution he created at Santiniketan proved to be the most global and sustainable among the progressive educational institutions launched by individual thinkers such as Froebel and Russell.

This edition revives a classic work, the first comprehensive, full-length account of Tagore’s educational thought and activity, commemorating his 150th birth anniversary. It presents a detailed chronological survey of Tagore’s educational writings and institutional activities in the perspective of his life and thought in general. The book also contains a detailed review and critical discussion on almost all major aspects of his educational work. Through an overall evaluation of Tagore’s unique contribution to education and his message to the world, it seeks to correct some common misconceptions that have existed from time to time about Santiniketan and Visva-Bharati.

The book will help form a more complete view of Tagore’s life and work, filling as it does the gaps and voids in the literature that has grown around him, and reinforcing its relevance today. It will be of value to educationists, teachers, policymakers, those interested in modern Indian history and philosophy of education.

In our Education section, Rs. 1195, in hardcover, 512 pages, ISBN: 9780415643474

Business Sutra

Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management by Devdutt Pattanaik from Aleph Book Company.

In this landmark book, best-selling author, leadership coach and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik shows how, despite its veneer of objectivity, modern management is rooted in Western beliefs and obsessed with accomplishing rigid objectives and increasing shareholder value. By contrast, the Indian way of doing businessas apparent in Indian mythology, but no longer seen in practice accommodates subjectivity and diversity, and offers an inclusive, more empathetic way of achieving success. Great value is placed on darshan, that is, on how we see the world and our relationship with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.

Business Sutra uses stories, symbols and rituals drawn from Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythology to understand a wide variety of business situations that range from running a successful tea stall to nurturing talent in a large multinational corporation. At the heart of the book is a compelling premise: if we believe that wealth needs to be chased, the workplace becomes a rana-bhoomia battleground of investors, regulators, employers, employees, vendors, competitors and customers; if we believe that wealth needs to be attracted, the workplace becomes a ranga-bhoomia playground where everyone is happy.

Brilliantly argued, original and thoroughly accessible, Business Sutra presents a radical and nuanced approach to management, business and leadership in a diverse, fast-changing, and increasingly polarized world.

In our Management Studies section, Rs. 695, in hardcover, 446 pages, ISBN: 9788192328072

Re-exploring Gandhi

Re-exploring Gandhi by Anil Dutta Mishra And Sadhana Thakur from Regal Publications.



Re-exploring Gandhi is an intellectual response from Gandhian perspective to the contemporary challenge arising out of terrorism, naxalism, communalism, erosion of ethical values, liberalization, privatization and globalization. Corporate grid, undemocratic democracy, unethical behavior of so called peoples representatives and coercive nature of the state forced the people to go back, search, research and re-explore Mahatma Gandhi.

In our Gandhi Studies section, Rs. 880, in hardcover, 209pages, ISBN: 9788184842364

Short Stories

Chapters: Short Stories by Amod Bhattarai from Bibliophile South Asia.

Amod Bhattarai lives in Kathmandu with his wife and daughter and writes in Nepali. He has been involved with various Nepali periodicals and newspapers and has been publishing short stories in literary magazines since the 1980s. His stories have been collected into three books so far and have been very well received by readers and critics alike. This is the first time his work has been translated into English.

In our Fiction section, Rs. 295, in paperback, 149 pages, ISBN: 9789382337058





False Sanctuaries: Stories from the Troubled Territories of South Asia by Meenakshi Iyer from Bibliophile South Asia.

Fear lurks deep in their hearts. Writ large on their faces. When? When? When? A blast, a raging insurgency, a clash tooth-and-nail, an eye for an eye, a fight to the finish, and then And then a gory aftermath. A lot happens beyond those borders that make the insides churn.

They get up, shake off the dust and move on to fight another battle that seethes in their hearts. They have dreams, hopes, responsibilities... There are those who fulfill them within the safe, secure zones. And then there are those who struggle in an unfriendly terrain. Set across South Asia, each of the stories in this collection locates the defiant undercurrent of individual expression in people scarred by terror.

In our Fiction section, Rs. 395, in paperback, 281 pages, ISBN: 9789382337072