Drop by drop...

Maude Barlow is head of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization, and founder of the Blue Planet Project. Deeply concerned about water and access to water, Barlow is a recipient of Sweden's Right Livelihood Award (the "Alternative Nobel") and a Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship,

Her new book, written with Tony Clarke, is Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, a sequel to Blue Gold, also published by Books for Change, Bangalore. In Blue Gold, Barlow and Clarke exposed how a handful of corporations are gaining ownership and control of the earth's dwindling water supply, depriving millions of people around the world of access to this most basic of resources and accelerating the onset of a global water crisis.

Blue Covenant describes a powerful response to this trend: the emergence of an international, grassroots-led movement to have water declared a basic human right, something that cannot be bought or sold for profit. This movement, which is gaining popular and political support across the globe, encompassing protests in India against U.S. bottling giant Coca-Cola; in Bolivia against the water privatization scheme of European water conglomerate Suez; against the use of water meters in South Africa; and over groundwater mining in Barrington, New Hampshire, and dozens of other communities in North America. With great passion and clarity, Barlow traces the history of these international battles, documents the life-and-death stakes involved in the fight for the right to water, and lays out the actions that we as global citizens must take to secure a water-just world: a blue covenant for all.

In the Publisher Lists, under Books For Change, Rs 250. ISBN: 978-81-8291-063-8

Another new title, also on water, and also from BfC is Poverty and Water: Explorations of the Reciprocal Relationship, by David Hemson, Kassim Kulindwa, Haakon Lein and Adolfo Mascarenhas. "Rarely has such a contentious and complex issue emerged in twenty-first century development as that of water. In this book, co-editors David Hemson, Kassim Kulindwa, Haakon Lein and Adolfo Mascarenhas use a global spread of case studies to illustrate that water is not simply an issue of physical scarcity, but rather a complex and politically driven issue with profound future implications, both in the developing world and outside it. The book argues that for the international community to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, governments must step in to protect the rights of the poor. Here, the links between poverty and access to clean water are explored with an eye to political reform that can end the exploitative policies of big business and help to shape a more equitable world for all."

Also in the Publisher Lists under Books for Change. Rs 375, 216 pages, ISBN: 978-81-8291-060-7

Phule

For anyone interested in the question of caste, this volume from Leftword, The Selected Wrtings of Jotirao Phule, is an indispensable resource.

"Jotirao Phule (1827-1890) was India's first systematic theorist of caste, and the most radical 19th-century opponent of it, who desired nothing less than a complete smashing up of its oppressive structure. This volume makes available for the first time all his most important prose writings in English.

At the centre of Phule's thought and analysis are Gulamgiri (Slavery) and Shetkaryacha Asud (Cultivator's Whipcord), both included in this volume in their entirety. Also included are Phule's deposition to the Hunter Commission on Education; his response to the Parsi social reformer Malabari's notes on 'Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood'; his letter to M. G. Ranade regarding the Marathi Author's Conference; his stirring defence of Pandita Ramabai in two numbers of the journal Satsar; and selections from The Book of the True Faith. All translations have been specially commissioned for this richly annotated volume, and the Editor's Introduction places Phule's life, work, and thought, as well as each text included in this volume, in historical perspective."

Professor G P Deshpande, translator and editor of this volume, taught at the JNU. He is as well known for his contribution to Marathi theater, having written a number of plays, including Satyashodhak, on the life and times of Jotirao Phule.

Reviewing the book in EPW, Gopal Guru says "[Deshpande] makes a brilliant attempt to foreground Phule's system of ideas in a series of tough arguments. . . . The book is going to have a scholarly impact on those who otherwise have only a political interest in reducing Phule to a cultural symbol. It will prompt some of us to liberate Phule from self-serving cultural symbolism and situate him in the tradition of self-criticism, which was one of Phule's core intellectual projects."

In our History and Dalit Studies sections. 259 pages, Rs 250, ISBN: 978-81-87496-77-9.

Writer's Institution

Writers Workshop, Kolkata. An institution in IWE for the past fifty years, and an amazing one at that....

Bringing substance to the "Small is Beautiful" credo, Professor P Lal and his crew have essentially been artisans in the process of book-making. Formed by a group of writers "who agree in principle that English has proved its ability, as a language, to play a creative role in Indian literature, through original writing and transcreation. Its task is of defining and substantiating the role by discussion and diffusion of creative writing and transcreation and from India, the Commonwealth, and other English using countries." While publishing close to three thousand books, they remain both fiercely independent, and, in a sense, avant garde. Their books are not mass-produced, they use handwoven fabric in the cloth binding, and they are not afraid to experiment with new authors and new genres. Vikram Seth was an early and famous discovery of theirs, and they, in turn, found an early supporter in J B S Haldane, polymath and polyglot who bought a copy of their 1960 publication of The Catullus of William Hull.

Their books will find their way onto our site, slowly, but surely, and we'll do a post on them. In the meanwhile, here are some random listings that caught our eye....

• Holmstrom, Lakshmi, The Fiction of R. K. Narayan, Rs 150. (1973)
• Chaudhuri, Sukanta Bantleman’s “Kanchanjanga” Rs 60 (1969)
• Aikath-Gyaltsen, Indrani The First Jacaranda, Rs 100 (1984)
• Merchant, Hoshang Talking to the Djinns, Rs 80 (1997)
• Divakaruni, Chitra Dark Like the River, Rs 100 (1987)
• Meena Alexander Without Place, Rs 100 (1978)
  

and so on....

Sage Journals

Starting today, it is possible to susbcribe to select journals published by Sage via Scholars. This is an important new step for us- so far the list of journals that we have carried tended to be mainly in the sciences. Those published by the Indian Academy of Sciences, for instance. We did have a few others- JSL, the Journal of the School of Language, and Moving Worlds, and most recently, the South Asia Journal for Culture, but with Sage, we now offer a range of journals in the Social Sciences...

Many of you will be familiar with Sage- and how their "innovative ideas and approaches consistently distinguish their publishing." And that their journals are at "the forefront of knowledge, contributing to the disciplines of the future". The two that we have listed are both in the area of Gender Studies.

GTD, or Gender, Technology and Development "serves as a forum for exploring the linkages between changing gender relations and technological development. The diverse perspectives of the Asian region provide the main focus but dialogues along East-West and North-South lines are also an important aspect of the journal. The objective of the journal is to facilitate the recognition, promotion and coordination of opinions concerning the extended and shifting boundaries of meaning in gender, feminism, equality, technology and science for non-western societies and cultures. Multi-disciplinary in nature, the journal links the activities of women and men to institutions or governments, on the basis of technology, social relations and management. It develops the theory and practice of gender and technological development and define policy and programmes in their political, economic and social context. In addition to articles from individuals or collectives, the journal publishes book reviews, NGO profiles and news bulletins relating to issues of gender and technology." Published three times a year, it has been appreciated for its contribution to the area of gender and development studies by the Times Literary Supplement...

Malavika Karlekar edits the Indian Journal of Gender Studies, in which "gender categories are analysed with a view to changing social attitudes and academic biases which obstruct a holistic understanding of contributions to the family, community and a wider polity. The journal focuses, among other issues, on violence as a phenomenon, the social organisation of the family, the invisibility of women's work, institutional and policy analyses, women and politics, and motherhood and child care."

Both journals are available in both print and electronic versions, with special rates for individual subscribers as well as institutions. More Sage journals will come onto SwB soon. As they say, watch this page!

A Gift of Tamil

Much Tamil literature is becoming available in English, thanks to the efforts of a number of diverse sources. The title of this post is taken from the 1992 book of the same name, published by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) in Gurgaon, by Norman Cutler and and Paula Richman. This volume provides an anthology of translations from Tamil into English from a number of different contributors who have tried to translate not just the meaning of original words, but also their overall rhetorical and poetic effects in a style that is true to a modern aesthetic sensibility. The translations demonstrate the distinctiveness, diversity, continuity and vitality of Tamil Literature...

This continued vitality is most evident in the new collection from the
somewhat infelicitously named Blaft Publications in Chennai, The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction by Pritham K. Chakravarthy. A recent entrant on the publishing scene in Chennai, Blaft have three books (with a few more in the pipeline), all of which look interesting enough. TPF, for instance is an anthology of seventeen stories by ten best-selling authors of Tamil crime, romance, science fiction, and detective stories, none of them ever before translated into English, along with reproductions of wacky cover art and question-and-answer sessions with some of the authors. "Mad scientists! Desperate housewives! Murderous robots! Scandalous starlets! Sordid, drug-fueled love affairs!" This book has it all!

Indian Writing, an imprint of New Horizon Media in Chennai, is another relatively new source for Indian literature in translation. We list some of their titles in our ILT section- Neela Padmanabhan, Ashokamitran, Jayakanthan... more on their way too.

A major source for modern Tamil fiction in translation is, of course, KATHA. Their latest offering is Dissonance, a set of short stories by Jayakanthan, and in earlier years, they have brought out translations of novels by Ambai, Ashokamitran, Suraa, and others. Look under Katha in our Publisher Lists for their titles. All this, and much more- including a volume of Tamil New Poetry.

The few titles and the few publishers we list here are just the tip of the iceberg... As we discover more, we'll bring you more to read.... And much to enjoy.

Mangiamo!

This is a one-off post... The only books with recipes that you are likely to find on Scholars are of the numerical or algorithmic kind, so what is Italian Khana doing here?? Well, call it a chain of coincidences, but we thought that the title was unusual enough, and the author is unusual enough.

Ritu Dalmia runs a very successful Italian restaurant, DIVA, in New Delhi, and the cafe at the Italian Cultural Center. Her cooking has been praised lavishly- and from what we can tell, with justification. India is not the easiest place to cook Italian food. A few years ago, Italian imports were (with one famous exception) difficult to come by. The meats are different. The cheeses are different. The oil is different. And so on. Having scoured the local markets for substitutes- and having seen what is now finally available in the grocery stores in the major metros, Ritu has written an Italian cookbook for the Indian kitchen- hence the Khana.

Random House, who brought the book out earlier this year, gushes: "... Dalmia, chef and owner of Diva, Delhi’s most beloved Italian restaurant, teaches you how to cook authentic, delicious Italian food in your Indian kitchen that will have you throwing out your dal-chawal and begging for some pomodoro." Much of it is practical advice and "useful tips on techniques and sourcing ingredients, and anecdotes about her experiences cooking for her vegetarian Marwari family...", and so on. Having read, just this morning, a recipe on the net for Spaghetti with Harissa, one suspects that this is just the beginning of a grand fusion, typified by the title...

IK is not listed on Scholars, but we will be more than happy to get it for you. Just send us a mail at scholarswithoutborders@gmail.com

Paperback, 248 pages, Rs 750. ISBN: 9788184000214

Indo Manga

The latest book from Yoda Press is The Classic Popular by Nandini Chandra who teaches at Hansraj College, Delhi.

"For all those who grew up in seventies and eighties middle-class India, Amar Chitra Katha, or ACK as it was popularly referred to among friends, was an important influence if not an iconic cultural artefact. Published at a time when ACK appears to be on the verge of a second lease of life, this compelling new book draws our attention to the stimulating and troubling potentials of Amar Chitra Katha as a force in modern Indian history. Based on a reading of visual practices and the complicated art history informing the comics, the book delves into core issues of communalism, history writing and the ways in which middle-class India negotiates the consumption of products of popular culture to suit its ideological moorings.

During her research the author found that the creators of ACK amalgamated both local art traditions as well as a realist aesthetic borrowed from the calendar art-derivative style of Ravi Varma to produce an evocative yet sober style, appropriate for a largely middle-class, child audience. This was supposedly distant from the vulgar Hindi film posters, yet in practice it was completely immersed in the techniques of larger-than-life hyper-representation characteristic of the commercial Hindi film aesthetic. This technique succeeded in furnishing the reader with a visual imaginary of a mythological Hindu past that could at once blend into a real historical continuum, stretching from the ancient past to modern India, rendering myth historical and history mythological.

A provocative and cleverly argued monograph, this book is a must-read not only for scholars and students of modern Indian history, contemporary culture and politics, but also for everyone who grew up with, loved or hated Amar Chitra Katha."

In our Culture section. And History. Paperback, 268 pages. Rs 395. ISBN: 81-903634-3-3.

Women Unlimited Delivers!

Women Unlimited have just brought out an Indian edition of the classic Our Bodies Our Selves. Declared as "the voice of a women’s health movement that is based on shared experience" by Gloria Steinem, the book "aims to empower women by providing information about health, sexuality, and reproduction. With more than four million copies sold, this book is the classic resource that women of all ages can turn to for information about every aspect of their well-being. It gives women everything they need for making key decisions about their health—from definitive information from today’s leading experts to personal stories from other women just like them. It includes information on:

* Nutrition and exercise
* Relationships, sexuality and sexual health
* Complementary health practices
* Reproductive choices, pregnancy and childbearing
* Growing older
* Medical testing and procedures

While retaining the basic structure and content of the original, this edition has been updated and specific sections amended for readers in South Asian. Women comprise the largest segment of health workers, consumers, and decision-makers for their families and communities, but are under-represented in positions of influence and policy-making. This book aims to make them well-informed about health issues and become catalysts for social change."

At a special price of Rs 450 the book is a more than just a bargain. A necessity.

Regional Culture

SAJC, the South Asia Journal for Culture, is published from Colombo, Sri Lanka. SwB is very pleased to be able to offer journal subscriptions to SAJC ... for any number of our usual reasons. We like the fact that a southasian identity is evolving, and that in some quarters at least there is some effort to help people realize that shared histories still count for something in a globalized world...

The editorial board of the journal has academics from Sri Lanka (Sasanka Perera, Jagath Weerasinghe and T Shanaathanan), Pakistan (Salima Hashmi), India (Pooja Sood, Roma Chatterji and M Tharayil), Australia (Sharon Bell) and the UK (Tariq Jazeel). The issues they address are varied, ranging from a study of Sri Lanka's modern architecture to a critique of Asian art today. The format of the journal is such that in addition to scholarly essays, they have space for reviews and opinions. All in all, this promises to be an exciting addition to the set of journals published in the region, and one that will permit the exploration of many issues that transcend political borders.

Priced at Rs. 750.00 in Sri Lanka, US$8 in the SAARC region (as well as in developing nations) and US$18 in other countries, shipping and handling is extra.
Write in to us at mail@scholarswithoutborders.in or order online.

When one reason would be enough...

A few years ago, K R Sreenivasan, Director of the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, had a brainwave. Seeing the decreasing numbers of children opting for careers in science- not just in India where he grew up, but also in the US and Europe where he lived and worked- he thought he would ask a group of successful scientists as to why they had made the choices that they had. Many of them wrote back- almost a hundred- and their replies in the form of essays are the book One Hundred Reasons to be a Scientist.

In the preface, he writes, "A paradox of our times is that while our societies have become to depend on technological advances as never before, the interest in basic seciences is diminishing at all levels. Particularly distressing is the lukewarm interest shown towards sciences by the brightest students at the high school level. This state of affairs holds true. to the lowest order, in developed as well as developing nations, and deserves our collective attention."

Contributors to the book are mainly physicists and mathematicians, although there are exceptions. Partha Dasgupta, economist, for instance. There are Nobel laureates- Pierre De Gennes or Ahmed Zewail, and Fields medalists like Ed Witten or Michael Atiyah, or Steven Smale. A number of Indian scientists have written- eloquently- on why they chose to do science and how they manage to continue contributing at the highest levels- C N R Rao, Jayant Narlikar, K Kasturirangan. And others. Many others.

What is really nice about the book is that it is ideal dipping material. The essays are interesting and rarely come across as heavy. Mildred Dresselhaus, Professor at MIT, talks of how she managed to juggle multiple responsibilities. Freeman Dyson speaks of how much fun he has (at age 80) playing with numbers. And so on. The contributors are so diverse, it is possible for each reader to identify, in some part, with some of the writers.

The blurb for the book reads "In this collection of about 100 highly readable essays, some of the most eminent physicist and mathematicians with some connection to the International Center for Theoretical Physics tell us about what attracted them to science as youngsters and kept it alive, and what main piece of knowledge they have added to the extraordinary lore of science. High school students and young college students, for whom the collection is primarily meant, will benefit from spending some time with the book. Even the most seasoned researcher will find it interesting."

Hundred Reasons was the first book on our site, and will always be special to us. Bringing it to the Indian reader was an important objective of SwB; one that has expanded over the years, but one that remains a part of us. Specially printed, the book is priced at Rs 200. At a bit over Rs 2 per reason, we think its a bargain! With postage (within India), Rs 250.

Step by step

हिन्दी की दुनिया, पहले कदम... or Hindi ki Duniya, Pehle Kadam is a kit consisting of books and audio material from Scholastic, इंडिया।

Put together by Chandrika Mathur, a language teacher associated with Rishi Valley School in Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, this will be of interest to Hindi language teachers at the primary level as well as to those learning Hindi for the first time. Especially if they are on their own. A new learner of Hindi can have a tough time- awkward pronounciations, incorrect use of gender, difficulty in composing sentences being some of the more common challenges... Sources of amusement in numerous low level sitcoms on TV, but hardly something to laugh at.

This is also a kit around which workshops can be organized for teachers of Hindi. How a new language is taught, how skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are developed, how learning through games and activities can be effected- all these aspects are covered.

Dr माथुर trained in French language teaching at the Sorbonne and then combined her "understanding of new language learning with close observations of children to evolve a multi-sensorial, activity-based kit to teach हिन्दी to non-Hindi speaking students". The kit consists of 4 books and an audio-cassette, priced at Rs 400.