O beautiful! O broken and betrayed!

Endure thou shall, unconquered, unafraid, ...

The two lines are from Sarojini Naidu's poem Panjab 1919 that appeared in Young India, the weekly newspaper that was integral to the freedom struggle. The rest of the poem has not aged well, written as it was at an emotive point in our history, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, but the two lines struck a chord as I looked around the third floor of the library of Tokyo University.

Serendipity had a large part to play in my finding a superb treasure, the 1981 limited edition reprint of a facsimile copy of Young India. this is the first of a 13 volume set being published by the Navjivan Trust in Ahmedabad- Tokyo University did not have the remaining 12 volumes- and from the first page onwards, there was something to see and value... Amidst the advertisements for Powell's Abdominal Belts and Pragjee Soorjee & Co.'s chemical dyes, each article points to some part of the National Movement. The measured language, the dignity, the intent, and the effort that went into the making of this newspaper is evident in each article..

The book itself is a pleasure to see- folio sized, it is hardbound in Khadi katiya silk, and the volume I saw was numbered 46 out of a total of 250 copies that were produced. However, very little information is available in the public domain on this book- nothing at the Navjivan Trust site, for instance, or for that matter anywhere in the web. Copies of the book are, naturally, not available easily. I'm not sure that our University Library has copies, for instance, and some of our historians specialise in the National movement.. The Nehru Memorial Museum Library, arguably the most important library for our national movement does not have it- we checked... And more surprisingly, digital copies of Young India are not available, not even at a price. At the present time, this seems, at best, a little sad.

If, as Borges famously imagined, heaven to be a kind of library, then the Tokyo University Department of Mathematics library seems like a little slice of paradise. where I have just spent some happy hours...

There is no point in comparing this experience to one I had less than a month ago in Chennai where I went looking for some papers published in some Indian journals from the 1930's and 1940's, before digitization was upon us. At Tokyo University, the issues were here, neatly bound, properly catalogued... with very few missing volumes. I could spend my time on what I wanted to spend my time on, instead of commiserating with a substitute librarian about the shoddy conditions of work, pay, and so on... And to think that some of the volumes dated from the time of World War II, when both countries were at war, and on opposite sides!

But to come back to Young India, and to Sarojini Naidu. In today's world, who is "Beautiful, broken, and betrayed?" A visit to any of our libraries will tell you, we are. And of course, endure we shall, because we must. But diminished, perhaps conquered and probably afraid.

Artha Sutra

Rajeev Bhargava's What is Political Theory and Why Do We Need It? is published by Oxford University Press. Bhargava, erstwhile colleague at the JNU, is presently the Director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi and the author, most recently, of Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, also from OUP.

This collection of essays brings an Indian flavour to a largely west-oriented political theory which is "widely seen in India as an esoteric inquiry unrelated to social and political practice and largely irrelevant to the urgent or enduring problems of our times. Contrary to this view, Rajeev Bhargava argues that it emerges from practices and has the potential to return to them—to stabilize, endorse, or challenge them. In this book, he explains the constitutive features of political theory and the pivotal role it can play in modern, pluralist societies.

Bhargava elucidates the conceptual structure of secularism, multiculturalism, and socialism, identifying which forms of each of these are worth defending and why. He shows how politico-moral reasoning can shape appropriate responses to the grave injustice of states and communities—colonialism, civil wars, massacres, acts of terrorism, and denials of freedom of expression. He opposes naive articulations of modernity and tradition and claims that some types of deeply religious and secular persons can come together against dangerously simple-minded believers and unbelievers. He also explores deeper issues in the philosophy of social science—individualism, ethnocentrism, teleology, social ontology, and the object-like presence of social meanings."

Bhargava's scholarship is widely appreciated. On this book, colleagues have been effusive. Bhiku Parikh, Emeritus Professor of Political Philosophy, Universities of Westminster and Hull says this is ‘A fine collection of insightful essays, each probing its chosen subject from a particular angle and all collectively offering a systematic and coherent perspective on India and modernity in general. It represents political philosophy at its best and brings a distinctly Indian perspective to the heavily ethnocentric Western political theory.’ Michael Walzer of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton calls Bhargava one ‘of a very small number of political theorists who can write with equal cogency and clarity about high theoretical issues and hard political questions. He is consistently enlightening (and a pleasure to read), whether he is discussing holism, objectivity, and teleology or multiculturalism, censorship, truth commissions, and 9/11.’

New in our Politics and Philosophy sections, Rs 795, in hardcover, 436 pages. ISBN: 9780195699333

Bookin' Good

The World Book Fair starts in Delhi on Saturday the 30th of January and runs for a week. This will be the 19th such biannual book fair and will have about 1500 exhibitors from as many as 20 countries. For a country as starved of accessible reading material as India is, this is an event that booklovers look forward to with much anticipation.

As do many publishers who gussy up for the event. As for example, Mapin who will bring out a new and very sumptuous title,Museums of Rajasthan the rich heritage of Rajasthan in time for the event. Published for the Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, the volume is edited by Chandramani Singh, and offers the reader a chance to discover valuable museums if somewhat vicariously, and also to get a unique glimpse into the history and culture of one of the most visited states of India.

"Museums of Rajasthan details the origin, history and importance of 18 museums in Rajasthan, India. The collections managed by Government of Rajasthan and housed at Ajmer, Alwar, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Chittorgarh, Dungarpur, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jhalawar, Jodhpur, Kota, Mandor, Mt Abu, Pali, Sikar, Ahar and Udaipur, illustrate the glorious heritage of the erstwhile Rajputana kingdoms.

They display samples of India’s best royal collections, archaeological findings and local crafts. Highlighting the cultural legacy of Rajasthan, this book offers a concise overview of these collections, with mention of the legendary royal figures and experts who envisaged the museums. This volume is an engaging record of artworks in stunning colour photographs, presented as a catalogue."

In our Art and Architecture section, in hardcover, 208 pages, 255 colour photographs and a map. Rs 3000. Here.

How much should a country eat?

The past decade has seen a spurt in studies on consumption practices in contemporary South Asia as scholars seek to understand the expansion in the purchase and use of material goods accompanying globalization and the growth of the middle classes. However such research rests on a thin understanding of the past.

Towards a History of Consumption in South Asia, edited by Douglas E. Haynes, Abigail McGowan, Tirthankar Roy, Haruka Yanagisawa (respectively at Dartmouth College, the University of Vermont, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Chiba University) examines new ways of conceptualizing consumption historically in South Asia through a series of case studies on different commodities and consuming groups.

[The book] argues that notwithstanding the widespread character of poverty and the absence of a mass consumer society, consumption practices and attitudes about consumption have been critical factors in the constitution of South Asian society, culture, and economy since the late eighteenth century. The introduction examines patterns and trends; outlines the subject and arguments; and points to ways in which the collection challenges and enriches existing understandings of the subcontinent and its past.

Individual essays examine the consumption of British manufactured goods in the early stages of colonialism and rural consumption patterns during periods of profound socio-economic change. They investigate the relationship between Indian craftsmanship and shifting consumer preferences; contra-dictory and ambivalent attitudes of urban groups toward material commodities; and new forms of public activity like shopping, theatre, and cinema. They also study the ‘social lives’ of particular goods as their uses were transformed during the course of the colonial period.

By exploring both demand for commodities and the articulation of identities through goods, this book sheds new light on class, gender relations, modernity, tradition, production, and exchange in South Asia. Going beyond traditional explanatory frameworks based strictly on colonialism or nationalism, it offers new interpretations of India’s past.

In our History and Culture sections, Rs 750, in Hardcover, 334 pages. ISBN: 9780198063643

A little bird

SPARROW, the trust set up to build a national archives for women with print, oral history and pictorial material, comes up with unusual books- many of them in translation. Which, in of itself, is not surprising, given that C S Lakshmi is one of the founders of the organization. The name is clumsy- Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women- but the aim is admirable. These are histories that are difficult to record, and SPARROW does a great job of it. Some years ago, SwB was looking for Jameela Nishat's A Poem Slumbers In My Heart and Amhihi Itihas Ghadawala by Urmila Pawar, and we found them here.

But they have been unnecessarily bashful about letting others know about the great books they publish. Until now, that is. Come Friday, SPARROW will launch the second of their volumes in their ambitious project to bring the writings of 87 writers from 23 languages and excerpts from interviews with them to the reading public in India.

The first book, HOT IS THE MOON brought us the translated works from four Dravidian languages, Kannada, Tamil, Konkani and Tulu. The Kannda writers included Banu Mustaq, Kanaka Ha Ma, Mithra Venkatraj Tulasi Venugopal, Vaidehi, and the Tamil writers were Bama, Kutti Revathi, Salma, Malathy Maitri, and Vaasanthi. Hema and Jayanti Naik represented Konkani, and Janaki Brahmavara and Suneetha Shetty, Tulu (Tulu?).

And now, the second volume is here. Being Carried Far Away: Poems and Stories of Women in Assamese, Bengali, Garo, Manipuri and Mizo has illustrations by Bharati Kapadia, the well known painter and friend of SPARROW, and by Vishnu Mathur.

BEING CARRIED FAR AWAY is a literary journey into Assam, Bengal, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Assamese writers in the volume: Nirupama Borgohain, Phul Goswami, Purabi Bormudoi. Bengali writers: Bani Basu, Krishna Basu, Mallika Sengupta, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Suchitra Bhattacharya. Garo writers: Fridina K Marak, Twinkle Marak, Brucellish K Sangma. Manipuri writers: Arambam Ongbi Memchoubi, Bimbati Thiyam Ongbi, Moirangthem Borkanya, Nee Devi, Bhanumati Devi. Mizo writers: Malsawmi Jacob, Mona Zote, Zaithangpuii Vuangtu, Buangi Sailo.

Look for both the titles on our special page for Sparrow. Rs 350 within India, and $30 outside, given the world that is here to discover...

ART Modern

Saturday 23 January will see the launch of Zubaan's new title, making babies. Edited by Sandhya Srinivasan, this book, an analysis of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in India has been brought out with Sama-Resource Group for Women.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies or ARTs "are usually publicised as ‘miracle cure for infertility.’ However, the social and economic context in which these technologies are developed and promoted have a strong bearing on their use or misuse.

Carefully packaged in the garb of ‘modernity’ and ‘choice,’ the efficacy of these technologies is difficult to challenge. On a deeper analysis, their costs seem to heavily outweigh the benefits. A chain of adverse effects on women’s and children’s health, commodification of their bodies, commercialisation of the reproductive process, unabashed encouragement to sex selection, obsession about biological progeny and eugenics are only some of the concerns that ARTs bring to the fore.

This book is an attempt to look into various aspects of ARTs – their social, medical, legal and economic implications on women in particular, and society at large. The book comprises seven essays by eminent activists and academics, each exploring a specific aspect of ART."

In our Gender Studies section, Rs 400, in hardcover, 200 pages. ISBN: 9788189884703

Alternate Tagore

This new book from SAGE provides a revisionary critique of the art of Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of the national school of Indian painting, popularly known as the Bengal School of Art.

The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore categorically argues that the art of Abanindranath, which developed during the Bengal Renaissance in the 19th-20th centuries, was not merely a normalization of national or oriental principle, but was a hermeneutic negotiation between modernity and community. It establishes that his form of art-embedded in communitarian practices like kirtan, alpona, pet-naming, syncretism, and storytelling through oral allegories-sought a social identity within the inter-subjective context of locality, regionality, nationality, and trans-nationality. Debashish Banerji presents Abanindranath as a creative agent who, through his art, conducted a critical engagement with post-Enlightenment modernity and regional subalternity.

This book is handsomely illustrated with many of Abanindranath’s paintings and drawings. Oversize, it is both a good reference and also just good to look through.

In our Art and Culture sections. In hardcover, 228 pages, Rs. 995. ISBN 9788132102397

Forming States

Rajan Gurukkal is Vice Chancellor of M G University, Kottayam where earlier he has served as Professor and Director, School of Social Sciences.

OUP's recent Social Formations of Early South India is a collection of his essays that "presents an incisive analysis of social formations in modern linguistic states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala from pre-historic times to early medieval period.

This book examines the socio-economic and political processes in south India from ancient to early medieval period. It covers various aspects of social formations in south India-economy, technology, social relations, institutions, agrarian structure, political processes, state, writing, and so on. The collection is broadly organized into four parts: the methodological perspectives, pre-historic formations, agro-pastoral social formation, and agrarian social formation. The author also discusses problems related to the pre-historic and early historical periods and explores the factors that led to the end of the early historical and the beginning of early medieval period in south Indian history.

The author closely examines the transformation from agro-pastoral to agrarian social formation by exploring areas like economy, technology, historical processes of state formation. Special emphasis is laid on the transition from clan and lineage to hereditary occupations and caste, and the social implications of the spread of writing. He also discusses the structural and institutional features of the new social formation. What sets this volume apart is Gurukkal’s consistent theoretical position and methodological approach. It also showcases his exceptional familiarity with the sources— archaeological, epigraphical, and literary. The introduction provides a conceptual backdrop to the use of the term ‘social formation’ and also reviews some debates surrounding social change in south India."

In our History section, in hardcover, 388 pages. Rs 695, ISBN: 9780198064329

JAÏPUR

One accent at this year's Jaipur Literature Festival is on Dalit writing. S Anand, a co-founder of Navayana, an independent imprint that focuses on issues of caste inequalities and Namita Gokhale, founder-director of the JLF are coordinating A Million Suns. The festival runs from the 21st to the 25th.

India commemorates 60 years of being a Republic on 26 January 2010, and we are still a far distance from being an inclusive society. The session on Dalit writing at this meet, which has been called The Greatest Literary Show On Earth by Tina Brown, is one way of drawing attention to the fact that although our Constitution was piloted by Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a Dalit and one of the architects of modern India, Dalits seem to hardly figure in sectors where there is no affirmative action. Consequently, beyond representation in jobs in the government sector (which too is begrudged to them) and in politics, they continue to be shunned in the realms of culture, literature and the arts. Dalits, who constitute 17 percent of the India’s 1.2 billion population, are subjected to everyday violence and brutalities. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, every hour two Dalits are assaulted, every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched. Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in 2009: “Caste is the very negation of the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination. It condemns individuals from birth, and their communities, to a life of exploitation, violence, social exclusion and segregation.”

It is from such a context of hidden apartheid that Dalit literature emerges. The opening panel in the Dalit focus, Outcaste: The Search for Public Conscience, befittingly derives its title from Ambedkar’s anxiety over the lack of a public conscience in India when it comes to the issue of discrimination against and oppression of Dalits.

In four sessions spread over five days, Dalit writers from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Delhi and Maharashtra will share platforms with nondalits who have worked on the caste question to debate issues related to identity, literature and representation. P. Sivakami, Om Prakash Valmiki, Kancha Ilaiah, Ajay Navaria, Desraj Kali, Iqbal Udasi and Laxman Gaikwad shall be the key speakers/ performers. Christophe Jaffrelot, Nirupama Dutt, S.S. Nirupam and S. Anand shall play the role of interlocutors during these sessions.

• On 22 Jan from 11 a.m. to 12 noon in the Durbar Hall, a panel consisting of Om Prakash Valmiki, Kancha Ilaiah, P. Sivakami and S. Anand will discuss Outcaste: The Search for Public Conscience
  
• On 23 Jan 2010. 11 a.m. to 12 noon, Ajay Navaria and Om Prakash Valmiki in conversation with S.S. Nirupam. The theme is अब और नहीं: An End to Suffering

• On 24 Jan, in the Baithak from 2.30pm – 3.30 p.m. Baithak P. Sivakami, Laxman Gaikwad and S. Anand discuss caste, patriarchy and literary liberation.
• The baithak on the 25th Jan from 2.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. is entitled A Million Suns: A Celebration of Punjabi Dalit Literature with Desraj Kali, Iqbal Udasi, Nirupama Dutt participating. Nirupama will also read from the works of Lal Singh Dil. Iqbal Udasi will sing the songs of her late father, revolutionary Punjabi poet, Sant Ram Udasi. Des Raj Kali will read from his work and discuss the provocation for his art.

For interviews with the writers related to the Dalit sessions and further information on the Dalit focus at JLF 2010, please contact anand@navayana.org and on +91-9971433117 or namita.jlf@gmail.com.

And visit the JLF website as well.

Comparing Ramayanas

The Department of Comparative Literature of the Central University of Kerala will host Katha 1: Ramayana and other stories, a spectacular celebration of the art of storytelling, using the Ramayana as a backdrop. This is the first in a series of public events based on the theme of Narrative and the one-day programme on 22 January 2010 will feature Paula Richman of Oberlin College, Ohio.

The story, or katha has been vital in moulding societies and cultures. In order to stress the comparative orientation of the programme, they bring together various narratives – oratory, poetry, photography, documentaries, and puppetry – into the single frame of Katha 1!

This is welcome news, especially for the denizens of north Kerala. The Central University of Kerala (CUK) is only recently established and has been functioning only from March 2009. The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Jancy James chose to initiate the academic programme of the University with an MA in Comparative Literature and MA in Economic Theory and Global Governance.

The University is in Kasaragod, a centre of various cultural forms and linguistic diversity, and CUK will lend a new academic perspective to those who seek higher education in that region.

But more on the program: here is a glimpse, and for details, do write to the dynamic coordinator, the poet Rizio Yohanan Raj who is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature in the School of Languages & Comparative Literature at the Central University.

In addition to Paula Richman who will speak on “The Unique Ramayana Traditions of South India”, there will be Vellikkeel Raghavan talking on “Literary Traditions of North Malabar”, Readings from Mappila Ramayanam, a unique Muslim Ramayana, documentaries (on the cockfight pastime of the coastal region) and more.

Contact Dr Raj at rizioraj @ gmail.com or call on 91-9496192947, 91-9446460202.

Nationalism in Hindustani

Alok Rai's Hindi Nationalism, published in 2001, dealt with the politics of language in India "through a study of the history of one language: Hindi. It traces the tragic metamorphosis of this language over the last century, from a creative, dynamic, popular language to a dead, Sanskritised, dePersianised language manufactured by a self-serving upper caste North Indian elite, nurturing hegemonic ambitions. From being a symbol of collective imagination it became a signifier of narrow sectarianism and regional chauvinism. The tract shows how this trans- formation of the language was tied up with the politics of communalism and regionalism."

Nationalism in the Vernacular: Hindi, Urdu, and the Literature of Indian Freedom, a new book that will be published by Permanent Black in early 2010 is edited by Shobna Nijhawan, who teaches Hindi at York University in Canada. The book discusses the issue in reverse, namely "how nationalism—as a cultural ideology and political movement—was formed in literature. Unlike other anthologies, this one focuses on writings in two North Indian vernaculars with a contested relationship: Hindi and Urdu. The combination is deliberate: the relationship of Hindi and Urdu was being consolidated and sealed even as these texts were being written.

This anthology comprises a selection of formative literary writings in Hindi and Urdu from the second half of the nineteenth century, leading up to Indian Independence and the creation of Pakistan. The texts here are mostly hitherto unpublished translations into English.

There are two separate Introductions to this anthology. Each grounds, respectively, the peculiar paths taken by Hindi and Urdu proponents and practitioners.

In our Culture section, in hardcover, 536 pages, Rs 795.00. ISBN 9788178242606

Enabling Society

As a society, India is only very slowly becoming disabled-friendly. Most public spaces are inaccessible to the physically handicapped, and indeed, most of us are simply unaware of the rights of disabled people, though the wrongs done to them are all too evident.

In the 1980’s disabled scholars in the West began to develop a radical critique of biomedical conceptions of disability that focused exclusively on the individual body and its limitations. They also exposed the failure of the social sciences to critically address what this medical understanding of disability meant, and what it excluded from consideration. Out of their work emerged what is generally called the ‘social model’ of disability. Over the past twenty years this perspective has generated a substantial literature, much of it making use of the methods of qualitative social research. Narratives and life histories produced by disabled people themselves have a central place in the Disability Studies literature. This work has major implications for professionals in the rehabilitation field, for the social sciences, and the ultimate goal, for the full integration of disabled people into society. However almost all of if focuses on the traditions, practices and dilemmas of northern countries.

In India, in Thailand and in most of Asia, the field of disability continues to be dominated by the biomedical model. Thus, ‘disability’ is understood as an incurable chronic illness and, increasingly, an object for medical diagnosis and investigation. Despite many positive developments, little convergence between disability politics and practice on the one hand, and sociology and anthropology on the other has taken place. Surveying the international literature on disability and rehabilitation, it becomes apparent that many studies carried out in Asian countries are designed to measure the extent of (unmet) need or the impact of services or attitudes to disabled people. Virtually no studies make use of the innovative, usually qualitative and often holistic approaches developed in Western countries over the past twenty years.

Renu Addlakha who has earlier written Deconstructing Mental Illness: An Ethnography of Psychiatry, Women and the Family (Zubaan, 2008), is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi. She has edited the necessary and timely reader, Disability and Society along with some colleagues. Addlakha's specialisation is the sociology of medicine, and this book introduces readers in Asian countries to the recent disability literature of the West. The editors hope that it will inspire new thinking among social scientist, rehabilitation professionals and organizations of disabled people themselves that could further the empowerment of people with disabilities.

From Orient Blackswan, in our Public Health section. Rs 695, 476 pages. ISBN: 9788125036869

Body Politics

Next Tuesday, 19 January, Women Unlimited will release (at the India International Centre, New Delhi) the English translation of Suad Amiry's very personal and political history of Palestine, through the lives of- as she puts it- one of the PLO women’s generation.

Amiry is an architect, and Founder-Director of RIWAQ: the Centre for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah. After growing up between Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Cairo, she went on to study architecture at the American University of Beirut and the Universities of Michigan and Edinburgh. She has been living in Ramallah since 1981; she participated in the 1991–1993 Israeli-Palestinian Peace negotiations in Washington.

The title, MENOPAUSAL PALESTINE: Women at the Edge begs the question: Palestine, menopausal? Can a women’s condition called ‘change of life’ afflict a state-in-the-making? Suad Amiry’s wacky, irreverent, unmistakably political account links the state of Palestine to the lives of ten women for whom Palestine—or its absence—was the centrifugal force around which their lives revolved.

For 40 years, from the 1967 war till Hamas’ victory in 2006, the women in this book shared a past and unfulfilled dreams and aspirations. With that victory, however, they now mourn the loss of a diverse Arab culture, of secularism and pluralism, and their replacement by what Amiry calls ‘local nationalism’ and ‘global religious fundamentalism’.

In our Politics and Gender Studies sections, Rs 250, in paperback, 180 pages. ISBN: 9788188965595

Like Mother, unlike Daughter...

An Endless Winter’s Night: An Anthology of Mother-Daughter Stories edited by Ira Raja & Kay Souter is a collection of 21 contemporary short stories and poems from various Indian languages reframes the mother-daughter relationship as a significant issue for women’s writing from India. The daughter’s place in the family—particularly among the middle classes—is often further complicated by the accelerating influences of education, travel, new forms of interpersonal relationship and reproductive technology. This has given many young women new mobility and freedom to travel, to live out new forms of sexuality, to make decisions about their fertility, their relationships with men and the power structures of their communities.

Some of the most interesting and representative examples of this new writing included in this volume manifest the shock of the new, as contemporary developments from the interpersonal to the technological impinge on age-old patterns of familial interaction and are mediated through cultural specificities and the emotional tangles of the mother-daughter relationship. This anthology foregrounds the critical significance of this relationship, and calls upon feminist scholarship in India to put the mother-daughter relationship front and centre, to permit new insight into what it means to be female in contemporary India.

Ira Raja, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Delhi University was post- doctoral research fellow at La Trobe University, Australia, where Kay Souter is Associate Professor and Associate Dean Academic, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Both have written extensively on a variety of themes.

From Women Unlimited, New Delhi. In our ILT section, in paperback, 336 pages, Rs 375, ISBN: 9788188965571

A tale of three villages

On behalf of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (a charitable trust based in India and established in 2003 with the objective of facilitating and sponsoring multi-disciplinary theoretical and empirical enquiry in the field of agrarian studies in India and elsewhere in less-developed countries) Tulika Books, New Delhi brings out Socio-Economic Surveys of Three Villages in Andhra Pradesh: A Study of Agrarian Relations, edited by V K Ramachandran, Vikas Rawal, and Madhura Swaminathan.

This volume is a field report on surveys of agrarian relations in three villages in Andhra Pradesh conducted by scholars of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies. The study villages are Ananthavaram village in Kollur mandal, Guntur district; Bukkacherla village in Raptadu mandal, Anantapur district; and Kothapalle village in Thimmapur L.M.D. Mandal, Karimnagar district.

This volume presents an analysis of statistical data collected through the village surveys with a special focus on differences across socio-economic classes and social groups. There are separate chapters on land and asset inequality, tenancy, household incomes, crop incomes, employment and wages, indebtedness, literacy and school education, and household amenities.

The report attempts to contribute information, statistical data and analysis to the discussion on agrarian relations and economic distress in contemporary rural Andhra Pradesh and India.

In our Development Studies section, in paperback, 252 pages, Rs 295. ISBN: 9788189487676

The India Migration Report

At the 20th Conference of International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA) held at JNU in November 2008, the idea of having an annual report on Indian migration was mooted, and further developed during the International Conference on India-EU Partnerships in Mobility that was jointly organised by JNU and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in February 2009.

The inaugural issue of the India Migration Report is now out, and the timing is appropriate, with this year's Pravasi Bharatiya Divas scheduled for 7 – 9 January, 2010. The Report has been edited by Binod Khadria who is Professor of Economics at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU, and who is also Project Director of the International Migration and Diaspora Studies (IMDS) Project.

"India has the distinction of being recognized as an important country of origin of migrants in many receiving countries of the world. India also receives a large number of immigrants, mostly originating from its neighbouring countries in Asia and some from other countries as well. However, despite having significant stakes in international migration of human resources the issue of mobility has largely remained a neglected area in the academic and policy circles in India. Hardly any regular and comprehensive institutional mechanism for collecting, maintaining and disseminating systematic information on international migration exists in India excepting a few individual initiatives here and there. It is only in the closing decades of the 20th century that migration has started drawing greater attention of stakeholders in the policy sphere, in academia and the civil society in India.

In this context, publication of the India Migration Report aims to make a small beginning towards bridging a vital gap. The 2009 Report provides an overview of migration from India to the major destination countries as well as immigration to India. The focus of the report is to put together issues and concerns of significance in the contemporary contexts of migration - both continuing and emerging - and bring out a systematic, regular and futurististic source of analysis and information on international mobility of people involving India. A modest attempt today, it is hoped that the Report will help us build upon the available data and generating new avenues."

Reactions to the report have been very positive. Here are quotes from two of our more famous migrants, Amartya Sen “It seems very interesting, and I look forward to benefiting from the report.” and Jagdish Bhagwati “I look forward to reading it.” The Press has also been welcoming. The Hindu calls it “A new look at migration issues in India.” Mint says “…the first of its kind.” And in its february issue, Geography and You – a development and environment magazine says “This report will help young Indians unravel what involves the migration of human capital to distant shores.”

Need the report? In our Institutional Lists, under JNU Reports. In paperback, 160 pages, Rs 995. ISBN: 9788190978002

Shades of discrimination

The South Asia Study Centre (SASC) in Udhagamandalam, Tamil Nadu, has the objective of "executing research programmes focusing on national, ethnic, religious and minority questions in South Asia. Related issues of caste and gender, and the rights of the indigenous peoples are also taken up for analysis.

Their new book, REFLECTIONS ON THE CASTE QUESTION: The Dalit Situation in South India by T.G. Jacob and P. Bandhu is very timely. "Caste violence is assuming more well-defined and grave proportions and it is simply not possible to discount the structural reasons behind it. The intrinsic logic of capitalist globalization is clearly one of further and further squeezing of the dispossessed, and in the overall scheme of things it is the Dalits and Adivasis who stand to suffer the worst. On the altar of profits there is nothing that is sacrosanct and the underprivileged are the first to go under the wheels. With the forces of globalization running roughshod, the task before the oppressed becomes doubly difficult and conflicts are bound to be of a higher order. History proves that nobody is going to give social equality and economic empowerment on a platter.

The book is for all those interested in development or human rights. It is an invaluable compendium for those wanting to understand the present within the historical context to address the future."

In our Dalit Studies section. Paperback, 296 pages, Rs 275. ISBN 9788190061544

Today at Sahmat

A new book on Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi (in Hindi) edited by Rajendra Sharma, published by SAHMAT was released on January 1, 2010. The book is a collection of essays on and by Kosambi.

Introducing Kosambi, his daughter Meera Kosambi writes on डी डी कोसाम्बी: काम और व्यक्तित्व while D N Jha's article is on दामोदर धर्मानंद कोसामबी: एक अद्भुत विद्वान।

The significance of Kosambi is set out in three essays, by Irfan Habib (दामोदर धर्मानंद कोसंबी और भारत के मार्क्सवादीइतिहास लेखन का निर्माण), Prabhat Patnaik (डी डी कोसाम्बी औरऐतिहासिक भौतिकवाद के अग्रिम मोर्चे) and K N Pannikar (कोसाम्बी और भारत में मार्क्सवादी इतिहास लेखन में नया सांस्कृतिक मोड़).

The final part of the book has three essays by Kosambi, भारत में जीवित प्रागैतिहास, Bhartṛhari के काव्य में वैराग्य का स्वरुप, and संस्कृत साहित्य और नाटक।
On our SAHMAT page, Rs 100. ISBN: 9788186219959