Reading through Kalidasa

Romila Thapar is something of a living legend. Professor Emeritus in Ancient Indian History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, she was awarded the Kluge Prize (effectively the "American" Nobel Prize) for Lifetime Achievement in the field of History in 2008.

Her Śakuntalā: Texts, Readings, Histories, first published by Kali for Women, is being reissued this month by Women Unlimited. Professor Thapar has written extensively on many aspects of our past. Her best-known books are, Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas; From Lineage to State; History and Beyond; Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History; Early India; Somanatha: the Many Voices of a History; and The Aryan: Recasting Constructs.

The importance of Śakuntalā as personifying Indian womanhood in Indian literature and culture is undisputed. This book attempts to explore some of the links between culture, history and gender, and between literature and history, through reading variant versions of the narrative of Śakuntalā. These include the stories in the Mahābhārata, the play by Kālidāsa, and the 18th century kathā in Braj. The transformation of Śakuntalā from an autonomous assertive figure in the Mahābhārata, to the quintessential submissive woman in the Kālidāsa version, is carefully examined by the author through a fascinating reading of texts and translations of the play in India and Europe.

The Telegraph called it ... the best book on Indian history to be published in the Nineties. The Hindu lauded Thapar's retelling of [the story] and her careful assumption of the role of a literary detective.

In our Gender Studies and History sections, in paperback, 282 pages, Rs 375. ISBN: 9788188965601

Science and Civilisation in India

Indian Science has not yet had its Needham... but others have tried to put together some history of science in the subcontinent. A Concise History of Science in India's second edition is out recently from Universities Press, Hyderabad. Edited by D M Bose (1885–1975), S N Sen (1918–1992), and B V Subbarayappa, this is a hefty tome attempts to present a brief account of the development of science from early times to Independence, in one of the most ancient civilisations of the world. After nearly four decades since its publication, A Concise History of Science in India remains one of the most extensive and authentic account of Indian science through the ages. Yet further studies in the field have brought to light new material. This revised edition, taken up by B V Subbarayappa, one of the three original editors, seeks to integrate the new information with the knowledge already at hand.

Bose obtained his Ph D in physics in Berlin in 1919... just after WWI! He retired in 1967 from the Bose Institute in Kolkata where he served as Director for many years. He was also the first editor of the Indian Journal of History of Science. Sen was Registrar of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Calcutta from 1947 to 1978 .and between 1947 and 1949, he came in contact with Sir Joseph Needham, who kindled his interest in the history of science. Subbarayappa was formerly Executive Secretary of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi and President of the Science Division of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science (1997–2001).


A Concise History of Science in India brings together India's contributions in the field of science that have been very influential in the development of human civilisation. The decimal place value system and the Ayurvedic way of life are just two well-known legacies of this ancient culture. Yet there are only a few books which provide an unbiased and authentic view of this world. One reason for this is that the study of Indian science through the ages involves the complex integration of the knowledge of many languages and diverse scientific disciplines. Through the years, there has been growing interest in this study as an important aspect in understanding man's interaction with nature, his material life and cultural patterns. The Indian National Science Academy, through its History of Science Board (1958) and the National Commission for the Compilation of History of Sciences in India (1967) renamed in 1989 as the Indian National Commission for History of Science sought further means to stimulate this interest among universities and scholars. The result was the publication of A Concise History of Science in India.

In our History of Science section, in hardcover, 980 pages, Rs 1295.ISBN: 9788173716188

Annadurai

‘Anna: The Life and Times of C. N. Annadurai admirably fills an intriguing gap , the absence of a reliable biography of one of the most interesting, attractive, and consequential of modern India’s political leaders, whose legacy is no less than the permanent transformation of Tamil Nadu’s socio-political landscape, the ascendancy of the federal idea, and a whole new democratic language of connecting with the masses. This is a sympathetic work that . . . uses its sources well and keeps a critical distance from its subject and the movement he led.'says N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu in a blurb on the jacket of this new book from Viking Penguin.

On 6 March 1967, fifty-eight-year-old Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai became chief minister of Madras state, when his party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), swept to power for the first time. Marking the pinnacle of his public life, it reflected his popularity among ordinary people who revered him as Anna, or elder brother.

This rich biography illuminates his many lives—as a charismatic leader of modern India, as a stalwart of the Dravidian movement, as the founder of the DMK, as spokesman for the South—besides documenting his abilities as an acclaimed orator and littérateur in Tamil and English, and as a stage actor.

Born into a weaving caste family in Kanchipuram, Anna was exposed to the non-Brahmin politics of the Justice Party during his college years and this interest led him to become a protégé of the radical thinker Periyar E.V. Ramasamy in 1935. Anna promoted his mentor’s ideas of Self-Respect and Tamil identity but not his atheism. Like him, he attacked Brahminism and ‘Aryan’ values as the cause of Tamil political and cultural decadence and opposed the imposition of Hindi as the official language. In 1962 Anna took his independent Dravida Nadu demand to the Rajya Sabha, threatening the nation’s unity. Importantly, he used public speaking, journalism, theatre, cinema and agit-prop to broaden the base of the party, which drew renowned film actors into its fold, a bond that endures to this day.

The book does not shy away from the controversies that surrounded the Dravidian movement and candidly examines Anna’s complex relationship with Periyar. It records Anna’s move to form the DMK in 1949, his split with Sampath in 1961 over the party’s strategy and course, and his disillusionment with the corruption and power politics he witnessed as chief minister.

Kannan draws on Anna’s considerable body of writing, the memoirs of other leaders and authors in Tamil, including critics like the poet Kannadasan, Jayakanthan and P. Ramamurti, apart from secondary sources. Featuring luminaries like Rajagopalachari and Kamaraj, Kalaignar Karunanidhi and MGR, among many others, Anna offers a warm and rounded portrait of a man who showed the way for the democratic expression of regional aspirations within a united India.

New in Biography, 440 pages in hardcover, Rs 550. ISBN: 9780670083282

More on the Sari

The modern style of wearing a sari was introduced by Jnanadanandini Devi, a member of the Tagore family. The Tagores and Sartorial Styles: A Photo Essay by Malavika Karlekar along with THE MANY WORLDS OF SARALA DEVI: A Diary (Translated from Jeevaner Jharapata ) by Sukhendu Ray, with an introduction by Bharati Ray comprise a new book from Social Sciences Press, New Delhi.

This charming book, as the titles suggest, contain two separate but related writings on the Tagores. The Tagores were a pre-eminent family which became synonymous with the cultural regeneration of India, specifically of Bengal, in the nineteenth century.

The first writing is a sensitive translation of Sarala Devi’s memoirs from the Bengali, Jeevaner Jharapata, by Sukhendu Ray. It is the first autobiography written by a nationalist woman leader of India. Sarala Devi was Rabindranath Tagore’s niece and had an unusual life. The translation unfolds, among other things, what it was like to grow up in a big affluent house Jorasanko, that had more than 116 inmates and a dozen cooks! The second writing by Malavika Karlekar is a photo essay, creatively conceived, visually reflecting the social and cultural trends of the times, through styles of dress, jewellery and accoutrements.

The introduction by Bharati Ray perceptively captures the larger context of family, marriage, women’s education and politics of the time which touched Sarala Devi’s life. She points out that if memoirs are a kind of social history then women’s diaries record social influences not found in official accounts and are therefore a rich source of documentation.

In our Culture section, in hardcover, 228 pages, Rs 550. ISBN 9788187358312

The whole nine yards

The sari is the most representative apparel of India that has intrigued men and tempted women all over the world. Worn in a variety of ways, the sari is a fabric-length of varying densities in its body, borders and end pieces often woven by combining a range of cottons and silks in colours and patterns that are constantly evolving.

Traveling through India district by district and almost village by village, in Saris: Tradition and Beyond Rta Kapur Chishti and Martand Singh explore an entire spectrum of traditional weavers and printer settlements in fourteen sari-producing states of the country. Kapur Chishti is the co-author and editor of previously published Saris of India volumes on Madhya Pradesh; Bihar and West Bengal as well as Handcrafted Indian Textiles – Tradition and Beyond. She has been consistently involved with research and development of handspun-handloom textiles. Singh, Chairman of INTACH U.K. Trust (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) was the Director of Calico Museum of Textiles and has been awarded the Padma Bhushan.

This book is an exhaustive overview of this fascinating unstitched garment and a cutting-edge documentation of design and all that supports it socially, culturally and economically. This is also the first comprehensive compilation of the whole range and scale of the sari: the structures, designs, colours, the format and technology that make up the lingua of the sari; the inspiration, living experience and sensibilities of the weaving and printing communities; their economic viability and market system; and their predicament in an age of transition. For the first time, this book offers a step-by-step guide for at least 108 ways of draping the sari, through a series of line drawings and colour photographs, after revealing the rationale of the varying lengths and widths of the sari in the distinctive wearing styles of every region. Produced after twenty years of research, Saris illustrates the vibrancy and splendour of this age-old garment through extensive documentation and stunning photographs.

In our Culture section, in hardcover, 276 pages, Rs 3500. ISBN 9788174363749

Thanneer Thanneer

... is the Tamil movie by K Balachander, made in 1972, a powerful film on the scarcity of water. And on political corruption, governmental apathy, and so on. It remains a good movie, and regrettably, also remains very current.

Today, 22 March, is World Water Day. Jalsamvaad, an organization in Delhi asks civil society members to come together for a united action on water issues in Delhi- listening, learning, dialogue. They make a call for equal access of quality water for all. And ask if Delhi wants water at the cost of other people?

Ramaswamy R Iyer has written frequently and at length on issues relating to water. His Towards Water Wisdom, a modern classic, makes a fervent plea for an urgent and radical transformation of our thinking on water. The author redefines the projected water crisis as one of mismanagement rather than scarcity, and calls for a more equitable, harmonious and sustainable management of the resource.

Water-related conflicts are also discussed, including the Indus Treaty, the differences over Baglihar, the Cauvery and Ravi-Beas disputes, and rehabilitation problems in the Narmada Valley. The author questions the idea of property rights in water and argues that the fundamental or human right to water must take precedence over contractual and economic rights. The inadequacies of India`s water laws and policies are examined and a case made for a constitutional declaration on water and a national water law.

Another book that is worth remembering today is the Centre for Science and the Enviroment (CSE)'s Making Water Everybody's Business by Anil Agarwal, Indira Khurana, Sunita Narain. This publication documents traditions, practices technologies and policies of water harvesting in the country. It also assesses state government efforts to deal with drought. The book has a clear message for the thirsty times ahead: Water must be made everybody's business.

The CSE has, of course, done a lot on water related issues. One can learn a lot from their website...

SwB has a separate section on Water where a number of books are available. Quench that thirst!

The Common Good

March 31 is the last date for submissions of abstracts for the conference IASC 2011 - Sustaining Commons: Sustaining our Future, to be held in Hyderabad from January 10th to 14th, 2011.

IASC is, of course, the International Association for the Study of The Commons, a nonprofit Association devoted to understanding and improving institutions for the management of resources that are (or could be) held or used collectively by communities in developing or developed countries.

The Conference is being hosted by FES, the Foundation for Ecological Security, and will deal with physical common resources such as Forests, Grazing resources, Protected Areas, Water Resources, Fisheries, Coastal Commons, Lagoon Commons, Irrigation Systems, Livestock and Commons as well as New Commons such as Information Commons, Cultural Commons, Genetic Resources, Patents, Climate, etc. with the following sub-themes:

• The Commons, Poverty and Social Exclusion;
• Governance of the Commons: Decentralization, Property Rights, Legal Framework, Structure and Organization;
• The Commons: Theory, Analytics and Data; Globalisation, Commercialisation and the Commons;
  
• Managing the Global Commons: Climate Change and other Challenges;
  
• Managing Complex Commons (Lagoons, Protected Areas, Wetlands, Mountain Areas, Rangelands, Coastal Commons);
  
• New Commons (Digital Commons, Genetic Commons, Patents, Music, Literature etc);

The 13th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) will be held in Hyderabad, India from January 10th to 14th, 2011. The Conference is being held in South Asia for the first time.

The Conference provides a unique opportunity to resurface the discussion and debate on Commons and bring experience and evidence from across the world to show that Commons are not a relic of the past, but play a strategic role in maintaining ecological health, reducing poverty, and improving collective action. By placing the Conference agenda in the ongoing discussions around conservation, local governance, social exclusion and human rights, agrarian distress and rural livelihoods, and by pitching it at the interface of policy, research and practice, the aim is to bring practitioners, scholars and decision makers to a common meeting ground so as to enrich the collective understanding on common property resources and identify areas and measures to inform policy and programmatic action as well as guide future research.


Details, details, details! All on the IASC 2011 website.

Ghalib: The Man, the Institute

The Ghalib Institute, brainchild of Presidents Zakir Hussain and Fakruddin Ali Ahmed and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi came to be in 1971. Housed in the Aiwan-e-Ghalib in New Delhi, this memorial to Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib has a vibrant publications program, most of it in Urdu. The focal point of research on the poet, the Institute also publishes the well-known biannual journal "Ghalib Nama" and they have also brought out a large number of research publications on Ghalib and his other eminent contemporaries. The library of the Institute contains rare manuscripts and important publications.

Since Ghalib remains a popular poet - of even current relevance, the Institute promotes Ghalib's works in both the literary and the cultural arenas. The Hum Sub drama group a part of the Institute, has been very active and its various plays well received by the public. They also organize programmes of musical presention of Ghalibs poetry by well known singers of the sub-continent, and Mushaira is a regular annual feature in which all eminent Urdu poets are invited.

Just three of their publications are in English. The Diwan-e-Ghalib, translated by Sarwat Rahman who also wrote An Introduction to the Poetry of Ghalib, and a biography, Ghalib, by Sayyid Abdul Latif. The last is notable in part because it is an early critical biography that is quite critical of Ghalib's poetry. There is a wealth of material on Ghalib, but much of it is inaccessible to those who do not read Urdu. A pity, since there is so much to learn from him on matters of the times and the events of 1857. And more.

An earlier biography of Ghalib's in English is by Pavan Varma. Mirza Mohammad Asadullah Khan Ghalib began writing poetry in Persian at the age of nine and the pre-eminent poet of the time, Mir, predicted a great future for the precocious genius when he was shown his verse... But success and material rewards did not come to Ghalib easily for the times were against him, and he did not suffer fools gladly even if they occupied positions of importance. Ghalib was at the height of his powers when events took a turn for the worse. First came the dec line of the Mughal court, then the rise of the British Empire and, finally, the Revolt of 1857. Though Ghalib lived through the upheavals and purges of the Revolt, in which many of his contemporaries and friends died, and his beloved Delhi was symmetrically and irrevocably changed, he was a broken man and longed for death. When he died, on 15 February 1869, he left behind some of the most vivid accounts of the events of the period ever written.

The Dewan-e-Ghalib and An Introduction to the Poetry of Ghalib are in our ILT and Poetry sections, Rs 700 and Rs 300, respectively.

Ghalib: The man, the times by Pavan Varma is from Penguin. In Biography, paperback, 344 pages, Rs. 325, ISBN: 9780143064817

Macro Annuals

For the last several years Sage has been publishing the India Macroeconomics Annuals. Like the earlier issues, this year's volume is edited by Sugata Marjit, erstwhile colleague at JNU and presently at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences in Kolkata.

This annual publication analyzes interesting macroeconomic events of contemporary India using macroeconomic and statistical tools. Its focus is on problems affecting economy in general; it no only addresses problems of the Indian economy, but also has a fairly broad perspective that would be applicable to the conditions in other countries.

The first part of the volume deals with macroeconomic issues while the second part comprises academic research papers covering a wide range of topics such as labour, fiscal issues, banking and finance, international trade, econometrics, and computational and mathematical methods. Each paper studies topics relevant for developing countries through pure and applied economic theory and econometric methods.

In our Economics section, in paperback, 212 pages, Rs 550. ISBN: 9788132104513