Building bridges

Setu Prakashani, a small publishing house in Kolkata, has just brought out a book of essays by Amit Bhaduri, distinguished economist and one time colleague at JNU, Critical essays in the Dynamics of Capitalism as part of their series, Macroeconomic Theory and Policy.

In it Bhaduri offers an intensely insightful discourse on the crisis of capitalist economy desperately struggling to find an escape route in the maze of neo-imperialism and globalization. In the present context of global economic recession, this endeavour becomes even more pertinent as it examines the crisis of the capitalist economy in general and Keynsian economics in particular the macroeconomic implications in the Indian context have made the compilation of these sixteen essays more significant for the readers. The volume will cater to the needs of the undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars looking for a more realistic approach to the macroeconomic theory. Amit Bhaduri, one of the country's leading economic theoreticians, is known for his lucid but bold formulations and this work will surely fascinate critics as well as any general reader interested in the politics of economic policy formulations.

ISBN: 9788190327220

Once upon a time

Gyan Prakash is the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. A JNU alumnus, he did his MA in history here, specializing in the history of modern India. His research and teaching focus on "urban modernity, the colonial genealogies of modernity, and problems of postcolonial thought and politics. He advises graduate students on modern South Asian history, comparative colonialism and postcolonial theory, urban history, global history, and history of science."

Mumbai Fables, his recent book, from Harper Collins, gives some inkling as to why his work is so widely respected. Salman Rushdie, for instance, calls this ‘a fascinating exploration of my favourite city, full of insider knowledge and sharp insights.’

A place of spectacle and ruin, Mumbai exemplifies the cosmopolitan metropolis. It is not just a big city but also a soaring imagination of modern urban life. Millions from India and beyond, of different ethnicities, languages, and religions, have washed up on its shores, bringing with them their desires and ambitions. Mumbai Fables explores the mythic inner life of this legendary city as visualized by its inhabitants, journalists, planners, writers, artists, film-makers and political activists. In this remarkable cultural history of one of the world’s most important urban centres, Gyan Prakash unearths the stories behind its fabulous history, viewing Mumbai through its turning points and kaleidoscopic ideas, comicbook heroes and famous scandals. Starting from the catastrophic floods and terrorist attacks of recent years, Prakash reaches back to the sixteenth-century Portuguese conquest to reveal the stories behind Mumbai’s historic journey. He looks at Mumbai’s nineteenth-century development under British rule, and its twentieth-century avatar as a fabled city on the sea, to examine its emergence as a symbol of opportunity and reinvention. Different layers of urban experience come to light as he recounts the narratives of the Nanavati murder trial and the rise and fall of the tabloid Blitz, and Mumbai’s transformation from the red city of trade unions and communists into the saffron city of the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena. Starry-eyed planners and elite visionaries, cynical leaders and violent politicians of the street, landsharks and underworld dons, jostle with ordinary citizens and poor immigrants as the city copes with the dashed dreams of postcolonial urban life and lurches into the seductions of globalization.

Shedding light on the city’s past and present, Mumbai Fables offers an unparalleled look at this extraordinary metropolis.

In our Urban Studies and History categories, 408 pages in hardcover, Rs 599, ISBN: 9789350290071

Gendered Cinema

Fareed Kazmi, professor of Political Science at the University of Allahabad, has long been associated with the study of Indian cinema and its changing facets over the years. Rupa & Co. have recently brought out his new book, Sex in Cinema: A History of female sexuality in Hindi film.

From tragedy queen Meena Kumari to the haughty mother-in-law Lalita Pawar, women characters have been known for particular traits in Bollywood movies. This book is a history of female sexuality and its portrayal in Indian Films. Exploring womanhood off the screen, it is a brave, forthright and well-researched book that analyses, and puts into perspective, the portrayal of women in Hindi films.

An objective representation of women on celluloid through the generations, from the early films like Pyaasa to the more contemporary, Salaam Namaste. The book takes up Indian cinema, decade after decade and proceeds to delineate the portrayal of Indian women in cinema.

In our Film studies and Gender sections, in paperback, 376 pages, Rs 395. ISBN: 9788129116215

Annabhau Sathe

Annabhau Sathe was born on 1st August 1920 into the Mang Dalit community in Maharashtra, in a village called Wategaon in Satara District. Annabhau was not born into an existing tradition of knowledge; neither did the state provide him with one. His work with the communist movement and the critical perspectives on his life as a Dalit informed his prolific thinking and writing. Seven films have been adapted from his works. Of Annabhau's work, 32 novels, four plays, a travelogue, 12 farcical pieces, 13 collections of short stories and 11 povadas have been published in Marathi.

Milind Awad's Life And Work Of Annabhau Sathe: A Marxist-Ambedkarite Mosaic published by Gaur Publishers in New Delhi this year details the life of this important social reformer of modern India.

In our Dalit Studies section, 98 pages, in hardcover, Rs 250. ISBN: 9788189441111

Discovering Angkor

The photographic Archives of the École française d' Extrême-Orient that pertain to the (re)discovery of Angkor Wat have now been made available in the book, Archaeologists in Angkor.

A publication of EFEO, this 240 page paperback contains color photos, archaeological and architectural maps,

Since 1907, the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), or French School of Asian Studies, has been playing a pivotal role in research and conservation at Angkor, the site of a major Asian metropolis abandoned to the jungle in the 16th century.

This catalogue contains one hundred and height images – chosen from amongst the thousands held in the EFEO’s archives – of the site’s principal temples before they were cleared of vegetation and rubble and during and after the restoration process. Essays written by the EFEO specialists present the School’s archaeological work in its historical context and provide an introduction to more recent discoveries. At once a memorial and a work of reference, this publication will appeal to all those, professionals and amateurs alike, with an interest in the arts of Southeast Asia.

In our Archaeology section, 45€, approximately Rs 3000. Write to us.

Why is the sky blue?

... is the title of a famous lecture given by C. V. Raman at the Community Science Centre, Ahmedabad, in 1968. And the title of the latest book from Tulika, Chennai.

Artist/dancer Chandralekha and photographer/designer Dashrath Patel were there that morning to record the event. This book focuses on the creation of a scientific temper and a Nobel Prize winning scientist shows how a spirit of inquiry can unravel the beauty and the mysteries of the universe in a manner that makes the complex simple. Stunning, animated photographs, C. V. Raman's simple words, a timeline listing milestones in his life, interesting anecdotes and a lucid explanation of the Raman Effect, come together to offer the Raman approach to being inspired by science.

Raman loved the universe, loved science, loved speaking to children. He spoke eloquently and encouraged people to ask questions and seek answers. In this extraordinary book conceived by two creative minds, the eminent scientist and Nobel Prize winner urges readers to look around, observe nature, and ask questions. The text is extracted from a famous lecture delivered by him at the Community Science Centre in Ahmedabad on 22 December 1968, and the dramatic black and white photographs were taken while he was talking about why the sky is blue. This gives the book a feeling of action, as though Dr C. V. Raman is actually speaking, moving his hands about and forcefully making his points.

The pictures, the talk, the introduction, a crisp timeline listing milestones, the anecdotes, and a simple explanation of the Raman Effect all combine to capture the essence of a multifaceted man who was an inspiring example of the scientific spirit.

Why the Sky is Blue. In English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bangla. 28 pages, full colour, soft cover, for 8 years onwards, Rs 150 (within India) US$ 10.50 (outside India).

Being the Change

Urvashi Butalia and Anita Roy edit Women Changing India, a book that explores this theme in words and pictures...

India is changing. At the heart of the change are its women.

The change is widespread and varied, individual and collective and is reflected across the spectrum of women’s lives, whether in politics or in economics, in their daily lives, in business, or the field of work within the home and outside.

This book attempts to map – in words and photographs – some of the change that is both visible and invisible in the India of today. Six writers from India write the stories that six photographers from the world-renowned Magnum Photos Agency capture. The photographers are Olivia Arthur, Martine Franck, Raghu Rai, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Alex Webb, and Patrick Zachmann, and the writers are Amita Baviskar, Namrata Joshi, Mukul Kesavan, Mitali Saran, Tarun Tejpal, and Annie Zaidi.

Their beautiful and evocative photographs focus on the world of women working with microcredit, participating in grassroots governance, moving into new jobs, working behind the scenes in the male world of the Mumbai film industry, making their individual contributions in varied fields and imagining a new future for themselves and their sisters.

Published to celebrate 150 years of BNP Paribas in India and to mark the 25th anniversary of the feminist publishing house, Kali for Women/Zubaan, Women Changing India offers a window into the lives of women living in India today and brings to public attention their complex realities and their aspirations for a better world.

In our Culture and Gender Studies sections, in hardcover, 220 pages. Rs 1995, ISBN: 9788189884970

Pehle Aap

... The Making of the Awadh Culture by Madhu Trivedi makes an extensive study of the art and culture of Awadh during the Nawabi Period (c.1722-1856), with a focus on the city of Lucknow. Its strength lies in its profound deployment of evidence scattered in a variety of primary and secondary sources, especially in the Persian and Urdu languages, in its study of visuals and artefacts, as well as of the performance traditions and craft techniques which are derived from the period. It also discusses how under the fostering care of the Nawabs, Awadh came to epitomize all that was magnificent, refined, and Cosmopolitan, and Lucknow emerged as a cultural node during the nineteenth century. It also traces how the rulers of Awadh presided over the creation of the Shi'a heritage in Northern India which had strong associations with Indian cultural traditions.

Highlighting the literary milieu of the period, and the developments in the realm of music, painting, architecture, and the industrial arts, this volume also explores how some of the arts and crafts assumed considerable European colour due to the interaction between Europeans and the Awadh elite, and demonstrates how the ethos of the syncretic Indo-Persian culture, the renowned Ganga-jamuni Tahzib that represented Persian aesthetics and Indian cultural values, remained intact.

From Primus Books, in hardcover, 326 pages, 32 ills., ISBN: 9788190891882, Rs. 1095.

Emergency Graphics

Vishwajyoti Ghosh s powerful graphic re-imagining of one of the most seminal moments in the history of Indian democracy, Delhi Calm, is from Harper Collins. An avid comic book enthusiast, VG interests are in illustration, art and films and his comics are regularly published in various journals and anthologies, both in India and abroad. His most recently published work includes contributions in two international anthologies, When Kulbhushan Met Stockli and Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption, and Times New Roman and Countrymen, a set of picture postcards on contemporary classifieds. Delhi Calm is his first solo graphic novel.

Re-imagine Delhi in the 1970s... Imagine waking up one morning to learn that all your rights as a citizen are suspended this moment onwards. Imagine living the way the State tells you to-being told how, where and when to laugh, live or love. Imagine constant surveillance-all your acts, words,thoughts watched, all forms of expression subverted for the purpose of nation-building. Work More, Talk Less, yell microphones as you walk down the streets... But do not worry-Delhi is still calm. It is the India of the mid-1970s. Three young men with vastly different perspectives, but all dreaming of change, cross paths during this time. Do they sink as individuals or swim as a collective? Was William Penn right to say that Democracy dies in the hearts of democrats, before it dies in the hands of a dictator? Find out.

In paper, 256 pages, Rs 499. ISBN:9788172239398

Millennium Temple

This year marks a thousand years since the Big Temple in Thanjavur was built. And anyone who has seen it knows that thats the only way to refer to it, The Big Temple. And The Hindu recently carried a picture of Padma Subramaniam and 999 other dancers striking a pose, giving us some idea of what the temple and its environs might have been like at the time it was built.

R. Nagaswamy's Brhadisvara Temple: Form and Meaning, a recent title from Aryan Books is a serious effort to document what is known of the temple and its times.

The Great Temple at Tanjavur is a visual representation of Cosmic power on earth that remains, according to the pious wish of the builder, so long as the sun and moon lasts. The God who inhabits this abode is said to be seated with his consort on the summit of the metaphysical mountain surrounded by a circle of peaks in which the divine power descends in diminishing potency as it comes down gradually and takes his abode at the peak of the circle, appropriate to his direction and also the relative importance in the hierarchy. So each peak is a virtual temple. This metaphysical mountain is called the great meru- Mahameru, which forms the basic concept of the Brhadisvara temple of Tanjore.

Meru, the mythical mountain is said to be a golden mountain. True to its nature, Rajaraja covered the superstructure of this temple with gold, that made this loftiest golden temple at that time. The images one sees on the upper tiers represented with bow and arrow in their arms are the innumerable Rudras called Sata-rudras, who are said to move in the upper spheres and represent the sun's rays, a representation unique to this temple. This temple also portrays the five forms of Panca Brahmans, Tatpurusa, Aghora, Sadyojata, Vamadeva and Isana, in individual sculptural forms and enshrined in the lower niches. With four sides of the sanctum provided with openings and its height exactly double its width at the base, the lofty tower fulfils all requirements of the Meru type of temple architecture.

The Brhadisvara temple locates for the first time in Indian history, the 108 forms of nrtta karanas on the upper storey around the sanctum wall in sculptural form and reflects the concept of cosmic space in which Siva's dance takes place. The available karanas are discussed in this volume for the first time in the light of Abhinavagupta's commentary and also the views of modern scholars.

Every structure in the temple is dated with the help of inscriptions. The story is taken through the centuries and its change in meaning and ritual are brought out in this volume which points out what a Hindu temple mean when in full form and through the centuries. The personality of the builder, the role of Rajaguru in planning and guidance and also the names of architects who designed and carved the sculptures and executed the lovely paintings are also furnished in this volume which makes it an invaluable work on the temple.

In Architecture, 292 pages, hardcover, with 284 illustrations, figures and maps. Rs 3000. ISBN: 9788173053887.

Thy hand...

Sudha Pai is at the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. During a sabbatical spent at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library she undertook an extensive study that has resulted in the book Developmental State and the Dalit Question in Madhya Pradesh: Congress Response published by Routledge and released recently.

Dalit assertion has been a central feature of the states in the Hindi heartland since the mid-1980s, leading to the rise of political consciousness and identity-based lower-caste parties. The present study focuses on the different political response of the Congress party to identity assertion in Madhya Pradesh under the leadership of Digvijay Singh. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in response to the strong wave of Dalit assertion that swept the region, parties such as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) used strategies of political mobilisation to consolidate Dalit/backward votes and capture state power. In Madhya Pradesh, in contrast, the Congress party and Digvijay Singh at the historic Bhopal Conference held in January 2002 adopted a new model of development that attempted to mobilise Dalits and tribals and raise their standard of living by providing them economic empowerment. This new Dalit Agenda constitutes an alternative strategy at gaining Dalit/tribal support through of state-sponsored economic upliftment as opposed to the political mobilisation strategy employed by the BSP in Uttar Pradesh.

The present study puts to test the limits of the model of state-led development, of the use of political power by an enlightened political elite to introduce change from above to address the weaker sections of society. The working of the state is thus analysed in the context of the society in which it is embedded and the former’s ability to insulate itself from powerful vested interests. In interrogating this state-led redistributive paradigm, the study has generated empirical data based on extensive fieldwork and brought to the fore both the potentials and the limitations of using the model of ‘development from above’ in a democracy. It suggests that the absence of an upsurge from below limits the ability of an enlightened political elite that mans the developmental state to introduce social change and help the weaker sections of society.

In Politics and International Relations, in hardcover, 552 pages, Rs. 995, ISBN: 9780415563130

Babasaheb's Tiger

Navayana's new book In The Tiger’s Shadow is on Namdeo Nimgade. Born into a family of landless bonded laborers in the dustbowl of Sathgaon in western India, Namdeo Nimgade was 14 when he finally managed to attend his village school where, being an ‘untouchable’, he had to stand on the ‘hot verandah and listen to lessons through a window’. Inspired by Dr B. R. Ambedkar, he steadfastly pursued his education. After graduating from Nagpur, Nimgade went on to complete his Ph. D. in soil science from the University of Wisconsin in 1962—perhaps the first dalit after Ambedkar to earn a doctorate in an American university. In the 1950s, as an associate at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute in Delhi, Nimgade got to spend time with Dr Ambedkar and throughout his life, remained singularly committed to the Ambedkarite movement.

Nimgade narrates incidents in his life with candor and delightful humor—whether recounting his great-grandfather Ganba’s combat with a tiger in a forest or his ‘forbidden’ love for a nondalit woman. Moving away from the framework of victimhood narratives, Nimgade’s life is an inspiring story of triumph against odds.

"Our family name Nimgade probably derives from the neem tree, which is known for its healing properties and health benefits. Many people from our untouchable community bear names referring to trees or plants, such as my brother-in-law, Khobragade—which refers to a coconut. There’s similarly Ambagade, referring to mango, Jamgade to guava and Borkar to berry. Quite likely, these arboreal names derive from the peaceful Buddhist period in Indian history, and are cited as further evidence that many of India’s untouchables were previously Buddhist."

In The Tiger’s Shadow: The Autobiography of an Ambedkarite, by Namdeo Nimgade. Foreword by Christopher S. Queen, Harvard University. Rs 350 | 310 pages | Paperback Demy 1/8 | ISBN 9788189059309