Come together

A photograph sent in a mass mailing- so I can't, regrettably, give full attribution- captures the wonderful contradictions of our country, where pogroms coexist in space and time with centuries long traditions of joint worship in Ajmer, Nagore, or Madurai...

This also provides the ideal lead-in to a book that will soon be out from Permanent Black, Humeira Iqtidar's Secularizing Islamists?: Jama‘at-e-Islami and Jama‘at-ud-da‘wa in Urban Pakistan. Iqtidar teaches at King’s College, London and her research is in social and political theory relating to secularism, citizenship, religion, the state, and the market.

Secularizing Islamists? provides a thorough analysis of two Islamist parties in Pakistan, the highly influential Jama‘at-e-Islami and the more militant Jama‘at-ud-Da‘wa, widely blamed for the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Basing her findings on ethnographic work with the two parties in Lahore, Humeira Iqtidar says that these Islamists are involuntarily facilitating secularization within Muslim societies, even as they vehemently oppose secularism.

This book offers a fine-grained account of the workings of both parties. It challenges received ideas about the relationship between the ideology of secularism and the processes of secularization.

Iqtidar illuminates the impact of women on Pakistani Islamism while arguing that these Islamist groups are inadvertently supporting secularization by forcing a critical engagement with the place of religion in public and private life. She highlights the role that competition among Islamists, as well as the focus on the state as the center of their activity, play in assisting secularization.

The result is a significant contribution to our understanding of emerging trends in Islam and politics within South Asia.

The book, which is co-published with Chicago University Press has been widely praised for “the depth of its empirical research, both historical and anthropological—there is no other work that brings such a range of materials to a study of Islamism in contemporary Pakistan. Here, Humeira Iqtidar offers a compelling historical argument that demonstrates how Islamist movements in Pakistan have long relied upon processes of social and political secularization. This important book will have a wide readership across the social sciences and humanities and will be of interest to students of South Asian history and culture, the history of secularism, modern and contemporary Islamic studies, as well as policy professionals worldwide who are concerned with Islamic radicalism.” by Aamir Mufti, anthropologist at UCLA. Columbia University's Ira Katznelson says: “Based on rich ethnography and written with historical and theoretical imagination, this riveting book offers a timely and subtle contribution to our understanding of the place and impact of religion in public life. Humeira Iqtidar’s resonant accounts of the origins, diversity, and role of gender in Pakistan’s Islamist movements, and her deep insight that secularization can be underpinned by social forces that combat secularism, force a reconsideration of long-held concepts and convictions about politics and belief.”

In our Politics and Religion sections, in hardcover, 232 pages, Rs 595. ISBN 9788178243320

Jab they met

Documentary film maker Rahul Roy did an M. A. in film and television production at the Mass Communication Research Center, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. He is a recipient of a fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation (the one that gives the genius awards) to make documentaries on the thems of masculinity.

The last edition of Persistence Resistance- Magic Lantern's great festival- had a retrospective of his films. Here's what they said: For most documentary film lovers, Rahul Roy is a well known figure. Making films from the late 1980s onwards, both individually and in collaboration with filmmaker Saba Dewan, Roy has carved a niche for himself within the documentary and the independent film category in India as well as across the worlds. His films have traveled across the globe to various documentary film festivals and have won several prestigious awards. His work has focused primarily on masculinities.

Rahul Roy’s films explore the themes of masculinity and gender relations against the larger background of communalism, labour, class identities and urban spaces. His films are not simply interested in documenting the lives of different figures, but instead they engage the spectator in a dialogue with the context of the film. For Roy, “Being creative is in some ways through your work, being able to give, provide these small little new insights into life, and into what is happening around us, and I think that at various points is probably a far greater contribution that attending demonstrations.” Rahul Roy, through his films seeks to find a unique political language of filmmaking to tell human stories.

The Documentaries pages on the new SwB website are getting populated with Magic Lantern Films, and three films by Rahul Roy, When Four Friends meet (2000), Majma (2001) and The City Beautiful (2003) can be ordered through us.

By the way, our Documentaries pages carry a lot of other exciting film makers as well (with sample clips that they are linked to on Youtube).

Besides film making Roy has been researching and writing on masculinities. His graphic book on masculinities titled A Little Book on Men is published by Yoda Press.

India today is abuzz about how things are changing for the new Indian woman. Yet no one is talking about men. As the varied discourses within gender studies grow increasingly complex, the study of masculinities continues to remain an area of darkness within the South Asian reality. The obvious is familiar to all—the visible, hegemonic masculinity which bristles on the slightest provocation and proudly displays its wares. But what about various other masculinities, those which remain silent and unrecognised, pushed under and behind their ‘hyper-masculine’ brethren? One might ask—are the two kinds of masculinities locked in an eternal conflict? And are these masculinities permanent, unchangeable, or do they evolve and transform with time? An unprecedented and timely effort, the Little Book on Men, attempts to address many of these questions in a creative and reader-friendly manner through drawings, text and video frames. Drawing on popular culture, socialisation charts used in schools, poetry, personal narratives and documentary footage, this unique book brings together the main theories, key concepts and empirical research on masculinities even as it contributes to the construction of a language which men in South Asia can use to talk about themselves in different and individually distinct ways.

In our Gender Studies section, in paperback, 72 pages, Rs 195. ISBN: 9788190363488

A Social Sciences Library for the asking

The Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, Boston, in conjunction with the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development has developed a remarkable library resource in the Social Sciences destined for all university libraries.

Neva Goodwin, GDAE Co-Director, and Brian Roach, Project Director led an initiative to develop The Social Science Library (or SSL), a rich bibliography of nearly 10,000 entries that includes 3,200 full-text PDF files in the social science disciplines of

• Anthropology,


• Economics,


• History,


• Philosophy,


• Political Science,


• Social Psychology, and

• Sociology.

Advisors in this enterprise include Craig Calhoun (President, Social Science Research Council, New York), Kemal Dervis (United Nations Development Programme), Khadija Haq (Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Institute, Pakistan), Andrzej Kassenberg (Institute for Sustainable Development, Poland), Kumari Jayawardene (Colombo University, Sri Lanka), Wangari Maathai (Nobel Laureate and Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, Kenya), Mary Robinson (Former President of Ireland (1990-1997), United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002)), Amartya K. Sen (Professor at Harvard University and Nobel Laureate in Economics), Ismael Serageldin (Director, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt) and Joseph Stiglitz (Professor at Columbia University and Nobel Laureate in Economics).

These resources are yours for the asking. Seriously, all that you need to do is to request your Librarian to write to ssl@tufts.edu. If you are in India, you could also have your Librarian write to us, Scholars without Borders, at ssl@swb.co.in and we will see that it eventually reaches your institution. Its free, and its that simple!

The SSL is Carefully organized to facilitate scholarly use by students, faculty, and researchers and comes to you on USB drives and/or CD-ROMs. It does not require Internet access or institutional subscriptions to the relevant journals. The collection can be loaded onto all computers in the institutions that receive them, and can be easily copied by individuals for their own use.

An online version with the extensive bibliography, but without the PDFs, can be seen here.

The SSL are being distributed in different countries by different organizations. In Pakistan, this is the Civil Society Resource Centre, a project of the Aga Khan Foundation. In Zimbabwe, via Books for Zim and the University of Zimbabwe. In Bangladesh, via BRAC University. In Afghanistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam, via Books for Asia, a project of the Asia Foundation. In Indonesia, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Palestine, the Philippines, and Uganda via Sabre Foundation.

And in India, through us, namely Scholars without Borders. The goal is reach all university libraries in each country – with possible additional outreach to other appropriate recipients such as teachers’ colleges or research institutes. Full coverage would ensure reaching the most remote or rural institutions, where there is often the greatest need.

The list of countries to which the SSL and related materials can be sent may be found here. In any case, write to us. And please do pass the word along to those you think might find this resource of use, but may not come across this blogpost... We're here to help!

Bright Stars

Bright Sparks, a publication of the Indian National Science Academy, chronicles the lives and contributions of 40 inspiring Indian scientists of the past.

The word ‘scientist’ often conjures an image of an isolated man in a lab, surrounded by books, expensive instruments, test tubes, and beakers belching out strange fumes. But actually, scientists have many facets to their character. Some of the scientists in this book wrote stories and poems; others had a passion for art - while a few loved speeding around on motor bikes! Many scientists passionately engaged with the society outside their labs and worked hard to make the world a better place. Apart from their life sketches interesting personal anecdotes have been added to lend depth to their character. What made them take up science? Did a childhood experience inspire them? Was it a kindred teacher or a loving parent? What odds did the men, and particularly the women have to face and overcome? Hopefully, their lives will inspire the young.

The book is authored by Arvind Gupta, known throughout India as a science populariser and toymaker. He has conducted thousands of workshops in India and abroad, and made numerous TV shows on making science toys from ‘junk’. He writes, translates, and shares his passion for books and toys through his popular website arvindguptatoys.com. Arvind obtained a BTech from IIT Kanpur in 1975. He opted out of a lucrative career to devote his life to science popularisation. Currently, he works at the Muktangan Science Centre for Children located at the Inter- University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune. He has been conferred numerous awards for his work, including the inaugural National Award for Science Popularisation amongst children (1988) and the Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT / Kanpur (2000).

Adding no small value to the book are the wonderful illustrations by Karen Haydock who has lived in India for the past 20 or so years. In addition to her work as an artist, she has been teaching, training teachers, developing teaching methods, and writing books. She was originally trained as a biophysicist, having completed her PhD and post-doctoral research in USA.

The one quible I have is with the title. These men and women are not sparks by any stretch of the imagination. These are our major stars- the ones who have made a career in science seem worth the while.

The book is well produced, a pleasure to read. Of course, the publicity it has got so far is less than minimal, but one hopes that this will change. In paperback, Rs 150, 164 pages. Here.

Navayana's Sixer

Given the World Cup season, the cricket metaphor is entirely appropriate to describe the set of books that Navayana has just launched, in part to celebrate the visit of the celebrated Angela Davis, activist and scholar.

Davis will give the second Annual Navayana Lecture in April 2011 on “Contemporary Quests for Social Justice”. Currently Professor Emerita at the History of Consciousness Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, she is the author of seven books, two of which are being reprinted for South Asia by Navayana.

Women, Race & Class is a powerful study of the women’s movement in the U.S. from abolitionist days to the present demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders. One of the most brilliant and courageous women of our generation, Angela Yvonne Davis shows that both sexism and racism are deeply rooted in class oppression, and that neither can be eradicated without destroying the dominant patriarchal economic system. By analysing both the differences and the similarities between the experiences of black and white women, she casts new light on the past and present struggles for human rights.

In our Womens Studies and Politics sections, in paperback, 284 pages, Rs 295, ISBN: 9788189059422

For some time now, Davis' passion has been the US prison system. In Are Prisons Obsolete? she has put the case for the latest abolition movement in American life: the abolition of the prison. As she notes, American life is replete with abolition movements, and when they were engaged in these struggles, their chances of success seemed almost unthinkable. For generations of Americans, the abolition of slavery was sheerest illusion. Similarly, the entrenched system of racial segregation seemed to last forever, and generations lived in the midst of the practice, with few predicting its passage from custom. The brutal, exploitative (dare one say lucrative?) convict-lease system that succeeded formal slavery reaped millions to southern jurisdictions (and untold miseries for tens of thousands of men, and women). Few predicted its passing from the American penal landscape. Davis expertly argues how social movements transformed these social, political and cultural institutions, and made such practices untenable.

In our Politics and Law sections, in paperback, 128pages, Rs 150. ISBN: 9788189059439

In People Without History:India’s Muslim Ghettos, Jeremy Seabrook and Imran Ahmed write about life in the inner-city areas of Kolkata’s mainly Muslim settlements. It asks a simple question—how do the vast majority of Muslims, especially the poor, live, work, love and die? In the context of the communalisation of urban poverty, People Without History pays attention to the fabric of daily life in Muslim communities—the pursuit of gainful occupation, affective and social affinities, networks of kinship and neighbourhood.

Jeremy Seabrook and Imran Ahmed Siddiqui examine another crucial question. Kolkata’s Muslims live in a city that for 33 years was governed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It has been the proudest boast of the Communists that they have been guided by a secular ideology, and that, as a result, Muslims in West Bengal have been spared the excesses of communalists in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa and elsewhere. How far this claim is justified may be judged from the testimonies of the people in this book.

In our Anthropology, Urban Studies and Sociology sections, in paperback, 272 pages, Rs 295, ISBN: 9788189059446

In Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route, Saidiya Hartman journeys along a slave route in Ghana, following the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast. She retraces the history of the Atlantic slave trade from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy.

“Wider and deeper than Alex Haley’s landmark Roots, much less sentimental and incredibly smart. It reads like a cross between Bruce Chatwin and Toni Morrison, top-notch travel-writing and scintillating prose and soul” says Randall Kenan, author of A Visitation of Spirits.

In our Biography section, in paperback, 288 pages, Rs 350. ISBN: 9788189059392

Un/Common Cultures: Racism and the Rearticulation of Cultural Difference by Kamala Visweswaran develops an incisive critique of the idea of culture at the heart of anthropology, describing how it lends itself to culturalist assumptions. She holds that the new culturalism—the idea that cultural differences are definitive, and thus divisive—produces a view of “uncommon cultures” defined by relations of conflict rather than forms of collaboration. The essays in Un/common Cultures straddle the line between an analysis of how racism works to form the idea of “uncommon cultures” and a reaffirmation of the possibilities of “common cultures,” those that enact new forms of solidarity in seeking common cause. Such “cultures in common” or “cultures of the common” also produce new intellectual formations that demand different analytic frames for understanding their emergence. By tracking the emergence and circulation of the culture concept in American anthropology and Indian and French sociology, Visweswaran offers an alternative to strictly disciplinary histories. She uses critical race theory to locate the intersection between ethnic/diaspora studies and area studies as a generative site for addressing the formation of culturalist discourses. In so doing, she interprets the work of social scientists and intellectuals such as Elsie Clews Parsons, Alice Fletcher, Franz Boas, Louis Dumont, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Clifford Geertz, W. E. B. Du Bois, and B. R. Ambedkar.

In our Anthropology and Culture Studies sections, in paperback, 354 pages, Rs 450, ISBN: 9788189059415

Gail Omvedt's Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anticaste Intellectuals is now in paperback.

The bhakti radical Ravidas (c 1450–1520), calling himself a ‘tanner now set free’, was the first to envision an Indian utopia in his song “Begumpura”—a modern casteless, classless, tax-free city without sorrow. This was in contrast to the dystopia of the brahmanical kaliyuga. Anticaste intellectuals in India posited utopias much before Thomas More, in 1516, articulated a Renaissance humanist version.

Gail Omvedt, in this study, focuses on the worldviews of subaltern visionaries spanning five centuries—Chokhamela, Janabai, Kabir, Ravidas, Tukaram, the Kartabhajas, Phule, Iyothee Thass, Pandita Ramabai, Periyar and Ambedkar. She charts the development of their utopian visions and the socioeconomic characteristics of the societies conceived through this long period.

Reason and ecstasy – dnyan and bhakti/bhav – are the underlying themes in this book. They constitute the two main strands of the utopian vision: the joy taken in the consciousness of a promised land and the analytical power that defines the contours of that land. Together, they make the road that leads to the promised land.

Rejecting Orientalist, nationalist and hindutva impulses to ‘reinvent’ India, Omvedt says all we need to do is take up the India envisioned by its dalit-bahujan intellectuals and leaders—the Begumpura of Ravidas, the Bali Rajya of Phule, the Dravidastan of Periyar, the Buddhist commonwealth of the Sakya Buddhists and Ambedkar’s Prabuddha Bharat. These are contrasted with Gandhi’s village utopia of Ram Rajya, Nehru’s hindutva-laced socialism and Savarkar’s territorialist Hindu Rashtra. Finally, Omvedt emphasizes the continued relevance of the vision of the anticaste intellectuals in the era of globalization.

In our Dalit Studies section, in paperback, Rs 300, 304 pages. ISBN: 9788189059118

Nor any drop...

The Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water conflicts in India released its report: Life, Livelihoods, Ecosystems, Culture: Entitlements and Allocation of Water for Competing Uses today at the WWF India Conference Hall in New Delhi.

The Forum (Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India) is an effort to bring together all those interested in working on issues related to water conflicts in India into a loose network for action and interaction. The Forum intends to cover four broad areas:

• Conflict Documentation
• Conflict Resolution
• Conflict Prevention
• Networking and Awareness

One of their initiatives has been to document these problems in an accessible manner, as for instance in their earlier book Water Conflicts in India: Million Revolts in the Making, edited by K. J. Joy, Biksham Gujja, Suhas Paranjpye, Vinod Goud, and Shruti Vispute. Water conflicts in India have now percolated to every level. They are aggravated by the relative paucity of frameworks, policies and mechanisms to govern the use of water resources. Based on the premise that understanding and documenting different types of water conflict cases in all their complexity would contribute to informed public debate and facilitate their resolution, Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India, a collaborative initiative of the WWF project ‘Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment’, documented a number of such case studies.

One of its kind in India, this book brings together an impressive sixty-three case studies – summarized status of the conflicts, the issues involved and their current position – and gives us a glimpse into ‘the million revolts’ that are brewing around water. While recognizing that each conflict is a microcosm of wider conflicts, the editors have classified these cases into eight broad themes that try to capture the dominant aspect of the conflict. These are: contending water uses; dams and displacement; equity-access-allocations; micro-level conflicts; water quality; trans-boundary conflicts; privatization; sand excavation and mining. With a mix of academics and activists as contributors, the book makes an important contribution to a new discourse on water in general, and water conflicts and conflict resolution in particular. The book includes 63 case studies of water conflicts of different types across the country.

In our Water and Development studies sections, Rs 995 in hardcover, 520 pages. ISBN:9780415424110

Water Works

Yoda's new book The Golden Boat: River poems has been edited by K. Satchidanandan and is published in collaboration with the India International Centre, New Delhi as one outcome of their recent preoccupation with water...

In India, every river is a source of myth. Legends surround them, lives get intertwined with their waves, even as fortunes rise and fall with their ebb and flow. Ganga, Yamuna, Sindhu, Saraswati, Brahmaputra, Sarayu, Mahanadi, Krishna, Kaveri, Periyar: name them, and you encounter gods, goddesses, princes, princesses, demons and fairies whose tales they invoke. Indeed, the river has meaning for everyone, whether our lives are directly dependent on one or not.

This anthology of poems about the river from different parts of India, and in its myriad languages compiled by Professor K. Satchidanandan brings to life memories, stories and metaphors associated with rivers through the generations. Featuring the work of stalwarts such as Rabindranath Tagore, Iqbal, Dilip Chitre, Mamang Dai, J. P. Das, Keki N. Daruwalla, Ashok Vajpeyi and Padma Sachdev, among many others, with many of the poems presented here in the original language and script, apart from the translations in English, this unique volume is a collector’s treasure.

In our Poetry section, 178 pages in paperback, Rs 195. ISBN: 9789380403151.

People Rights

Daanish Books, New Delhi recently released Weapon of the Oppressed: An Inventory of People's Rights in India.

The world is witnessing an unprecedented surge of human consciousness in recognition of the worth of individuals, groups and regions. This is clearly discernible in India as there are growing assertions for the rights of all human beings to dignity, livelihood and appropriate conditions for realizing their creative potentiality. The people’s movements, the experience of parliamentary democracy, expansion of education and communication as well as the process of economic development have vastly redefined the form people.

This document designed as a handbook for social activists, scholars and administrators or anyone trying to defend a right, provides social category-wise listing and cross-listing of people’s rights in India as recognized under constitutional provisions, legislations, judicial decisions, international instruments, government policies, and relevant institutions.

In hardcover, 412 pages, Rs 700. In our Law, Politics and Sociology sections, ISBN: 9788189654962

Speaking of human rights, what about the rights of a nation? Another interesting title from Daanish is by Marta Harnecker with Hugo Chavez: Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution.

Marta Harnecker’s interviews with Hugo Chávez began soon after one of the most dramatic moments of Chávez’s presidency — the failed coup of April 2002. In the aftermath of the failed coup, Chávez talks to Harnecker about the formation of his political ideas, his aspirations for Venezuela, its domestic and international policies, problems of political organization, relations with social movements in other countries, and more, constantly relating these to concrete events and to strategies for change.

The exchange between Harnecker and Chávez — sometimes reflective, sometimes anecdotal, always characterized by their passionate commitment to the struggles of the oppressed — brings to light the process of thought and action behind the public pronouncements and policies of state.

Hugo Chávez has become a symbol of defiance of U.S. imperialism throughout Latin America. His importance for the future of the region makes this book essential reading.

Politics. In paperback, 297 pages, Rs 325, ISBN: 9788189654009

Jassa Jaisa

A new book from Social Sciences Press, New Delhi, is by Sumant Dhamija, a freelance writer who was educated at Mayo College, Ajmer, King’s School, Canterbury and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Sumant is President of The Oxford and Cambridge Society of India. He organized a lecture on Jassa Singh Ahluwalia of the Punjab, and the rest, as they say, is history. He wrote the book Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, the forgotten hero of Punjab.

In Jassa Singh Ahluwalia (1718-1783): The Forgotten Hero of Punjab, Sumant Dhamija describes the riveting history of Punjab’s struggle for freedom and sovereignty. A key role was played by Jassa Singh and his fellow misl sardars who came into conflict, principally, with Ahmad Shah Abdali ‘Durrani’ (1724-72), King of Afghanistan, regarded as the greatest conqueror of his time. Inspired by Guru Gobind Singh, Jassa Singh united the panth, leading the Dal Khalsa, the Sikh army, to ultimate victory. The people of Punjab looked up to him as the warrior-saint. This victory puts Jassa Singh in the front ranks of the heroes of Indian history.

In our History section, 378 pages in hardcover, Rs 950. ISBN: 9788187358459

The Beautiful and the Bold

Sudhir Kakar is arguably India's most celebrated psychoanalyst. An inspired observer of the Indian psyche and a distinguished novelist, he was born in 1938 in Nainital. He spent his childhood in the many provincial towns of undivided Punjab where his father was a magistrate in the colonial government. In A book of memory: Confessions and Reflections, a personal memoir that is woven into the loop of larger life-histories—of a nation and a people—Kakar paints a sensuously detailed portrait of an Indian childhood while reflecting on the complexities of family life.

After abandoning a successful career at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Kakar trained as a psychoanalyst at the Sigmund Freud Institute, Frankfurt, and set up a clinic in Delhi in 1975. His simultaneous engagement in research, writing and clinical practice led him to embark on a lifelong search for the wellsprings of Indian identity and to establish the new discipline of cultural psychology.

In keeping with Kakar’s belief in the primacy of desire, this memoir grapples with not only crises of identity and intellect, but also the ecstasies and vicissitudes of erotic pleasure and love. A Book of Memory is fearless and revelatory with regard to the self and its motivations, a rare candour illuminating the urbane prose.

From Penguin. In our Biography section, 328 pages in hardcover. Rs 499, ISBN: 9780670084111

Speaking of Law...

Zubaan Books have two titles (among the many they have brought out recently) on matters legal. One is by the first Indian woman lawyer, edited by Kusoom Vadgama, and titled An Indian Portia: Selected Writings of Cornelia Sorabji 1866 to 1954.

Sorabji was a social reformer, an author and the first woman to practise law in India and Britain. By the time poor sight ended her work in India, she had helped many hundreds of wives, widows and orphans. She also successfully organized a League for Infant Welfare, Maternity and District Nursing. Her writings provide a priceless and fascinating documentation of one of India's most outstanding women of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her noble career and valuable archives have left behind a heritage to the people of India and their causes. Her truly extraordinary life of dedication to public service, evident from her writings and ceaseless hard work deserve to be acknowledged and publicised. This book achieves both.

The editor, Kusoom Vadgama, was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and educated there at the Government Indian Girl’s High School. In 1953 moved to Britain for further education and then to Chicago and New York, where she also studied optometry.

In our Law and History sections, in hardcover, 702 pages. Rs 1200, ISBN 9788189884765.

The second title is a volume edited by Bishakha Datta, a non-fiction writer and documentary filmmaker, executive director of Point of View, a Mumbai-based non-profit that promotes the points of view of women through media, art and culture, Nine Degrees of Justice: New Perspectives on Violence Against Women in India.

From an early focus on rape, dowry and sati, feminist struggles against violence on women in India have traversed a wide terrain to include issues that were invisible in the1980s. In Nine Degrees of Justice, second- and third-generation feminists share their perceptions on violence against women through a series of thought-provoking essays that establish that justice for women has not even reached double digit figures (hence nine degrees).

Has using the law led to justice for women who face violence? What does ‘justice’ mean for an individual survivor? How can we address violence in public spaces and cyberspace without demonizing either? How do women in armed conflict move from being victims to actors? How can we start to speak about lesbian suicides and violence among women loving women? How do we ensure that women have a ‘right to choose’ when love is seen as a crime? Is prostitution a form of violence against women? What is the violence of stigma? And who is a ‘woman’ deserving representation from the women’s movement? Contributors to the volume include Manjima Bhattacharjya, Shamita Das Dasgupta, Rajashri Dasgupta, Bishakha Datta, Maya Ganesh, Sonia Jabbar, Sharmila Joshi, Purnima Manghnani, Farah Naqvi, PujaRoy, Shilpa Phadke and Mona Zote.

In our Law and Womens Studies sections, in hardcover, 300 pages. Rs 595. ISBN 978818988450