The Edge of Desire

Novelist Tuhin Sinha's  Edge of Desire has been recently published by   Hachette India.

When journalist Shruti Ranjan, newly-wed wife of the Deputy Commissioner of Kishanganj in the lawless Bihar of the 1990s is brutally raped by a ‘politically sheltered local goon’ all of her attempts at getting justice are crushed by a corrupt and complicit state government. That’s when the charismatic Sharad Malviya, a leading member of the Opposition party, offers her an unlikely solution: his party’s ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

Left with little to choose from, Shruti agrees, only to realize that being catapulted to an enviable position of power in an all-man’s world comes at a price. Caught between her mentor and her spouse – both upright but ultimately flawed men – and a host of envious others who continue to cast aspersions on her character, she struggles to address the larger problems of the country. Taunted for being a ‘Draupadi’ she makes the curse her identity and resolutely fights her fate…

In our Fiction Section, Rs 150, In paperback, 324 pages, ISBN 9789350094433

Mysore New

Janaki Nair teaches History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her new book Mysore Modern: Rethinking the Region under Princely Rule has just been published by Orient Blackswan.

Mysore Modern reconceptualizes Indian modernity through critical engagement with some important themes taken from the history of the Princely State of Mysore. In this work, Janaki Nair argues that the Princely Indian states were usually regarded as spaces that were either defined entirely by the dominant narratives of colonial/national modernity or were relatively untouched by them.

Grounded in political history, and deriving insights from a wide range of visual, social, and legal texts and issues, Mysore Modern reperiodizes the modern by connecting these apparently discrepant registers to build up a case for a specifically regional, monarchical modern moment in Indian history. Nair examines mural and portraiture traditions, as well as forms of memorialization and nationalization of art and architectural practices. The volume also considers bureaucratic efforts centered on the use of law and development as instruments of modernity.

As Nair demonstrates, a political history of Mysore, and of its many experiments with modernity, while relying on such disparate prisms as art and architecture, the law, or the discourse of development, challenges not only more conventional narratives of Mysore’s modern past, but signals the necessity of taking the region, rather than the nation, as the ground for specifying forms of Indian modernity. The work will be of interest not just to those specialists who work on the history of Mysore/Karnataka, but also to art historians, social and legal historians, while appealing to many who are more generally engaged in rethinking both the region and Indian modernity.

In our History section, for sale in South Asia only, Rs. 695, in hardcover, 372 pages, ISBN 9788125045076

Journalist without Borders...

best describes Kuldip Nayyar, who's autobiography  Beyond the Lines is recently out from Roli books.

As a young law graduate in Sialkot (now in Pakistan), Kuldip Nayar witnessed at first hand the collapse of trust between Hindus and Muslims who were living together for generations, and like multitude of population he was forced to migrate to Delhi across the blood-stained plains of Punjab. From his perilous journey to a new country and to his first job as a young journalist in an Urdu daily, Nayars account is also the story of India. From his days as a young journalist in Anjam to heading Indias foremost news agency, UNI and from mainstream journalism to starting his now immensely popular syndicated column, Between the Lines, Nayar has always stood for the freedom of press and journalism of courage.

Widely respected for his columns, his autobiography opens on the day Pakistan Resolution was passed in Lahore in 1940 and takes us on a journey through Indias story of a nation working on its foreign policy, development plans, relations with neighbouring countries, and dealing with coalition politics among others. From events of historical and political relevance like Tashkent Declaration and the 1971 war and the liberation of Bangladesh, to interviewing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Mujibur Rahman and from meeting Pakistans father of nuclear bomb, Dr A.Q. Khan, to his close association with Lal Bahadur Shastri and Jayaprakash Narayan, Nayars narrative is a detailed inside view of our nations past and present.

In our Biography Section, Rs. 595, in hardcover, 432 pages, ISBN 9788174369109

Miscellany

Sudipa Ray Bandyopadhyay, Rita Chaudhuri and Mahua Chakrabarti have edited Aspects of Indian History and Culture, a collection of twenty articles on various aspects of Indian History and culture contributed by mostly young teacher of different colleges and universities of west Bengal. These are the results of their scholarly researches in the field of their respective fields from the early period to the present day. The volume deos not purport to present a comprehensive picture of Indian history ; its primary objective is to bring together some nosto-requently discussed aspects of the subjects.

These articles, with notes, references and bibiliography are well illustrated and are thematically grouped into four sections, viz. Section-I: Epigraphy, Art, Architecture and Aesthestics, Section-II: Society, Economy and Culture, Section-III: Buddist sites, and Section IV: Archaelogical Sites and Heritage Issues.

In our History section, in hardcover, xviii+150 pages, Rs. 1750, ISBN 13: 9788174791344

Indigenous People's Struggles for Self-Determination  from Gyan Books is by Prakash Louis,  an active researcher, writer, facilitator of development organisations, consultant to bilateral and multi-lateral funding agencies, consultant to regional and national governments on development and governance.

In the last two decades the issues of the indigenous peoples have come to the fore. From late 1980s, there have been consistent and systematic attempts to highlight the situation of the indigenous people.

Along with this, there is also the attempt to highlight the various attempts made by the indigenous peoples to resist the discrimination and exploitation they are subjected to and also to assert their right for self-determination. This book, gIndigenous People's Struggles for Self-Determinationh is an attempt to foreground the various initiatives of the indigenous people to determine their life, resources, dignity and rights.

In our Development Studies section, Rs. 850, hardcover, 284 pages, ISBN 9788121211598

Simple Mathematics

Teaching is, as every academic knows, an acquired skill. Our system being what it is though, some are born to it, some grow into it, and some have it thrust upon them... A K Kapoor is one who has, over the years, distinguished himself as a brilliant instructor of physics. His career at the University of Hyderabad has earned him a formidable reputation as a teacher, particularly for quantum mechanics, mathematical physics, classical mechanics... in short all branches of theoretical physics.

His book on Complex Variables, subtitled Principles and Problem Sessions has come in for deserving praise. Published internationally by World Scientific, there is an Indian edition from Cambridge University Press. This textbook introduces the theory of complex variables at undergraduate level. A good collection of problems is provided in the second part of the book. The book is written in a user-friendly style that presents important fundamentals a beginner needs to master the technical details of the subject. The organization of problems into focused sets is an important feature of the book and the teachers may adopt this book for a course on complex variables and for mining problems.

Among the topics covered are: Complex Numbers, Elementary Functions and Differentiation, Functions with Branch Point Singularity, Integration in the Complex Plane, Cauchy's Integral Formula, Residue Theorem, Contour Integration, Asymptotic Expansions, Conformal Mappings, and  Physical Applications of Conformal Mappings

In our Mathematics section, in paperback, 522 pages, Rs 495.  ISBN: 9788175968981

 

Bhai-Bai

India and Central Asia, published by PERMANENT BLACK is by Xinru Liu who has a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches South Asia, Central Asia, and World History at the College of New Jersey, Ewing. She is also associated with the Institute of History and the Institute of World History, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Central Asia has been a strategic region in world history because of its location in the Afro-Eurasian land mass, and because it was the hinge between several different ecological zones. From the border of the Iranian plateau to the edge of the Takla Makan desert, and from the foothills of the Kunlun Mountains to the Taiga zone of Siberia, Central Asia encompasses peoples who spoke many languages and practised various forms of livelihood.

For historians who have been focused on individual civilizations, or the societies which have left written records, Central Asia has seemed an ocean full of dark energy. From time to time, barbaric nomads flew out from Central Asia to loot villages and destroy cities in East and South Asia, and even Europe.

In recent decades, research on the lives of nomadic people on the steppe, archaeological excavations of urban settlements on oases along the Amu and Sir rivers, and the discovery of more Hellenistic remains have made scholars look at this region from a different perspective. Looking towards Central Asia from the Indian subcontinent shows that the dynamics in Central Asia were often the momentum for fundamental changes in history which brought new cultural elements to South Asia.

In our History Section, Price: Rs. 795 Paperback, 354 Pages, ISBN 13: 9788178243474

Tagore Again

A new collection of Rabindranath Tagore's essays has been recently published by Atlanic Books. The collection has an introduction by Mohit K. Ray. The 37 essays included in this volume are gleaned from the rich repertoire of Tagore's original English writings which, unfortunately, did not receive the attention they deserve, possibly because they were eclipsed by the huge body of his creative and critical writings in Bengali.


Yet a close look at his English writings reveals his wide range of active interest in everything that mattered to a man as a social being. The essays show that Tagore was alert to every new movement in the contemporary cultural scenario and registered his reaction to it. The essays, thus, constitute an important part of his total oeuvre and surprise us by their contemporary relevance and the prophetic vision of a great humanist.

The luminous critical notes to the essays provided at the end by Professor Mohit K. Ray are sure to enhance the understanding and enjoyment of the essays, give an idea of Tagore's critical credo and place it in a global perspective. The book will be useful to every lover of Tagore in general and Tagore scholars in particular

Selected Essays Rabindranath Tagore is in our Essays and Non Fiction sections, In Hardcover, xxviii+444  Pages, Rs. 895,  ISBN: 9788126916658

More More

J B Prashant More writes about the Origin and Early History of the Muslims of Keralam,  a new book published by Other Books, Calicut.

It isn't easy to find additional information on the book other than in the long commentary and description by R Y Deshpande,  so here is an excerpt from that source. This book is a study of the origin and early history of the Muslims of Kerala from 700 AD to 1600 AD. It starts unusually with a long Introduction. It is on the whole a stinging criticism of Indian scholarship in social sciences and historical writing which is almost entirely dependent on knowledge and ideas developed by western scholars. The author who has no clannish moorings, national, ethnic, or ideological, has been striving to steer clear of all collaborative projects that might compromise his independence and individuality and freedom of expression as a historian since quite some time. It is because he thinks that in the changed global situation after decolonisation, collaboration in the intellectual field which is a form of globalisation must be two-way traffic. 

In our Sociology and History sections, in paperback, 259 pages, Rs 360. ISBN: 9789380081199

More is a historian who founded the Institute for Research in Social Sciences and Humanities in Tellicherry. He has written extensively on issues relating to Muslim identity in South India.

In his earlier Political Evolution of Muslims in Tamilnadu and Madras 1930–1947, he set out in detail the earlier domination of Urdu-speaking Muslim, their clash of interests with the Tamil Muslim traders and the ultimate takeover of the Muslim League in the south by the Tamil group. Narrated in an easy style, this study of the recent history of Tamil Muslims is an important contribution to sociological and historical analyses of the movement.

Muslim Identity, Print Culture and the Dravdian Factor in Tamil Nadu  is an original attempt to study the influence of print technology on the Muslims of Tamil Nadu and their literature. It is based on the literary works published by the Tamil Muslims from 1835, when restrictions on printing were removed, to 1920 when they participated in the Khilafat movement. By extension, the study of this literature becomes a study of the origin, society, and identity of the Tamil Muslims.

In our Media Studies and Sociology sections,  in paperback, 352 pages, Rs 645.00.  ISBN: 9788125026327