Scholars without Borders

Come together

2012-01-17T08:39:00.000-08:00

Yoda Press brings together Ranjit Hoskote and Ilija Trojanow to author Confluences: Forgotten Histories from East and West.

Defying the tide of national and cultural neo-tribalism sweeping the world from North America and Europe to India and the Arab countries, Ranjit Hoskote and Ilija Trojanow argue that the lifeblood of culture is confluence, the mingling of dissimilar and even contrary elements. No culture has ever been pure, no tradition self-enclosed, no identity monolithic. This condition is organic to a planet knit together by transcontinental pilgrimages and transoceanic trade routes, by the motives of war, love, restlessness and inventive curiosity. Since all cultures grow from the constant merging of the familiar and the strange, the authors argue, any attempt to isolate a culture within itself will only damage that culture.

Reflecting on various societies, religious traditions and cultural blocs, Hoskote and Trojanow uncover many forgotten histories of the Other within the Self. Following the journeys of stories, ideas, people and songs, they trace the umbilical connections between Europe and Asia, Zoroastrianism and Christianity, Western revolutionary thought and the annihilatory politics of Jihad and Hindutva. Based on ten years of research and travel, Confluences employs a sophisticated assemblage of approaches, ranging from the essayistic to the poetic, from rigorous historical analysis to the playfulness of fiction.

Exhilarating in its historical scope and depth of insight, Confluences is a primer for all who are committed to leading lives enriched by diversity. This book also carries urgent political significance in an era shaped by ideologues of difference, who divide the world between an Us to be protected and a Them to be destroyed. It is a salutary guide to those perplexed by Jihadist violence, the US-led coalition’s misadventures in the Arab world, the contest between Islam and Eurocentrism, the turbulent face-off between reformist and conservative movements in North Africa, and the confrontation between Hindutva and liberalism in India.

In our Essays and Nonfiction section, Rs 295, 224 pages in paperback. ISBN: 9788190618670

Fables without Borders

2012-01-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

Father May Be an Elephant and Mother Only a Small Basket, But… is the first collection of stories by Gogu Shyamala (senior fellow at the Anveshi Research Centre for Women in Hyderabad) to be translated from Telugu into English. Shyamala is editor of Nallappoddu: Dalitha Sthreela Sahithyam 1921–2002 (Black Dawn: Dalit Women’s Writings, 1921–2002), Nallaregatisallu: Madiga Madiga Upakulala Aadolla Kathalu (Furrows in Black Soil: The Stories of Madiga and Madiga Subcaste Women, 2006) and author of a biography of one of Telangana’s leading dalit politicians, T. N. Sadalakshmi (Nene Balaanni, T. N. Sadalakshmi Bathuku Katha). This last title will soon be available from Navayana as The Last Place for a Dalit Woman: The Life of T.N. Sadalakshmi (this has been translated by Gita Ramaswamy).

Susie Tharu is tempted to suggest that we think of Shyamala’s stories as prototypes of a compact new genre that might be called, not a short, but a little story. The ‘little’ here would of course recall the intrepid independence of the little magazines that have nourished the Telugu reading public since the 1960s; it would make reference to Walter Benjamin’s famous essay, “A little history of photography”, that cuts deep to track over a quick few pages the photographic element’s degeneration from the enchanted portraiture of its early years into a realist endorsement of middle class life; and it would point to the world of the little, subaltern traditions, as against that of the great traditions.

Gogu Shyamala’s stories (translated by Diia Rajan, Sashi Kumar, A. Suneetha, N. Manohar Reddy, R. Srivatsan, Gita Ramaswamy, Uma Bhrugubanda, P. Pavana, and Duggirala Vasanta) dissolve borders as they work their magic on orthodox forms of realism, psychic allegory and political fable. Whether she is describing the setting sun or the way people are gathered at a village council like ‘thickly strewn grain on the threshing floor’, the varied rhythms of a dalit drum or a young woman astride her favorite buffalo, Shyamala walks us through a world that is at once particular and small, and simultaneously universal.

Set in the madiga quarter of a Telangana village, the stories spotlight different settings, events and experiences, and offer new propositions on how to see, think and be touched by life in that world. There is a laugh lurking around every other corner as the narrative picks an adroit step past the grandiose authority of earlier versions of such places and their people—romantic, gandhian, administrative—and the idiom in which they spoke. These stories overturn the usual agendas of exit—from the village, from madiga culture, from these little communities—to hold this life up as one of promise for everyone.

With her intensely beautiful and sharply political writing, Shyamala makes a clean break with the tales of oppression and misery decreed the true subject of dalit writing.

In our Dalit Studies section, in hardcover, 263 pages. Rs 350. ISBN 9788189059514

Missing Daughters

2011-12-21T22:15:00.000-08:00

Sharada Srinivasan is Assistant Professor in International Development Studies at York University, Toronto. Her research focuses on gender-based discrimination and violence including young people’s experiences of them. Her current work examines the relative value of daughters and sons among the Indian diaspora in Canada, as well as the social transformation underway in India in the context of daughter deficits.

Daughter Deficit: Sex Selection in Tamil Nadu is about girls who are denied the right to live or to be born in India, and it asks why and how such a situation has come about. Daughter elimination in the form of sex selection, female infanticide and neglect is not an aberration or an idiosyncrasy—it accounts for a large proportion of missing girls in India, measured by the sex ratio imbalance in the 0–6 age group. The author examines this disturbing fact from the context of women’s lives to unravel the causes of daughter elimination, and the mechanisms which create and sustain an environment in which this is imaginable.

Using quantitative and ethnographic material, she explains how this practice unfolds in a region which has demonstrated relatively high human development and status of women. From the economic and socio-cultural causes fuelling daughter aversion vis-à-vis son preference, we see the ways in which daughter elimination is institutionalised and reproduced. Reflecting on the way ahead, the book concludes that even as public policies can and should play a decisive role in reversing the immediate outcomes in favour of daughters, an environment favourable to daughters will need fundamental changes in social norms, attitudes and policies of governments and NGOs.

In our Gender Studies and Public Health sections, 302 pages, Rs 595, ISBN: 9788188965687

Graphic Lib

2011-12-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

Srividya Natarajan, who teaches English and Creative Writing atKing’s University College and Aparajita Ninan, a design intern withNavayana have authored (or should it be sketched) Jotirao Govindrao Phule's 1873 book Gulamgiri (Slavery) a scathing and wittyattack on brahmanism and the slavery of India’s ‘lower’ castes that itengendered. Unlike Indian nationalists, Phule (1827-1890) saw the British aspeople who could tame the local elite—the brahmans who wielded power simply onthe basis of birth. Inspired by Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man and the ideals of Enlightenment philosophers, Phulemounted a critique of the vedas as idle fantasies of the brahman mind. With theobjective of liberating the sudras and atisudras, he founded the SatyashodakSamaj (Society of Truthseekers).

Phule dedicated Slavery ‘to the good people ofthe United States as a token of admiration for their sublime, disinterested andself-sacrificing devotion in the cause of Negro Slavery.’ Written in the formof a dialogue between Dhondiba and Jotiba—reminiscent of Buddha’s suttas, of Socrates’ dialogues—Slavery traces the history of brahmandomination in India, and examines the motives for and objectives of the crueland inhuman laws framed by the brahmans.

This revolutionary text remains relevant today,and given Phule’s rather graphic imagination lends itself almost naturally tographic art. Natarajan and Ninan also weave in the story of Savitribai, Jotiba’swife and partner in his struggles, who started a school for girls in Pune in1848, despite social opprobrium.

A Gardener in the Wasteland: Jotiba Phule's fight for Liberty is in our Dalit Studies section, 128 pages, Rs 220, ISBN: 9788189059460

Five cheers for the Environment!

2011-12-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

TERI Press, the publishing wing of TERI, The Energy Research Institute has a set of five books aimed to address issues relating to the environment. Published in cooperation with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (at least thats what the logos on the covers would seem to imply), this set of five books are specially devised for Indian realities. Edited by or written by T V Ramachandra of the Centre for Ecological Studies at IISc, these books are a valuable collection to the serious environmentalist.

1. Management of Municipal Solid Waste by T V Ramachandra Solid material thrown away as unused from various sectors such as agricultural, commercial, domestic, industrial and institutional constitutes solid wastes. This places an enormous strain on natural resources and seriously undermines efficient and sustainable development. Management of Municipal Solid Waste discusses the ways to salvage the situation through efficient management of solid wastes from waste generation to final disposal. The various processes such as waste generation, collection, storage, processing, recovery, transport, and disposal, are explained with the support of case studies. The book discusses reduction of waste at the source and to foster implementation of integrated solid waste management systems that are cost-effective and protect human health and the environment.

2. Environmental Management by T V Ramachandra and Vijay Kullkarni. Environmental Management has become one of the most used terms in recent times. But, what exactly does the term mean and entail? Environmental management helps to investigate and manage the environment within the context of human influences, incorporating an examination of economics, culture, political structure, and social equity, as well as natural processes and systems. This book discusses in detail the various issues relating to environmental management, including the fundamentals; the various environmental policies, legislations and international treaties; the concept of environmental impact assessment; environmental auditing; life cycle assessment; various environmental management system standards; issues and techniques, and environmental design and economics.has become one of the most used terms in recent times. But, what exactly does the term mean and entail? Environmental management helps to investigate and manage the environment within the context of human influences, incorporating an examination of economics, culture, political structure, and social equity, as well as natural processes and systems. This book discusses in detail the various issues relating to environmental management, including the fundamentals; the various environmental policies, legislations and international treaties; the concept of environmental impact assessment; environmental auditing; life cycle assessment; various environmental management system standards; issues and techniques, and environmental design and economics.

3. Air Pollution Control by S P Mahajan. The air we breathe is being polluted by activities such as vehicles; burning coal, oil, and other fossil fuels; and manufacturing chemicals. Air pollution can even come from smaller, everyday activities such as cooking, space heating, and degreasing and painting operations. These activities add gases and particles to the air we breathe. When these gases and particles accumulate in the air in high enough concentrations, they can harm us and our environment. The module on Air Pollution deals with the various sources of air pollution and the associated environmental and health impacts. It also discusses the appropriate measures to control/prevent the same.

4. Soil and Groundwater Pollution from Agricultural Activities by T V Ramachandra. This book introduces the major agricultural activities in India and their impact on soil and groundwater. It lists the basic aspects of agricultural activities and introduces soil properties, classification and processes, and groundwater characteristics, movement, and recharge aspects. It further discusses soil and groundwater pollution from various sources, impacts of irrigation, drainage, fertilizer, and pesticide. Finally, the book dwells upon conservation and management of groundwater and soil.

5. Municipal Water and Waste Water Treatment by Rakesh Kumar and R N Singh. The book Municipal Water and Waste Water Treatment provides an overview of the engineering approaches towards protecting water quality, with an emphasis on fundamental principles. It presents water quality objectives and the chemical, physical, and biological processes necessary for designing and managing drinking water and wastewater treatment plants. Theory and conceptual design of systems for treating municipal wastewater and drinking water are discussed. The basic principles of common treatment processes have also been discussed.

Cheer on! These are very reasonably priced, as given below, Rs 2300 for the whole set. Individually:

1. Management of Municipal Solid Waste, Rs 450
2. Environmental Management, Rs 550
3. Air Pollution Control, Rs 350
4. Soil and Groundwater Pollution from Agricultural Activities, Rs 525
5. Municipal Water and Waste Water Treatment, Rs 425

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Ground Realities

2011-11-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

K Balagopal (1952–2009) didn't start out as a writer or commentator on contemporary politics. Like that other great modern Indian thinker, D. D. Kosambi whom he read avidly, admired and wrote about, his training was in mathematics, a subject he taught at Kakatiya University, Warangal, from 1981 to 1985. The political culture of Warangal—home to the Naxalite left and resonant with debates around questions of class, justice and revolution—proved decisive in Balagopal turning away from an introspective life of the mind. Instead, he came to train his acute intellect to identify, comprehend and critically examine key political and social concerns.

He joined the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee in 1981, and became active in civil rights work centred at that time around extra-judicial killings of militant left cadres. Arrested under TADA in 1985 on trumped-up charges relating to the murder of a police sub-inspector, he spent three months in Warangal prison. In 1989, Balagopal was kidnapped by a vigilante group called ‘Praja Bandhu’—believed to be a front of the police, and in 1992 was beaten up badly by the police in Kothagudem. Balagopal trained to be a lawyer late in his life and enrolled in the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh in 1998, representing a wide variety of litigants whose lives, lands, status and employment were threatened. In fellow-traveller K. G. Kannabiran’s words, ‘Balagopal showed himself as the only lawyer of the poor of his generation with a reputation for competence.’ Owing to differences of opinion on the use of violence by Naxalites, Balagopal left APCLC in 1998. He was one of the founder-members of Human Rights Forum in which he was active till his death.

Balagopal was too self-effacing to put together his writings into a volume. But it is through his writings that his legacy lives on, giving us a roadmap for future struggles and these are collected in Ear to the Ground: Writings on Class and Caste, published by Navayana.

Balagopal’s writings, from the early 1980s till he died in 2009, offer us a rare insight into the making of modern India. Civil rights work provided Balagopal the cause and context to engage with history, the public sphere and political change. He wrote through nearly three tumultuous decades: on encounter deaths; struggles of agricultural labourers; the shifting dynamics of class and caste in the 1980s and thereafter in Andhra Pradesh; the venality and tyranny of the Indian state; on the importance of re-figuring the caste order as one that denied the right of civil existence to vast numbers of its constituents; the centrality one ought to grant patriarchy in considerations of social injustice; the destructive logic of development that emerged in the India of the 1990s, dishonouring its citizens’ right to life, liberty and livelihood. This volume comprises essays—largely drawn from Economic & Political Weekly to which he was a regular contributor—that deal with representations and practices of class power as they exist in tandem with state authority and caste identities.

Inspired by Naxalism in the late 1970s, intellectually indebted to D.D. Kosambi’s writings on Indian history and society, and politically and ethically attentive to the politics of feminist and dalit assertion in the 1990s, Balagopal refused dogma and shrill polemics just as he refused theory that did not heed the mess of history and practice.

From an essay in EPW, 1990: ‘There is perhaps no issue on which we are such hypocrites as caste; nor any other which brings out all that is worst in us with such shameful ease. The moment V. P. Singh announces the decision to implement the Mandal Commission recommendations… an avalanche of obscenity hits the country. Caste will undoubtedly be the last of the iniquitous institutions to die out in this country. It will outlast everything else.’

Binayak Sen says ‘As a human rights worker active since 1981, and slightly older than Balagopal, I remember him as a magical figure. The writings in this volume help interpret the often chaotic developments in Andhra Pradesh, and provide a model tool for understanding other regional realities of India.’

In our Dalit Studies section, in paperback, 488 pages. Rs 550. ISBN 9788189059408

New Faces

2011-11-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

Subhash Gatade is an engineer by training and a freelance journalist and translator by choice. His new book, Godse's Children: Hindutva Terror in India is based on his extensive writing on issues of communalism and Dalit emancipation.

Hindutva terror has finally emerged. It was on 6 April, 2006 when Nanded witnessed a bomb blast at the house of Laxman Rajkondwar, a longtime RSS activist, killing his son and another Sangh activist. The blast brought to the fore the systematic manner in which people associated with RSS and allied outfits were engaged in making and storing explosives, imparting arms training and planning to bomb minorities as part of their mission to establish Hindu Rashtra in India. Five years later, investigating agencies are in the know of the involvement of Hindutva supremacists in dozens of earlier and later blasts like Malegaon and Samjhauta Express. The role of international linkages and networks of different Hindutva formations in collecting funds, mobilising resources and supporting the cause has added further ferocity to this project. The present book, the first comprehensive treatment of the subject, shows that Hindutva terror is not a mere regional or rare phenomenon. Apart from bringing forth the commonality of tactics used by these terror modules, the book also looks at the phenomenon historically and presents hitherto unexplored evidence. It also underlines the Himalayan task which awaits the investigating agencies as they are yet to nab any of the masterminds, planners, financiers and ideologues of these terror attacks despite ample evidence.

In our Strategic Affairs and History sections, 400 pages in paperback, Rs 360. ISBN: 9788172210526

Wordsmith

2011-11-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

What can be done to save the word—be it in the form of the book or the newspaper? That is the question posed by André Schiffrin—for thirty years the publisher at Pantheon and now director of The New Press. Having published authors like Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Noam Chomsky, Kurt Vonnegut, Studs Terkel, Gunnar and Alva Myrdal, and Art Spiegelman among others, ten years after being forced out of Pantheon, Schiffrin wrote The Business of Books. Part-memoir, part-history, this irascible, acute and passionate account of the collapsing standards of contemporary publishing has since appeared in some thirty countries, not only across Western Europe but also in China, Japan and Russia. In 2010, Schiffrin followed it up with Words and Money, which discusses the crises in publishing following the breakdown in the world’s capitalistic system and the solutions that have been sought in many countries to the new problems of corporatization and the unabashed pursuit of the bottom line.

The Business of Words is the first combined edition of both the books and is published by Navayana. It will make everyone seriously interested in ideas and information think again.The Business of Words is the first combined edition of both the books. It will make everyone seriously interested in ideas and information think again.

Zubaan's Urvashi Butalia says “Schiffrin’s careful tracing of the growth of independent and committed publishing holds many lessons for India where, despite the overwhelming presence of international publishers, the sharp edge of publishing is retained by indigenous, independent and small publishers.”

Robert W. McChesney, author of The Death and Life of American Journalism: “A masterful assessment of the media crisis of our times and a roadmap to workable and effective solutions… intelligent, informed, reasoned, and humane—exactly the book the world needs at this time” and a review in Vanity Fair: “Schiffrin shows how media consolidation is pulling the teeth of serious journalism, and how it can get its bite back.”

In our Media section, in paperback, 296 pages. Rs 295, ISBN: 9788189059477

Krishnan and Raman

2011-11-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

The first four decades of the 20th century were glorious years for science, especially physics. Our view of the physical world changed forever with the emergence of quantum mechanics and Einstein’s formulation of the theory of relativity. India too contributed significantly to this scientific revolution with the discoveries made by S N Bose, C V Raman and M N Saha, all in the space of about a decade. Kariamanikkam Srinivasa Krishnan (1898- 1961) belonged to the same illustrious group. He was perhaps the only Indian physicist of his generation who was equally adept in theory and experiment. Besides a life of excellence in science, Krishnan’s destiny led him to be an able science policy maker and administrator. He was also a great teacher, a humanist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Tamil literature and philosophy.

Kariamanikkam Srinivasa Krishnan: His Life and Work is the new biography of this remarkable and largely unsung hero of modern Indian science by D C V Malik and S Chatterjee, both associated with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics. Malik's professional research has been mainly in the area of interstellar matter and astrophysics of nebulae, and this biography is the result of several years of his research on the life and times of Dr Krishnan. Chatterjee's interests are in condensed matter physics, astrophysics and optics, and in the popularisation of science and science teaching.

This biography, besides being a detailed and meticulously documented account of Krishnan’s life and his scientific work, is also an exciting account of the history of Indian science of the period. The source material of this work, most of which are being used for the first time, comes from the private papers of K S Krishnan that had remained in the custody of his family.

In our Biography section, Rs 895, 516 pages in hardcover. ISBN: 9788173717482

Krishnan's mentor, C V Raman is also the subject of a new biography by Uma Parameswaran, from Penguin India. In 1921, while on a voyage to England, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was amazed by the spectacular blue of the Mediterranean Sea. Seven years of research led to the Raman Effect, an explanation of the molecular diffraction of light that won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930—the first non-white and first Asian to be thus honoured.

Always a nationalist, Raman strove to win a place for India in the international arena by mentoring scores of students, many of whom became renowned scientists; he also organized conferences for the promotion of scientific inquiry and founded significant journals. After a long spell at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and at Calcutta University, and a fruitful tenure at the Indian Institute of Science as the first Indian director, he set up the Raman Research Institute in 1948, where his legacy survives to this day.

Raman was famous not only for his sharp intellect, but also for his personal charm, abundant vitality and sense of humour. This comprehensive biography details for the first time Raman’s growth as an individual, taking us through his childhood years, his relationships and his travels.

Also in Biography, 296 pages in paperback, Rs 350. ISBN: 9780143066897

Inspiring, informative...

2011-11-14T18:26:00.001-08:00

Young Zubaan's latest book is The Girl's Guide to a Life in Science (or GGLS), a collection of about 25 mostly autobiographical essays by Indian women scientists. A follow up to (or, in this case, from) Lilavati's Daughters: The Women Scientists of India which was edited by Rohini Godbole and Ram Ramaswamy, this new book adds a third editor, Mandakini Dubey.

Inspiring, informative, ingenious…meet twenty-five of India’s most celebrated female scientists. From astrophysics to zoology, learn what it takes to make a career in science.

What led them to choose their particular field? Who encouraged them? What were their struggles? What are their sources of inspiration? What are the key questions at the cutting edge of modern research? Why choose a life in science at all?

From astrophysics to zoology, learn what it takes to make a career in science.

The scientists profiled include Sudha Bhattacharya (biochemistry), Renee M Borges (tropical biology) Priya Davidar (ecology), Shobhana Narasimhan (physics), Rama Govindarajan (fluid mechanics), Sulabha Pathak (microbiology), Manju Sharma (botany), Joyanti Chutia (plasma physics), Sulochana Gadgil (meteorology), Priyadarshini Karve (energy studies) and others. With a foreword by Sunetra Gupta (epidemiology) and a biographical essay on Anandibai Joshee.

In our Biography and For Children sections, 184 pages in paperback, Rs 245. ISBN: 9789381017111

New sciences

2011-10-28T00:41:00.000-07:00

Gautam Desiraju of the Indian Institute of Science (but earlier at the University of Hyderabad) along with J J Vittal of the National University in Singapore and A Ramanan of the IIT Delhi have written the first (and definitive) text on a new field, Crystal Enginnering.

Desiraju is one of the founders of the field, so he is ideally suited to have the first (pedagogic) word as well. This book is important because it is the first textbook in an area that has become very popular in recent times. There are around 250 research groups in crystal engineering worldwide today. The subject has been researched for around 40 years but there is still no textbook at the level of senior undergraduates and beginning PhD students. This book is expected to fill this gap.

The writing style is simple, with an adequate number of exercises and problems, and the diagrams are easy to understand. This book consists major areas of the subject, including organic crystals and co-ordination polymers, and can easily form the basis of a 30 to 40 lecture course for senior undergraduates.

From World Scientific, in our Chemistry Section. In paperback, 232 pages, Rs 895 ISBN: 9789814366861

Another new title, Computational Statistical Physics is the outcome of a Department of Science and Technology Winter School held at the IIT Guwahati, edited by Sitangshu Santra (IIT-Guwahati) and Purusattam Ray (IMSc, Chennai).

The present book is an outcome of the SERC school on Computational Statistical Physics held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, in December 2008. Numerical experimentation has played an extremely important role in statistical physics in recent years. Lectures given at the School covered a large number of topics of current and continuing interest.

Based on lectures by active researchers in the field- Bikas Chakrabarti, S Chaplot, Deepak Dhar, Sanjay Kumar, Prabal Maiti, Sanjay Puri, Purusattam Ray, Sitangshu Santra and Subir Sarkar- the nine chapters comprising the book deal with topics that range from the fundamentals of the field, to problems and questions that are at the very forefront of current research.

This book aims to expose the graduate student to the basic as well as advanced techniques in computational statistical physics. Following a general introduction to statistical mechanics and critical phenomena, the various chapters cover Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulation methodology, along with a variety of applications. These include the study of coarsening phenomena and diffusion in zeolites.

In addition, graphical enumeration techniques are covered in detail with applications to percolation and polymer physics, and methods for optimization are also discussed. Beginning graduate students and young researchers in the area of statistical physics will find the book useful. In addition, this will also be a valuable general reference for students and researchers in other areas of science and engineering.

In our Physics section, in softcover, 298 pages, Rs 450. ISBN: 9789380250151

More tribute

2011-10-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

Cynthia Talbot, Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, edits a new book for Yoda.

KNOWING INDIA: Colonial and Modern Constructions of the Past honours the contributions of Thomas R. Trautmann to the fields of anthropology and history by presenting research from leading scholars who are his contemporaries, colleagues, and former students. Divided into four sections, the 17 essays in this volume look at modes of conceptualizing and classifying traditional South Asian society, perceptions of the precolonial past in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and aspects of precolonial India's historical development and writing.

Contributors include reputed contemporaries of Trautmann such as Madhav Deshpande, David Lorenzen, Romila Thapar, and Sylvia Vatuk, as well as former students like Shah Mahmoud Hanifi, Bhavani Raman, and Parna Sengupta who engage with and take off from questions raised by Trautmann. Also containing essays by Michael Dodson, Kenneth Hall, Anne Hardgrove, Judith Irvine, Carla Sinopoli, and Cynthia Talbot, the book ends with three tributes to Trautmann by Tom Fricke, Richard H. Davis and Rama Mantena.

In our History section, in paperback. 424 pages. Rs 595, ISBN: 9789380403038

Guru Dakshina

2011-10-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

Two recent books that are festschrifts for leading economics gurus are Development Windows for Prof. V M Rao, and Dimensions of Economic Theory and Policy for Prof. Anjan Mukherji.

What is the role of human capital in the regional location of the software industry? Why did policy rate cuts in India not lead to a rapid lowering of the banks' lending rates in the context of the financial crises? How does women's education impact on patrilocal marriage and cultural norms? What is the impact of the quality of teachers on the growth process in a small economy with a universal public education system? This volume engages with various such topical issues through an innovative use of theory and quantitative tools. The essays underline the significance of economic policy having sound theoretical moorings.

With an interesting mix of topics that have gained importance in the economics discourse in recent times alongside the more classical issues, the volume is divided into three broad themes: (i) general equilibrium, macroeconomics, and dynamic modelling in economics; (ii) applications of game theory to economics and information economics; and (iii) applications of theory to policymaking. The topics covered in Part I include Markov processes, general equilibrium under uncertainty, wealth effects and macroeconomics, aspects of economic growth, and applications of dynamic modelling to forest management and international trade. Part II analyses efficiency wages, collusion in oligopolies, cartels in international competition, price competition in a mixed duopoly, strategic aspects of liability rules, and liquidity preference. Part III provides a rigorous analysis of some socio-economic problems of India.

Professor Mukerji's was one of the anchors of the Centre for Economics Studies and Planning at the JNU, leading the group on mathematical economics. He had a number of distinguished students, three of who are the editors of Dimensions of Economic Theory and Policy, published by OUP.

In our Economics section, 480 pages in hardcover. Rs 850, ISBN: 9780198073970

The second book, Development Windows, has been edited by R. S. Deshpande, K. V. Raju, S. M. Jharwal, and D. Rajasekhar, and is published by Academic Press, New Delhi.

The process of understanding development has its roots in the gathered wisdom and training of the elaborator/researcher. Basically the concept has manifold dimensions. Social Scientists have broadly come to terms with the concept of development flavoured with these make-believe borders of disciplines. This is likely to grow worse, if the interdisciplinary underpinnings are not kept in view. This volume makes an attempt to address some of the concerns confronted in literature by providing a partial peep through a few windows to observe development and these are studied by acclaimed social scientists from various disciplinary backgrounds. These windows are opened with a purpose and from an angle, keeping in view the widespread academic interests and research areas frequented by Prof. V.M. Rao, through his writings. Five areas are chosen here: aggregate economic development, agricultural development, irrigation development, poverty and issues of governance. The authors in unison argue for the necessity of a holistic understanding of an economy, society and further need for development of indigeneous way of thinking. It touches upon promising themes of development both at micro as well as macro-level to legitimise the well-deserved places for the issues among the imminent problems. Each of these windows gives us glimpses of different facets of development from the vantage point of the author as also a view from diverse angles, at the world of development. Though fragmented, one gets a picture of the seemingly continuum of development. The intention of this volume is to create an excellent collage of these views through different windows.

As the recent review in The Hindu put it, The practice of economics in India, especially over the past four decades, has been marked by theory getting eclipsed by a mass of empirical work. The full ramifications of this development warrant a deep and extensive analysis. But there is little doubt that empirical work, carried out with high level of professional competence, provides a sound basis for policy formulation. And in this business of laying such strong empirical foundation few have excelled Professor V. M. Rao.

Also in the Economics section and in Development Studies, 590 pages in hardcover, Rs 1295. ISBN: 9788171888085

The One True Path

2011-10-01T01:51:00.000-07:00

Navayana's new book, The Buddha’s Way to Human Liberation: A Socio-Historical Approach is by Nalin Swaris, a Srilankan who was ordained a Catholic priest in 1962 in Bangalore. Swaris gave up priesthood and went to the Netherlands where he obtained a Master’s in Social Sciences in 1973, and followed it up with one in Religions from the Catholic University of Nijmegen. He completed his PhD on the “Buddha’s Way” at the State University of Utrecht in 1997 with summa cum laude. Swaris was also a human rights activist and the author of Buddhism, Human Rights and Social Renewal. He died in April 2011.

In this magisterial study of the social élan of early Buddhism, Nalin Swaris argues that the radical thrust of the Buddha’s teaching is based on his realisation that ‘the individual’ is a fiction of human craving. The Buddha’s decision to found a community of compassion and sharing was the practical expression of his conviction that individualism is the principal obstacle to human happiness. The Buddha’s Way was not discovered and preached in a social vacuum. Orthodox Hinduism classifies its sacred traditions into srutis (sacred truths of the Vedas ‘heard’ by ancient rishis while in a trance) and smritis (codes of conduct). In deliberate counterpoint to the brahman tradition, the majority of the Buddha’s discourses begin with the declaration: Evam me sutam—‘Thus have I heard...’.

Swaris argues persuasively that Buddha’s teachings are not esoteric, but grounded in everyday life. The Dhamma is not a revealed truth that humans could not have discovered by themselves. It is like a light brought into a darkened room so that people could see what is already there, once the fog of delusion is dispelled.

In a style that would appeal to both lay readers and scholars, Swaris shows how the Buddha anticipated Marx, Derrida and Foucault by centuries.

David Loy, author of A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack says “This highly original work uses a multidisciplinary perspective to determine the original message of Shakyamuni Buddha. Critiquing the usual belief that the Buddha’s ideal of human liberation ‘is to be realised in solitude, away from the everyday concerns of ordinary men and women,’ Swaris demonstrates that the Buddha’s path to awakening is oriented towards social liberation. His main argument offers a different (and persuasive) way of understanding anatta, the doctrine of non-self and non-substantiality. He argues that anatta provides the perspective from which to understand the meaning and significance of all other Buddhist doctrines, especially those relating to the theory and practice of the Buddhist moral life. This is in sharp contrast to the usual interpretations of early Buddhist teachings that are now current in academic Buddhology.”

In our Religion section, in hardcover, 388 pages, Rs 590. ISBN: 9788189059316.

On Coping

2011-09-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

Vasanth Kannabiran, the Hyderabad based feminist, poet, writer and founder-member of the Asmita Collective that works on issues of women's rights has a new book out from Orient Blackswan.

A Grief to Bury: Memories of Love, Work and Loss is a series of conversations with women about marriage and widowhood. The women speak here with frankness and candour about their often quite unconventional relationships with their husbands, and of coming to terms with the loss of a life-long partner. Despite the grief, despite an altered and often fractured sense of self, each woman is determined to live a productive and creative life.

Reflecting the social history of a class of women born before Independence, this volume explores how the institution of marriage shaped their lives. These are extraordinary women, who have lived rich, full lives where work has not been separated from leisure, nor has the private world of home and family been separated from the wider world of work and social commitment. As such they have redefined marriage and family, and equally the public sphere of work to make both inclusive spaces.

This collection of interviews raises important questions: Is it possible to retain your identity and hold on to your beliefs in a long marriage? What is the line that separates and insulates home and family from community and nation? How do these women breathe normally and smile graciously while coping with a shock that uproots and erases chunks of the self? What happens when a long and supportive partnership ends?

Eminent personalities, among them, Neera Desai, Meenakshi Mukherjee, Ela Bhatt, K. Saradamoni and Shanta Rameshwar Rao discuss their long partnerships of shared visions and love. Their choices, their struggles, and their indomitable will may provide answers to countless young people today.

A Grief to Bury: Memories of Love, Work and Loss in our Womens Studies and Biography sections, Rs 725 in hardcover, 400 pages. ISBN: 9788125043058

NRI, PIO, ET

2011-09-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

Sanjay Subrahmanyam's Three Ways to be Alien: Travails and Encounters in the Early Modern World looks at individual trajectories in an early modern global context. It draws on the lives and writings of a trio of marginal figures who were cast adrift from their traditional moorings into an unknown world.

The subjects include

a “Persian” prince of Bijapur in Central India held hostage by the Portuguese at Goa
an English traveller and global schemer whose writings reveal a nimble understanding of realpolitik in the emerging world of the early seventeenth century
an insightful Venetian chronicler of the Mughal Empire in the later seventeenth century who drifted between jobs with the Mughals and various foreign entrepôts, observing all but remaining the eternal outsider

In telling the fascinating story of floating identities in a changing world, Subrahmanyam injects humanity into global history and shows that biography still plays an important role in contemporary historiography.

Anthony Pagden says "With his wry humor, keen eye for detail, and gift for startling juxtaposition, no one can match him." while Stuart Schwartz feels that "Few scholars in the world can match his mastery of the political and economic history of the Early Modern empires of Asia and Europe, or the ease with which he crosses historiographical traditions to bring their history together in this lucid and innovative study.”

From Permanent Black. In our History and Gossip sections, in hardcover, 248 pages, Rs 595. ISBN: 9788178243399

Will code for food

2011-09-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

A book that is available here, is relevant here, but strangely, does not have an Indian edition is Xiang Biao's Global "Body Shopping": An Indian Labor System in the Information Technology Industry.

How can America's information technology (IT) industry predict serious labor shortages while at the same time laying off tens of thousands of employees annually? The answer is the industry's flexible labor management system--a flexibility widely regarded as the modus operandi of global capitalism today. Global "Body Shopping" explores how flexibility and uncertainty in the IT labor market are constructed and sustained through concrete human actions.

Drawing on in-depth field research in southern India and in Australia, and folding an ethnography into a political economy examination, Xiang Biao offers a richly detailed analysis of the India-based global labor management practice known as "body shopping." In this practice, a group of consultants--body shops--in different countries works together to recruit IT workers. Body shops then farm out workers to clients as project-based labor; and upon a project's completion they either place the workers with a different client or "bench" them to await the next placement. Thus, labor is managed globally to serve volatile capital movement.

Underpinning this practice are unequal socioeconomic relations on multiple levels. While wealth in the New Economy is created in an increasingly abstract manner, everyday realities--stock markets in New York, benched IT workers in Sydney, dowries in Hyderabad, and women and children in Indian villages--sustain this flexibility.

Mathangi Krishnamurthy writes in American Ethnologist: Xiang Biao's avowed goal at an analysis incorporating ethnography and political economic analysis has long been a requirement for scholars interested in the production and maintenance of transnational work and flexible labor. Global Body Shopping more than lives up to this ideal. . . . I strongly recommend this ethnography as essential reading for scholars interested in questions of globalization, transnationality, and flexible labor.

Winner of the 2008 Anthony Leeds Prize in Urban Anthropology, Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology, the book is 208 pages in paperback, $25.95 ISBN: 9780691118529, Princeton University Press.

Playing the field

2011-08-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

Today is an ideal day to announce the first is a series of four books from Stree as the UGC Standing Committee on Women’s Studies meets in Hyderabad for a two day conclave.

Mapping the Field: Gender Relations in Contemporary India has been edited by Nirmala Banerjee, Samita Sen and Nandita Dhawan. This is the first of four readers for students of women’s studies, particularly for Masters’ level courses in women’s studies, and more generally across undergraduate and certificate courses as the concept of ‘gender’ has been introduced at all levels of curricula. The reader reflects many of the concerns that have come up in women’s studies across two decades. This first volume focuses on some of the major economic and social debates in women’s studies; the second volume traces the trajectory of more recent theoretical shifts in the field.

Contributors include the editors Nirmala Banerjee (retired Professor of Economics, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta), Samita Sen (School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University), and Nandita Dhawan (School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University), as well as Aruna Kanchi, Manabi Majumdar, Krishna Sobhan and Jeemol Unni, and Kusum Datta.

With a Folonesque cover, in paperback, 306 pages, Rs 400. ISBN: 9788190676069. In our Womens Studies and Gender Studies sections.

Before Ambedkar

2011-08-25T00:39:00.000-07:00

Bhashya Prakashan, a small publishing house based in Mumbai, have brought out Gail Omvedt's recent book, Building The Ambedkar Revolution: Sambhaji Tukaram Gaikwad And The Kokan Dalits.

Ambedkar had his predecessors. The "great" among them he recognized and named as his "teacher": Buddha, Kabir and Phule. The lesser known he also honoured, attending their programmes. Among these lesser known, uneducated but wise in the needs of his people, was a man who he named as "Dadasaheb," was to be known as his older compatriot, the "elderly" (vayovruddh) Sambhaji Tukaram Gaidwad. Sambhaji was one of the main organizers of what what Ambedkar himself was to describe and try to memorialize as the "liberation movement" of the Dalits, the Mahad satyagraha of of 1927. For those who were later to call themselves Dalits and Buddhists, the event was a landmark in their struggle, December 25, the burning of the Manusmriti, is today celebrated in Maharashtra as "Indian Women's Liberation Day" and has become, for many throughout India, "Manavmukti Din."

Omvedt is an unusual Indian. Born in Minneapolis in the US, she came to India and stayed on, taking citizenship in 1983. She has worked actively with social movements in India, including the Dalit, anti-caste, environment and farmer's movements, especially among the rural women. She has been active in the Stri Mukti Sangrash Chalval, which works on issues of abandoned women in Sangli and Satara districts of southern Maharashtra, and the Shetkari Mahila Aghadi which works on issues of women's land and political rights. Among her numerous books focusing on social and economic issues are Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anti-Caste Intellectuals (2009); Ambedkar: Towards an Enlightened India (2005): We Shall Smash this Prison: Indian Women in Struggle (1980); and The cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The Non-Brahmin Movement in Maharashtra (1996) and some of them are available on the Scholars site.

This new title is in our Dalit Studies section, in hardcover, 156 pages, Rs 300. ISBN: 9788192110707

Krishna Consciousness

2011-08-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

Vakils, Feffer & Simons, the publishing house based in Mumbai is well known for their sumptuous titles. A new book that is out- and which was reviewed in the Times today, is Krishna: A Joyous Celebration of the Divine.

Chandrika, the author, is a traveller on the spiritual path. She has variously been a teacher, an educator and an editor. She has recently translated Atma Siddhi, Adi Sankara's Bhaja Govindam, and Krishna, a Joyous Celebration of the Divine, is her third book.

Krishna is the Blue God, infinite as space, deep as the oceans. Criptures call him the Poorna Avatara, the complete manifestation of Godhead. But he is also the adorable imp of Vrindavan, the playmate of the gopas (cowherds), Radha's beloved, Draupadi's sakha (friend), the saviour of the Pandavas, the protector of righteousness. He is God. He is man. He is Krishna. The book weaves and melds stories and myths, legends and folklore, with devotion and passion, from sources like the Bhagavata Purana, the Harivamsa and the Mahabharata to piece together, in one whole, the awe-inspiring picture of Vishnu's avatara (manifestation) as the alluring One, Krishna.

The book is a celebration of Krishna, in many ways. It pays tribute to the long, varied and unbroken tradition of Krishna paintings, from the exquisite miniatures of north India to the extravagant Tanjore paintings of the south, enlivening each page with their spiritual euphoria. The book does more. It brings a selection from the rich cornucopia of bhakti (devotional) poetry - verses of singers and saints, poets and philosophers, who have called out, in love and longing, to the incomparable Blue God. Together they make Krishna, a complete sensuous experience.

Written in lucid and lyrical language, one idea emerges through the book with clarity - Krishna is relevant, more relevant today, than even when he first walked the earth as man.

In our Religion and Culture sections, in hardcover, 388 pages, Rs 1500. ISBN: 9788184620382

From afar, from within

2011-08-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

Himani Bannerji teaches sociology at York University in Canada. A recipient of the Rabindra Memorial Prize, she is a frequent visitor to India (particularly during the cold Canadian winters!). She works in the areas of Marxist, feminist and anti-racist theory and is especially focused on reading colonial discourse through Karl Marx's concept of ideology, and putting together a reflexive analysis of gender, race and class. [Wikipedia]

Her new book Demography and Democracy: Essays on Nationalism, Gender and Ideology is brought to South Asia by Orient Blackswan.

Demography and Democracy deals with different aspects of hegemony, nationalism, criteria for citizenship and democracy. In the process this book examines complexities of civil society involving culture, class, politics and the relations between civil society and the state. Nationalism in plural terms, decolonisation, as well as analysis of ideology, including contemporary political ideologies, are the overarching themes of this book. The author explores the complexities of modern-day nationalisms from the perspective of marxist anti-colonial feminism. Focusing on ethnic nationalism and the racialised nature of imperialism of our time, the volume draws on examples from India, Israel, United States and its allies. Cultural political identities of the Hindu right, Zionism and other religious fundamentalisms are discussed in detail.

The author explores the connections between ideology and politics across regional national spaces. She shows the overlapping features between Hindutva in India and Zionism in Israel. This involves an examination of the constitution of cultural/ethnic identities in terms of the construction of the self and ‘the other’. The essays also carry on a sustained analysis of how patriarchy provides a taken-for-granted mediation through which the self and ‘other’ relationships are constituted.

The volume will be useful to students and scholars of sociology, political science, women’s studies and history, as well as those interested in contemporary South Asia.

In our Gender Studies, Politics sections, in hardcover, 284 pages, Rs 595. ISBN: 9788125042921

Vive la

2011-08-13T05:31:00.000-07:00

The feminist press Kali for Women, started by Ritu Menon and Urvashi Butalia in the 1980's was a landmark in Indian publishing. Over the years KfW has morphed into the new publishing houses, Women Unlimited and Zubaan.

The history of the women's movement in India is now documented through a set of biographies and essays by the protagonists in a new book edited by Menon, Making a Difference: Memoirs from the Women's movement in India.

The autonomous women’s movement in India is remarkable for its energy and staying power, and for the impact it has had on progressive social change in the country.

What constitutes a feminist memoir? What makes it different from any other memorable recounting? Twenty women who have made a critical contribution to the women’s, and women’s studies, movements recall the last quarter century of activism, taking as its starting point the impossibility of separating the personal from the political, or the private from the public. Each memoir vividly covers the most momentous and memorable developments and campaigns of this period, recounting its triumphs and disappointments, speaking about alliances forged, reflecting on relationships lost -- and found.

Memoirists include: Indira Jaising •Vandana Shiva •Kamla Bhasin •Bina Agarwal •Uma Chakravarti •Vasanth Kannabiran •Gabriele Dietrich •Pamela Philipose •Sheba Chhachhi •Saheli •Norma Alvares •Ruth Vanita •Devaki Jain •Nalini Nayak•Meera Velayudhan •Roshmi Goswami •Nirmala Banerjee •Vibhuti Patel •Ilina Sen •Ritu Menon. Their inspiring, poignant, humorous and always politically engaged memoirs are not just personal stories, they are a quintessentially feminist recall of a movement they helped to shape.

In our Essays and Nonfiction and Womens Studies sections, Rs 350 in paperback, 412 pages. ISBN: 9788188965670

Indian English

2011-08-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

GJV Prasad teaches in the Centre for English Studies at JNU. A prominent, noted and prolific critic, Prof. Prasad specializes in translation studies, post-colonial literature, contemporary theatre, Indian literatures and last but not least, Indian writing in English. And if thats not enough, he also edits the journal JSL. Writing India, Writing English: Literature, Language, Location is his new book from Routledge, India.

English is a language of many identities in this country. For some it is still the colonial language and its speakers the hung-over populace of a colonial rule. For others, it is a language that has seen great change and literatures across the world. There are yet others who have moulded and managed the meaning and identity of English according to their own.

This volume explores the complex interaction between English and other Indian languages in the Indian literary oeuvre. The essays in this book examine how the nation is negotiated and constructed in English (and English translation), a language that calls for constant transformation even as it transforms Indian realities. It looks closely at how translation plays a major role in the making of an alternate nation, especially discussing the various developments in Tamil to give a counter-perspective. The different essays raise a variety of questions and embody the tense power dynamics that mark this relationship.

The book is divided into two sections and the essays each section emphasise the different ways in which English is used as a mode of literary expression in India. The first section discusses the decisive influence of English in India and the ideas of connectedness as a nation. Starting with an assessment of Macaulay and his famous Minutes, it includes essays on translating from Tamil and on the mixed language that is evolving in the Tamil cultural world because of the presence of English (and Hindi); the politics of anthologisation; and how Karnad’s Tughlaq deals with the idea of the nation, looking at its historical location. The second part delves into how Indian English literature grapples with the representation of the Indian nation, sometimes obsessively, evinced both in poetry and in novels. The ultimate focus is on the struggle between the dominant regional language of a place and English, along with the author’s location at this interface part of the creative tension that gives energy and uniqueness to Indian English writing.

In our Literary Criticism section, in hardcover, 196 pages, Rs 545. ISBN: 9780415693790

Criminal Victims

2011-08-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

The earth-eating Muggi, groomed by her brother-in-law, cons fourteen men into marrying her and runs off with their money, but falls in love with the fifteenth and eagerly awaits the day she will be released from prison so that she can return to him. The intimidating Vaishnavi pushes a buffalo, her cruel mother-in-law and husband over the edge of a ravine and spends the rest of her life punishing herself, wandering from place to place, homeless and penniless. These and other remarkable stories form this collection of sketches of ordinary women with extraordinary pasts. Compassionate without ever straying into sentimentality, Aparadhini:Women without men, Shivani's histories of the formidable women whose lives she chronicled strikes a chord in our hearts even today, forty years after they were first written. A few of her short stories, inspired by these women, also form part of this brilliant translation from the Hindi by her daughter Ira Pande.

These are tales often read in newaspapers, heard of or seen on the big or small screen, stories of women, downtrodden and ill treated by life, society and almost everyone around while she remains a mute spectator of her own fate. What makes Aparadhini so different is that these are tales of courage and determination. Aparadhini is a collection of short stories about women who dared, dared to take their fate into their hands, beat the living hell out of it and toss it in the corner of their bedrooms, left to ponder upon its mistakes and thereby change itself. Each story is about a woman who was not satisfied with the way the world saw not just her, but her entire kind. What makes them all the more special is that these women do not realise that by their actions, they make a huge difference to the gaze that womankind is subjected to! The fact that these women break all boundaries of ‘womanhood’ associated with them by the society and do it effortlessly is an act of subversion. The woman who marries men at will and lives the life of a vagabond (reminding the reader of the first radical woman in literature, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath), the woman who pushes her cruel mother in law and spineless husband down a ravine to live the life that she wanted.... It is hard to believe that such a book was written more than four decades ago. Shivani’s tales of these exceptionally strong ordinary women is a book that will speak to contemporary readers in this translation by her daughter Ira Pande.

In our ILT and Womens Studies sections, in hardcover, 224 pages, Rs 250, ISBN 9789350290378

Losing a language

2011-07-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

Sheldon Pollock's The Language of the Gods in the World of Men is a widely admired book, one that has been given much praise and many awards. The Coomaraswamy Book Prize of the Association for Asian Studies, the Lionel Trilling Award from Columbia University, the 2006 Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division Award for Excellence in Literature, Language & Linguistics are some of these. Permanent Black now brings this book in paperback.

In this work of impressive scholarship, Sheldon Pollock explores the remarkable rise and fall of Sanskrit, India’s ancient language, as a vehicle for poetry and polity by tracing the two great moments of this transformation. He asks whether the very different histories of these two moments challenge current theories of culture and power and suggest new possibilities for practice.

The Telegraph has called the book “truly breathtaking in its scope and originality”, while a review in the Journal of Asian Studies says “Magisterial . . . The kind of scholarly synthesis and insightful interpretation that comes along, at most, once in a generation or two.”

For the South Asia market only, 702 pages in paperback. In our Religion, Culture, and Linguistics sections, Rs 695. ISBN 9788178242750.

The Peshwas

2011-07-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

Varsha Shirgaonkar, historian at the SNDT University in Mumbai has a new title out from Aryan Books International. Eighteenth Century Deccan: Cultural History of the Peshwas that deals with one of the prominent debates in Indian History, [] the eighteenth century period that revolves around the relationship between political stability and culture. Eighteenth century marked a significant stage in the Maratha history since in this century the Maratha rule expanded in North India and Karnataka. This century also witnessed an important position granted to the post of the Peshwa, as seen from the sanad of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shahu in the name of Peshwa, bestowing upon him total administrative authority. The political connections with the new provinces outside Maharashtra brought with them the streams of a new culture to the Deccan. Historical records reflect upon the intention of the Peshwas and their sardars to create the prototype especially of the culture of North India.

Various dimensions of new culture such as Persian language, luxurious items, music and dance entered the Deccan and blended with its prevalent cultural characteristics. The eighteenth century, towards its close, also witnessed the entry of European culture into the Deccan. The book shows how cultural dynamism was operative in the eighteenth century Deccan with special reference to the Peshwa period. The downfall of Maratha Empire took place in 1818 and hence the discussion in the book goes beyond the eighteenth century. In conclusion, the book takes a stand that culture thrives in spite of political instability and that it migrates in search of patronage. When culture settles in the new patron house, its blend with the local trend is inevitable and thus the process paves the way for a composite culture. The book will interest researchers of the cultural history of India.

In hardcover, oversize with 178 pages, Rs 2500. In our History section, ISBN: 9788173053917

Raman & Saha

2011-07-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Abha Sur teaches in the MIT Program in Gender Studies. Trained as a research chemist, she combines a deep knowledge of the practice of science with a sensibility to social issues. Her new book is titled Dispersed Radiance is published by Navayana, and is on the contrasting lives of Meghnad Saha and C V Raman, both iconic figures of Indian science.

This book is a step toward writing a socially informed history of physics in India in the first half of the twentieth century. Through a series of micro histories of physics, Abha Sur analyzes the confluence of caste, nationalism, and gender in modern science in India, and unpacks the colonial context in which science was organized. She examines the constraints of material reality and ideologies on the production of scientific knowledge, and discusses the effect of the personalities of dominant scientists on the institutions and academies they created. The bulk of the book examines the science and scientific practice of India’s two preeminent physicists in the first half of the twentieth century, C.V. Raman and Meghnad Saha. Raman and Saha were—in terms of their social station, political involvement, and cultural upbringing—diametric opposites. Raman came from an educated Tamil brahmin family steeped in classical art forms, and Saha from an uneducated rural family of modest means and underprivileged caste status in eastern Bengal. Sur also reconstructs a collective history of Raman’s women students—Lalitha Chandrasekhar, Sunanda Bai, and Anna Mani—each a scientist who did not get her due.

Dispersed Radiance makes an important contribution to the social history of science. It provides a nuanced and critical understanding of the role and location of science in the construction of Indian modernity and in the continuation of social stratification in colonial and postcolonial contexts.

In our Biography and History of Science sections, in hardcover, 286 pages Rs 495. ISBN 9788189059323

Dalit-jin

2011-07-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

Timothy Amos, Assistant Professor in the Department of Japanese Studies at the National  University of Singapore, has a new book out from Navayana that should be of interest to those who study problems of social exclusion in India. Titled Embodying Difference: The making of Burakumin in Modern Japan, the book is co-published by the University of Hawaii.

The burakumin, Japan’s largest minority group, have been the focus of an extensive yet strikingly homogeneous body of Japanese language research. The master narrative in much of this work typically links burakumin to premodern occupational groups engaged in a number of socially polluting tasks like tanning and leatherwork. This narrative, when subjected to close scrutiny, tends to raise more questions than it answers, particularly for the historian. Is there really firm historical continuity between premodern outcaste and modern burakumin communities? Does the discrimination faced by these communities actually remain the same? Does the way burakumin frame their own experience significantly affect mainstream understandings of their plight?

Embodying Difference is the result of a decade-and-a-half-long search for answers to these questions. Based on an extensive array of original archival material, ethnographical research, and critical historiographical work, it argues that there needs to be a fundamental reconceptualization of the buraku problem for two main reasons. First, the master narrative is built on empirically and conceptually questionable foundations; and second, mainstream accounts tend to overlook the important role burakumin and other interested parties play in the construction and maintenance of the narrative. By continually drawing a straight line between premodern outcaste groups and today’s burakumin, the Japanese government, the general population, scholars, and burakumin activists tend to overlook some of the real changes that have often taken place both in who are identified as members of socially marginalized groups in Japan and how they experience that identification. Clinging to this master narrative also restricts the ways in which burakumin can productively and more inclusively identify in the present to imagine a liberated future for themselves. Amos’ attempt to rethink the boundaries of buraku history and the category of the outcaste in Japan results in a compelling study that also offers us insights on how to comparatively frame the ‘undeniably similar’ dalit question.

In our Dalit Studies and Culture sections, in hardcover, 302 pages, Rs 495. ISBN 9788189059293

Boser Kampf

2011-07-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Among the more controversial aspects of Subhas Chandra Bose's life - and one that his biographers have not dwelt on at sufficient length - was his visit to Nazi Germany. Romain Hayes is an independent researcher who has specialized on German foreign policy during the Second World War. He has a new book out from Random House, Bose in Nazi Germany: Politics, Intelligence and Propaganda, 1941-43.

The first account of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s years in Germany and his relationship with the Nazis By the late 1930s, Subhas Chandra Bose had become disillusioned with Gandhi’s leadership of the Indian National Congress and the nationalist struggle. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, he resolved that India could only achieve freedom through a violent uprising.

Two years later, in 1941, Bose went on to make a daring escape, via Afghanistan and Russia, to Berlin in search of an anti-British alliance. The Nazis seized Bose’s offer and the possibilities of an anti-British revolt in India, even envisaging German troops marching into the country as ‘liberators’. Meanwhile, thousands of British Indian troops captured in North Africa enlisted in the Wehrmacht hoping to join the Nazi march into India as they swore oaths to Hitler and Bose ‘in the fight for the freedom of India’. Yet for all their accord, the Bose-Nazi relationship remained complicated, full of ambivalences on both sides.

This book for the first time, tells the story of Bose’s war years in Germany and examines his relationship with the Nazis. This period remains a deeply controversial moment in Indian history and has thus far been suffused with hagiography. Using rare German and Indian war records, Romain Hayes has written a nuanced, thoughtful, and vital account of these years, shedding light on an aspect of Bose that has till now remained in shadow.

In our Biography section, 284 pages, Rs 399, ISBN: 9788184001846

Divided we stand

2011-07-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Viewed from the outside, many separatist movements can seem inexplicable if the course of history and chance are not taken into account. That said, in the era of globalization, when so many barriers seem to dissolve, and national boundaries seem less important, movements to divide states into smaller units do seem to be somewhat against the tide.

At this point in time, the movement for the formation of Telengana has considerable momentum, and it is not clear how things will work out in the next few days/weeks/months. Exactly what the issues are and why things have come to such a head is the subject of a recent book, Battleground Telenagana: Chronicle of an Agitation by Kingshuk Nag.

When the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956, the people of Telangana (the region ruled by the Nizams at the time of independence) did not want to be a part of it, fearing that they would be displaced by the more enterprising and better educated migrants from the Andhra region. In 1969, massive agitations for a separate Telangana left 400 people dead but the movement petered out.

With the creation of new states like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Uttaranchal in 2000, the battle for Telangana began once again. In 2009, the Indian government announced that Telangana would be a separate state, but is now dilly-dallying, worried about the backlash from the Andhra region. At the heart of the problem is the city of Hyderabad, which lies bang in the middle of Telangana but is being claimed by both sides.

Is the upsurge in Telangana so strong that the Indian government will be unable to resist it? Is there a middle course? This book explores the complex issues, and the underlying causes of the Telangana movement.

Nag has been a journalist with The Times of India for some time, and is currently the resident editor of its Hyderabad edition. He is a winner of the Prem Bhatia Award for excellence for his coverage of the 2002 riots in Gujarat. He combines a reporter's analysis with a genuine desire to understand just what is going on in this very readable book of the moment from Harper Collins.

In our Politics and History sections, in paperback, 248 pages Rs 350, ISBN: 9789350290743

Mutter... mutter

2011-07-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

Nitoo Das teaches English at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. She was born in Assam, in Guwahati, came to Delhi for higher studies and decided to stay on. Her first book of poetry is now out from Timberline, an imprint of the Virtual Artists Collective.

Boki…. A word that means nothing in English, but when you come to the poem that it’s in – well, there it stands for a shouted syllable, a deconstruction of someone’s name – someone who “went around / with scowling hair, // her long betel-spittled / lips exploding sex-words” while “She sat in street-corners / and exposed glistening secrets / like roots with / shifty-eyed knowledge.” A “nonsense” word that brings so much from its two syllables, is surely what poetry is about. The creation of image from sound. “To bok” in Assamese means to mutter/speak meaninglessly and repetitively. The Sanskrit word, Vak, from which this irreverent Assamese derivative takes its origins, means Speech. And Nitoo Das’ Boki speaks in an explosion of images in which she demonstrates an uncanny ability to create poems that surprise us, hold us, move us to see things in new ways. “A poem / laughs / when you tell it to sit.” These poems not only laugh but insist on dancing. They taste “lush and orange” on the tongue like Disco-Papita, and they will leave you turning the pages for more.

The potency and the appeal of any poem lies in the literary experience it provides to its readers. And that is why, when it comes to a poetry collection, this experience needs to be spectral, and multidimensional. Nitoo Das’s newly published poetry collection delivers this multidimensionality. Well... at least most of it.

The Boki poems are mainly based on gender and sexuality, interweaving these two realms across a plethora of social, political as well as private issues. The richness of ‘Boki’ lies in the polymorphous, shifting identity of its poet’s voice, which is fluid and surreal at times, and concrete and established at others. An Associate Professor of English in Delhi University, Das has worked on an experiment on Poetry as hypertext on her blog. Many of the poems in this collection have been taken from her blog. A self proclaimed ‘ventriloquist’, Das employs a well articulated suspension of the self styled ‘I’ or the ‘eye’ of the voice in the poems, that gives each poem in the collection a strong, self independent feel. From one poem to another, the poetic voice varies between different voices, making each poem a different experience to read- unpredictable, even shocking at places, but crisp and fresh.

Flipping through the pages of this collection, one can see the objectivity of everyday objects, situations, places and people transform under the subjective gaze of the poetic voice, rather voices, which renders a new, mundane dimension to them, making them unfamiliar to the familiarity of one’s perception, and forcing one to stop, take a moment and try to understand this difference.

Stark, sensual imagery, full of curiously intermixed sensory depictions appeals to the reader’s eyes, and does justice to the theme of gender and sexuality prevailing through the collection. A self proclaimed feminist, Das experiments with various poetic forms in the collection, to give pliancy to the feminist issues addressed in her poems. There are a lot of historical, folk, as well as popular culture references in the poems, which simultaneously give the poems a subjective as well as objective colouring. Most poems are short, crisp and written in simple words, even though rich on the interpretative scale, which makes the collection a good read for the occasional reader, as well as to the more trained eye.

Nature, the body, the gaze, the private and the public, all whirl together to make this collection of poems fresh and vibrant.

In paperback, 82 pages, Rs 250. ISBN 9780979882548. Write to us!

Bollywood Reflected

2011-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

The novelist Ismat Chhugtai knew Bollywood only too well.. Her novel Masooma has been translated from the original Urdu by Tahira Naqvi and published by Women Unlimited.

Masooma, published in 1962, may well be regarded as a work that celebrates all of Ismat Chughtai’s talents as a writer. Perhaps her darkest novel, a narrative of lost hope and endless cycles of corruption and injustice, it traces the journey of Masooma, a young woman from a respectable Muslim family who becomes embroiled in a game of exploitation and treachery and becomes Nilofar, a commodity that can be easily bought and sold. Once again, in telling Masooma’s story, Chughtai cuts open the underbelly of India’s political landscape and the underpinnings of the Bombay film world to reveal their shadowy and unsavoury side.

The book has ... inimitable style ... racy prose and a strong narrative with a powerful sense of drama says The Book Review. She grabs your attention with her poker-sharp words – in which sometimes an entire world of experience is buried in a single sentence. Where did she get that amazing observation, that acerbic wit, that dry sense of humour? And why can’t we have more writers like her? (The New Indian Express). Her writing is ironic, caustic, frank, bold and, yes, irreverent ... She is merciless in her depiction of corruption, deceit, injustice and hypocrisy. Yet, her empathy for her characters is always evident, as is her pain for their suffering The Hindu).

Chughtai, born in 1915 in Badayun, was the first Muslim woman in India to acquire a BA degree. She is counted among the earliest and foremost women Urdu writers, and focuses on women’s issues with a directness and intensity unparalleled in Urdu literature among writers of her generation. Author of several collections of short stories, three novellas, a novel, Terhi Lakir (The Crooked Line), and Kaghazi Hai Perahan (The Paper-thin Garment), a memoir. With her husband, Shahid Latif, a film director, whom she married against her family’s wishes in 1942, she produced and co-directed six films, and produced a further six independently after his death.

Tahira Naqvi, a translator of Urdu fiction and prose, taught English for twenty years, has taught Urdu at Columbia, and now heads the Urdu programme at New York University. She has translated Ismat Chughtai’s short stories, her novel and her essays. She has also translated the works of Khadija Mastur, Sa’dat Hasan Manto and Munshi Premchand. Naqvi also writes fiction in English. She has published two collections of short fiction, Attar of Roses and Other Stories of Pakistan and Dying in a Strange Country. Her short stories have been widely anthologised.

In our Fiction and ILT sections, in paperback, 152 pages, Rs 250. ISBN: 9788188965663

Cold Story

2011-06-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Shankar Prasad Das who teaches physics at the JNU has been working on the behaviour of glasses for a long time now. His new book on the topic, Statistical Physics of Liquids at Freezing and Beyond is out from Cambridge University Press.

Exploring important theories for understanding freezing and the liquid-glass transition, this book is useful for graduate students and researchers in soft-condensed matter physics, chemical physics and materials science. It details recent ideas and key developments, providing an up-to-date view of current understanding. The standard tools of statistical physics for the dense liquid state are covered. The freezing transition is described from the classical density functional approach. Classical nucleation theory as well as applications of density functional methods for nucleation of crystals from the melt are discussed, and compared to results from computer simulation of simple systems. Discussions of supercooled liquids form a major part of the book. Theories of slow dynamics and the dynamical heterogeneities of the glassy state are presented, as well as nonequilibrium dynamics and thermodynamic phase transitions at deep supercooling. Mathematical treatments are given in full detail so readers can learn the basic techniques.

The book is in hardcover, 584 pages, ISBN: 9780521858397. The edition is international, priced at £80.00.

Trippin' Along

2011-06-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

The latest title in the series Texts and Readings in the Physical Sciences, or TRiPS, is Computational Statistical Physics edited by Sitangshu Santra (IIT-Guwahati) and Purusattam Ray (IMSc, Chennai).

In our Physics section, in softcover, 298 pages, Rs 450. ISBN: 9789380250151

Pray together, Stay together

2011-06-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

Andrew Nicholson's is Assistant Professor of Hinduism and Indian intellectual history in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at SUNY, Stony Brook. His recent book Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual history is co-published by Permanent Black and Columbia University Press.

Some postcolonial theorists argue that the idea of a single system of belief known as “Hinduism” is a creation of nineteenth-century British imperialists. Andrew J. Nicholson introduces another perspective: although a unified Hindu identity is not as ancient as some Hindus claim, it has its roots in innovations within South Asian philosophy from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. During this time, thinkers treated the philosophies of Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga, along with the worshippers of Visnu, Siva, and Sakti, as belonging to a single system of belief and practice. Instead of seeing such groups as separate and contradictory, they re-envisioned them as separate rivers leading to the ocean of Brahman, the ultimate reality.

Drawing on the writings of philosophers from late medieval and early modern traditions, including Vijnanabhiksu, Madhava, and Madhusudana Sarasvati, Nicholson shows how influential thinkers portrayed Vedanta philosophy as the ultimate unifier of diverse belief systems. This project paved the way for the work of later Hindu reformers, such as Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan, and Gandhi, whose teachings promoted the notion that all world religions belong to a single spiritual unity. In his study, Nicholson also critiques the way in which Eurocentric concepts — like monism and dualism, idealism and realism, theism and atheism, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy — have come to dominate modern discourses on Indian philosophy.

In our Religion, Philosophy, Culture sections. In hardcover, 280 pages, Rs 750. ISBN: 9788178243283

Sacrifices aplenty

2011-06-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Maggi Lidchi Grassi, writer and homeopath, has lived at the Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry since 1959. In The Great Golden Sacrifice of The Mahabharata she reinterprets Vyasa’s epic from Arjuna’s point of view.

First published in parts, including one of the same title, by Writer's Workshop, Kolkata, the present edition is from Random House, and has been called a stunningly lyrical work, The Great Golden Sacrifice of the Mahabharata reinterprets Vyasa s epic from Arjuna s point of view. As Arjuna relives the battle of Kurukshetra, he senses a profound change coming upon himself. He begins to understand the true meaning of surrender and sacrifice.

The book comprises three parts, narrated principally by Arjuna. Part I takes us through the childhood and youth of the Pandavas and Kauravas, the game of dice, the Pandavas exile, and ends with the armies arrayed for battle at Kurukshetra. Part II recounts the battle itself, and the teachings of the Bhagvad Gita. Part III presents a moving and brilliantly original take on the Mahabharata, as Lidchi-Grassi gives a voice to the forgotten victims of every war the ordinary citizens who must pick themselves up, and resume the business of life. An old order has been swept away, but can the new age the Kali Yuga help lessen human strife and misery? Vastly ambitious in scope and epic in scale, The Great Golden Sacrifice of the Mahabharata is an astonishing read.

Lidchi-Grassi's life story is unusual and has a major impact on her interpretation of the Mahabharata as a parable for all times. What is not here is nowhere else...

In our Religion and Philosophy sections, 960 pages, Rs 999 in hardcover, ISBN: 9788184001464

Save them from becoming Pulp Nonfiction!

2011-06-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

US$9

Advances in Information Storage Systems, Vol. 8
After the Beginning
A Cosmic Journey through Space and Time
Alkali-Doped Fullerides
Narrow-Band Solids with Unusual Properties
Almighty Chance
Altas of Vibrational Spectra of Liquid Crystals
An Elementary Course on the Continuum Theory for Nematic Liquid Crystals
Analystical Dynamics
Course Notes
Annual Reviews of Computational Physics I
Annual Reviews of Computational Physics II
Annual Reviews of Computational Physics III
Annual Reviews of Computational Physics IV
Annual Reviews of Computational Physics V
Annual Reviews of Computational Physics VI
Annual Reviews of Computational Physics VII
Annual Reviews of Computational Physics VIII
Annual Reviews of Computational Physics IX
Applied Quantum Mechanics
Application of Noncovariant Gauges in the Algebraic Renormalization Procedure
Aspects of Modern Magnetism
Lecture Notes of the Eighth Chinese International Summer School of Physics
Asymptotic Symmetry & Its Implication in Elementary Particle Physics
At the Frontier of Particle Physics
Handbook of QCD (Volume 4)
Atoms in Electromagnetic Fields
Beta Decay
Beta Decays (Revised 2nd Edition)
Beginning of Paramagnetic Resonance
Big Bang and Other Explosions in Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics
Calculated Electronic Properties of Ordered Alloys: A Handbook
Candid Science IV
Canted Antiferromagnetism: Hematite
Career in Theoretical Physics
Challenges in Granular Physics
Classical and Quantum Electrodynamics and the B(3) Field
Classical Theory of Electromagnetism
Second Edition (with Companion Solution Manual)
Coherent Anomaly Method
Mean Field, Fluctuations and Systematics
Collision Theory
A Short Course
Compact Synchrotron Light Sources
Composite Fermions
A Unified View of the Quantum Hall Regime
Compound Semiconductor Electronics
The Age of Maturity
Computing Boolean Statistical Models
Condensed Matter — Disordered Solids
Current Research on Optical Materials, Devices and Systems in Taiwan
Dark Matter in the Universe
Second Edition
Deparametrization and Path Integral Quantization of Cosmological Models
Development of Perturbative QCD, The
Directions in Chaos, vol 2
Disorder and Competition in Soluble Lattice Models
Dynamic Kerr Effect
The Use and Limits of the Smoluchowski Equation and Nonlinear Inertial Responses
Dynamics of Negative Ions
Effective Field Approach to Phase Transitions and Some Applications to Ferroelectrics
Electromagnetic Analysis Using Transmission Line Variables
Electromagnetic Processes at High Energies in Oriented Single Crystals
Electromagnetic Scattering Modelling for Quantitative Remote Sensing
Electronic Processes at Solid Surface
Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and New Physics at the TeV Scale
Elementary Process of Bremsstrahlung, The
Encounters in Magnetic Resonances
Encounters in Nonlinear Optics
Selected Papers of Nicolaas Bloembergen (With Commentary)
Energy and Geometry
An Introduction to Deformed Special Relativity
Exotic Properties of Superfluid Helium 3
Experiment Study and Characterization of Chaos
A Collection of Reviews and Lecture Notes
Extensive Air Showers
Festschrift in Honor of Vernon W Hughes
Finite Superstrings
Formation and Evolution of Black Holes in the Galaxy
Selected Papers with Commentary
Foundations of Quantum Mechanics in the Light of New Technology
Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the First through Fourth International Symposia on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
From Black Clouds to Black Holes (2/e)
Free and Guided Optical Beams
Proceedings of the International School of Quantum Electronics
From Integrable Models to Gauge Theories
A Volume in Honor of Sergei Matinyan
From Order to Chaos
Essays: Critical, Chaotic and Otherwise
From Quarks to Black Holes
Interviewing the Universe
From the Preshower to the New Technologies for Supercolliders
From Thermal Field Theo to Neural Networks: A Day to Remember Tanguy Altherr
Fundamentals in Hadronic Atom Theory
Fundamentals of Laser Optoelectronics
Fundamentals of Practical Aberration Theory
Fundamental Knowledge and Technics for Optical Designers
Garden of Quanta, A
Essays in Honor of Hiroshi Ezawa
Gauge Theories in the Twentieth Century
Geometric Methods in the Elastic Theory of Membranes in Liquid Crystal Phases
Geometry in Condensed Matter Physics
Getting to Know Semiconductors
Gift of Prophecy
Gravitation: Following the Prague Inspiration
Great Solid State Physicists of the 20th Century
Gribov Theory of Quark Confinement, The
Hadronic Physics From Lattice QCD
Here Erred Einstein
High Conductivity Solid Ionic Conductors
Recent Trends and Applications
High Magnetic Fields
Science and Technology (In 3 Volumes)
Horn Radiators of Complex Configuration
Hubbard Model, The
Recent Results
Ideals and Realities — Selected Essays of Abdus Salam (2/e)
Impedances and Wakes in High Energy Particle Accelerators
In Conclusion
A Collection of Summary Talks in High Energy Physics
In the Intermissions...
Collected Works on Research into the Essentials of Theoretical Physics in Russian Federal Nuclear Center, Arzamas-16
Insertion Devices for Synchrotron Radiation and Free Electron Laser
Insulating and Semiconducting Glasses
Interaction of Electromagnetic Field with Condensed Matter
Interaction of Photons and Neutrons with Matter
Intermediate Electromagnetic Theory
Introduction to a Realistic Quantum Physics, An
Invitation to Contemporary Physics
Itep Lectures on Particle Physics and Field Theory (in 2 volumes)
Jingshin Theoretical Physics Symposium in Honor of Professor Ta-You Wu
Joy of the Search for Knowledge, The
A Tribute to Professor Dan Tsui
Landmark Papers on Photorefractive Nonlinear Optics
Large N Expansion in Quantum Field Theory and Statistical Physics, The
From Spin Systems to 2-Dimensional Gravity
Laser Spectroscopy
Proceedings of the XVI International Conference
Lasers and Holography
Latest Advances in Atomic Clusters Collisions
Fission, Fusion, Electron, Ion and Photon Impact
Lecture Notes on Equilibrium Point Defects and Thermophysical Properties of Metals
Lectures in Particle Physics
Lectures in Synergetics
Lectures Notes on Phase Transformations in Nuclear Matter
Legacy of Léon Van Hove, The
Lepton and Photon Interactions at High Energies
Lepton-Photon 2003
Proceedings of the XXI International Symposium
Ligands and Modifiers in Vitreous Materials
Spectroscopy of Condensed Systems
Liquid Crystals in the Nineties and Beyond
Liquid Crystals
Fundamentals
Liquid Crystals — Applications and Uses
Low-Dimensional Organic Conductors
Magnetic and Superconducting Materials
Proceedings of the First Regional Conference (In 2 Volumes)
Magnetic Systems with Competing Interactions
Magnetism in Heavy Fermion Systems
Many Faces of the Superworld, The
Yuri Gelfand Memorial Volume
Many-Body Theory of Atomic Structure and Photoionization
Massive Neutrinos in Physics and Astrophysics
Mathematical Perspectives on Theoretical Physics
A Journey from Black Holes to Superstrings
Mathematical Problems of Statistical Mechanics
Maunder Minimum and the Variable Sun-Earth Connection, The
Mechanical Action of Light on Atoms
Mechanical Properties of Metals
Atomistic and Fractal Continuum Approaches
Membranes and Other Extendons (Volume 39)
Microscopic Approaches to Quantum...(Volume 4)
Models and Modelers of Hydrogen
Modern Many-Particle Physics
Atomic Gases, Quantum Dots and Quantum Fluids
Modern Physics and Technology for Undergraduates
Modern Semiconductor Quantum Physics
Modern Topics in Electron Scattering
Modern Topics in Liquid Crystals
Modified Maxwell Equations in Quantum Electrodynamics
Modulation Spectrometry of Neutrons with Diffractometry Applications
Multiple Facets of Quantization and Supersymmetry
Near Field Optics and Nanoscopy
Neurtinos and Other Matters
Neutrinos and Implications for Physics Beyond the Standard Model
New Many-Body Theories on Soft X-Ray Spectroscopy of Insulating Solids
New Problems, Methods and Techniques in Quantum Field Theory and Statistical Mechanics
Nonlinear Dynamics
The Richard Rand 50th Anniversary Volume
Nonlinear Dynamics in Particle Accelerators
Nonlinear Optical Properties of Liquid Crystals and Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals
Nonlinear Periodic Waves and Their Modulations
An Introductory Course
Nonlinear Physics for Beginners
Fractals, Chaos, Solitons, Pattern Formation, Cellular Automata and Complex Systems
Novel Radiation Sources Using Relativistic Electrons
From Infrared to X-Rays
Nuclear Molecules
On Certain Unitary Representations of an Infinite Group of Transformations
Thesis by Léon Van Hove
Optical Properties of Surfaces
Second Edition
Order, Disorder and Criticality
Advanced Problems of Phase Transition Theory
Origin of Symmetries
Oskar Klein Memorial Lectures (Volume 2)
Oskar Klein Memorial Lectures (Volume 3)
Oskar Klein Memorial Lectures (Volume 1)
Personal History of Cesr ane Cleo, A
The Cornell Electron Storage Ring and Its Main Particle Detector Facility
Perspectives in Optoelectronic
Perspectives of Polarons
Perspectives on Solvable Model
Peyresq Lectures on Nonlinear Phenomena
Phase Transition Approach to High Temperature Superconductivity
Universal Properties of Cuprate Superconductors
Phase Transitions in Complex Fluids
Lectures on Phase Transitions
Photomagneton and Quantum Field Theory, The
Volume 1 of Quantum Chemistry
Photon's Magnetic Field, The
Optical NMR Spectroscopy
Physics of New Methods of Charged Particle Acceleration
Collective Effects in Dense Charged Particle Ensembles
Physical Properties of High Temperature Superconductors V
Physics of Clusters
Physics of Dendrites
Computational Experiments
Physics of Non-Ideal Plasma, The
Physics of Nonneutral Plasmas
Physiology, Promiscuity and Prophecy at the Millennium
A Tale of Tails
Principles of Quantum General Relativity
Problems and Solutions in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Second Edition (Volume I: Introductory Level)
Problems and Solutions in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Second Edition (Volume II: Advanced Level)
Problems and Solutions in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics (Volume II: Advanced Level)
Probability and Schrödinger's Mechanics
Proceedings of the Dirac Centennial Symposium
Progress in the Physics of Clusters
Quantum Mechanics, High Energy Physics and Accelerators: Selected Papers of John S Bell (WITH COMMENTARY)
Quantum Aspects of Beam Physics 2003
Proceedings of the Joint 28th ICFA Advanced Beam Dynamics and Advanced and Novel Accelerators Workshop
Quantum Field Theory with Application to Quantum Nonlinear Optics
Quantum Measurement Approach To Tunnelling
Tunnelling by Quantum Measurement
Quantum Physics and Observed Reality
A Critical Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics
Quantum Theory of Tunneling
Quark Model and High Energy Collisions (Second Edition)
Quark-Gluon Plasma 2
Quark-Gluon Plasma 3
Quarks and Gluons
A Century of Particle Charges
Quasicrystals The State of the Art (2nd Edition)
Quasiparticle Theory of Defects in Solids
Quest for Perspectives, A
Selected Works of S Chandrasekhar (With Commentary) - In 2 Volumes
Quest for Symmetry, A
Selected Works of Bunji Sakita
Recent Advances in Quantum Monte Carlo Methods
Relativity: An Intro to the Special Theory
Remnants of the Fall
Revelations of Particle Secrets
Research on Particle Imaging Detectors
Review of Fundamental Processes and Applications of Atoms and IONS
Selected Papers of J Robert Schrieffer In Celebration of His 70th Birthday
Selected Paper, with Commentary of Tony Hilton Royle Skyrme
Selected Scientific Papers of Sir Rudolf Peierls (With Commentary)
Selected Topics on the General Properties of Quantum Field Theory
Semiconductor Superlattices
Growth and Electronic Properties
Simple Views on Condensed Matter
Simple Views on Condensed Matter (Expanded Edition)
Sir Nevill Mott-65 Years in Physics
Sixty Years of Double Beta Decay
From Nuclear Physics to Beyond Standard Model Particle Physics
Solar and Interplanetary Disturbances
Solid State Spectroscopies
Basic Principles and Applications
Some Comments on the Foundations of Physics
Special Relativity
Spectroscopy with Coherent Radiation
Selected Papers of Norman F Ramsey (With Commentary)
Spherical Tensor Operators
Tables of Matrix Elements and Symmetries
Spin and Torsion in Gravitation
Spin Phenomena in Particle Interactions
Statistical Dynamics
A Stochastic Approach to Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics
Statistical Physics of Crystals and Liquids
A Guide to Highly Accurate Equations of State
Statistical Physics
An Introductory Course
Strings, Branes and Extra Dimensions
Superconducting State in Magnetic Fields, The
Special Topics and New Trends
Superconductivity and Localization
Superconductivity
Elementary Topics
Symmetry and Modern Physics
Yang Retirement Symposium
Symplectic Matrices, First Order Systems and Special Relativity
Synchrotron Radiation Theory and Its Development
In Memory of I M Ternov
Theories of Matter
A Festschrift for Prof Joseph L Birman
Theory of Nuclear Reactions
Theory of Single and Multiple Interfaces
The Method of Surface Green Function Matching
Theory of Transonic Astrophysical Flows
Towards a Nonlinear Quantum Physics
Trajectories and Rays: The Path-Summation in Quantum Mechanics and Optics I
Transport, Correlation and Structural Defects
Transuranium People, The
The Inside Story
Transverse Spin Physics
Treatment of Collective Coordinates in Many-Body Systems, The
Tunneling in Complex Systems
Universal Fluctuations
The Phenomenology of Hadronic Matter
Universality and Diversity in Science
Festschrift in Honor of Naseem K Rahman's 60th Birthday
Visible and the Invisible, The
Wavelets in Physics
X-Ray Scattering From Semiconductors
Yang-Mills Theories in Algebraic Non-Covariant Gauges
Canonical Quantization and Renormalization

Check out the details on the World Scientific page. If you have any difficulty ordering them, just write to Himanshu@SwB. We can't promise to get each title for Rs 450 (shipping might be extra), but we will get them for you as economically as possible.

These are a major steal! Do stock up...

Season of Intolerance

2011-06-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

Alladi Uma and Sridhar, both at the University of Hyderabad, have made many texts that were in Telugu accessible to a wider audience through their careful and sensitive translations. Their translated works include Ayoni and Other Stories, Rachakonda Viswantha Sastry’s Beware, the Cows are Coming!, K. Siva Reddy’s Mohana! Oh, Mohana!, a volume of poems, and Allam Rajaiah’s collection of short stories, Bhoomi. Their translation of G Kalyana Rao's AntaraniVasantam is the latest addition to their oeuvre.

Untouchable Spring, a memory text, is a family/community saga, a novel and a historical document rolled into one. Using the oral story-telling tradition, Rao has brought to the fore not just the social and cultural life of generations of Dalits, but their art forms. Through the stories of successive generations, we are taken on a journey to their heart—from those who were exploited to those who discover their humanity through defiance. The reminiscences of Ruth take us to her husband Reuben’s family in Yennela Dinni, to the boy Yellanna, his being chased away by his caste ‘superiors’, his music, his son Sivaiah’s escape from the drought along with his wife, the latter’s conversion to Christianity, the brutality against him and other Dalit Christians, the birth of Reuben when things seem to fall apart and he is later left in an orphanage, and then to Reuben’s search for his roots. This faithful translation from the Telugu, arousing pity for all that is pitiable and rage at what man has done to man, points to the growing awareness of people’s rights and how they are driven to armed struggle.

In paperback in our Biography, Dalit Studies and Indian Literature in Translation sections, 292 pages, Rs 325. ISBN: 9788125039457

A Beautiful Mind

2011-06-04T11:06:00.001-07:00

Chandra- as many people called him- was a brilliant writer, both for the style with which he wrote, as for the content of what he wrote. Famously, he worked in one or the other aspect of astrophysics (or some other branch of physics) for something like a decade after which he wrote his view of the field in a masterly and usually definitive book, and then turned his attention to another field... This approach resulted in a number of important and influential books, including Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science, a superb collection of essays that caused Sir Hermann Bondi to remark, in a review in Nature, "What a splendid book! Reading it is a joy, and for me, at least, continuing reading it became compulsive. . . . Chandrasekhar is a distinguished astrophysicist and every one of the lectures bears the hallmark of all his work: precision, thoroughness, lucidity."

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–95) was only 19 when he discovered what is hailed as one of the most important discoveries in astrophysics – the Chandrasekhar limit – This paved the way for the unearthing of neutron stars and black holes, and in a career that spanned six decades, Chandra’s research resulted in a large number of papers and monographs, which have had a huge influence on astronomy and astrophysics. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1968 and the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. His neice Radhika Ramnath, the daughter of Chandrasekhar’s youngest brother, has recently brought out S. Chandrasekhar: A man of science from Harper Collins.

The world knows S. Chandrasekhar as a Nobel laureate and an outstanding astrophysicist. But he was, at the same time, a caring uncle, a devoted husband and a compassionate brother, who made it a point to reach out to everyone around him despite his legendary status. This compilation brings out the various facets of the man and the scientist. It includes some of his more general essays and lectures in which he lucidly presents his thoughts on the pursuit of science, creativity, his work, and his abiding love for his motherland.

There are also reminiscences by family members who interacted with him and grew to adore the man who, they remember, had as beautiful a heart as his handwriting. This collection strives to bring to the fore the person that was Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and the life he led: from his engagement with science to the little anecdotes that illuminated the lives of those around him.

In our Biography section, in hardcover, 268 pages, Rs 499, ISBN: 9789350290293

Before there was the CPM

2011-05-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Suchetana Chattopadhyay teaches history at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. She studied at Jadavpur University and at the Mecca of South Asia Studies, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London. Her new book, out from Tulika Books, New Delhi, is An Early Communist: Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta 1913–1929.

From an occasionally employed, lower middle-class Bengali Muslim intellectual on the borderline of starvation in the city, he was to become ‘the chief accused’ at the Meerut communist trials started by the colonial government in 1929. What was the road travelled before challenging imperialism ‘from the dock’? In 1913 Muzaffar Ahmad (1889–1973) was just one more individual adrift in the sea of migrants arriving from rural Bengal to Calcutta. His ambition was to be a writer. Yet in the vortex of metropolitan upheavals, his life would take a completely different turn. Taking Muzaffar Ahmad’s early career (1913–29) as its chronological frame, this book examines the dialectical interplay between social being and a wider social consciousness in late colonial Bengal which drew a section of Muslim intellectuals to communism.

Muzaffar’s life converged with a significant phase in the social and political history of India and the world: 1913 marked the eve of the First World War, while the Wall Street stockmarket crash set off the Great Depression in 1929. During this period, especially after the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, socialist ideas and communist activism became politically familiar in different parts of the globe. In the post-First World War climate, many alienated urban intellectuals – from Cairo to Shanghai – stood at the crossroads of established identities and radical currents. Informed by working class protests from below and a leftward turn in the literary/cultural fields, many in India were also moving away from the political routes open to those from their social background to combat colonialism and identifying with alternative visions of decolonization.

By tracing this process in the context of Calcutta through Muzaffar Ahmad’s transitions, the little investigated history of the left in Bengal prior to Meerut is unravelled, and is related to the convergences between individual radicalization and the emergence of a new political space in a colonial city. The connected histories of communism, port-cities, Bengal Muslims, workers, intellectuals, youth, migration, colonial intelligence, early left organization, radical prose, local/ regional activism and internationalist currents are also probed in this context.

In our History and Biography sections, in hardcover, 320 pages, Rs 600, ISBN: 9788189487775

Bent

2011-05-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

Vadehra Art Gallery offers the first monograph on this important Indian photographer features selections from each of his major series, a comprehensive overview of Sunil Gupta’s work to date, Sunil Gupta: queer.

Arguably India’s best-known working photographer, Gupta is also a well-known artist, curator, and writer. For decades he has explored narratives of contemporary gay life in India and other parts of the world; tackled issues of gender and sexuality; and documented his own experiences living with AIDS. This volume chronicles Gupta’s divergent series, which range from narrative portraits to fictional photo essays. Beautifully reproduced, these photos include his renowned series “The Pre-Raphaelites”; heart-rending images of children living in an HIV-positive care center; 1970s street scenes from New York City’s West Village; and his groundbreaking portraits of gay men, women, and transgender individuals living in his native country and struggling against homophobic laws and culture. Subversive, whimsical, personal, and political, Sunil Gupta’s photographshave done much to raise awareness about—and overcome the taboos of—homosexual life throughout the modern world.

By Saleem Kidwai and Keith Wallace, this recent book (140 pages in hardcover) is priced at Rs 2500. In our Photography and Gender sections, ISBN: 9783791350998

Bright Sun, Brighter Star

2011-05-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

NFDC, the National Film Development Corporation of India is the central agency established to encourage the good cinema movement in the country. The primary goal of the NFDC is to plan, promote and organize an integrated and efficient development of the Indian film industry and foster excellence in cinema. Over the years NFDC has provided a wide range of services essential to the growth of Indian cinema. The NFDC (and its predecessor the Film Finance Corporation) has so far funded / produced over 300 films. These films, in various Indian languages, have been widely acclaimed and have won many national and international awards.

A treat from the NFDC- another bonus of the Tagore Sesquicentennial- is a boxed DVD collection of 6 movies and a documentary, Tagore Stories on Film.

The documentary on Tagore is by Satyajit Ray. Made in 1961, in English, this nearly hour long film in black and white is an early Ray masterpiece. Satyajit Ray was a lifetime admirer of the man Tagore, his works and vision. He not only made films from five of Tagore's stories, but also took upon the task to make this dramatized documentary on the life of the poet-laureate. Made in 1961, the same year in which Ray made Teen Kanya from three of Tagore's stories, this was made to celebrate Tagore's birth centenary. Conscious that he was making an official portrait of India's celebrated poet, Ray refrains from touching upon the controversies in Tagore's life. However lovers of cinema will see the deft cinematic touches of a master filmmaker that sets it apart from most biographical documentaries in the world. The dramatized sequences in the film of the young Tagore are moving and lyrical, befitting the biography of one the most progressive man ever.

Nearly 100 films owe their inspiration to the work of Tagore, and most of these have been in Bangla. And this does not include movies where Rabindra Sangeet has played an integral part: in many cases, his songs and even poems have inspired complete films.

A bonus in this six-pack is a film of Tagore's Natir Puja - an adaptation of his poem Pujarini, which the poet had staged in 1927. This was the only time that Tagore was so closely associated with cinema with the screenplay being written under his guidance by nephew Dinendranath 'Dinu' Tagore and the master composing the background music, with students of Santiniketan acting in the film. Tagore not only directed this dance-drama shot over four days, but also played an important role in the film. Though the film in its entirety has been lost, a portion has been found and restored.

The films in the set are

Disc 1 - Khudito Pashan (Runtime: 106 min)

Disc 2 - Teen Kanya (Runtime: 161 min)

Disc 3 - Kabuliwala (Runtime: 140 min)

Disc 4 - Ghare Baire (Runtime: 138 min)

Disc 5 - Char Adhyay (Runtime: 110 min)
Disc 6 - Natir Puja (Runtime: 20 min), Satyajit Ray's Rabindranath Tagore (Runtime: 52 min)

In our Documentaries sectiom, Rs 399 plus shipping. Tagore Stories on Film

On Broken Glass

2011-05-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

In early 2010, Arundhati Roy travelled into the forests of Central India, homeland to millions of indigenous people, dreamland to some of the world's biggest mining corporations. The result is Walking with the Comrades, a powerful and unprecedented report from the heart of an unfolding revolution.

War has spread from the borders of India to the forests in the very heart of the country. Combining brilliant analysis and reportage by one of India’s iconic writers, Broken Republic examines the nature of progress and development in the emerging global superpower, and asks fundamental questions about modern civilization itself.

Penguin Books will release Arundhati Roy's Broken Republic: Three Essays and Walking with the Comrades in Delhi on Friday the 20th May.

At the release which will be at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, Roy, Booker novelist, and outspoken and articulate critic of the Indian government will be in conversation with Amit Bhaduri, a distinguished economist and onetime colleague at JNU, where he is presently Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Sciences.

NWE, IWE, same difference

2011-05-17T04:51:00.000-07:00

If Indian Writing in English (IWE) is a genre, then arguably, Nepali Writing in English (NWE) is one too, albeit with far fewer exponents.

Today being Buddha Purnima, it seems appropriate to write about one of the finest writers from the subcontinent, the Nepali-American author, Samrat Upadhyay. His most recent novel, published in India by Rupa, is Buddha's Orphans.

Buddha’s Orphans is a novel permeated with the sense of how we are irreparably connected to the mothers who birthed us and of the way events of the past, even those we are ignorant of, inevitably haunt the present. But most of all it is an engrossing, unconventional love story and a seductive, transporting read.

Upadhyay directs the creative writing programe at Indiana University, and is the author of The Guru of Love. Which, as it happened, was the first of his novels that I read, provocative title notwithstanding- and which floored me in its simplicity and complexity... It was a New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year.

But that was a while ago. Other novels by Upadhayay on the SwB site include The Royal Ghost that features characters trying to reconcile their true desires with the forces at work in Nepali society. Against the backdrop of the violent Maoist insurgencies that have claimed thousands of lives, these characters struggle with their duties to their aging parents, an oppressive caste system, and the complexities of arranged marriage. In the end, they manage to find peace and connection, often where they least expect it-with the people directly in front of them. These stories brilliantly examine not only Kathmandu during a time of political crisis and cultural transformation but also the effects of that city on the individual consciousness.

Arresting God in Kathmandu is a collection of short stories, that brilliantly explores the nature of desire and spirituality in changing society. With the assurance and unsentimental wisdom of a long-established writer, Upadhyay records the echoes of modernisation throughout love and family. Psychologically rich and astonishingly acute, Arresting God in Kathmandu introduces a potent new voice in contemporary fiction.

In our Fiction section,

Buddha's Orphans, Rs 295, ISBN: 9788129116178
The Royal Ghosts, Rs 250, ISBN: 9788129109156
Arresting God in Kathmandu , Rs 195, ISBN: 9788171678037

Pachyderm Pirouettes

2011-05-15T00:58:00.000-07:00

David Malone's provocatively titled Does the Elephant Dance? Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy elegantly surveys key features of contemporary Indian foreign policy. David Malone identifies relevant aspects of Indian history, examines the role of domestic politics and internal and external security challenges, and of domestic and international economic factors. He analyzes the specifics of India's policy within its South Asian neighborhood, and with respect to China, the USA, West Asia, East Asia, Europe, and Russia as well as multilateral diplomacy. The book also touches on Indian ties to Africa and Latin America, and the Caribbean.

India's 'soft power', the role of migration in its policy, and other cross-cutting issues are analyzed, as is the role and approach of several categories of foreign policy actors in India. Substantive conclusions touch on policies India may want or need to adjust in its quest for international stature.

Malone is President of the International Development Research Centre. He was Canada's High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan and Nepal from 2006 to 2008. He has published extensively on peace and security issues, in book form and in journals. He has published earlier with OUP who will formally release his book in New Delhi on the 16th of May.

Meanwhile, the book has garnered quite a bit of attention, and praise:

A wonderfully illuminating book on India's relations with the world informed both by remarkable expertise on diplomacy and foreign relations and by carefully acquired intimate knowledge of a very complex country. The book will enlighten not only Indians involved in public discussion and policymaking but also people across the world interested in an ancient land undergoing extraordinarily rapid transformation. Amartya Sen, University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University, and 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics

With the analytical mind of a scholar and the perceptive eye of an experienced diplomat, David Malone ranges across history, geography, economics and strategy to provide a treatment of Indian foreign policy which is both lucid and profound. Strobe Talbott, President of The Brookings Institution, former US Deputy Secretary of State, and author of Engaging India

David Malone has written an impressively thorough and deeply insightful analysis of how a previously inward-looking India is now reaching out to the world. Comprehensive in scope, examining major themes and regions, [this book] shrewdly brings history and economics to bear on our understanding of [India's] foreign policy. Ramachandra Guha, Historian, and author of India After Gandhi

David Malone has written an impressively thorough and deeply insightful By daring to walk through Delhi's Tower of Babel, David Malone has produced a rewarding work on the sources and conduct of India's contemporary international relations. The capacity to differentiate between the "signal" and the "noise" in Delhi's rambunctious discourse and a deep empathy for India's aspirations allow Malone to excavate the obscure riches of India's new regional and global engagement. C. Raja Mohan, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research.

In our Strategic Affairs section, 432 pages, Rs 495 in hardcover. ISBN: 9780199552023

K for Kashmiriyat

2011-05-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

Chitralekha Zutshi is Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary in the US. Her new book, published by Permanent Black, is Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir.

Despite its centrality to the political life of India and Pakistan, Kashmir has met with rather perfunctory treatment from historians of South Asia. The few works of history and politics that have appeared on this region, moreover, insist on defining Kashmiri culture, history, and identity in terms of the ahistorical concept of Kashmiriyat, or a uniquely Kashmiri cultural identity. This book, in contrast, questions the notion of any transcendent cultural uniqueness and Kashmiriyat by returning Kashmir to the mainstream of South Asian historiography. It examines the hundred-year impact of indirect colonial rule on Kashmirs class formation. It studies the uses (and abuses) made of Kashmirs political elites by the state. It looks at the responses of Kashmirs society to social and economic restructuring. It shows that while all these historical changes had a profound impact on the political culture of the Kashmir Valley, there is nothing very inevitable or quite definite about the 'political regionalism' and 'Islamic particularism' of this area. Using local language sources and every important archive, this major history of the formation of Kashmir shows precisely how the Kashmir Valley assumed the position it has come to occupy in postcolonial South Asia.

The book has been widely praised. “Languages of Belonging is a quantum leap forward in Kashmir studies and will make one of the best histories of ‘regional’ identities and economies in India yet produced. The work brings forward a great deal of new and important material and provides a new framework for understanding regional identities in South Asia” says C. Bayly of Cambridge. “This is an outstanding book. Based on massive archival research in Delhi, Jammu and Srinagar and the unearthing of rare Kashmiri literary sources, it skilfully uncovers the religious sensibilities that underlay the formation of Kashmir’s regional identity in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century … Languages of Belonging will light up new ways of understanding the formation of identities in South Asia’s regions.” This from Sugata Bose of Harvard.

In our History and Politics sections, in paperback, 366 pages, Rs 395, ISBN 9788178243344

The Canonical Tagore

2011-05-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

The sesquicentennial anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore's birth is being celebrated today. Last month, Harvard University's Belknap Press brought out The Essential Tagore, edited by Fakrul Alam and Radha Chakravarty, with a foreword by Amit Chaudhuri.

The Essential Tagore showcases the genius of India’s Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Laureate and possibly the most prolific and diverse serious writer the world has ever known. Marking the 150th anniversary of Tagore’s birth, this ambitious collection—the largest single volume of his work available in English—attempts to represent his extraordinary achievements in ten genres: poetry, songs, autobiographical works, letters, travel writings, prose, novels, short stories, humorous pieces, and plays. In addition to the newest translations in the modern idiom, it includes a sampling of works originally composed in English, his translations of his own works, three poems omitted from the published version of the English Gitanjali, and examples of his artwork.

Tagore’s writings are notable for their variety and innovation. His Sonar Tari signaled a distinctive turn toward the symbolic in Bengali poetry. “The Lord of Life,” from his collectionChitra, created controversy around his very personal concept of religion. Chokher Bali marked a decisive moment in the history of the Bengali novel because of the way it delved into the minds of men and women. The skits in Vyangakautuk mocked upper-class pretensions. Prose pieces such as “The Problem and the Cure” were lauded by nationalists, who also sang Tagore’s patriotic songs.

Translations for this volume were contributed by Tagore specialists and writers of international stature, including Amitav Ghosh, Amit Chaudhuri, and Sunetra Gupta.

Another Indian Nobel laureate, the economist Amartya Sen is said to have been given his name by Tagore. Writing about this volume he says "Tagore is one of the greatest literary figures of our time, who commands universal admiration from native readers of Bengali, but the excellence of whose work is difficult to preserve in translation. In rising to this challenge, the editors and translators of The Essential Tagore have done a splendid job of producing a beautiful volume of selections from Tagore's vast body of writings. The book is also powerfully strengthened by an enjoyable and remarkably far-reaching foreword by Amit Chaudhuri."

A substantial book in more ways than one, 864 pages, 9.4 x 6.6 in and over a kilogram in weight... Ironically, though, there is no Indian edition of the book yet, but there undoubtedly will be one soon enough. ISBN: 9780674057906. In the meanwhile, do write in if you would like to get the book- its priced at $40.

Bollywood without Borders

2011-04-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Rachel Dwyer is Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema at SOAS, University of London. She is the editor of the well regarded series, ‘South Asian Cinema’, published by Oxford University Press, and is an authority on the many facets of Indian cinema. With Jerry Pinto, journalist and writer, she has edited Beyond the Boundaries of Bollywood: The Many Forms of Hindi Cinema for OUP.

Indian cinema is now almost synonymous with ‘Bollywood’, both within India and globally. But does this shorthand tell the whole story? Does it encompass the range of India’s cinematic production? Beyond the Boundaries of Bollywood explores forms of Hindi cinema that cannot be termed ‘Bollywood’, including those that predate it, and those that are undeniably discrete from it.

Combining essays and interviews, this volume analyses the many meanings of ‘Bollywood’ by looking at cinema in Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1920s, the transition to sound, horror films, film songs, and much more. In the process the book addresses issues which are essential to understanding the history of Hindi cinema and film culture. The interviews bring out ideas and reflections on the current situation from key figures including Anurag Kashyap, Bina Paul, and Abhay Deol in the industry. From DVD pricing and its effect on filmmaking to the development of ‘hatke’ cinema and the role of film festivals in shaping popular culture––the first-hand insights shed new light on how Hindi cinema and its audiences are always in flux.

The book consists of scholarly articles by Dwyer, Ravi Vasudevan, Jerry Pinto, and others, and a series of interviews by Jerry Pinto with current Bollywood personalities such as Anurag Kashyap, Jabbar Patel, Abhay Deol and others.

M K Raghavendra, critic and author of a recent book, Seduced by the Familiar: Narration and Meaning in Indian Popular Cinema (OUP, 2008) calls it "a welcome addition to the literature available on Indian cinema ... The introduction is cogently written and is comprehensive in its treatment of the varied contents.’

In our Film Studies section, in hardcover, 320 pages, Rs 695. ISBN: 9780198069263

Tennessee Vaishnavites

2011-04-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

An exhibition at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts Nashville, Tennessee (and which will be on till the end of May 2011) is Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior.

The exhibition is exemplary and novel- the first such in the US, and the gallery where it is being held is not one of the usual suspects, the Met or the Smithsonian, or any one of the usual places where Indian art is showcased. Nashville is, after all, known more for the Grand Ole Opry, and Tennessee for Elvis (or, depending on your orientation, Oak Ridge). The curatorial team, led by Joan Cummins, is remarkable. They have pulled out all the stops in putting together a spectacular exhibition.... This is one museum to travel to, and soon!

The exhibition is divided in three parts, Images of Vishnu (from which the photograph on the catalogue shown above), The Avatars of Vishnu, and Worshiping Vishnu. The description on the website- and regrettably, this is all that I have managed to see- educates and informs:

Of the three supreme deities, Vishnu is the most multifaceted. Although he is celebrated as the great creator of the cosmos, he most often serves as its savior, descending from heaven to save the world—and lesser gods—from powerful demons and myriad threats. He assumes many shapes in his quest to maintain balance and order. Sometimes he appears in primary form, with four arms, flying on his eagle, Garuda. On other occasions, he takes a more limited, mortal body to live on earth as an animal or man. These earthly bodies, or avatars, have their own talents and personalities but share Vishnu’s blue skin tone. This feature distinguishes them from mere mortals and reflects Vishnu’s associations with the sea and sky and his cool, tranquil approach to saving the world.

Mapin, Ahmedabad, have copublished the catalogue of the exhibition. Vishnu-one of the Hinduism’s most important and powerful deities-is the great preserver, vanquishing those who seek to destroy the balance of the universe. For his followers he is also creator and the destroyer, the cause of all existence. His many traits are embodied in his impressive physical form, the weapons he carries, the Goddesses who are his consorts, and the eagle Garuda, on whom he flies down from heaven. In Hindu legend, Vishnu descends to earth in many manifestations, known as avatars, to fight powerful demons and to save his devotees. The avatars range in form from Varaha the boar to Parashurama the Brahmin warrior, and in character from Narasimha the ferocious half man half lion, to Krishna the charismatic prince-cowherd.

The legends of Vishnu have inspired some of the greatest art, literature, and ritual traditions in India. This catalogue examines the many faces of Vishnu and the ways that the God has been represented, from antiquity to the present.

Essays by noted historians of South Asian art delve deeply into the regional and sectarian traditions of Vishnu Worship in India. Illustrations and discussions of almost 200 works of art, in a wide range of media and borrowed from collections across the North Atlantic, reveal the rich diversity of India’s art and religious culture.

In our Art section, in hardcover, 296 pages. Rs 3500, ISBN: 9788189995485

Not just Silk

2011-04-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Arup Banerji teaches Tsarist Russian and Soviet history at the Department of History, Delhi University. He has published short studies on the recent politics and economy of the Russian Federation and on the Silk Routes. His investigation of an aspect of the early Soviet Union appeared in 1996 as Merchants and Markets in Revolutionary Russia: 1917-30 and his exploration of the structures, processes and experiences implicit in creating historical knowledge in imperial Russia and the Soviet Union appeared in 2008 as Writing History in the Soviet Union: Making the Past Work. His new book from Three Essays Collective is Old Routes: North Indian Nomads and Bankers in Afghan, Uzbek and Russian Lands.

This book is a study of commercial relations between north India, the Uzbek Khanate of Bukhara and Russia between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Studies of India’s foreign trade have tended to overlook commercial flows passing through the north-western frontier, destined for Afghanistan, Central Asia and Russia. This volume attempts to redress this imbalance.

It does this by initially identifying the geographical and political factors that complicated the trade as well as afforded merely tentative estimates of its volumes. In the chapters that follow, the economic power of Sindhi bankers from Shikarpur over most of south Central Asia is explained and the reliance upon nomad Afghan horse traders to transport textiles, spices, bullion, gems and drugs over the Himalayas detailed. The existence of a substantial body of British military intelligence is used to buttress the commercial fortunes of the principal trade marts of Multan and Shikarpur in the nineteenth century. Finally, the book seeks to provide a historical context to established scholarship on Indo-Russian trade in the twentieth century by probing into its origins from the seventeenth century.

In our History section, in hardcover, 272 pages, Rs 450, ISBN: 9788188789726

Macho Hindu

2011-04-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Chandrima Chakraborty, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University will soon have a book out from Permanent Black, Masculinity, Asceticism, Hinduism: Past and Present Imaginings of India.

This book analyses the links between religion, masculinity, and asceticism in Indian political and cultural history. Through an examination of nationalist discourse in the writings of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Raja Rao, V. D. Savarkar, M. S. Golwalkar, and many others, Chakraborty reveals how ideas about masculinity and Hindu asceticism came to be reworked for cultural and political purposes. Over the colonial period, Indian leaders and the literati were impelled to contest colonialist views of Hindu effeminacy. In the process, asceticism became a critical site for notions of masculinity.

Chakraborty also argues that the politics of the contemporary Hindu Right relies heavily on selective and manipulated images of Hindu asceticism and manliness, drawn selectively from such writers. Inaccuracies and distortions within Hindu Right politics are shown up by careful analysis of the many different ways in which masculine asceticism was actually imagined and written about.

Ignoring disciplinary divisions, this book cuts through politics, history, cultural studies, and literary analysis to offer an excellent view of concepts such as aggression, effeminacy, manliness, spirituality, asceticism, and nationalist virtue as these have been configured and reconfigured over the past century and a half.

Soon in our History, Culture, and Literary Criticism sections, in hardcover, 276 pages Rs 695. ISBN 9788178242989

But let me explain...

2011-04-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Law, Like Love

Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,

Law is the one

All gardeners obey

To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.

...

Law is as you know I suppose,

Law is but let me explain it once more,

Law is The Law.

The most enjoyable part of having a book blog is the serendipities that it brings about... Yoda Press' new book got me searching for a theme, and I found the origin of their title in a poem by Auden, some verses from which are copied above...

Arvind Narrain and Alok Gupta edit Law Like Love: A queer perspective of law in India. A timely book (although it lacks the Auden comma), this is one that Nivedita Menon calls "A creative exploration of the intimacies that couple Law and Love---inspiring, moving and scholarly, these essays irrevocably queer the familiar."

With the landmark Delhi High Court victory in July 2009, sexuality and the law entered mainstream, legal and public discourse in India inviting both celebration and resistance. How do we understand this conversation? The July judgement stands on the shoulders of a much longer history, argue the writers in this contemporary and critical volume on queering the law. A longer history that shapes, unsettles and challenges both legal and queer histories and begins new conversations on the intersections between bodies, politics, activism, sexuality, identity and law. Some playful, some critical and others reflective and irreverent, this unique collection of pieces brings the life, structures and institutions of law alive and shine with relevance in the contemporary moment.

In our Gender Studies and Law sections, in paperback, 648 pages, Rs 650. ISBN 9789380493144

The book, part of the YODA PRESS Sexualities series, was released at The Attic in Connaught Place New Delhi on Thursday 21 April, with readings by Mayur Suresh and Siddharth Narrain, and Nivedita Menon, Gautam Bhan, Arvind Narrain as discussants.

For more details, see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161108910616920

Basic Kumarappa

2011-04-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

The Gandhian economist J C Kumarappa held that “The wealth of a nation consists not in what a few possess, but in the extent to which the majority can satisfy their daily wants, especially needs. Looked at from this angle, increase in the number of millionaires in a country need not indicate increase in the prosperity of the nation. Indeed, it may indicate the opposite, if the accumulated wealth was occasioned by restricted distri bution. When judging the well-being of a nation, our consideration should centre round the way in which purchasing power is distributed among the citizens.… Democracy cannot exist where there is starvation, nakedness and poverty alongside of glut and glamorous living, which condition indicates exploitation of the weak by the strong.”

Pranjali Bandhu of the South Asia Study Centre in Udhagamandalam, Tamil Nadu has a new book out, BACK TO BASICS: A J C KUMARAPPA READER. With a foreword by T G Jacob, also of the SASC, this has been published by Odyssey.

This volume puts together selected writings by the Gandhian economist J.C. Kumarappa (1892-1960) in the contemporary context of aggressive neoliberal economics being executed by global corporations with national governments in the role of able facilitators.

The selection covers themes like Kumarappa’s economic thought, his politics of anti-imperialism and world peace, his views on religion– particularly on Christianity–,his ideas about education, science, agriculture, the village economy and the land question, cottage and large-scale industries and on the socialist models presented by the then Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. Self-reliance and sustainability are vital themes in his oeuvre; in short, an economy of permanence.

In paperback, in our Economics and Development Studies sections, 432 pages, Rs 750. ISBN: 9788190061551

Basu's Miscellany

2011-04-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

Oxford University Press have just brought out a collection of Kaushik Basu's essays and articles that have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the world as An Economist's Miscellany.

One set of resonances that the book's title makes is to the delightful set of writings collected in A Mathematician's Miscellany by J E Littlewood, and Littlewood's Miscellany by Bela Bollobas. Having read these in the dim and distant past, the announcement of Kaushik Basu's book gave me a chance to refresh my memory of these (not very heavy) volumes.

A memorable quote in A Mathematician's Miscellany, "The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it would" applies to An Economist's Miscellany as well... along the lines of "Where does he find the time?!" Basu is, in addition to being Chief Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, the C. Marks Professor in the Department of Economics at Cornell University. In addition to holding these positions of considerable responsibility, he has also written and edited a large number of books, journals articles and reports on matters economic. The volume of essays showcase other dimensions of Basu's interests.

‘Philosophy has to be deductive, poetry romantic, plays and fiction humorous, and politics intriguing if they are to catch my attention,’ writes Kaushik Basu. All these interests are on display in An Economist’s Miscellany, which brings together an eclectic collection of writings on the world of academe, politics, and policy.

Basu sweeps a vast canvas, from recession and the global economic crises, foreign policy, and financial scams, to art and aesthetics. In this slim volume he offers unique glimpses of his inner world—his excitement and apprehensions on moving from academics to government and policymaking; his thoughts on his mother turning 90; and persons, ideas, and books that have influenced him.

An Economist’s Miscellany also puts on display his literary forays—translations of two Bengali short stories and a four-act play. The stories are hilarious and yet have scathing social content: one illustrates the intricacies of moneylending and the debt trap, while the other provides a critique of religious obscurantism and bigotry. The play, light-hearted and facetious, presents a slice of everyday life in an academic setting. Basu has written extensively on diverse fields of economics and, more generally, the social sciences. This collection displays the full range of his wisdom and humour, and above all his celebration of everyday human follies and foibles. Memoirs, travel writing, fiction, essays, and games—they are all here, and will give readers not just the pleasure of reading but also ideas and riddles to ponder over.

Ashish Nandy observes: What makes economics a dismal science is not only its dehumanized, asocial, antiseptic worldview but also often its humourless, self-sure, pompous practitioners. An Economist’s Miscellany is a charming, playful, self-questioning book that refuses to vend certitudes. Instead it invites the reader to enter the convivial world of Kaushik Basu where the discipline is not an all-consuming, clenched-teeth profession but a more modest, uncertain, human enterprise, contaminated by life.’

In our Essays and Nonfiction section, in hardcover, 240 pages, Rs 345. ISBN: 978019807250

Upfront and Personal

2011-04-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

Without Dharmanand Kosambi (1876–1947) there could have been no D D Kosambi in more than just the procreational sense. The unique characteristics- and indeed character- of Kosambi père moulded that of his son as surely his wanderlust did, taking him from Goa to Banaras, to Sikkim and Burma, barefoot and hungry, and eventually to Harvard, where Kosambi fils would have his defining education...

And now the sociologist Meera Kosambi, his granddaughter, has translated his autobiographical writings from the Marathi. Nivedan: The autobiography of Dharmanand Kosambi is published by Permanent Black who also recently brought out Dharmanand Kosambi: The essential writings, a collection of his writings that was translated by Meera Kosambi: see our post on that book).

Dharmanand Kosambi came under the spell of the Buddha’s teachings during his adolescence. At an early age he set off on an incredible journey of austere self-training across the length and breadth of Britain’s Indian Empire, halting to educate himself at places connected with Buddhism.

His sojourns included living in Sri Lanka to master Pali, in a Burmese cave as a bhikshu, and in some viharas of North India—begging for monastic sustenance—as well as in Nepal and Sikkim which he reached after arduous, sometimes barefoot, treks. Over these itinerant years Dharmanand acquired such mastery of the Buddhist canon that he was variously appointed to teach and research at Calcutta, Baroda, Harvard, and Leningrad.

As a thinker Dharmanand blended Buddhist ethics, Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of truth and non-violence, and the ideals of socialism. He exchanged letters with the Mahatma, worked for his causes, and died in the approved Buddhist/Jain manner by voluntary starvation at Sevagram ashram. Arguably, no Indian scholar’s life has been as exemplary as Dharmanand’s, or has approximated as closely to the nobility and saintliness of the Mahatma’s.

The book has, in addition, a scholarly introduction by Meera Kosambi that puts the life, career and achievements of her grandfather in context.

In our Biography, and Indian Literature in Translation sections, in paperback, 204 pages, Rs 295. ISBN: 9788178243252

The Submarine

2011-04-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Tomaz Aquino Messias de Bragança was born in 1924 in Bardez. Leaving Goa for Mozambique, and following studies in Portugal and in France, he worked for the end of Portuguese rule in Goa as well as in other Portuguese colonies. An active journalist, he wrote in the progressive Afrique-Asie (Paris) and Revolution Africaine (Algiers) and worked in various capacities in many parts of Africa. He was aboard the Tupolev TU 134 along with Samora Machel when it crashed at Mbuzini, a village in South Africa, on 19 October 1986.

Aquino de Bragança: Battles Waged, Lasting Dreams, the English translation of Aquino de Bragança: batalhas ganhas, sonhos a continuar that was published in Portuguese (Maputo: Ndjira, 2009) was released in Panjim on April 2. The book, published by Goa1556, is by Bragança's wife Silvia, and includes reminiscences about his work and times. Aquino was known for his links with the liberation movements across Africa -- from Morocco to Algeria, Mozambique, Angola, Cabo Verde, and Sao Tome. Figures like Nelson Mandela and Julius Nyerere were his comrades.

When the MFA -- Movement of the Armed Force (Movimento das Forcas Armadas) -- overthrew the Caetano regime in Portugal on 25 April 1974, he was the person that the Mozambique liberation movement Frelimo turned to, sending him to Lisbon to evaluate the volatile situation.

After Mozambican independence, South African activist Ruth First and Aquino set about recruiting a group of committed radical scholars from Mozambique, South Africa, and Western Europe, and forming them into a research collective through the Centro de Estudos Africanos that focussed on current issues of social and political transformation. Ruth First was killed by the erstwhile apartheid South African regime, via a parcel bomb in 1982.

Aquino de Bragança was a trusted confidante of Samora Machel, and undertook numerous delicate diplomatic missions on behalf of the Frelimo government. Nicknamed "the submarine" in party and government circles, he was known for his ability to keep an exceedingly low profile.

In our Biography section, in paperback, Rs 350. ISBN: 978938073919

Reform Re-formed

2011-04-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

The subject of social reforms has routinely formed a part of Indian history texts. The word 'reforms' normally conjures up the names of a few great individuals, invariably Hindu: upper-caste educated men from metropolitan cities, and one or two memorable women. This galaxy of remarkable persons identified and abolished abuses in social life, and their efforts brought about more progressive gender relations.

The editors of the present work argue the need to understand the history of social reforms from a much wider array of perspectives: for example, the connections between specific social abuses on the one hand, and, on the other, systems or traditions of gender practices across times, classes, castes, and regions. For instance, when we look at widow immolation or widow remarriage practices, we need to look also at the larger domain of gender relations which sanctified immolation or which outlawed widow remarriage: what arguments were used? What aspects of these practices did the reformers ignore? How did Orthodox practitioners defend such traditions?

There are also, the editors argue, other curious omissions in the existing literature: 'Most reforms passed through the grid of state legislation. Yet, there is little engagement even with the law-making machinery.... and far less with the judicial courts that enforced the laws and dealt with disputes around the new laws'.

Sumit and Tanika Sarkar's Women and Social Reform in Modern India has now sold out two hardback printings, and Permanent Black brings a two volume paperback edition.

In our Women's studies section, 940 pages, Rs 895. ISBN: 9788178241999

Come together

2011-03-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-24T21:32:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-03-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-12T18:12:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-10T06:05:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-09T00:36:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-03-06T02:15:00.000-08:00

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

Religious Traffic

2011-02-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

A new book by Vakulabharanam Lalitha, WOMEN, RELIGION AND TRADITION: The Cult of Jogins, Matangis and Basvis from Rawat Publications, Jaipur addresses an issue that plagues some regions in the country. This is perhaps the first-ever comprehensive study of this pernicious practice of women’s exploitation in the name of religion and tradition.

Religion is a complex phenomenon which pervades a vast range of human activities. In India, religion influences society in diverse ways. This book explores the religious practice of temple dancing which formed an integral part of the ritual service to the Gods and Goddesses in various South Indian states. The culture of dedicating girls to temples is a common phenomenon in this country. These girls are referred to by different names in different parts of India, such as Devadasis, Jogins, Matangis, Basvis, Vaghyamurlis, Bhavins, Mariammas, etc., which literally means “female servant of the deity”.

The present book, which is an empirical study undertaken by the author for more than two decades, from 1985 to 2006, traces the origin and spread of the Devadasi culture in India, particularly the Deccan region, and evaluate the impact of reformative and rehabilitative measures taken by the governmental and non-governmental organizations.

In our Gender Studies, Womens Studies and Religion sections, Rs 795, 312 pages in hardcover. ISBN: 9788131603956. Or link directly from the QR Code on the right.

Heavenly Murals

2011-02-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

Prakriti Foundation, Chennai's The Mucukunda Murals in the Tyāgarājasvāmi Temple, Tiruvarur by V. K. Rajamani and David Shulman is the result of serendipity, love, and sheer good fortune. The combination of grit, scholarship, talent, determination, and persistence... Reading about it in the last week's The Hindu made one realize just how much of our heritage is surely seeping away, decaying...

On the ceiling of the Devasiraya Mandapam in the third prakara of the Tyagarajasvami Temple in Tiruvarur, an unfinished set of around 50 painted panels depicts the story of the monkey-faced Chola king Mucukunda, who is said to have brought the god Tyagaraja from heaven down to Tiruvarur. The story is well documented in medieval Tamil texts such as Kantapuranam of Kacciyappa civacariyar and Campantamunivar's Tiruvarurppuranam.The paintings, although in a shockingly dilapidated condition, are among the best surviving examples of late-Nayaka or early Maratha-period murals. Along with offering a distinctive version of the Mucukunda story (together with inscriptions that accompany each panel and embody directions to the painters), these murals express a distinctive cultural and philosophical vision—one in which we can observe the new subjectivity of the seventeenth century, with its spatial and pictorial correlates, and a particular understanding of the possibilities open to human beings in relation to the depths of their own consciousness, on the one hand, and the divine realm, on the other.

Prakriti Foundation has been undertaking the restoration of these panels for the last 3 years and since the work is near completion, they conducted a conference seminar at the Devasriya Mandapam on 26th January 2011. Concurrently they released a book detailing the Mucukunda Murals and their inscriptions by David Shulman as a joint venture of conservation. The book also contains a detailed description by Madhu Rani who led the INTACH team, of the entire process of conservation of the paintings.

Shulman, an Indologist is regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the languages of India. His research embraces many fields, including the history of religion in South India, Indian poetics, Tamil Islam, Dravidian linguistics, and Carnatic music. Rajamani is a noted photographer

Scholars is very pleased to enable online purchase of The Mucukunda Murals which is listed in our Art and Architecture section, in hardcover, 146 pages. Rs 2500. ISBN: 9788190444323

The Sri Lankan Writer

2011-02-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

Volume 10 Number 2 of the University of Leeds journal Moving Worlds (you can subscribe to it through SwB) is on the writings of the Sri Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje: Critical Perspectives

This issue examines Michael Ondaatje's fiction, poetry and films from fresh and interesting angles. The critical essays that make up the issue put us in touch with a powerful subtle and humane imagination that translates itself in versatile ways into the themes, characters and poetics of Ondaatje's work.

The several articles examine a number of themes in Ondaatje's work and discuss several of his novels, The English Patient, Anil's Ghost, Elimination Dance, In the Skin of a Lion... his poetry. Much to enjoy!

Moving Worlds is specially priced for students, and is reasonably priced in any case. Check out its listing in the SwB Journals ministore!

For the Birds

2011-02-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

Satish Pande and Anvita Abbi have, over the years, been carrying out a detailed study, each in their own area of interest and expertise-Orinthology and Linguistics- in the Andamans.

They combine these skills in their very special new book that has been published by Oxford, the Bombay Natural History Society, and Pune's Ela Foundation, Birds of the Great Andamanese: Names, Classification and Culture.

Call it an Ethnolinguistic perspective, Ethno-orinthology, what you will... The book is unique, and it gives the names of the birds of the islands in the nearly extinct Great Andamenese Language. As Pande and Abbi say in a recent paper, Present Great Andamanese (PGA) is a moribund language and is on the verge of extinction. The current study is an outcome of the first- hand collected data in the interdisciplinary research in Linguistics and Ornithology. We present all the 14 avian Orders, 35 Families and 100 Species recognized by the Great Andamanese people including the current conservation status, threats and distribution of avianspecies, endemic to the region. Indigenous names in PGA language were analyzed linguistically and discernible categories were classified empirically. Since the identifiable categories include avian names with single, double and triple attributes the semiotic analysis of the names of birds exposes the world view of the Great Andamanese people. What emerges is a typology of attributes where each attribute signifies a distinct avian related morphological, ornithological and semiotic behaviour. The present study, which is first of its kind, is of immense historical nature and can be used in future to establish any relationship with other languages and tribes of the Andaman Islands.

In our Natural History and Linguistics sections, in paperback, Rs 950. ISBN: 9780198072621

Freedom's Long Shadow

2011-02-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Ayesha Kidwai, my colleague in the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies at JNU is a distinguished linguist, and one with diverse interests. She has recently translated her grandmother Anis Kidwai's Azadi Ki Chhaon Mein into English, and this book (from Penguin) will be released at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on 24 February.

In Freedom's Shade is a memoir of the national movement and of partition written in 1949 but only published (in the original Urdu) in 1974. Anis Kidwai was born in 1906 in Barabanki, Awadh, into an impoverished but cultured zamindari family. The murder of her husband, Shafi, in Mussoorie in October 1947 catapulted Anis into an activist’s role. That very month, she came to Delhi and offered her life to Gandhi; she wanted to live out the rest of her years in service to the nation. In just a few months, working alongside Subhadra Joshi, Anis became closely involved with the efforts for peace in Delhi’s neighbourhoods and surrounding rural areas; and with Mridula Sarabhai she helped in the recovery of abducted women.

In Freedom’s Shade is both a personal memoir of the first two years of nascent India as well as an activist’s record that reveals both the architecture of the violence during Partition as well as the efforts of ordinary citizens to bring the cycle of reprisal and retribution to a close.

Beginning from the murder of her husband in October 1947, with a rare frankness, sympathy and depth of insight, Anis Kidwai tells the stories of the thousands who were driven away from their homelands in Delhi and its neighbouring areas by eviction or abduction or the threat of forced religious conversion. Of historical importance for its account of the activities of the Shanti Dal, the recovery of abducted women and the history of Delhi, In Freedom’s Shade also has an equal contemporary relevance.

In part a delineation of the roots of the afflictions that beset Indian society and in part prophetic about the plagues that were to come, Anis Kidwai’s testament is an enduring reminder that memory without truth is futile; only when it serves the objective of reconciliation, does it achieve meaning and significance.

In our Biography and History sections, 408 pages with 44 photographs, Rs 699. ISBN: 9780143416098

The IIC release- by Subhashini Ali- promises to be interesting. Ayesha Kidwai, the translator, and in a sense her grandmother's biographer as well will speak, as will the Urdu scholar C M Naim. The translation has been supported by the New India Foundation. Ram Guha says Begum Anis Kidwai's memoir captures the social anguish of Partition and its aftermath far better than any novel or academic study... This landmark should be read by every thinking Indian.

Astronomical Architecture

2011-02-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Anisha Shekhar Mukherji is an architect with an appreciation of history. Her recent book is on the Jantar Mantar: Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh’s Observatory in Delhi.

The huge and arresting forms of the Jantar Mantar, despite looming large on Delhi’s historical and architectural horizon for almost 300 years, still evade consensus on when they were built, why and how they were made and used, and what exactly is their cultural and historical value today.

This Friday evening (18 February, 2011) she will talk at the India International Centre, New Delhi on The Enigma of The Delhi Jantar Mantar. The lecture addresses one of the world’s most unusual and intriguing works of architecture, Jantar Mantar with its little known facets, context, form and function as well as the appropriate ways in which it should be conserved. Arising out of her association with the ‘Jantar Mantar Project’, and extensive research for her recently published book Jantar Mantar, the talk aims to bring authentic information into the public domain about this historic Observatory. In addition to clarifying the context, form and function of the Jantar Mantar, and its transformation into ‘an archaeological monument’, the talk will also address the appropriate ways in which the Delhi Jantar Mantar should beconserved to ensure its continued existence in the physical and cultural landscape of India and the world.

Anisha Mukherji, a trained architect with a specialisation in conservation, has a particular interest in the research, teaching and application of history. Her earlier published works include The Red Fort of Shahjahanabad (Oxford University Press 2003). The book is widely recognized as one of the most authoritative pieces of research and analysis of the Red Fort and has been an important reference for the case of its inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List. She is the conservation consultant associated with the formulation and implementation of a conservation strategy for the ‘Jantar Mantar Project’―a partnership venture between the Archaeological Survey of India, the National Culture Fund and The Park Hotels.

Jantar Mantar is in our Architecture section, 222 pages in softcover, Rs 680. ISBN: 9788190359115

A Master of Style

2011-02-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

For a book that is simply so well written, it is surprising that Yateendra Joshi's Communicating in Style is not as well known as it deserves to be. Few authors from India can claim an endorsement as genuine as that from John le Carré: A gem. Courteous, unfrightening and essential. A perfect companion to Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage for today's communicators.

Part of the problem, is of course, the unexpected publisher- TERI is known more for their books on environmental issues and energy- but that is where Joshi worked in 2003 when this book was first published.

If you are a researcher, an academic, a journalist, or a manager -- long on technical expertise but short on time -- you will find style manuals daunting and tedious. Yet, you may want to give your message that well-groomed look 'Communicating in style' shows you how you can do that yourself.

The handbook is a handy reference whenever you find yourself looking for answers to questions such as those listed below, which arise routinely in communicating technical information formally.

What should a list such as this use to mark off items: bullet points, numbers, or letters? Where do you cite the source of unpublished data: within the document or at the end, under references? Which font makes it easier to tell apart such similar-looking pairs of characters as a zero (0) and the letter 'o', the numeral one (1) and the letter 'ell' ('l')? When should you distribute handouts, before the presentation or after? How are web pages cited when they are referred to in a document?

The contents of the book have been shaped by -recommendations from the most recent editions of established style guides -comprehensive searches of the World Wide Web -extensive field-testing of earlier drafts -more than a decade's experience in technical publishing.

The main text consisting of explanations, suggestions, and descriptions is amply supported by 90 examples and nearly 150 quotes (from both printed sources and web pages) as well as references, figures, and useful resources (websites, software, and templates). Separate chapters are devoted to different forms of text such as headings, lists of bullet points, abbreviations, tables, illustrations, references, presentations, posters, and punctuation. Useful annexes cover such matters as observing and using fonts, format for postal addresses and telephone numbers, and alternative spellings.

At Rs 300, this 250 page book is a bargain. And it will save you from stylistic disasters. Again and again... ISBN: 9788179930168

LLD

2011-02-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.... but with the approach of autumn the fancy grows graver, but still thinks along these lines.

D P Chattopadhyaya, Padma Vibhushan, who is founder-Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research and who was Chairman of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla has a title out from Pearson, Love, Life and Death. Quite appropriate for Valentine's Day!

The mysteries of love, life and death claim the perennial fascination of the human mind. Religious and secular thinkers throughout history have grappled with shifting notions about these human experiences. But since our modes of enquiry, the language we employ and our conventions of reasoning keep us bound to specific patterns of thought, we continue to be alienated from each other—individually, communally and civilizationally.   

In this book eminent philosopher and scholar D P Chattopadhyaya asks anew the fundamental question: What is it to live, love and die? Exploring the lives, writings and actions of some of the world’s most influential poets, philosophers and scientists—from Copernicus to Keats and from Sankara to Aurobindo—he wades through the stream of human consciousness and encounters traces of cultural universals.

In our Philosophy section, in paperback, 220 pages, Rs 450. ISBN:  9788131726693

Oral Art History

2011-02-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Yashodhara Dalmia has built a formidable reputation as curator and art historian. And in her latest book, from Oxford University Press, Journeys, she tells of the evolution of Four Generations of Indian Artists in their own words. This magnificent 588 page, two volume offering give a unique perspective into the development of modern Indian art, told, as it were, by the artists themselves.

Through conversations with 30 artists from four generations, Yashodhara Dalmia maps the social, cultural and historical matrix of art and art creation in Indian spread over the last 60 years. Spanning four generations of diverse art practices, the two volumes chronicle the journey of Indian art -- from the initial years of art creation as it took root in a newly independent country, through the struggle of modern Indian art to establish itself in the face of conservative Indian sensibilities, to the digitalization of art in recent times. Accompanied by more than 200 illustrations of art works, in these freewheeling interactions -- spread over the last two decades -- the artists talk about their ideas and experiences, work processes, and their relationships with each other and with society at large. As the artists dwell on critical issues to do with the social perception of art, influences in Indian art, traditional versus modern sensibilities and dislocations and convergences, they open windows to the historic perambulations of the layered journey of modern and contemporary Indian art. Affording rare glimpses into the creative worlds of artists who changed the course of modern and contemporary Indian art, this two-volume set will be a collector’s delight.

In our Art History section, Rs 5950 in hardcover, ISBN: 9780198073192

Report Regained

2011-02-09T00:23:00.000-08:00

... a rarely found document," said the Indian Express in 2000, of The Report of the Shah Commission of Inquiry, which, as Katherine Frank, Indira Gandhi's biographer said "Despite its serious shortcomings, the Shah Commission Report survives as a treasure trove of evidence for Sanjay Gandhi's illicit power in the period leading up to and during the Emergency...It is not surprising that Indira Gandhi had all the copies of the Report withdrawn as soon as she regained power in 1980."

Well, that changes now. Aazhi, a publisher (mainly in Tamil) based in Chennai, has brought out the full transcript of the Shah Commission Report, edited and compiled by former Parliamentarian Era Sezhiyan.

To investigate the widespread misuse and abuse of power during the imposition of double emergencies, external and internal, in 1975-77, the Janata Government headed by Morarji Desai appointed in May 1978 the Commission of Inquiry under Justice of Supreme Court.

Justice Shah investigated enormous number of cases and voluminous evidences from the former Ministers and Officials and submitted by August 1978 his Report. Due to internecine quarrel and split in the Party, the Morarji government fell in August 1978. On her return to power in 1980, Indira Gandhi is reported, by her own sympathetic biographers, to have arranged to seize all copies of the Shah Commission Report and destroyed them, to the extent that prominent web-sites, journalists and scholars have come to conclude that 'not a single copy of Shah Commission Report exists in India'.

A precious historical and political document cannot die and should not be allowed to be 'buried' and hidden, from the public, particularly of India.

Era Sezhiyan, as a Member Parliament during the three Emergencies from 1962 to 1977, came forward to compile and edit to present the full text of the Shah Commission Report with an introduction analysing the Constitutional Provisions and Judicial views relating to the proclamation of Emergency and the working of the then Government in violation of several democratic norms and rule of law.

In our Politics and Law sections, 640 pages, Rs 950. ISBN: 9789380244075

My brother... Nikhil

2011-02-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

Yoda Press publishes the screenplay of the unusual Indian movie, My Brother Nikhil by Onir Anirban.

Set between 1989 and 1994, the film traces the life of Nikhil Kapoor: the state all-round swimming champion. A committed sportsman, Nikhil’s life changes radically when he finds out that he is HIV-positive. Even as he faces harassment from authorities and heartbreaking rejection from his parents, the only two people who stand by him in his fight for justice, life, love and dignity are his sister Anamika and his boyfriend Nigel. Published for the first time, the screenplay of this powerful yet poignant film, brings Nikhil’s story back for its fans with the same intensity as the motion picture. The text of the film is supported by behind-the-scenes visuals and stills from the film, as well as testimonials from the cast and crew about how this film changed them in small but critical ways.

In our Film and Gender sections, in paperback, 136 pages, Rs 350. ISBN: 9789380403014

Archaeologists in Space

2011-02-05T22:48:00.000-08:00

Readers of this blog might recall a post we did some years ago on David Kennedy, the aerial archaeologist who works in the Jordan. David's book Ancient Jordan from the Air is on the SwB website.

And today's Hindustan Times carried a small news item, Massive archaeological trove found via Google Earth on David. This is excerpted from a longer article that appeared in the New Scientist magazine (who have, incidentally and regrettably, stopped publishing their Indian edition) by Wendy Zukerman.

David has basically taken his expertise to an even higher plane. Instead of flying around the countryside looking like a latter-day Indiana Jones, he has been scanning Google Earth... More sedate, but it allows him to go where few archaeologists have gone before. For instance, the Rub' al Khali, which he can explore in the air-conditioned comfort of his office in Perth, Australia. Speaking to Zuckerman, he said he scanned about 1240 square kilometres in Saudi Arabia using Google Earth. From their birds-eye view he found 1,977 potential archaeological sites, including 1,082 "pendants" -- ancient tear-drop shaped tombs made of stone.

If one can discern so much in so empty a spot as the Saudi desert, there should be a quite a bit for the picking if one were to carefully scan India from up there...

Persistence Resistance Mark IV

2011-02-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

The 4th edition of Persistence Resistance, the wonderful documentary event organised by the Magic Lantern Foundation in various cities (of India and the world) is titled Edge of Visual Narrative. The festival, which aims to create a cinema space that celebrates the diverse nature of films today will screen more than 80 films, many of which are distributed by Under Construction Films in a multitude of viewing spaces.

Next week, from 7 to 10 February 2011 at the India International Centre, 40 Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi, the festival is Free and open to all. Check out their website http://persistenceresistance.in

The festival will be inaugurated on 8 February, 10 am with the release of Shohini Ghosh's book 'Fire.' Apart from Retrospectives of: Rahul Roy, Kim Longinotto and Arun Khopkar, there is a huge variety on offer at PRIV. One film that we are particularly looking forward to is (the premiere of) Paromita Vohra's Partners in Crime.

There is a Facebook event page and a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/persistenceresistance

Do make it to the festival!

Thinking of Neuroscience

2011-01-31T18:33:00.000-08:00

One of the finest scientists of the times- and one who happens to be of Indian origin- is V S Ramachandran. Currently Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, Professor in the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Programme at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Ramachandran studied first at Stanley Medical College in Chennai, then at Cambridge and at Caltech before moving to San Diego.

The Marco Polo of neuroscience is what Richard Dawkins calls him, Galileo of neurocognition, says Allan Snyder, while Oliver Sacks- that prolific writer on matters neurological- says "No one is better than V. S. Ramachandran at combining minute, careful observation with ingenious experiments and bold, adventurous theorizing."

Random House, India, brings us his latest book, The Tell-tale Brain: Unlocking the mystery of human nature, where Ramachandran takes us on a fascinating journey into the human brain, studying patients who exhibit bizarre symptoms, and using them to understand the functions of the normal brain. Along the way he asks big questions: How did abstract thinking evolve? What is art? Why do we laugh? How are these hardwired in the neural mechanisms of the human brain, and why did they evolve? Brilliant, lucid, and utterly compelling, The Tell-Tale Brain is a pathbreaking book from one of the leading neuroscientists today.

In our General Science section, 384 pages in hardcover, Rs 450. ISBN: 9788184001198

What Fun!

2011-01-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

As an archaeologist Shereen Ratnagar has been long involved in studying the enigma of early kin-organized, small-scale and non-specialized societies, which lack private landed-property and are free of a money economy; societies that we call tribal. Having conducted ethno-archaeological research amongst tribal people in eastern Gujarat, she spent a few months living with them to investigate how, in spite of their miniscule land holdings, they are able to raise crops regularly, year after year. Far from being abject or primitive, tribal people schedule their subsistence in a rational way, which is diversified in more ways than one, and families are self-sufficient to a considerable extent. That households think years ahead, is also abundantly clear from their provisions for the storage of food.

Being Tribal attempts to define tribal society, traces tribal migrations in history, and examines their modes of agricultural production. This book also comes to the conclusion that tribal culture is robust, and that Indian society owes it to the tribal population-repeatedly displaced and marginalized in the interests of the powerful-to give them full scope to live out their destinies in their own way.

The brief biography that accompanies the book says that Ratnagar gave up her Professorship in Archaeology at the JNU when it ceased to be fun and has since been researching and teaching in various places. The effusive praise for the book- a recent review appeared in The Hindu, by Vinay Srivastava- suggests that Ratnagar has combined scholarship with empathy while indeed having fun.

Srivastava's review concludes with a recommendation (emphasis his): In a chapter that provides a sensitive account of the institutions and practices of the people, the author rebuts several typecasts and shows that tribes have historically evolved ‘safety nets'. Kinship and marriage ties are among them. Neighbours join hands and form informal groups to help a person in carrying out a task, and the recipient reciprocates by pitching in with his effort on a different occasion. This makes for solidarity among the people. This, however, does not mean that the world of tribes is closed. They do interact with the market, but do not acquire from there objects they need for their living. Their economy is not oriented towards ‘producing for the market', and this gives the tribespersons autonomy and robustness. The book is aptly titled and, refreshingly, it not only acknowledges its key respondent profusely but also carries his photograph. The book argues that “modest land allocations” should be made to tribal households so that they could eke out their livelihood by adopting their time-tested traditional methods of cultivation.

From Primus Books, in our Tribal Studies and History sections, Rs 825, 112 pages in hardcover. ISBN: 9789380607023

Revising Ptolemy

2011-01-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

Astronomy is one of the most widely researched topics in contemporary India, with a large number of institutes and telescopes dotting the landscape, from optical telescope in Hanle in Ladakh to the solar observatory in Kodaikanal in the South. And the tradition of studying astronomy is an old one, as the new title from Hindustan Book Agency reminds us once again...

The Tantrasangraha of Nilakantha Somayaji by K. Ramasubramanian and M. S. Sriram is a new contribution to HBA's Culture and History of Mathematics series. Composed in 1500 CE by the renowned Kerala astronomer Nilakantha Somayaji (c.1444–1545 CE), the Tantrasangraha ranks along with the Aryabhatiya of Aryabhata and the Siddhàntashiromani of Bhàskaràcàrya as a seminal work that significantly influenced further work on astronomy in India. One of the distinguishing features of this text is that it introduces a major revision of the traditional planetary models, leading to a unified theory of planetary latitudes and a better formulation of the equation of centre for the interior planets (Mercury and Venus) than was previously available.

Several important innovations in mathematical technique are also to be found in Tantrasangraha, especially related to the computation of accurate sine tables, the use of series for evaluating the sine and cosine functions, and a systematic treatment of the problems related to the diurnal motion of the celestial objects. The spherical trigonometry relations presented in the text—applied to a variety of problems such as the computation of eclipses and elevation of Moon’s cusps—are also exact.

In preparing the translation and explanatory notes, the authors have used authentic Sanskrit editions of Tantrasangraha by Suranad Kunjan Pillai and K V Sarma. , The text consists of eight chapters covering mean longitudes, true longitudes, gnomonic shadow, lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, vyatãpàta, reduction to observation and elevation of Moon’s cusps. All 432 verses have been translated into English and supplemented with detailed explanations through use of mathematical equations, tables and figures.

This edition of Tantrasangraha will appeal to historians of astronomy as well as those who are keen to know about the actual computational procedures employed in Indian astronomy. It is a self-contained text with several appendices, enabling the reader to comprehend the subject matter easily.

It is truly remarkable that Nilakantha and Copernicus, contemporaries living 4000 miles apart, should have independently made profound revisions to the classical epicyclic models of the planetary system at the same time. Here, for the first time, Westerners can read Nilakantha’s great work, the Tantrasangraha and learn the mathematical principles of Indian astronomy in their most developed form. This work has a major place in the canon of the History of Science, enlarging our world-wide view of the landmark human discoveries... says David Mumford, Professor of Mathematics at Harvard.

In our History of Science and Mathematics sections, in hardcover, 642 pages Rs. 975. ISBN 9789380250090

Avatar

2011-01-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

Michael Hahn, Professor Emeritus of Indology and Tibetology at the University of Marburg has a new title from Aditya Prakashan, Poetical vision of the Buddha's former lives: Seventeen legends from Haribhaṭṭa's Jātakamālā.

The present book contains the first Indian edition of 17 (out of 34) legends from the “Garland of Birth-Stories” (Jātakamālā) by the Kashmiri poet Haribhaṭṭa who lived not later than 400 CE. His composition, written in the prosimetric campū style, is a worthy successor to Āryaśūra's Jātakamālā. An exemplary representative of the chaste style (vaidarbhī rītiḥ), it enchants the reader by its perfectly lucid Sanskrit, the great variety of metres (29) and superb prose sections, which can be regarded as forerunners of Daṇḍin's and Bāṇa's prose novels. The legends, which are meant to illustrate the six moral perfections (pāramitā), viz. giving, morality, forbearance, striving, meditation and wisdom, are chosen not only from the rich store-house of Buddhist narrative literature, but occasionally also from other sources, e.g., the Mahābhārata or even folk tales.

In contrast to his predecessor Āryaśūra, Haribhaṭṭa follows the way of playwrights and boldly alters the original plot in order to achieve more dramatic effects. His stories vary considerably in length: between 6 pages (containing 28 stanzas) such as the legend of the ascetic Jajvalin (No. 26) and 60 pages (containing 242 stanzas) such as the legend of prince Sudhana and his wife, the kinnarī Manoharā (No. 25; still unpublished), the latter story being in fact a veritable love romance.

Until 1973, Haribhaṭṭa's work was known only from its medieval Tibetan translation. Between 1973 and 1976, Michael Hahn discovered ten of its legends in anonymous manuscripts from Nepal. They were published (in Latin script) in Japan in 2007. In 2004, Michael Hahn got access to another fragmentary Sanskrit manuscript that permitted him to include seven more legends in the present Indian edition. An English translation is currently being prepared. A CD containing colour photographs of the oldest manuscript of Haribhaṭṭa's Jātakamālā from Nepal is attached to book.

In our Buddhism and Sanskrit Literature sections, in hardcover, 232 pages with CD, ISBN 9788177421040.