Subject Areas

Capital Without Borders

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This book contains selected papers from the Annual Conference on Development and Change (ACDC) held at Sao Paulo in November 2006. Second in a series of three conferences, the 2006 ACDC showcased research by relatively younger scholars. While precise and rigorous alternatives to the neoliberal agenda are often overlooked in the huge volume of literature that addresses the larger issues, both aspects - the larger picture and the smaller nuts-and-bolts details - are very important, and this volume fills the gaps in the latter category. These papers were written before the global recession, and events subsequent to the conference and the writing of these papers have validated several of the concerns raised by their authors.

This volume focuses on a plethora of issues from the point of view of the South. It demonstrates, for example, that if capital inflows exceed a certain volume - no matter how they are absorbed - such openness will inevitably result in a crisis in the receiving country. The popular understanding of foreign portfolio investment as more benign than foreign direct investment (FDI) is also challenged. By contrasting contemporary capital flows as well as the international capital flows of the nineteenth century, this collection highlights the role of regulation and the role of the state, and ultimately emphasizes the need for recipient country governments to exercise policy options to control the volume of foreign capital inflows.

Price:Rs 495.00

Locating the Anglo-Indian Self in Ruskin Bond

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Ruskin Bond's life - and, for that matter, his semi-autobiographical works - are allegories of the colonial aftermath. His is an odd but exemplary attempt at absorption as a member of the Anglo-Indian ethnic minority, a community whose role in the shaping of the postcolonial Indian psyche has yet to be systematically analysed. This study explores the dialogue between the biographical and authorial selves of Ruskin Bond, whose subjectivity is informed by the fantasies of space and time.

Bond's experiences of socio-political discrimination underwrite his repressed concerns. He seeks to allay his anxieties through an attempt to signify defiance of the functional agencies of those parameters, which ironically become more active as he attempts a symptomatic mastery of their inductive agencies. Nevertheless, for a nostalgic writer the unconscious - which is shaped by the impressions of the experiences of negotiation between double inheritances - exerts a problematic yet discerning influence on Bond's literary self. This study offers a chronological reading of Bond's texts, seeking to bring out the constant presence of this repressed anxiety and the psychological compulsion to dramatize the Self-Other dynamics as a symptomatic method to acquire a conviction of the self.

Price:Rs 495.00

Toward a Politics of the (Im)Possible

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This book works at the intersection of two related yet different fields. One is the heterogeneous feminist effort to question universal forms of knowing. The expression 'embodiment of knowledge' deploys the notions of time (as history), space (as location) and politics (as partiality of perspective or standpoint) to interrogate the purported universality of knowing. Embodiment is one important concept through which feminist philosophies try to perceive the attempt of questioning the universal. The second field follows from mind/body dichotomy. Embodiment is traditionally understood to involve an act of simple inversion – valorizing the (material) body in place of the mind. However, if meanings are seen to produce the body as 'a system of signification', embodiment gets reduced to another form of the significatory mechanism.

The book explored the dynamics of the production of the 'body' with a focus on the 'others' (death, sexual and colonial differences) that fracture and define the notion of the body. An ethical responsibility to the 'others' consonant with this ontologically differentiated body distinguishes this notion of embodiment from standard versions of 'third world feminism'. The development of this notion requires an elaboration of the ways in which power and scientific rationality work (epistemically) in a postcolonial setting. Finally, the book presents the notion of embodied knowledges as inseparable from a deconstructive politics of the (im)possible.

Price:Rs 495.00

Religion, Law and Power

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This book constructs an anthropological history of a subaltern religious formation, Mahima Dharma of Orissa, a large province in eastern India. Tracking the contingent making of a critical community over a hundred and forty year period, Religion, Law and Power explores the interplay of distinct expressions of time and history, innovative reformulations of caste and Hinduism and distinct engagements with state and nation. This serves to unravel the wider entanglements of religion, history, law, modernity and power. Ishita Banerjee-Dube provides a situated and critical analysis of the different trajectories of Mahima Dharma, bringing to the fore a clutch of empirical and theoretical issues. Understandings of the articulation and institutionalization of a subaltern religious order are not marked off from, but reveal the techniques and textures of, the modern state and dominant Hinduism. Such moves foreground subaltern and ascetic expressions and negotiations of modernity in institutional and everyday arenas, and further question widespread propositions of a singular Hinduism, especially in India today. ‘Religion, Law and Power’ should be of interest to historians, anthropologists and religious studies scholars as well as general readers interested in religion, politics, community and state. It will be of particular interest to students of South Asia concerned with Hinduism and religious sects, history and law, and power and resistance.

Price:Rs 495.00

The Indian Uprising of 1857-8

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This fascinating book, based on extensive archival research in Britain and India, examines why mutineer-rebels chose to attack prisons and release prisoners, discusses the impact of the destruction of the jails on British penal policy in mainland India, considers the relationship between India and its penal settlements in Southeast Asia, re-examines Britain’s decision to settle the Andaman Islands as a penal colony in 1858, and re-evaluates the experiences of mutineer-rebel convicts there. As such this book makes an important contribution to histories of the mutiny-rebellion, British colonial South Asia, British expansion in the Indian Ocean and incarceration and transportation. Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the mutiny-rebellion, this book will be of interest to academics and students researching the history of colonial India, the history of empire and expansion and the history of imprisonment and incarceration.

Price:Rs 495.00

Govind Narayan's Mumbai

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The expansion of Mumbai over the last four centuries has been documented in great detail by both contemporary writers and historians, yet this narrative stands out as an alternative, unique and authentic voice. Quite simply, it is a book about the city like no other. Govind Narayan’s ‘Mumbaiche Varnan’ was the first full account of Mumbai in any language, written just before the explosive growth and renovation of the city.

Guiding the reader on a tour of the sights and sounds of an emerging city struggling to shake off colonialism and wrestling with the formation of its own budding identity, Narayan’s beguiling book offers descriptions of Mumbai’s daily life, its people and its institutions: the parts of the whole that come together to create this diverse and vivacious place. In addition to a detailed structural overview, the author provides a ground level account of the street life and market places rife with gambling and criminal activity. In every sense, this valuable text is a rare and enthralling glimpse into a fascinating period and place otherwise lost to time.

Translated into English for the first time, and fully illustrated and with a detailed glossary and biography of the author, this edition does full justice to this remarkable historical document.

Price:Rs 595.00

Nationalizing the Body

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Nationalizing the Body’ revisits the history of ‘western’ medicine in colonial South Asia through the lives, writings and practice of the numerous Bengali ‘daktars’ who adopted and practised it. Refusing to see ‘western’ medicine as an alienated appendage of the colonial state, this book explores how ‘western’ medicine was vernacularised. It argues that a burgeoning medical market and a medical publishing industry together gave ‘daktari’ medicine a social identity which did not solely derive from its association with the state. Accessing many of the best-known ideas and episodes of colonial South Asian medical history, it seeks to understand how ‘daktari’ medicine re-positioned the colonized bodies as nationalized bodies.

Price:Rs 595.00

Citizenship and Statelessness in Sri Lanka

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Citizenship and Statelessness in Sri Lanka’ examines the loss of citizenship and statelessness of Indian Tamil estate workers in Sri Lanka. The loss of citizenship this community suffered over 60 years ago continues to dominate and disrupt their lives, contributing to poor working conditions, impoverishment and general marginalisation. By analysing the context of the formal agreement between the Indian and Sri Lankan government that led to the loss of citizenship Kanapathipillai reveals the economic, electoral and ideological issues that influenced the decision, and introduces gendered notions of citizenship and the agency of the workers into the discussion of the phenomenon.

‘Citizenship and Statelessness in Sri Lanka’ approaches the issue from a Sri Lankan perspective, thereby bringing a distinct new voice to scholarship on this subject, which has previously focussed on the inter-governmental and foreign policy implications of the agreement. By breaking the 'view from above' approach, and listening to the 'voices from below' of the Indian Tamil workers who have suffered as a result of the agreement, Kanapathipillai successfully reframes the parameters of scholarship on this subject.

Price:Rs 495.00

Mad Tales from the Raj

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Mad Tales from the Raj’ is an extensively researched study of mental illness within the context of British colonialism in early nineteenth-century India. The author challenges the assumption that western medical psychology was impartial and highlights the extent to which it reflected British colonial ideology and practice. This long overdue reprint makes available in easily accessible form an authoritative assessment of western, institution-based psychiatry during the East India Company’s period. It includes a fully revised introduction that locates the work in relation to recent scholarly discourse in the field of history of colonial medicine as well as additional material on the treatment of the 'native insane'.

The book provides the first comprehensive account of official attitudes and practices in relation to both Indian and European patients at a time when the dictum of the 'civilising mission' guided colonial social policy towards the colonized, and mental illness among the colonizers was seen to tarnish the prestige of the ruling race. Based on archival sources and reports by medical experts, the book provides a highly readable and illuminating account of contemporary psychiatric treatment and colonial policies. It will be fascinating reading not only to students of colonial history, medical sociology and related disciplines, but to all those with a general interest in life in the colonies.

Price:Rs 495.00

India and the World Bank

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

'The World Bank needs India more than India needs it.' So goes an emerging consensus on both sides of the relationship between the Bank and its largest borrower. This book analyzes the politics of aid and influence, explaining but also challenging this insider view, while at the same time arguing against the popular perception that the Bank imposes its neoliberal agenda on a retreating Indian state. The Bank, struggling to remain relevant amid India's recent rapid growth and expanding access to private capital, has been caught up in a complex federal politics of economic reform and development. India's central government - far from being in retreat - has been the main driver of dramatic changes in the Bank's assistance strategy, leading toward a focus at the sub-national state level. Yet the closer the Bank's engagement with India's States, the more apparent their political, institutional, and developmental differences become. The Bank has vacillated between a 'focus States' strategy to encourage successfully reforming States, and a 'lagging States' strategy to give special assistance to those left behind by recent growth. The Indian government itself has encouraged this uncertainty, as its interests have evolved from a political strategy of selective support to reformers, to a renewed concern for regional inequalities. This timely study will be of interest to scholars, development practitioners, and engaged observers of globalization and the nation-state.

Price:Rs 595.00

South Asian Media Cultures

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

'South Asian Media Cultures' is a collection of essays that pulls together field-based audience and textual research in areas such as the politics of new media, contemporary television and film in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and their audiences. Through a careful analysis of the various media cultures and practices from across South Asia, this collection addresses pertinent issues such as how discourses on gender, nationalism, ethnicity and class are being expressed by mainstream media texts across South Asia, and how different groups within the public discern meanings from such discourses.

With this collection, Banaji aims to reduce the reliance on commercial Hindi cinema ('Bollywood') for reference on the politics and history of South Asian Media. Instead, key current research and theoretical debate are presented in an accessible manner. They are organised around three clear themes: 'Audiences, meanings and social contexts', which focuses on the responses of particular social groups to specific media formats, ideas or genres; 'Media Discourse, Identity and Politics', which discusses the complex links between media representations and socio-political identities; and 'Alternative Producers: New Media, Politics and Civic Participation', which describes and assesses the various civic practices and possibilities opened up in South Asia by digital and mobile communications.

Price:Rs 495.00

Dialogics of Self, the Mahabharata and Culture

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

'Dialogics of Self, the Mahabharata and Culture: The History of Understanding and Understanding of History' explores the interrelationships between individual and cultural historical dynamics in interpreting texts, using key concepts from Bakhtin's theory of dialogics. This ambitious volume discusses the limits of fixed monologic discourses and the benefits of fluid dialogic discourses, and provides a cultural and psychological analysis of the epic Indian text the 'Mahabharata'. The problem addressed by 'Dialogics of Self, the Mahabharata and Culture' is not just how we understand and narrate history, but also how the very mechanism by which we understand and narrate history itself has a history. This volume is about the interplay of several histories – that of the individual, individual's past relationship to the text, which in turn is dependent on the nature of encounters they have had in the past, and the history of the text, and the very history of understanding.

Price:Rs 595.00

Imagined Mobility

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

With its close analysis of the phenomenon of the migration of Indian students to Australia, this book critically approaches the entanglement of the education industry with migration opportunities, and looks into the goals and aspirations of the Indian middle class. It discusses the overlaps of studies on migration and transnationalism, and raises questions on skilled migration.

Price:Rs 495.00

Liberal Peace In Question

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The present book examines the internationally facilitated peace process between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in order to provide critical insights on contemporary attempts at crafting liberal peace in intrastate conflicts. The general argument is for a broadened political perspective on conflict resolution, extending the focus from the narrow confines of formal peace negotiations and elitist crafting of liberal peace, to the contextual politics of state reforms for group rights and power-sharing and the associated politics of economic reforms for neoliberal development. In examining the contextual politics of state and market reforms in Sri Lanka, the book highlight the tensions between liberal peace and Sinhalese and Tamil nationalisms, demonstrated in the contestations over political exclusion vs. inclusion in peace negotiations, individual human rights vs. group rights, territorial power sharing vs. state sovereignty and neoliberal development vs. social welfare.

Price:Rs 495.00

The Anti-Politics Machine in India

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This book assesses the validity of ‘anti-politics’ critiques of development, first popularised by James Ferguson, in the peculiar context of India. Ferguson’s memorable metaphor of development as an Anti-Politics Machine – that serves to entrench state power and depoliticize development – continues to appeal to those cynical of the widespread tendency of development discourses to treat various issues apolitically. The book examines this problem in India, a country where development planners after independence adopted a scientific stance and claimed to distance themselves from mass politics, but also one where the groundswell of democratic political mobilization has been considerable in recent decades. In a country with an extremely differentiated landscape of authority and diverse politics, what does it mean for the state to undertake a project (or indeed, projects) of depoliticization; for as scholars inspired by Foucault and Gramsci have variously agreed, depoliticization is a tentative project where outcomes are far from certain. The book examines these questions within the new context provided by decentralization, the potential of which to reorganize relationships amongst different levels of the state greatly complicates the very pursuit of depoliticization as a coherent state practice. It looks at these issues through a highly technocratic state watershed development programme in India that has witnessed key transformations towards participation in recent years.

Price:Rs 495.00

Nanobiotechnology

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Nobel laureate Richard Feynman’s brilliant insight into the world of nanodimension is now a reality with immense possibilities. It holds the promise of a technological future where less is more and small is the next big thing. This book provides a ringside view of nanoscience and its application to biological systems, intended to communicate the challenges, potential and of course, the excitement, of this area of work to the next generation of students.

The book proceeds by first providing an introduction to the field, and then giving a detailed account of naturally occurring nanoparticles, nanoparticle synthesis, and an overview of the currently developed methods of production, physicochemical characterizations and biological implications of these synthesized particles. Nanoscale materials are also investigated for their biomedical use. The book also includes a description of the special technological devices like Transmission Electron Miscroscope (TEM), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and their deployment for studying nanoparticles.

Price:Rs 295.00

A New India?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This book challenges the notion of a ‘new’ India, not by dismissing it as an imagined India, but by engaging in the debate as to what constitutes the new. It acknowledges that India is changing remarkably, while also acknowledging that in the overzealous enthusiasm about the new India there is collective amnesia about the other, older India. The essays argue that the increasing consolidation of capitalist markets of commodity production and consumption has unleashed not only economic growth and social change, but also introduced new contradictions associated with market dynamics in the economic and social spheres such as agrarian crisis, slow growth of employment, and the persistence of low-caste exploitation.

The volume also investigates the emergent tensions in art, architecture, and citizenship. In transforming India into an IT valley with corporate campuses, appealing to a westernized audience of technology entrepreneurs, including non-resident Indians abroad, architecture arguably is not addressing India’s economic and social plight. Art too has taken a commercial turn by catering to the new middle classes spawned by the global and Indian technology revolution. The extraordinary economic values they command seem to jar with the grim economic and social polarization underway. The book unravels contemporary India in its complexities and uncovers some of the hidden tensions plaguing the country, and points to the significance of a widely shared development outcome as an alternative for social transformation.

Price:Rs 495.00

Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia’ demonstrates how the civilizing mission can serve as an analytical rubric with relevance to many themes in the colonial and postcolonial eras: economic development, state building, pacification, nationalism, cultural improvement, gender and generational relations, caste and untouchability, religion and missionaries, class relations, urbanization, NGOs, and civil society.

While some chapters investigate civilizing initiatives that were driven by the British Raj or Indian postcolonial state, the book also considers many examples of nongovernmental undertakings. For example, examining the role of missionary educational endeavours shows how missionary bodies could operate in an ambivalent space between Indians and the colonial state. Moreover, analysis of Indian civilizing efforts carried out by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the nationalist movement or postcolonial Indian states gives us interesting opportunities to scrutinize how the civilizing mission could be internalized as a form of 'self-civilizing' by Indians. Some papers also show the global linkages of civilizing efforts in the British Empire, while others examine long-term continuities through broad comparative analyses covering the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This takes us into the postcolonial era (beyond 1947, into the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries), and such 'transgressions' across the colonial divide give this volume added appeal.

Price:Rs 595.00

Trysts with Democracy

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This volume addresses the current configuration of democratic politics in South Asia from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The essays seek to examine the larger questions of how democratic values are embedded in social and political institutions, and how localised and everyday political values inform the multiple ways in which democracy is understood and practised. One of the strengths of this collection is the fact that it does not seek to provide answers to these questions from within one academic discipline only, but rather brings together scholars with backgrounds in a variety of social science disciplines and the humanities.

A number of allied questions and engaging debates emerge throughout the book. How may we distinguish between democracy’s formal and less-than-formal dimensions in the context of South Asia? How do notions of kinship, kingship and community tie in with larger processes of democratic politics and deepening political mobilisation? How do people construe the political in a context where the sphere of the religious seemingly seamlessly overlaps with the political, where the political cannot be separated from the social, and where the boundaries between state and society are blurred? How do people practically engage with the political and with democratic processes at a local level – and what might democracy mean in the vernacular?

Price:Rs 595.00

India and US Strategy

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

After a long period of dissatisfactory relations marked by divergent interests and actions, the USA and India are finally forging closer ties. This book undertakes a detailed study of the range of America’s relations with India over half a century, underscoring the ways in which they reflect movements in India’s growth trajectory, its power and capabilities. Focusing on India’s international conflicts as points of analysis, this work travels through forty years of Cold War to a post-bipolar international order marked by the advanced interdependencies of multiple globalizations. In a global arena transformed by freshly emerging power equations, new economic indices and the rise of non-military threats, particularly terrorism, this book looks at the manifold factors that attended a US revaluation of India. Beginning with the Portugal dispute in the liberation of Goa, Varma moves through Sino-Indian discord and onto Pakistan’s aggressions in Kutch and Kashmir that led up to the Kargil conflict of 1999. At a second level, Varma sheds vital light onto the dynamic linkage between media representation, image contouring and the requirements of state policy, underlining the material implications of political perception and communication.

Price:Rs 295.00

Yes I am an Insurance Salesman

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

What does it take to be successful in the insurance business? To build a career in sales, you first need to develop a strong client base, and then you need to maintain it — gradually, your business will develop. Normally, when one first enters the profession, selling goes on without a true understanding of the process and ultimately becomes the most difficult task to handle.

Selling becomes fun only when you understand the process and form habits to make it a part of your life. You have to identify the needs of the people that you are going to deal with and identify your audience — only then will you reap the rewards that you are looking for.

This book unlocks the secrets behind this process, though it is not merely a book about knowledge — it is also about wisdom and skills too, all of which must be developed to triumph in business. You learn from everyone you meet — but it is what you want to learn that decides your fate. Most importantly, this book narrates a real story, which includes achievements and failures, and the lessons learnt from them on the road to success.

Price:Rs 195.00

Complex Numbers and the Theory of Equations

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Complex Numbers and the Theory of Equations’ presents a comprehensive understanding of the subject of equations at undergraduate level. Using a large number of solved examples and an equally ample stock of exercises with hints and answers, this book will lead students smoothly from an introductory to an advanced stage. A copious number of figures and applications are included, and have been designed to guide students toward a comprehension of the theory of equations and to aid in solving related problems.

Price:Rs 295.00

India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Underscoring the unique and multifaceted interactions between ancient India and ancient China, ‘India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy’ collates the classic works of the preeminent Indian scholar of Chinese history and Buddhism Professor Prabodh Chandra Bagchi (1898–1956). The collected essays of this volume range from those that examine the ancient names for India in Chinese sources, to those that investigate Indian influences on Chinese thought, analyze the beginnings of Buddhism in China, and explore the letters exchanged between the Chinese monk Xuanzang (Hiuan-Tsang) and his Indian friends. Also included are a variety of Bagchi’s short articles, as well as English translations of a number of his Bengali essays.

Further insight into Bagchi’s work is provided by the renowned scholars Suniti Kumar Chatterji and Akira Yuyama, who discuss respectively Bagchi’s contribution to Chinese studies in India and to the wider understanding of India-China interactions. With its wide-ranging and thorough investigation of both Sino-Indian Buddhism and cultural relations between the two ancient civilizations, ‘India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy’ will be an invaluable text for anyone interested in cross-cultural exchanges between India and China, Buddhism, or Asian history.

Price:Rs 495.00

How Rich Countries Got Rich…and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Erik S. Reinert is a key figure in the growing worldwide movement against neo-classical economic theory. He argues that rich countries have developed through a combination of government intervention, protectionism and strategic investment, yet when it comes to today’s poorer nations, the orthodoxy insists on unqualified and absolute standards of free trade.

Reinert’s strongly revisionist history reveals how economic theory has long been torn between the continental Renaissance tradition and the free market ideas of English and later American economics. Our economies were founded on protectionism and state activism and could only later afford the luxury of free trade, so when our leaders come to lecture poor countries on the right road to riches, they do so in almost perfect ignorance of the real history of mass affluence. This book mounts a strong challenge and opens up the debate on why free trade is not the best possible answer for our hopes of worldwide prosperity.

Price:Rs 495.00

Bollywood and Globalization

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Commercial cinema has always been one of the biggest indigenous industries in India, and remains so in the post-globalization era, when the Indian economy has entered a new phase of global participation, liberalization and expansion. Issues of community, gender, society and social and economic justice, bourgeois-liberal individualism, secular nationhood and ethnic identity are nowhere more explored in the Indian cultural mainstream than in commercial cinema. As Indian economy and policy have gone through a sea-change after the end of the Cold War and the commencement of the Global Capital, the largest cultural industry has followed suit. For example, the global Indian community (known in Indian official terms as the Non-Resident Indian or the NRI) has become an integral part of the cultural representation of India.

The politics and ideology of Indian commercial cinema has become extremely complex, offering a fascinating case-study to scholars of Global culture. Of particular interest is the positioning of individual identity vis-à-vis nation, religion, class, and gender. The definition of ‘nationhood’ and/ or community has become much more fluid, keeping in tune with sweeping universal claims of globalization; the films have consequently revised the scope of the narratives to match India’s emerging global business ambitions. ‘Bollywood and Globalization’ is a significant scholarly contribution to the current debate on Indian cinema, nationhood and global culture. The articles represent a variety of theoretical and pedagogical approaches, and the collection will be appreciated by students and scholars alike.

Price:Rs 495.00

Communicate with Confidence

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Intended as a book on communicative English, ‘Communicate with Confidence’ combines the features of a textbook and practical workbook. It includes practice exercises and a wide range of examples illustrating all definitions, examples and question types. The book addresses the English syllabi of technical, engineering and other courses at Indian universities and is useful for students of diverse disciplines.

‘Communicate with Confidence’ covers a variety of topics aimed at enhancing spoken and written communication skills. It also includes sections on contemporary forms of communication such as E-mail and SMS, software user manuals and multimedia presentations. The BPO sector is equally a part of the book’s intended readership. With employers’ rising demands for superior verbal and non-verbal skills, here is a book that grooms you for a career in the service sector, and shows you how to carry yourself with ease and grace.

Price:Rs 175.00

Literary Theory

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This reader provides a thorough grounding in the basics of literary theory. ‘Literary Theory: An Introductory Reader’ has taken care to provide introductions to all the sections of the book, providing the basic features of each branch of theory as well as summaries of the articles included therein. The articles contain copious footnotes clarifying and elaborating key concepts and providing additional explanatory background material to benefit the student reader.

This reader provides a thorough grounding in the basics of literary theory. It is designed specifically for the optional ninth paper on literary theory offered to BA (English Hons.) students of the University of Delhi, but equally beneficial for all students and scholars of English literary theory in India and abroad.

Price:Rs 395.00

The Anthem Glossary of Literary Terms and Theory

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This Dictionary is a guide to the literary terms most relevant to students and readers of English literature today, thorough on the essentials and generous in its intellectual scope. With terms as wide-ranging in theme as ‘emphasis’, ‘ekphrasis’, ‘ecocentricism’ and ‘epithalamion’, the definitions are always lively and precise in equipping students and general readers with a genuinely useful critical vocabulary. Above all, it directs readers to make full use of terms, in navigating the confusing world of literary criticism and discovering the concepts behind terms. It does this with the help of fresh examples, a literary timeline and up-to-date bibliography (with recommended websites). Extensive cross-referencing is linked to a thematic index that makes it simple to find related terms (e.g. technical terms for repetition; names for six- or seven-line stanzas) and is explicit about the exact distinctions between such terms as ‘metonym’ and ‘synecdoche’, ‘couplet’ and ‘distich’.

In addition to teaching key terms, the Dictionary identifies the thinking and unresolved controversies surrounding them, and offers fresh insights and directions for future reading. It seeks to challenge as well as complement the reader’s own ideas about literature. It is a Dictionary for the twenty-first century, both in its broad view of literature in English and its emphasis on readers enjoying poetry, prose and drama.

Price:Rs 395.00

Power Shifts and Global Governance

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Animated by theoretical eclecticism and methodological diversity, Power Shifts and Gobal Governance: Challenges from South and North presents a ‘post-national’ political project for analyzing emerging architectures of global governance and examining country and regional case studies from the perspective of ‘great power shifts’ in the twenty-first century. Using theoretical insights from neo-Kantians and neo-institutionalists, the book explores the contested meanings and practices of globalization and polycentric governance in the context of emerging powers such as China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, and examines the implications of shifts in the foreign and domestic policies of the new powers in the world. The book not only reflects on the fundamental erosion of an international order in which Western societies enjoyed relatively uncomplicated consensus on their political, economic and ideological eminence, but also debates the nature of emerging ‘radically incomplete’ global interdependencies among nations.

Challenging the hegemony of dominant paradigms in conventional International Relations theories and blurring the traditional distinctions between South and North, the books seeks a new ‘New Deal’ to address issues of poverty, climate change and human security at the global level. Written in clear, lucid language, the book is a serious attempt to deepen newer ways of international cooperation as it re-imagines the future of cosmopolitan democracy and global civil society.

Price:Rs 395.00

Applied Ethics and Human Rights

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The core concern underlying the various problems in applied ethics is that of human rights. While most writing on human rights deal with its legal, political and socio-economic aspects, this collection instead addresses its philosophical aspect. Furthermore, the book explores the Indian counterpart of the idea of human rights which can be found in the notion of ‘dharma’.

The text addresses issues of conceptual analysis as well as contextual applications of the idea of human rights and its fine nuances. It also contains papers which analyze the concept of ‘dharma’, raising questions on whether this concept can do ‘double duty’ for the notions of human rights as well as the notion of human duties. The collection offers papers on human rights issues of different categories of people, including ethnic minorities, homosexuals, women, mentally ill people and prisoners. The papers in this volume also afford grounds for comparative study.

Price:Rs 350.00

300 Creative Physics Problems with Solutions

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Invaluable for teachers and learners alike, this book takes an imaginative approach to classical physics topics like mechanics, thermodynamics, electrodynamics, magnetism and optics. With this carefully-compiled collection of exercises, undergraduates and talented high-school students can gain a deeper comprehension of the ideas necessary to creatively apply the laws of physics. The book grew out of the idea that teaching should not aim for the merely routine, but should challenge pupils and stretch their abilities through thorough understanding. Accessible language, detailed solutions and fun, practical applications requiring only elementary calculus make these 300 problems a refreshing method of instruction.

Price:Rs 595.00

Altered Destinations

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Altered Destinations’ addresses the complex interrelations of state, nation and identity in India through the medium of culture, and compellingly reframes the debate in the context of the Gandhian concept of swaraj. Engaging with Gandhi’s classic text ‘Hind Swaraj’, (written in 1909), which envisioned an entirely new form of identity and governance in India in opposition with the colonial past, Paranjape extends the discussion on swaraj by addressing the field of culture to see how ideas of autonomy, selfhood, and cultural independence have been expressed, depicted and studied.

The idea of an Indian nation has often been unclear or difficult to understand. A nation, Paranjape suggests, is also a destination, a goal, an objective, with a built in teleology and an ultimate aim. Many forget what the destination of India is. They think it is economic or social advancement, freedom, democracy, justice, and so on. These words, while being indicative of the directive principles set forth in the Preamble of the Constitution still do not express the underlying purpose for which this nation was imagined into being. This is where the indigenous concept of swaraj comes into its own. Simultaneously encapsulating autonomy, empowerment, dignity, selfhood, it focuses on not just rights, but responsibilities and commitments to one another and to our highest selves as well.

The fight for swaraj, no doubt, does not end with political independence, but must go on until every single citizen feels free of oppression and injustice. That is why swaraj is also tied up with ideas of identity and selfhood. Especially in beleaguered or endangered languages, swaraj in literary texts means the preservation or assertion of cultural identities. All told, cultural swaraj can be a fertile field of inquiry and discussion. In Paranjape’s analysis swaraj becomes a struggle for intellectual freedom and autonomy, and an attempt to resist both Western and Indian forms of colonisation or domination.

Price:Rs 595.00

International Mathematical Olympiad Volume 3

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The famed International Mathematical Olympiad has been challenging students worldwide for over 40 years. The first competition was held in Romania in 1959 with seven countries participating. It has since expanded to attract competitors from over 80 countries, representing all five continents. This third volume features every question set from 1991-2004, along with comprehensive solutions and multiple answers where applicable. A fantastic selection of mathematical puzzles, this fully updated three volume series will be of interest to serious mathematicians and enthusiasts alike. István Reiman’s compilation of logic puzzles and questions will tease the intellect of all those with a mathematical mind.

Price:Rs 495.00

International Mathematical Olympiad Volume 2

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The famed International Mathematical Olympiad has been challenging students worldwide for over 40 years. The first competition was held in Romania in 1959 with seven countries participating. It has since expanded to attract competitors from over 80 countries, representing all five continents. This second volume features every question set from 1976-1990, along with comprehensive solutions and multiple answers where applicable. A fantastic selection of mathematical puzzles, this fully updated three volume series will be of interest to serious mathematicians and enthusiasts alike. István Reiman’s compilation of logic puzzles and questions will tease the intellect of all those with a mathematical mind.

Price:Rs 495.00

The World's Working Regional Autonomies

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Many countries are faced with ethnic conflict and the need to protect their national minorities. Regional territorial autonomy is a legal-political device to combine minority protection with internal self-determination in a regional framework, without changing the concerned state’s boundaries. Applying this method, sustainable solutions to serious and protracted state-minority conflicts have been developed in about 60 regions within at least 22 states. While aiming for new partnerships between the central state and the regional community, territorial autonomy has met with varying degrees of success in different parts of the world.

After a theoretical introduction to the political concept and scope of autonomy, Benedikter’s tour de force guides the reader through the multifarious world of operating autonomy systems. ‘Autonomies at work’ in different continents are compared and contrasted, providing a holistic view of the subject. The author’s functional analysis probes the amin issues of territorial autonomy and its practical applications. Typical elements are worked out, factors behind autonomy’s (un/)successful operations in diverse locations are investigated and perspectives of further development are highlighted.

Benedikter studies a complex subject with élan. Given the importance of regional autonomy as a means of conflict resolution and minority protection, this timely work is indispensable not just for experts and decision makers, but also for readers interested in the political structures that shape the world around them.

Price:Rs 695.00

Perspectives on Comparative Literature and Culture in the Age of Globalization

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Perspectives on Comparative Literature and Culture in the Age of Globalization’ provides a fresh look at the field of comparative literature and culture studies from a historical and political perspective. This volume explores both the historical development of comparative literature and culture studies and the complex contemporary relationship between comparatism and globalization. Comprised of theoretical and analytical articles written by eminent scholars in the fields of language, literature and culture studies, this ambitious collection discusses how globalization impacts comparatism; how translation plays a major role in this connection; and how, both because and in spite of globalization, there are renewed and ever-vitalized channels of corporatism in literature and culture studies. While discussing the problematic hegemonic and homogenising aspects of globalization and comparatism, ‘Perspectives on Comparative Literature and Culture’ also ultimately reveals how the potential within comparatism to go beyond the insular and reach out to the Other may hold the key to negotiating contemporary globalized society.

Price:Rs 395.00

Anthem Dictionary of Literary Terms and Theory

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This exemplary Dictionary provides a critical tool-kit for all students inquiring into the complexities of literary theory, terms and their usage. It introduces readers to various schools of theory and criticism, the nuances of rhetoric and prosody, clarifying the (often abstruse) language of literary discourse.

A rich range of examples from literary texts – and occasionally from related genres such as music and film – illustrate all definitions and arguments. The publication dates of the works mentioned here present an excellent overview of the historical evolution of genres and schools of thought. The entries attempt to place literary trends against their broader socio-cultural and philosophical backgrounds.

The ‘Key Points’ appended to the longer entries are a unique feature of the book. An effective aid to memory, they summarize the principal ideas that ought to be kept in mind when approaching involved literary concepts.

Price:Rs 175.00

Discourse on Applied Sociology: Volume 2

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This engaging two-volume study pursues a balance between theoretical and practical sociology. The authors are aware of the impasse often deliberately created by the self-conscious language of sociological theory. The primary concern of the applied sociologist is to adapt theoretical knowledge to actual human situations, using it to formulate social policy, investigate domestic and international social problems and create a pragmatic ‘sociology of possibility’.

Volume II, subtitled ‘Practising Perspectives’, provides workable guidelines for social scientists, policymakers, planners, administrators and social activists. The reader is also introduced to the sophisticated research methods employed in the social sciences. Emphasizing cross-cultural experiences and a global perspective, the essays study social problems using inductive and deductive approaches, measurable concepts and quantitative analysis. Modern crises precipitated by war, terrorism, anarchy and poverty are examined in practical and realistic terms.

Price:Rs 525.00

Discourse on Applied Sociology: Volume 1

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

This engaging two-volume study pursues a balance between theoretical and practical sociology. The authors are aware of the impasse often deliberately created by the self-conscious language of sociological theory. The primary concern of the applied sociologist is to adapt theoretical knowledge to actual human situations, using it to formulate social policy, investigate domestic and international social problems and create a pragmatic ‘sociology of possibility’.

Volume I, subtitled ‘Theoretical Perspectives’, focuses on the problems and prospects of applied sociology in an era of globalization. The essays emphasize the close association of applied sociology with altruism, identity formation, race and ethnicity. They evaluate the empirical ‘truths’ of sociological theories and examine their relevance for contemporary research, poverty, demographic issues and social policies. The authors agree that the ultimate test of theory is the extent to which it can produce knowledge that ‘works’.

Price:Rs 525.00

International Mathematical Olympiad Volume 1

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The famed International Mathematical Olympiad has been challenging students worldwide for over 40 years. The first competition was held in Romania in 1959 with seven countries participating. It has since expanded to attract competitors from over 80 countries, representing all five continents. This first volume features every question set from 1959–75, along with comprehensive solutions and multiple answers where applicable. A fantastic selection of mathematical puzzles, this fully updated three volume series will be of interest to serious mathematicians and enthusiasts alike. István Reiman’s compilation of logic puzzles and questions will tease the intellect of all those with a mathematical mind.

Price:Rs 495.00

Another Canon

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Another Canon: Indian Texts and Traditions’ in English traces the development of Indian English literary and textual practice over a period of seven decades, focussing on classic texts which have fallen beyond the scope of the established canon. Central to this volume is an inquiry into the nature of Indian modernity. Through careful and path-breaking readings of such important writers as Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao, M. Ananthanarayanan, Nayantara Sahgal, Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, U. R. Anantha Murthy, Kiran Nagarkar, Vikram Seth, and Upamanyu Chatterjee, the author constructs what may be called ‘another canon,’ shedding new light on literary and critical practice in post-colonial India.

Useful both to specialists and general readers, these engaging and insightful interpretations of key Indian texts enhance our understanding of the making of modern Indian consciousness and culture. In addition, the book also offers crucial theoretical insights into the distinguishing features of the novel in India, especially of the fiction of the 1980s and 1990s.

Price:Rs 595.00

Inclusive Growth, Full Employment, and Structural Change

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Inclusive Growth, Full Employment, and Structural Change: Implications and Policies for Developing Asia’ discusses policies to achieve inclusive growth in developing Asia, including agriculture, investment, certain state interventions, monetary, fiscal, and the role of the state as employer of last resort.

Felipe argues that full employment of the labor force is the key to delivering inclusive growth. Full employment is the most direct way to improve the well-being of the people, especially of the most disadvantaged. Since unemployment and underemployment are pervasive in many parts of the region, Asian leaders must commit to the goal of full employment. The book also analyzes the region's phenomenal growth in recent decades in terms of structural transformation. Accelerating it is vital for the continued growth of developing Asia. But efforts to achieve full employment might be held back given that structural transformation requires massive labor shifts across sectors, and these are difficult to coordinate. Moreover, the goal of full employment was abandoned in the 1970s, and governments and central banks have since concentrated on keeping inflation low.

Price:Rs 795.00

Indian Democracy

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The twentieth century has witnessed a tremendous reinforcement of the concept of democracy. In a period of about one hundred years, the virtues of democracy have been greatly extolled and the world has witnessed a process of democratization. In the sixty years since its inception, Indian democracy too has developed indigenous roots and is emerging as a unique example of parliamentary democracy. The important question today is not the survival of Indian democracy, but the nature of India’s democratic politics.

The present volume is an attempt to understand the development of democratic polity in India. It covers a wide range of issues – theoretical concepts, political institutions, federalism, electoral process, individual and group rights and mass media – drawing attention to the significant broadening of Indian democracy. But the benefits of political democracy are yet to reach the masses – political institutions are dominated by the elite, civil society has been politicized and the interventionist state has become an arm of the elite. The solution to these problems lies in further democratization of the political process.

Price:Rs 595.00

The Changing Identity of Rural India

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The book explores the pattern of rural development in contemporary India from a multidisciplinary and historical perspective. The essays overcome the limits of disciplinary approaches to provide a comprehensive analysis of the processes of change and growth at work in the Indian countryside and to review the social and cultural dynamics that have led to the contemporary situation. Providing an analysis of the economic, political and social changes experienced in rural India, they examine the interactions between actors and institutions at different levels. Some contributions focus on the impact of state policies on rural development and on the rationale of capitalistic expansion in the Indian countryside, while others analyse how the changes are promoted, adopted and resisted at the local level.

The general issue raised in the book refers to the assessment of the nature and working of contemporary Indian rural economy. In order to analyse the complexity of the rural economy and the forms it takes in different Indian contexts, this issue has been deconstructed considering, in turn, the process of rural change, the impact of rural growth on working and living conditions, and finally the categories of the inhabitants of rural areas and the construction of their identities in colonial and post-colonial rural India.

Price:Rs 695.00

Renaissance Themes

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Arun Kumar Das Gupta taught English literature for over 40 years, first at Presidency College, Kolkata, and then at the University of Calcutta. His interpretations of Western literature and thought, particularly of the Renaissance, shaped a whole generation of students. Some of them have produced this volume of essays in tribute to their mentor.

Two essays directly address the intellectual milieu of the European Renaissance. Sukanta Chaudhuri examines the unusual merger of modes and registers in Renaissance philosophic discourse, while Niranjan Goswami looks at a particular example of Ramist practice. The other pieces relate to English writers and works, notably Shakespeare and Milton, in a wider perspective of Renaissance concerns and general critical issues. Abhijit Sen analyses the stage and verbal imagery in Macbeth. Supriya Chaudhuri and Paromita Chakraborty take King Lear as their point of departure. Chaudhuri brings out the full conceptual implications of the Dover Cliff scene, while Chakraborty dissects the play's sexual imagery. Swapan Chakravorty takes in a wide range of dramatic and non-dramatic texts in his survey of reading on the Early Modern stage. Amlan Das Gupta studies the Miltonic simile, specifically in Paradise Lost Book IV. Finally, Malabika Sarkar reads Samson Agonistes in a context of magic and alchemy to draw out some implications deeply relevant at the present time.

Price:Rs 550.00

Rise of the Asian Giants

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

While the rise of China has long been an accepted fact of international economic and political relations, the more recent rise of India as an economic power has provoked intense global interest. This book presents a Chinese assessment of how China and India see themselves each in relation to the other, focusing on their experiences of modernization and economic reform and their ramifications on each country's role in global affairs. Eschewing the geo-political idiom of competition and rivalry between emerging Asian giants, the book seeks to understand the parallel, complementary, convergent and divergent development experiences from a more self-consciously geo-civilizational perspective, contextualizing developments in both the short-term framework of independent nationhood, against the more immediate background of nationalist and anti-imperialist struggles, and in the longue dure of shared, continental histories.

Price:Rs 795.00

Breaking Free of Nehru

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

‘Breaking Free of Nehru: Let’s Unleash India’ is an energetic and visionary study of freedom in contemporary India. Sanjeev Sabhlok begins by asking why India wanted independence in the first place – namely, to achieve individual freedom. He then asks whether India is truly free today. Sabhlok analyses the factors that are constricting India’s freedom and causing rampant corruption and blatant inefficiency in Indian governments, and Nehruvian socialism becomes the prime suspect. This study ultimately recommends that India should break free of Nehru’s legacy of socialism, and at the same time should significantly strengthen Nehru’s legacy of democracy. The study then postulates a set of policies of freedom whose proper implementation will clean up India’s abject poverty. Sabhlok’s analysis and research makes use of a repertoire of knowledge and experience that included working for 25 years in governments in India and Australia.

Price:Rs 550.00

The Fleeing People of South Asia

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The history of human civilizations is also the history of human displacements. From ancient times to the contemporary age, every year millions of people flee from their homes and lands in the face of imminent persecution for physical, social and cultural traits, which they cannot control, or exercising their religious or political beliefs. Large-scale 'development' projects as well as natural calamities have also caused large-scale displacements followed by ill-managed rehabilitation regimes. As a result, over one percent of the world's total population today consists of refugees and internally displaced persons. South Asia is the fourth largest refugee producing region in the world. There is a close link between state formation and forced migration in this region. Ethnic violence, development work, natural calamities and climatic changes also make people, especially the indigenous ones, flee and settle in extremely unbearable new and foreign conditions. Women and children constitute the bulk of the displaced population. 'Refugee Watch', in its decade-long 30-volume journey, has sought to capture the agony, tension and struggle of the refugees and internally displaced in South Asia in its different dimensions. The present Selections are a sincere attempt to grasp the multi-dimensionality of the journal within two covers.

Price:Rs 695.00

Institutional Provisions and Care for the Aged

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Care for the elderly has increased in both duration and intensity, particularly because of better medical conditions resulting in increased lifespan. Thus understanding the numerous dimensions of ageing will play a consequential role in determining future national policies. This book addresses a wide spectrum of issues faced by the elderly in India, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, primarily from social and economic perspectives. South Asian cultures more than others have traditionally endorsed living arrangements that entail co-residence of aged parents with their children, which has been the crux of the support system of the aged. Significant shifts in family structure spurred by modernization prompted increased family nucleation.

All three countries offer interesting insights as India is projected to have an ageing population of 90 million in the near future, and Sri Lanka has one of the highest proportions of ageing people in the developing world. By delving further, one can view these trends in the context of widespread poverty and inadequate social security systems in India, and high human development indicators in Sri Lanka.

Price:Rs 695.00

Independence to Globalization

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

The book paints a vivid picture of Calcutta during the post-Independence years, evoking a sense of nostalgia and yet providing an insight into the evolution of the management system over the years. From the mid-1980s, the career path and lifestyle of the professional manager in India has changed profoundly. Today’s managers may need to know the route through which they arrived. Cutting across all age groups, ‘Independence to Globalization: An Indian Manager’s Journey’ emerges as an interesting and informative read.

Price:Rs 450.00