Monthly Archives: April 2017

To get rid of poison, a stronger dose of poison is required. This poison is Revolu-tion.’ This powerful message, among many others, from revolutionary literature of early twentieth century Bengal sought to impress upon people that colonial rule was irredeemable and only a revolution could bring change.

Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi is perhapsthe most prominent of the iconic figures of the revolt of 1857. Her outstanding heroism became the subject of alarge number of literary productions fromthe late nineteenth century onwards. It is atheme that continues to interest novelists,producers of comic-books, and film-makersdown to the present day.

Globalization: the word is hardly fifty years old but the process has been going on for a very long time. Scholars generally trace its origins to the early seventeenth century, but it is possible to go back much further.

Typhoon is the story of three women with different backgrounds, though connected by the manner in which past plays a critical part in their lives. Naghmana is a glamorous woman from the city, Chaudhrani Kaniz, a land baron based in a village, and Gulshan, an innocent homemaker.

Many years ago I was on a highway driving happily towards a friend’s house for dinner. Well into the trip I realized that I failed to come across any of the landmarks cited by my friend. When the friend called to enquire how I was coming along, I told him that I had good news and bad news. The good news was that I was making very good time, and the bad news was that I was horribly lost.

The book under review catalogues the exhibition with the same title held in 2013 in New Delhi, Rampur and Lucknow. This beautifully illustrated book brings together the rich diversity within Amir Khusrau’s work which is seminal in creating a sense of urban heritage.

It is said that Rabindranath Tagore had himself remarked that his play Chirakumar Sabha could never be translated. According to him, audiences could misinterpret the relationships presented in the translated play.

Mamang Dai’s recent novel The Black Hill is fascinating. Written in the genre of historical novel, it is an account set in the middle of the nineteenth century among the Himalayan societies of present day Arunachal Pradesh.

‘And I quit life as I would an inn, not a home, for nature has given us lodging for a sojourn, not a permanent residence’. (Cicero) No Country, Part III, ‘Brendan: “Rose of Erin”’

I kept the company of Hangwoman, a novel by K.R. Meera for more than two months, leaving it from time to time to attend to more worldly duties.

The subject of films has been approached from the perspective of stars, auteurs and spectators. At other times the collaborative nature of the cinema is emphasized by bringing in the contribution, or noise, of other players which include, among others, story writers, lyricists, music directors, cameramen, fight masters, choreographers and even minor actors.

Indian Sisters: A History of Nursing and the State, 1907–2007 is a comprehensive inquiry into, and, an analysis of the attractions and challenges of the nursing profession as it evolved in India over a century.

Reconciling growth and development has decidedly been an important challenge for the Indian economy. Scholars have appraised the economic reforms since the nineties in a divergent fashion in the wake of persisting backwardness and increasing inequality.

The two books under discussion here analyse the fifteenth (2009) and sixteenth (2014) general elections in India, and provide an insight that beyond the shifts in voting preferences, how preferences of the Indian citizens as well as the policy allurements given by parties and leaders transform both the power structure and institutions as well as political processes in the country.

The world today is probably far more complex than ever before. Several waves of global migration of populations have reshaped or altered ethnic composition and cultural make up of nationstates. In effect, many mono-cultural nation states have turned multicultural, multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious.

The book under review examines the exclusion of Mizo in the national discourse of ‘diversity’ not only perpetuates their marginalization but also the creation of their identity in their own unique ways through vernacular Christianity and practices relating to death in a veng or locality.

This is a book about how anthropologists seek to make sense of the social worlds they choose to understand. And then how they engage with philosophy, if they do at all. Not by looking up to philosophy as providing some kind of an overarching theory about ‘life’ or to anthropology’s claim to address the particularities of everyday life. Rather, the remarkable contribution this book seeks to make lies in Veena Das’s assertion that the ‘philosophical puzzles’ that philosophers like Stanley Cavell…

The site of Amaravati in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh has attracted a great deal of scholarly interest for over two centuries. The stupa that once stood here was among the oldest and most splendid in the subcontinent. Its structural remains and inscriptions constitute important sources for the early history of Buddhism and its exquisite limestone relief sculptures are considered masterpieces.

2014–15 is the centenary of the commencement of the commitment of India’s unsung heroes to one of the world’s greatest human tragedies—the First World War. A number of books have been published and a few high profile events have been conducted at India’s national capital to mark the event, principal among them being the efforts of the British High Commission, the United Service Institution and the Indian Army.

The book originated at a workshop in Delhi University’s Department of Sociology in 2010. Consequently it helps fill a gap in writings on internal security that are usually security related and state centric at that. The development perspective relying on human security and peace studies on conflict resolution frameworks are fast emerging as strong competitors.