Ethnographic research by its very nature is a dialogue among investigator(s) and subjects. Such translations of a way of life must respect confidentiality, yet properly recognize those so central to making intelligible the lives they live. In this co-authored memoir, scholar, researcher, and grandson, Anand Pandian, critically honours the life and works of his grandfather.
It is not easy to review a book that should be a classic in the field, or one that follows another book that is already, in my view, a classic. Kaushik Sunder Rajan’s earlier book Bio-Capital is indeed what I would describe as a classic: it is an exhaustive work, a final word if you want, that shows you what the structure of the global industry of drugs and pharmaceuticals is and how this global industry has moved away from chemical formulations…
Three valid reasons could be offered to write a book. First, nobody else has written on that theme. Second, one has something original or different to convey from what has already been in the public realm. Third, one may be able to provide a different perspective, approach or terms of analyses on the given theme. While Heewon Kim’s The Struggle for Equality: India’s Muslims and Rethinking the UPA Experience…
The Begum is a captivating,…
As the title suggests, the book takes the reader on a journey through the most popular period of the history of Awadh—the 1700s and 1800s. The historical scenario is diligently explained; and a peep into the dynamics of the court, the personal lives of the nawabs, and their changing relationship with the Mughal rulers and the colonial masters, makes the book extremely interesting.
While William Carey’s name is etched in the history of missionary activity in India, arguably little is known about Hannah Marshman, who worked alongside her missionary husband, Joshua Marshman, as well as Carey. Similarly, Mary Ann Cooke, the first ‘unmarried’ woman sent to do missionary work in India, has had few biographers.
The Cambridge Companion to Sayyid Ahmad Khan, published on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-98), fittingly includes contributions by historians, political scientists, literature scholars, and a specialist in religious studies.
There are histories of India, and then occasionally we have histories of south India. Histories of India tend to be, to a great extent, about regions of the subcontinent lying north of the Deccan plateau and the Vindhyas. Depending on the period of Indian history being considered, a conscientious scholar might take into account some significant developments in the south, but the overall narrative is likely to focus on the Ganga plains and the north-west.