Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy

Indian puppetry is unique for it has 17 or 18 distinct traditional forms. The most well known are Katputlis or the traditional string puppets of Rajasthan. Thus the word for ‘puppet’ in Hindi, namely ‘Katputli’ is synonymous with these traditional puppets from Rajasthan.


Reviewed by: Anuroopa Roy
Abdul Jamil Urfi

India has been aptly recognized as a melting pot, displaying a large degree of cultural diversity. This diversity has also manifested in tolerance and sensitivity towards nature. The omnipresence of birds, their distribution across vast zoogeographic zones, their dazzling hues and acoustic skills make them special.


Reviewed by: Priya Singh
Ian J. Kerr

This is a part of the series, ‘New perspectives in South Asian History’, a path-breaking work on the history of Indian Railways during the colonial period, with a comprehensive ‘Introduction’ by the editor.


Reviewed by: Y.P. Anand
Ramin Jahanbegloo

Ramin Jahanbegloo is unusual in more ways than one. He is an Indologist in the best sense of the word. But he is not a scholar in the pay of sinister imperialists. He is an Iranian intellectual who studies India, writes about India and unabashedly loves India.


Reviewed by: Jaithirth Rao
Mushirul Hasan

As independent India, under the leadership of Nehru, embarked on the ‘slippery path of progress’, it soon became clear that the path was not just slippery, but was also hampered by multiple roadblocks, u-turns, crossroads and obstructions ahead.


Reviewed by: Salil Misra
Nischal Nath Pandey
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2008

Alas if this was actually so! Border regions in India are like dead ends; they are terminal points and lead nowhere. They do not connect regions and they do not allow passage. Absence of contact and connectivity creates a feeling of isolation and leads often to hostility rather than friendliness with neighbours.


Reviewed by: Maj. Gen. D. Banerjee
Stephen Legg

This book is unique in that it looks at Delhi as a site of play of power, cooption and contestation between authoritarian governance of colonial power—its utopian imagery at odds with the material practice by the native Indians.


Reviewed by: Saraswathi Raju
Subashree Krishnaswamy and K. Srilata

Much ink has flowed in the academic debates about Indian writing in English and translations from Indian languages into English, the respective merits and demerits of each, their importance or lack of it,


Reviewed by: N. Kamala
Ruth Vanita

Premchand occupies a unique position in Indian literature. He shaped the genre of fiction in two language literatures, i.e., Urdu and Hindi, by giving it a realistic base, diverting it of its preoccupation with the world of fantasy and romance.


Reviewed by: M. Asaduddin
Bama

Bama’s Vanmam is in many ways a marked departure from her earlier works Karukku and Sangati. Moving away from her earlier autobiographical mode Vanmam steers clear of the familiar confessional, conversational tone and adopts a linear, descriptive,


Reviewed by: B. Mangalam
Amiya P. Sen

Three miraculous events have happened on this earth: the birth of three men of great purity of soul (mahashuddhatma), many years apart in time—and in countries far away from each other. They taught the world a mantra of immense significance.


Reviewed by: Meenakshi Mukherjee
Barnita Bagchi
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2008

Meera Kosambi’s earlier collection of essays, Crossing Thresholds: Feminist Essays in Social History (2007) had introduced us to the writer Kashibai Kanitkar (1861-1948). This reviewer had been particularly intrigued by Kosambi’s section on Kanitkar’s utopian novella Palkhicha Gonda (The Palanquin Tassel, written in the late 1890s but published in 1928).


Reviewed by: Meera Basu
Purnima Mehta Bhatt

The structures of the institutions of family, society and the state acquire new dimensions when seen from women’s perspective. Factors like religion, social values and hierarchies intertwined with patriarchy play an important role in moulding women’s lives.


Reviewed by: Usha Thakkar
Vineetha Menon and K.N. Nair
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2008

This collection of articles reflects in essence the dark brooding face of Kerala: the violence faced by women of all classes, castes and communities, experienced within families, at workplaces, and several institutions. What the studies also do emphatically is to extend what is already being established over several years now: that in addition to a socio-economic paradox,


Reviewed by: Meena Bhargava
Malini Bhattacharya
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2008

It is a truism to say that the index of the civilization is the status of its women. The honour and manhood of the state also rests on its capacity to shield and protect its women particularly the weak and the vulnerable. The Indian widow has for long been a metaphor for the humility and capacity for self sacrifice to inspire the Indian fighting for the freedom of his country thanks to Mahatma Gandhi.


Reviewed by: Vasanth Kannabiran
Maithreyi Krishnaraj

This book as the title implies, covers three of the most important issues in development namely gender, food security and rural livelihoods. Finding enough to eat still remains a major concern for at least a third of the Indian population despite high levels of growth and substantial investment in rural development.


Reviewed by: Priya Deshingkar
Jeemol Unni and Uma Rani

The waves of liberalization and globalization in the Indian economy since the early 1990s have thrown up new challenges for labour. With the advent of new forms of production organizations, necessitated by the integration of markets, there have been drastic alterations in technologies used and processes handled by small enterprises in the country.


Reviewed by: Babu P. Remesh