M.E. Khan

The question of fertility and the prac­tice of family planning among Muslims is the subject of considerable political controversy in India. The book under review makes an important contribution to demographic literature by presenting detailed statistics on Muslims in Kanpur city based on a sample survey of 330 Muslim couples.


Reviewed by: Ashish Bose
Bilquis Jehan Khan

While the grand narrative of South Asian freedom from the yoke of colonial rule and partition pays due deference to the tragedy of the loss of millions of lives and the largest human displacement in history in its aftermath, the implications of hundreds of princely states being sacrificed at the altar of the Indian Union is a largely untold tale.


Reviewed by: Abdus Salam
Kalpana Sharma

The final chapter of this book opens with perhaps the most persuasive argument for the volume. Journalist Ammu Joseph scans the pages of the Bangalore press on February 16, 2006, and finds the patterns and trends of representation of women in the papers more or less conform to the findings of a major new international study…


Reviewed by: Supriya Sharma
Vasanthi Raman

Vasanthi Ramans The Warp and the Weft examines the changing contours of community and identity in the city of Banaras through a focus on Muslim handloom weavers employed in the famed sari industry of the city. Using the metaphor of tana bana (warp and weft) to characterize the close intermeshing of relations between…


Reviewed by: Chitra Joshi