Sibaji Bandopadhyay

The Mahåbhårata is a unique text which not only claims for itself an encyclopaedic status declaring itself to be a compendium of everything that is there on social morality (dharma), political economy (artha), pleasure (kåma) and spiritual liberation (moksa) (Mbh I.56.33)—but also points out its rightful position as an itihåsa placed at a conversational crossroads among the authors located in its past, present and future (Mbh I.1.24; I.56.22). Therefore, there is no wonder that it captured the imagination of scholars, interpreters, translators and creative writers across time and space, leading to the production of a mammoth bibliography around itself.


Reviewed by: Kanad Sinha

Guest editing a special history issue for The Book Review was a good opportunity to reflect on what history means and what it represents, standing in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The discipline has moved beyond the Positivist idea of ‘scientific history’; yet, in popular perception (substantiated by the recent comments of a well-read novelist), History remains primarily a chronology of events. The academia—particularly in humanities—has become largely interdisciplinary, and that definitely reshaped our way of reconstructing the past.


Reviewed by: Kanad Sinha
By Kanchana Mahadevan

Like other existential crises or questions, feminist dilemmas too are fraught with the need to forge an adequate praxis for the individual feminist and for the collective consciousness that we have learnt to describe as feminist. These dilemmas encompass a wide canvas of issues ranging from epistemology and morality to the concerns of change and transformation. An important axis on which one of these dilemmas is played out—across cultures—is women’s traditional roles as care givers in the private domain and their quest to free themselves of the burden of the same.


Reviewed by: Gita Chadha
By Kumkum Sangari

Solid: Liquid offers significant new insights about the emerging configurations of family and gender relations in Indian society which are increasingly being shaped by a neoliberal state and market. Focused on the practices of sex selection and commercial surrogacy, Sangari makes a strong case for the relevance, if not indispensability, of a triadic framework made up of family, state and market to analyse the emerging and persisting patriarchal configurations in contemporary India. As revealed through an incisive analysis of the uses to which assisted reproductive technologies have been put in India, this work shows that patriarchal practices exist both within and outside a transnational capitalist regime and must not be mistaken as ‘women’s issues’ (p. 156).


Reviewed by: Anuja Agrawal
Edited by Bhargavi V. Davar and T.K. Sundari Ravindran

As is reflected in the title, this is a fascinating anthology that looks critically at knowledges, identities and institutions related to women’s mental health. Each of these are very lofty concepts and constructions in themselves that find elaborate deconstruction and articulation in the nine essays that comprise this book. The field of Mental Health in contemporary times has become truly multidisciplinary in nature and draws extensively from the frameworks of Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, Psychiatry, Literature, Law, Human Rights and Gender Studies. This enables new conceptualizations and perspectives to emerge. Likewise, recognizing the importance of pluralism, multiplicity and diverse realities flowing from varied cultures and contexts, in understanding the subjective worlds and experiences of individuals, who are emotionally disturbed, victims of trauma, suffering or afflicted with disease, often labelled as being of ‘unsound mind’, is also essential. All the nine essayists recognize these dimensions and raise questions about the existing systems, beliefs and practices which perpetuate the use of labels, stigma and mechanical rendering of therapeutic services and justice to women.


Reviewed by: Namita Ranganathan
By Chayanika Shah , Raj Merchant, Shals Mahajan, Smriti Nevatia

What this book does from the start is interpellate the reader, literally asking them the question—where are you from? Are[n’t] you an outlaw too? Is there any way to speak of these things other than from the position of the implicated, interested outlaw? And as it takes the reader on the methodologically risky and provisional journey of finding and giving voice for outlaws, and in the process revisiting models of speech, it offers innumerable possibilities— of language, milestones, and networks.


Reviewed by: Asha Achuthan