Instead of newspapers, books, journals and pamphlets that documented the development of the Swadeshi movement in Bengal during the first decade of the twentieth century, can the idea of nation or nationhood be interpreted through the intricacies of performative mechanisms?…
This book is about nationalism, a phenomenon that, as Tharoor points out, emerged on the world stage as recently as the mid nineteenth century, but has proven to be an enormously potent political force. When the power of a ruler was no longer enough to hold a territory together..
In the year 1974, when the womenfolk and children of village Reni, under the leadership of the gutsy Gaura Devi were chasing away labour contractors and their crony forest officials bent upon felling trees for commercial exploitation, writing perhaps the most glorious chapter in the history …
Studies on tribes range from colonial misrepresentation to critical processes of identity formulation against forces of dispossession. The most recent trend, however, is that of self-representation and search for adivasi epistemology[1]. Though tribes of India are no longer considered a stagnant community…
Havan, the English translation of the novel by Mallikarjun Hiremath, is a well-told story. Mostly linear, the novel does veer off this track occasionally, to recall stories of ancestors, or perhaps to narrate a lore. In the Author’s Note, Hiremath speaks of his attraction to the Lambada tribe from his childhood…
Rumble in a Village is an entertaining addition to literary representations of twentieth century rural India. In some ways reminiscent of Sri Lal Shukla’s Raag Darbari, this novel is a collaborative effort of the Belgian born Indian economist Jean Drèze, and his friend and writer Luc Leruth…