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Jawaharlal Nehru
by Rudrangshu MukherjeeAfter more than seven decades of Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) is still an overarching presence in India’s collective memory. One of the central figures in the country’s freedom struggle, he was also an eminent writer. This short introduction to Nehru traces his personal–political journey from being a rich, Westernized young man to a radical leader of the Indian National Congress. Mukherjee provides a glimpse of his relationship with Gandhi—fraught with major ideological differences but steeped in mutual love and respect. Detailing the principles he stood by, the volume examines his role in the birth of a fledgling nation as well as his contribution as the first prime minister of the country in putting place the basic democratic structure of the Indian polity and society.
Shooting a Tiger: Big-Game Hunting and Conservation in Colonial India
by Vijaya Ramadas MandalaThe figure of the white hunter sahib proudly standing over the carcass of a tiger with a gun in hand is one of the most powerful and enduring images of the empire. This book examines the colonial politics that allowed British imperialists to indulge in such grand posturing as the rulers and protectors of indigenous populations. This work studies the history of hunting and conservation in colonial India during the high imperial decades of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At this time, not only did hunting serve as a metaphor for colonial rule signifying the virile sportsmanship of the British hunter, but it also enabled vital everyday governance through the embodiment of the figure of the officer–hunter–administrator. Using archival material and published sources, the author examines hunting and wildlife conservation from various social and ethnic perspectives, and also in different geographical contexts, extending our understanding of the link between shikar and governance.
An Endangered History: Indigeneity, Religion, and Politics on the Borders of India, Burma, and Bangladesh
by Angma Dey JhalaAn Endangered History examines the transcultural, colonial history of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, c. 1798–1947. This little-studied borderland region lies on the crossroads of Bangladesh, India, and Burma and is inhabited by several indigenous peoples. They observe a diversity of religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, animism, and Christianity; speak Tibeto-Burmese dialects intermixed with Persian and Bengali idioms; and practise jhum or slash-and-burn agriculture. This book investigates how British administrators from the eighteenth to mid-twentieth centuries used European systems of knowledge, such as botany, natural history, gender, enumerative statistics, and anthropology, to construct these indigenous communities and their landscapes. In the process, they connected the region to a dynamic, global map, and classified its peoples through the reifying language of religion, linguistics, race, and nation.
Administering Colonialism and War: The Political Life of Sir Andrew Clow of the Indian Civil Service
by Colin R. AlexanderColonialism is a dehumanizing experience for all those at the mercy of its power structures. The officers of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) were no exception. This book focuses on the role of ICS in World War II and engages in a wider debate about colonialism’s impact on its administrators and subjects. The author looks at the events of World War II specifically in the province of Assam in India’s North-East. It is here that the British and American troops were stationed as they attempted to retake Burma following Japan’s invasion in 1942 and supply the Allied Chinese by road and air. The volume also focuses on how radio broadcasting was used to manufacture the Indian public’s consent for the war effort and explores the horrors of the Bengal Famine and the controversies surrounding the British responses to it. The central character in the book’s narrative is Sir Andrew Clow who was a career civil servant in India. He was the Minister for Communications during the late 1930s and early 1940s before he became the Governor of Assam in 1942. The book is partly a biography of his fascinating career.
Gandhi after 9/11: Creative Nonviolence and Sustainability
by Douglas Allen9/11 marked the beginning of a century that is defined by widespread violence. Every other day seems to be a furthering of the already catastrophic present towards a more disastrous tomorrow. With climate change looming over us, frequent economic instability, religious wars, and relentless political mayhem, life for what we have made of it seems more and more unsustainable. Douglas Allen insists that we look to Gandhi, if only selectively and creatively, in order to move towards a nonviolent and sustainable future. Is a Gandhi-informed swaraj technology, valuable but humanly limited, possible? What would a Gandhian world—a more egalitarian, interconnected, decentralized—of globalization look like? Focusing on key themes in Gandhi’s thinking such as violence and nonviolence, absolute truth and relative truth, ethical and spiritual living, and his critique of modernity, the book compels us to rethink our positions today.
Jaati ke Viruddh Gandhi ka Sangharsh
by Nishikant KolgeIn 1909, while still in South Africa, Gandhi publicly decried the caste system for its inequalities. Shortly after his return to India though, he spoke of the generally beneficial aspects of caste. Gandhi's writings on caste reflect contradictory views and his critics accuse him of neglecting the unequal socio-economic structure that relegated Dalits to the bottom of the caste hierarchy. So, did Gandhi endorse the fourfold division of the Indian society or was he truly against caste? In this book, Nishikant Kolge investigates the entire range of what Gandhi said or wrote about caste divisions over a period of more than three decades: from his return to India in 1915 to his death in 1948. Interestingly, Kolge also maps Gandhi's own statements that undermined his stance against the caste system. These writings uncover the 'strategist Gandhi' who understood that social transformation had to be a slow process for the conservative but powerful section of Hindus who were not yet ready for radical reforms. Seven decades after it attained freedom from colonial powers, caste continues to influence the socio-political dynamics of India, and Gandhi against caste—the battle is not over yet.
The Wild Heart of India: Nature and Conservation in the City, the Country, and the Wild
by T.R. Shankar RamanWild—untamed, hostile, remote. Yet, wild can be gentle, welcoming, and inspiring, too. This is the wild that preoccupies biologist Shankar Raman as he writes about trees and bamboos, hornbills and elephants, leopards and myriad other species. Species found not just out there in far wildernesses—from the Thar desert to the Kalakad rainforests, from Narcondam Island to Namdapha—but amid us, in gardens and cities, in farms, along roadsides. And he writes about the forces that gouge land and disfigure landscapes, rip trees and shred forests, pollute rivers and contaminate the air, slaughter animals along roads and rail tracks—impelling a motivation to care, and to conserve nature. Through this collection of essays, Shankar Raman attempts to blur, if not dispel, the sharp separation between humans and nature, to lead you to discover that the wild heart of India beats in your chest, too.
Colours of Loneliness and Other Stories
by Paramita SatpathyThis is a collection of fourteen short stories by Paramita Satpathy. These stories are full of characters that conceal their true persona under a veneer of a false confidence who are then are driven to seek a state of euphoria, releasing these dormant passions in unguarded moments. We have characters like Maya, whose life seems to upend the moment spots appear on her body. On the other hand, for her best friend Veena, life seems to be most sorted. Everyone seems to pity Maya, and she longs to be included, to belong. Yet as the years progress, it is Maya who has created a stable life for herself, while Veena is left wondering where she went wrong in life. There is also Babula, the orphan, who has to bear with whatever abuse Bata Sahu throws at him, in order to survive, and his struggle to break free from it. Prachi, the bride-to-be, who discovers her fiancé’s true animalistic nature; and Ranjita, the new bride who becomes the ultimate pay-off for her in-laws’ greed. For some protagonists, it’s the societal shackles they need to break out from; for others it is their own closest relations that compel them to take a bold step towards self-realization.
A Social History of Christianity: North-west India since 1800 (Oxford India Paperbacks)
by John C.B. WebsterThe Christian community in India emerged from an Indian rather than a foreign or an imperial context. Its internal dynamics were shaped far more by Indian social realities than by missionary designs. This book presents a comprehensive social history of Christianity in north-west India, comprising Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, the Union Territories of Delhi and Chandigarh, and the Pakistani Punjab and North-West Frontier Province. The book discusses significant events in the history of the north-west up to 1947, after which it focuses only on India. These events left a lasting impact on Christianity and shaped its future course, culminating in the transfer of churches’ power from foreign missionaries to Indians and proliferation of churches, and the ongoing struggles of the Christian community. The author pays special attention to the Christian community’s caste composition—how caste status and social mobility affected intra- and inter-community relations—religious diversity, uneven demographic distribution, and development, as well as Christianity as a religious movement in the region.
Chaitanya: A Life and Legacy
by Amiya P. SenA saint, a reformer, an avatar of Lord Krishna—Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533) is perceived as all these and many others. In this book on Chaitanya, Amiya P. Sen focuses on the discourses surrounding the mystic’s life, which ended rather mysteriously at the age of 48. Written in a lucid manner and for a wider audience, this book is a fresh attempt to historically reconstruct Chaitanya’s life and times in Bengal and Odisha, as well as Vrindavan, the key centre of medieval Vaishnavism in north India. This work critically evaluates how Chaitanya has been understood contemporaneously and posthumously, particularly as an icon in colonial Bengal. Addressing an important gap in scholarship, which hitherto concentrated on religious and philosophical discourses, Sen offers a full-length biographical account of Nimai or Gaur by drawing on a wide range of sources in English and Bengali. He also argues against the belief that Chaitanya is the sole proponent of Vaishnava bhakti in Bengal, choosing to situate him in the wider devotional cultures of the region.
Reconsidering American Power: Pax Americana and the Social Sciences
by John D. Kelly Kurt Jacobsen Marston H. MorganPostcolonial studies, postmodern studies, even posthuman studies emerge, and intellectuals demand that social sciences be remade to address fundamentals of the human condition, from human rights to global environmental crises. Since these fields owe so much to American state sponsorship, is it easier to reimagine the human and the modern than to properly measure the pervasive American influence? Reconsidering American Power offers trenchant studies by renowned scholars who reassess the role of the social sciences in the construction and upkeep of the Pax Americana and the influence of Pax Americana on the social sciences. With the thematic image for this enterprise as the ‘fiery hunt’ for Ahab’s whale, the contributors pursue realities behind the theories, and reconsider the real origins and motives of their fields with an eye on what will deter or repurpose the ‘fiery hunts’ to come, by offering a critical insider’s view.
Norms and Politics: Sir Benegal Narsing Rau in the Making of the Indian Constitution, 1935–50
by Arvind ElangovanDuring the twilight of British rule in India, a little-known civil servant, Sir Benegal Narsing Rau (1887–1953), was sought after by the ruling elites—both British and Indian—for his immense knowledge of the nature and working of the constitutions of the world as well as his reputation for being just and impartial between competing political interests. Yet, Rau’s ideas and his voice have largely been forgotten today. By examining Rau’s constitutional ideas and following their trajectory in late colonial Indian politics, this book shows how the process of the making of the Indian constitution was actually never separated from the politics of conflict that dominated this period. This book demonstrates that it is only by foregrounding this political history that we can simultaneously remember Rau’s critical contributions as well as understand why he was forgotten in the first place.
The Diary of Manu Gandhi: 1943–1944
by Tridip SuhrudManu Gandhi, M.K. Gandhi’s grand-niece, joined him in 1943 at the age of fifteen. An aide to Gandhi’s ailing wife Kasturba in the Aga Khan Palace prison in Pune, Manu remained with him until his assassination. She was a partner in his final yajna, an experiment in Brahmacharya, and his invocation of Rama at the moment of his death. Spanning two volumes, The Diary of Manu Gandhi is a record of her life and times with M.K. Gandhi between 1943 and 1948. Authenticated by Gandhi himself, the meticulous and intimate entries in the diary throw light on Gandhi’s life as a prisoner and his endeavour to establish the possibility of collective non-violence. They also offer a glimpse into his ideological conflicts, his efforts to find his voice, and his lonely pilgrimage to Noakhali during the riots of 1946. The first volume (1943–44) chronicles the spiritual and educational pursuits of an adolescent woman who takes up writing as a mode of self-examination. The author shares a moving portrait of Kasturba Gandhi’s illness and death and also unravels the deep emotional bond she develops with Gandhi, whom she calls her ‘mother’.
Words of Her Own: Women Authors in Nineteenth-Century Bengal
by Maroona MurmuWords of Her Own situates the experiences and articulations of emergent women writers in nineteenth-century Bengal through an exploration of works authored by them. Based on a spectrum of genres—such as autobiographies, novels, and travelogues—this book examines the sociocultural incentives that enabled the dawn of middle-class Hindu and Brahmo women authors at that time. Murmu explores the intersections of class, caste, gender, language, and religion in these works. Reading these texts within a specific milieu, Murmu sets out to rectify the essentialist conception of women’s writings being a monolithic body of works that displays a firmly gendered form and content, by offering rich insights into the complex world of subjectivities of women in colonial Bengal. In attempting to do so, this book opens up the possibility of reconfiguring mainstream history by questioning the scholarly conceptualization of patriarchy being omnipotent enough to shape the intricacies of gender relations, resulting in the flattening of self-fashioning by women writers. The book contends that there were women authors who flouted the norms of literary aesthetics and tastes set by male literati, thereby creating a literary tradition of their own in Bangla and becoming agents of history at the turn of the century.
Secularism, Religion, and Democracy in Southeast Asia (Religion and Democracy: Reconceptualizing Religion, Culture, and Politics in a Global Context)
by Vidhu VermaUntil the 1990s, secularism was understood largely as exclusion of religion from the public domain. However, in the last two decades, the world has witnessed the return of religion as a medium and subject of national, regional, and global politics. With such a shift, the previously unquestioned Western values of modernity and secularism find themselves at loggerheads with the increasing assertion of religious identity, which results in difference-based conflicts. This antagonism also gives rise to a vibrant, religiously pluralistic civil society and speaks of a post-secular turn in modern Southeast Asian democracies. Secularism, Religion, and Democracy in Southeast Asia tries to understand the rise of religion in modern democracies and how everyday economic, social, and political conditions aid this post-secular phenomenon in Southeast Asia. Setting itself apart from most studies of religion in Southeast Asia through its regional focus, this volume explores the ideas, practices, state responses, and anxieties related to the religious–secular divide in this geopolitical region.
A History of the Present: A Biography of Indian South Africans, 1990–2019
by Ashwin Desai Goolam VahedThrough the long 20th century, Indian South Africans lived under the whip of settler colonialism and white minority rule, which saw the passing of a slew of legislation that circumscribed their freedom of movement, threatened repatriation, and denied them citizenship, all the while herding them into racially segregated townships. This volume chronicles the broad outlines of this history. Taking the story into the present, it provides an analysis of how Indian South Africans have responded to changes wrought by the remarkable collapse of apartheid and the holding of the first democratic elections in 1994. Drawing upon archival records, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, this study examines the ways in which Indian South Africans define themselves and the world around them, and how they are defined by others. It tells of the incredible journey of Indian South Africans, many of whom are fourth and fifth generation, towards being recognized as citizens in the land of their birth and how, while often attracted by and seeking to explore their roots in India, they continue to dig deeper roots in African soil.
Capitalisms: Towards a Global History
by Kaveh Yazdani Dilip M. MenonConventional accounts often conceive the genesis of capitalism in Europe within the conjunctures of agricultural, commercial, and industrial revolutions. Challenging this widely believed cliché, this volume traces the history of capitalism across civilizations, tenth century onwards, and argues that capitalism was neither a monolithic entity nor exclusively an economic phenomenon confined to the West. Looking at regions as diverse as England, South America, Russia, North Africa, and East, South, West, and Southeast Asia, the book explores the plurality of developments across time and space. The chapters analyse aspects such as historical conjunctures, commodity production and distribution, circulation of knowledge and personnel, and the role of mercantile capital, small producers, and force—all the while stressing the necessity to think beyond present-day national boundaries. The book argues that the multiple histories of capitalism can be better understood from a trans-regional, intercontinental, and interconnected perspective.
Performing Nationhood: The Emotional Roots of Swadeshi Nationhood in Bengal, 1905–12
by Mimasha PanditThis book serves as the corridor to one’s ‘self’. It began as a humble attempt to interrogate the performance history of Swadeshi Bengal. The burgeoning public space and audibility of voices hitherto unheard presented a two-way problem, for the colonisers, as well as for the colonised. The thinking mind that hid behind a facade of obedience suddenly appeared before all. The transparent veil separating the hidden from the manifest was torn apart. In the context of swadeshi and boycott agitation, performative spaces like theatre, jatra, and songs did not just serve as a forum for disseminating the notions of nationhood put forward by the intellectuals. The ideas gained a life of their own once they were placed in the performative space. Encompassing both the performer and the audience/recipient of the ideas, the notion underwent a change at various planes of consciousness. The notion of nation, as disseminated by the performances, acquired a different meaning at the level of enactment, and attained an entirely new substance when received by the audience. None of these exchanges occurred in complete passivity of any one party present in the performative space. Consequently, the emergent emotion of nationhood developed as a nuanced image of ‘self’. This book has tried to locate the beginning of that emotion of national ‘self’.
Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames: A Sociological Study of New Christian Movements in Contemporary Goa
by Savio AbreuPentecostal-Charismatic Christianity is one of the largest religious movements in the world today. It is a recent form of Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. While the literature on Pentecostalism is constantly rising, they mostly focus on Western societies and are from a theological perspective. There is a dearth of well-researched studies that critically analyse the phenomenon of Pentecostal–Charismatic Christianity in India. Addressing this gap, Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames focuses on groups at the periphery of the religious space in Goa, while locating them within Christianity globally. It broadens our understanding of Pentecostal–Charismatic Christianity in Goa as a rapidly expanding and overtly evangelistic movement within a pluralist, non-Christian society. Abreu assesses the impact of religion on society, analysing how the symbols, beliefs, rituals, and organizational structure of the neo-Pentecostal sects and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal influence religious identities, world views, and the everyday life activities of individual adherents. This the author does by drawing on extensive fieldwork, concepts, analyses, and interpretations provided by scholars of religion in sociology, anthropology, history, as well as theology.
Mega Mammals in Ancient India: Rhinos, Tigers, and Elephants
by Shibani BoseSince antiquity, big mammals have inspired fear as well as fantasy among humans. Not only do megafauna pervade the domains of religion, art, literature, and folklore, it is also now widely acknowledged that they can serve as important, if not always adequate, indices of environmental quality. In this book, Shibani Bose looks into eras bygone in order to chronicle the journeys of three mega mammals, the rhinoceros, elephant, and tiger, across millennia in early north India. Carefully sifting through archaeological evidence and literary records in Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, and classical Western accounts, Bose documents the presence of these big mammals in diverse cultural contexts, from hunter-gatherer societies to the first urban civilization of India and beyond. This work aims to reconstruct human interactions with these mega species through time while trying to understand the larger ecology of ancient India. This book is especially well-timed as the conservation of our megafaunal heritage is a major concern for biologists, ecologists, and conservationists. It underlines the need to historicize human interactions with these mega mammals with the contention that awareness regarding their past is critical for their future.
Letters of Pliny
by the Younger PlinyThis selection of Pliny's letters is designed to be used with A Level classes. The commentary helps students who have no special knowledge of the social and political history of the Roman empire. The selection provides a wide illustration of the private, public, and literary life of thecapital of the Roman empire in the early second century A. D. Includes vocabulary and notes.
Russia, 1855-1991: From Tsars To Commissars
by Peter OxleyFrom Alexander II, through Glasnost, to the present day, Russian history has been characterised by a drive to modernise - a recurring theme in this book.
Oxford Reading Tree, Level 13, TreeTops Non-Fiction: Making Music (PDF)
by Mick Gowar Simon GuntonBook band 13 grey. Oxford level 13. TreeTops Non-fiction offers fascinating titles in which children can access a wide range of interesting and thought-provoking topics. Supports the transition from learning to read, to reading to learn. Covers a wide range of popular topics, fueling discussion. Great for combinating literacy with other subjects. Covers a range of non-fiction text types needed to expand your students' reading skills. Stunning photography and artwork engages readers and brings topics to life.
Oxford Reading Tree, Level 13, TreeTops Non-Fiction: Hard Work (PDF)
by Sarah FlemingBook band 13 grey. Oxford level 13. TreeTops Non-fiction offers fascinating titles in which children can access a wide range of interesting and thought-provoking topics. Supports the transition from learning to read, to reading to learnCovers a wide range of popular topics, fueling discussion. Great for combinating literacy with other subjects. Covers a range of non-fiction text types needed to expand your students' reading skills. Stunning photography and artwork engages readers and brings topics to life.
The Oxford History of the French Revolution (PDF)
by William DoyleThis second edition of the most authoritative and comprehensive history of the French Revolution draws on a wealth of new research in order to reassess the greatest of all revolutions. It includes a generous chronology of events and an extended bibliographical essay providing an examination of the historiography of the Revolution. Beginning with the accession of Louis XVI in 1774, leading historian William Doyle traces the history of France through revolution, terror, and counter-terror, to the triumph of Napoleon in 1802, along the way analyzing the impact of these events in France upon the rest of Europe. He explores how a movement which began with optimism and general enthusiasm soon became a tragedy, not only for the ruling orders, but for millions of ordinary people all over Europe who paid the price for the destruction of the old political order and the struggle to establish a new one. Highly readable and meticulously researched, The Oxford History of the French Revolution will provide new insight into one of the most important events in European history.