03 August, 2012

South Asia: Societies in Political and Economic Transition



South Asia: Societies in Political and Economic Transition

By- Tan Tai Yong (ed.)


The last few years have been significant for South Asia, with fundamental political and economic transitions in several of the countries.

Bangladesh opted for an interim government, followed by the election of a democratic government. Pakistan saw an assassination of a former Prime Minister, followed by peaceful elections and, perhaps, hope for stability. Nepal went through substantial change, with the Maoists initially in power and, subsequently, opting out of the government. In contrast, elections in Bhutan have brought a smooth transition to democracy.

On the other hand, economic issues have dominated India in recent times, including aggressive responses to the global slowdown, fiscal expansion and an early return to growth from the downturn.

In an attempt to capture these changes in South Asia, this publication falls into two parts. The first deals with political issues in countries that have witnessed the most change and turbulence, while the second part deals with economic issues that have been of concern to all the South Asian countries, and to India in particular.

In summary, this publication is an eclectic mix that covers a spectrum of current issues in South Asia. It is a melting pot of politics and change, of reforms and stagnation, and of growth and disparity. It also brings together a varied range of experiences across the South Asian region. Most importantly, the publication reflects the dynamism of the region and the fast pace of change in politics as well as in economic policy. This book has been titled South Asia: Societies in Political and Economic Transition to reflect this dynamism.



Tan Tai Yong, a Professor of History, was appointed Director of the Institute of the South Asian Studies on 1 June 2008. He is concurrently Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore.



ISBN  978-81-7304-846-3    2010   518p.   Rs.850/ pounds 70

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Social Transformation in North-Western India during the Twentieth Century


Social Transformation in North-Western India during the Twentieth Century

By- Chetan Singh (ed.)

Over a hundred and fifty years after the mid-nineteenth century, north-western India underwent a degree of social transformation that was, indeed, impressive. A collective effort alone can unravel the complex nature of the processes underlying this remarkable change. This is what the book sets out to do.

Its historical perspective reveals diverse modes of resistance and response, especially in the Punjab, to a colonial ideology that sought to institute a subtle, yet powerful, forms of social control. After Independence, the much celebrated Green Revolution drew the peasantry of north-western India into the vortex of economic trends that had unexpected and far-reaching consequences – which are today a matter of great concern. Long-term social currents that had been stirring rather slowly in the region gained momentum. As a result, the process of societal change, started earlier began to strain against the restrictive fabric of the traditional social order. Social Transformation in North-Western India endeavours to explain the multidimensionality of change that is so characteristic of the region.

This book would be of interest as much to the social scientist and the policy maker as to the journalist and the lay reader.


Chetan Singh is Professor of History at Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla.




ISBN  978-81-7304-838-8    2010   528p.   Rs.1250/ pounds 70
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Shadows of Substance: Indo-Russian Trade and Military Technical Cooperation Since 1991


Shadows of Substance: Indo-Russian Trade and Military Technical Cooperation Since 1991

By- Hari Vasudevan


Shadows of Substance is an account of trade and military technical cooperation between India and Russia from the time of the foundation of the new Russian state at the end of 1991 to the present day. It provides the first survey of the activities of the Indian private sector in Russia, showing how it has become pivotal to the bulk of the commerce between the two countries. It also provides a statement on the growing importance of India to the Russian military industrial complex.

The argument is developed through a close examination of pre-Soviet and post-Soviet times, bringing the story up to the present day. The book provides a background on the economic relationship between India and the USSR, touching on the main debates pre-1991, and examines the entry of private enterprise in an area in which the public sector was traditionally dominant. It then traces the impact of Soviet disintegration on the Russian Federation, and the consequences of the Russian reforms for the economy of the new state. It locates Indo-Russian trade in goods and collaboration in military-technical affairs within this framework. The agreements that governed the relationship and the attempts by governments to promote commerce are kept in mind. The course of what took place is traced through material available from published and unpublished sources, as well as interviews with entrepreneurs and officials.


Hari Vasudevan is a specialist on Russian and European affairs. He is Professor at the Department of History, Calcutta University and Director of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies. He was consultant to the Department of Commerce, Government of India during 2006-7.



ISBN  978-81-7304-849-4    2010   254p.   Rs.695/ pounds 45

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Science and Society in India : 1750-2000


Science and Society in India : 1750-2000

By- Arun Bandopadhyay (ed.)


Approaches to the study of history of science underwent critical changes in the last two centuries before they could more definitely tilt towards the social dimensions of the making of science. The development of history of science during the last fifty years has been marked by a proliferation of methods and perspectives rather than by the emergence of a consensus.

Given this general background of the intellectual tradition of writing history of science, an effort is made here to assemble a group of scholars from different parts of India to write about 250 years of development of ‘science’ in the Indian context, covering late pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. The present volume is a selected and revised version of the original presentation made in a national Seminar  at the University of Calcutta.

The contributors revolve around a few thematic contexts: the east-west encounter, the diffusion theory, the colonial impact, the nationalist, and the post-colonial response and globalization.


Arun Bandopadhyay is currently Nurul Hasan Professor of History and formerly Dean of the Faculty Council for Post-graduate studies in Arts at the University of Calcutta.





ISBN  978-81-7304-854-8    2010   390p.   Rs.975/ pounds 55

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Punjab Peasantry in Turmoil


Punjab Peasantry in Turmoil 

By- Birinder Pal Singh (ed.)

Over the last two decades  thousands of peasnts in the Indian Punjab have sacrificed themselves at the altar of the nation, feeding the teeming millions. This state, the harbinger of Green Revolution in the country was the model for the rest of the nation for revoltionizing agriculture in a colonialized traditional society. The volume also deliberates upon the critcal issues of the erstwhile Punjab, across the border, now called West Punjab. Four papers in this volume reflect upon the different aspects of the peasantry there. The two Punjabs are now afflicted with numerous ailments – social, economic and political. He farmers are committing suicides. The economic returns from the over-exploited land are not rising in a proportionate manner to their expectations and expenditures. Globalization has added fuel to the fire. The governments in India and Pakistan are not dealing with these issues protecting the interests of the peasantry. The younger generation is opting out of agriculture and migrating abroad in search of employment and better life. What is the crisis that peasantry in the two Punjabs is confronting? What are its roots and its manifest forms?

In this volume an attempt has been made to bring together ideas and arguments of activists and scholars from different disciplines specializing in sociology, economics, political science, history and literature, all sharing their concern for peasantry. A large canvas of issues that have brought turmoil in the lives of peasantry like agricultural policy, globalization, indebtedness, poverty, suicides, caste conflicts, militancy, violence, migration, etc., have been deliberated upon in this volume.



Birinder Pal Singh teaches in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Punjab University, Patiala.



ISBN  978-81-7304-866-1    2010   376p.   Rs.950/ pounds 55

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Modernity and Its Agencies: Young Movements in the History of the South


Modernity and Its Agencies: Young Movements in the History of the South

By- Touraj Atabaki (ed.)


In the past two hundred years, for many enlightened individuals, from South Asia to North Africa, from Persian Gulf to the Adriatic Sea, the main intellectual and political enquiry was to find a path negotiating the rapidly changing world. The world, as they saw, was coming out of ‘ignorance’ and heading towards ‘science’ and ‘progress’. Labelling the past with obscurity and calling its guardians old and reactionary, the enlightened young became the self-assigned beacons of light leading the masses to a ‘time of progress’.

The word ‘young’ in both the South and the North soon evolved into the classical epithet of emerging intelligentsias in their struggle against the despotic rule of the ancien regimes and its supporters, often the clerical establishment. Furthermore, with the practice of colonialism and imperial expansionism, the Asian, African or even some European ‘young’ often crafted their identity by rejecting and defying the other, i.e. the colonial power.

In world history one finds very few movements which had such widespread social and political repercussions, simultaneously engulfing at least half of the globe and in the process of becoming famously known as the Young Movement.

This volume is the first attempt to study the Young Movement beyond national frontiers. The contributors to this volume not only shed light on the history of the young movement in a number of countries and regions, but also compare and contrast the development of this movement in different parts of Asia and Africa: from Calcutta to Rabat, from Isfahan to Bukhara and from Istanbul to Kazan.


Touraj Atabaki is Head, Department of the Middle East and the Central Asia of the International Institute of Social History and Professor of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at Leiden University.




ISBN  978-81-7304-841-8    2010   190p.   Rs.475/ pounds 35

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Madrasa Education in Modern India: A Study


Madrasa Education in Modern India: A Study

By- Saral Jhingran


This study steers clear of the stereotype conception of madrasas as the training ground of terrorists. Its chief concern is the search for the ground of realities about madrasas, what and how they teach; and whether the syllabus or ambience of madrasas prepares the students for successfully facing the challenges of the modern world. It enquires into the reasons for a relatively large number of Muslims opting for madrasas education for their children. A sociological analysis is therefore undertaken.

The work also tries to understand the almost universal nisab or syllabus of madrasas, called Dars-i-Nizami, developed during Aurangzeb’s time, and notes that there have been very few marked changes in the madrasas syllabus, though the world and life have moved so much ahead. A large portion of madrasas syllabus, therefore has become irrelevant for modern times. The author convincingly argues that most Muslim children must study in modern schools and only a small number who want to specialize in theology should study in madrasas.

The Study pays particular attention to the proposals for madrasa reforms, both from within the system, and the madrasa modernization scheme of the government.



Saral Jhingran did her Ph.D. on Advaita Vedanta from Rajasthan University in 1972. since then she has held several UGC fellowships, and finally retired as a Research Scientist affiliate to Nehru Memorial Museum & Library.




ISBN  978-81-7304-856-2    2010   424p.   Rs.1050/ pounds 60

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M.A. Ansari: Gandhi’s Infallible Guide


M.A. Ansari: Gandhi’s Infallible Guide

By- Mushirul Hasan


While the ‘flickering lamp’ history has obscured the role of Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, Mahatma Gandhi referred to his tenacity of character, his sense duty and his passion for Hindu-Muslim unity. For over two decades, his political career had been an extraordinary trek, attended by reverses and recoveries.

This book seeks a better understanding Dr. Ansari in relation to his political environment. In studying his ideas and engagements, M.A. Ansari: Gandhi’s Infallible Guide charts the course plotted by him in his ambition to become the leader of the Congress Muslims, a role which had eluded some of his leading contemporaries.

In this revised and enlarged version, Mushirul Hasan examines the politics of the 1920s and 1930s with skill and ingenuity. He avoids hagiography and demonology while bringing out all of Ansari’s strengths, as well as his weaknesses. Like many of his recent writings, he demonstrates his grasp of the detail of Ansari’s life with a magisterial ability to sweep the grand horizon. He contrasts his career with that of Mohammed Ali, the hero of the Khilafat days, with special emphasis on the impact of each upon the other.

Mushirul Hasan offers a corrective to the distorted image of the ‘Nationalist Muslim’. He refreshingly sheds much light on the pre- and post-Khilafat scenario, and illuminates, above all, Gandhi’s role which shaped the politics of the early 1920s. He describes the rise of the communal temperature vividly and exceptionally well.


Muhirul Hasan teaches at the Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi.



ISBN  978-81-7304-850-6    2010   340p.   Rs.850/ pounds 50

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Histories of Intimacy and Situated Ethnography


Histories of Intimacy and Situated Ethnography

By- Karen Isaksen Leonard, Gayatri Reddy and Ann Grodzins Gold (eds.)


Celebrating the world of Sylvia Vatuk, this volume highlights the intimate relationship between anthropology and history. The nine essays in this volume are authored by a range of scholars – anthropologists, historians, and folklorists – who have been inspired and influenced by Sylvia Vatuk’s extensive corpus of work on these disciplinary intersections as explored through her research on kinship and family history, gender, aging and the life cycle, and politics and the law.

The essays critically examine and extend Vatuk’s contributions to such intersections of historical and ethnographic work, exploring anew the ways in which constructions of culture are inextricably tied to specific historical and political contexts. The essays also stress the implications of such situated knowledge for contemporary understandings of history, culture, and politics in present-day India.

Apart from the editors the other contributors to this important volume are Helene Basu, Srimati Basu, Tarini Bedi, Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, Pauline Kolenda, Gloria Goodwin Raheja, Helen E Ulrich, and Pnina Werbner.



Karen Isaksen Leonard is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California Irvine, Irvine.

Gayatri Reddy is an Associate Professor Gender and Women’s Studies and Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her research lies at the intersections of sexuality, gender, health, and the politics of subject-formation in India, and more recently, within the immigrant South Asian queer community in the U.S.

Ann Grodzine Gold is a Professor of Religion and Anthropology at Syracuse University.





ISBN  978-81-7304-873-9    2010   312p.   Rs.795/ Pounds 50

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Hindustani Music: Thirteenth to Twentieth Centuries



Hindustani Music: Thirteenth to Twentieth Centuries

By- Joep Bor, Francoise ‘Nalini’ Delvoye, Jane Harvey and Emmie te Nijenhuis (eds.)


North Indian or Hindustani art music has a wealth of vocal genres and instrumental styles, some of them rooted in the past and others of a more recent origin. Although Indian music is primarily an oral tradition, it has a long practice of written music theory. Through dozens of musicological treatises and other historical documents we know that changes in patronage and musical taste have had a profound effects on ragas, talas, style and repertoire.

This collection of twenty-five essays by prominent scholars provides a major overview of the history of Hindustani music from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries, and the sources that make up this history. The essays are thematically arranged into five parts: (1) The Formative Period; (2) The Modern Period; (3) Musical Instruments; (4) Indian Music and the west, and (5) Concepts and Theories.

Addressing a broad range of issues, the authors raise questions about the sociocultural and political contexts in which new musical forms and instruments arose. Much attention is given to the developments that took place in the music life during the last three centuries, and to the impact of the colonial encounter and nationalism when Hindustani music acquired its modern identity.

Covering eight centuries, this 736-page volume has a comprehensive introduction and extensive bibliographies. With such a variety of topics and source materials, it is invaluable for anyone interested in Hindustani music and its history.

Joep Bor, a Professor at Leiden University , is the founder of the World Music Academy at Rotterdam Conservatory.

Francoise ‘Nalini’ Delvoye, a scholar of medieval Hindi literature and Indo-Persian culture, is Directeur d’etudes at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris.

Jane Harvey has been involved with Hindustani music for around thirty years as a vocal student, publications editor, teacher and organizer.

Emmie te Nijenhuis, retired university professor of Indian musicology and member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.





ISBN  978-81-7304-758-9    2010   720p.   Rs.2750/ Pounds 130

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Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Essays on Music



Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

Essays on Music

By- Prem Lata Sharma (ed.)

Essays in Music is seventeenth in the series of the Collected Works of Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, in the IGNCA’s publication programme. These essays were published in a few books, journals, etc., mostly in the early years of the twentieth century.

Coomaraswamy held that music in countless ways had been bound up with the Indian national culture, for it was the most universal expression of emotion – religious, amorous or martial. Music belonged to every part of life. The flute of Krishna, the vina of Sarasvati, the dance of Shiva, the Gayatri as cosmic chant or music of the spheres; the hymns of passionate adoration of the Southern Saivite, all these belong to the association of music and religion.

In addition to the art music, he lays great emphasis on the folk songs of agriculture and crafts. This is music serving to lighten heavy labour, such as the songs of husbandmen, carters and boatmen. Music remained too intimately associated with religion, with drama and with life, whether courtly or popular, and was faithfully guarded by tradition.

Coomaraswamy was much against the harmonium and gramophone, when compared to stringed instruments; even the piano, he held, was an inferior instrument. Every time these mechanical instruments were used in place of man, the Indian musician was degraded, his living was taken away from him and the group soul of Indian life injured. Among musical instruments, he gave pride of place to vina.

He firmly believed that the importance of music in education can hardly be overestimated. He bemoaned that foreign (English) education had paralyzed the living impulses of Indians, and driven India to a state of social disintegration. He advocated that the restoration of Indian folk and art music to its proper place in Indian education would result in the understanding of the self-expression of India in her music.

Prem Lata Sharma, a distinguished scholar of Musicology, Sanskrit and Hindi, was Chairperson of U.P. Sangita Nataka Academy, Lucknow (1983-6), and Vice-Chancellor of the Indira Kala Sangita Vishwavidyalaya, Khairagarh (M.P.), (1985-8). She was also selected as Fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, in 1992.





ISBN  81-7304-611-5    2010   156p.   Rs.500/ Pounds 40
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The Doctrine of Ultimate Reality in Sikh Religion: A Study of Guru Nanak’s Hymns in The Adi Granth


The Doctrine of Ultimate Reality in Sikh Religion: A Study of Guru Nanak’s Hymns in The Adi Granth

By- James Massey


Sikh religion though comparatively young among the world religions, has its adherents all over the world. Several good studies dealing with the teachings of Guru Nanak, its founder, and the general tenets of Sikh religion are available. Yet there is hardly any work which deals with the cardinal doctrine of Sikh religion.

The present study concentrating on the cardinal doctrine of Ultimate Reality in Nanak’s hymns attempts to fill this gap. It addresses such important questions as ‘Is the Ultimate Reality as seen by Nanak absolute or personal or both?’, ‘Is it transcendent or immanent or both?’, ‘How does Nanak address it or does it have any name?’, ‘Is this Reality with attributes or without?’, ‘What is the relationship of this Reality with the visible universe including human beings?’, ‘Can this Reality be known?’, ‘If so, how?’

The study is divided in five chapters. Starting with an introduction, the first chapter makes a detailed study of the key phrase of Mul Mantr, Ik Omkar based on the contents of Nanak’s hymns. Chapter two presents a brief survey of the various names used by Nanak for Ultimate Reality to facilitate proper grasp of deeper meanings of the doctrine. Chapter three examines the various attributes of the doctrine. One of the main attributes of the doctrine, viz. Karata has been separately discussed in the succeeding chapter. The key to the revelation of Ultimate Reality – gur prasadi had been studied in Chapter five. This is followed by a summary of the whole study and conclusion. A detailed glossary has been provided to facilitate understanding of various vernacular terms used in the book.

A perceptive work on Sikh religion in particular and comparative religion in general.


James Massey is currently the Director of the Centre for Dalit/Subaltern Studies and Community Contextual Communication Centre, New Delhi and Hon. Secretary of the Board of Theological Education of the Senate of Serampore College (University), West Bengal. Dr. Massey is Privatdozent, the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.




ISBN  81-85425-38-8    2010   176p.   Rs.450/ Pounds 35
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Dissenting Voices and Transformative Actions: Social movements in a Globalizing World


Dissenting Voices and Transformative Actions: Social movements in a Globalizing World

By- Debal K. SinghaRoy (ed.)

This collection of essays examines the emerging patterns of social movements taking shape all over the world locally and also cutting across the geographical boundaries of the state and the nation globally. It not only critically analyses the conceptual underpinnings of the functional, symbolic interactional, Marxian, neo-Marxian, political process-resource mobilization, new social movement-identity, subaltern, Gandhian perspectives among others, but also delineates alternative viewpoints of social movement analysis. It focuses on the nature and forms of local resistance against global domination by pre-defined but rearticulated social categories like caste, race, tribe, and ethnic groups, and the emerging nature of the protest of women, farmers, students, and migrants in a changing scenario citing social movements taking place in North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Both in terms of intensive empiricism and theoretical depth it is a unique treasure of intellectual contribution on social movement studies. This collection would be of immense use to students, researchers, teachers of sociology, political science, economics, history, social psychology and development studies, and also civil society activists, planners, executives and politicians dealing with the issues of social movement, conflicts, social developments, marginalization and social exclusion.


Debal K. Singh is Professor of Sociology, in the Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University. He is a recipient of the Australian Government Endeavour Fellowship, 2010.


ISBN  978-81-7304-869-2    2010   546p.   Rs.1250/ Pounds 70

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Discovering Banda Bahadur


Discovering Banda Bahadur

By- Surinder Singh


In this book, the author has attempted to tread a different path from the books written by various historians on Banda Bahadur. The period of 20 years (1688-1708) of Bairag, that Banda Bahadur spent before settling down at Nanded has been taken as dark period with no available historical account. Banda Bahadur spent these years amongst the Nagas, Sannyasis, Yogis, Gosains, Dasnamis, Dadupanthis and many other sects with their own akharas under charge of their own mahants. Large scale degeneration had set in amongst these bairagis eith the use of drugs, drinking, keeping women, fighting mercenary battles, trading and other commercial interests taking precedence over spiritual matters. Banda Bahadur did not take to the degenerated way of life of these warriors, but learned from them training of mind and body and battle strategy.

The meeting of Guru Gobind Singh with Madho Das (Banda Bahadur) has been cloaked in fanciful stories by almost all historians writing about the life of Banda Bahadur. These indiscreet stories have tarnished the guru’s image to some extent as well as Banda Bahadur’s image to a large extent. The merits of Guruji’s selection of Banda Bahadur and Banda’s achievements can best be judged from the quantum and quality of Banda Bahadur’s service to the Sikh Nation at the most crucial period of their survival.

This volume provides a much needed corrective to the history of one of medieval India’s greatest warriors.


Surinder Singh, retired in 1987 after over thirty years with Indian Defence Accounts. His publications include: Sikh Coinage: Symbol of Sikh Sovereignty (Manohar, 2004).


ISBN  978-81-7304-892-0   2010   414p.   Rs.995/ pounds 60

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