One of modern day's most articulate statesmen, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a on a wide variety of subjects. Describing himself as "a dabbler in many things," he committed his life not only to politics but also to nature and wild life, drama, poetry, history, and science, as well as many other fields. These two volumes help to illuminate the depth of his interests and knowledge and the skill and elegance with which he treated the written word!!

    Troubled times engender a longing for the grip on India's affairs that Patel had. How he acquired that grip is part of PATEL's story.A quarter-century after the selection of India's first premier, C. Rajagopalachari recalled the event and wrote: "Undoubtedly it would have been better if Nehru had been asked to be Foreign Minister and Patel made the Prime Minister."Why did Nehru, with Gandhi's support, become Premier, and not Patel? Was Vallabhbhai anti-Muslim? What were his relationships with Maulana Azad, Nehru, Subhas Bose and the Mahatma? Why did he clash with the socialists?How did he unify India? Why did he accept partition? Why, much earlier, did he exchange a life of comfort and riches for the struggle at Gandhi's side? These are only some of the questions answered as PATEL's diligently researched and frank narrative unfolds. Inquiring into Vallabhbhai's times as well as his life, PATEL becomes a segment of history.

    A hard-working bank clerk, Gustad Noble is a devoted family man who gradually sees his modest life unravelling. His young daughter falls ill; his promising son defies his father’s ambitions for him. He is the one reasonable voice amidst the ongoing dramas of his neighbours. One day, he receives a letter from an old friend, asking him to help in what at first seems like an heroic mission. But he soon finds himself unwittingly drawn into a dangerous network of deception. Compassionate, and rich in details of character and place, this unforgettable novel charts the journey of a moral heart in a turbulent world of change.From the Trade Paperback edition.

    Containing 74 essays written over the last ten years, this book covers a range of subjects including the literature of the perceived masters and of Rushdie's contemporaries, the politics of colonialism and the ironies of culture, film, politicians, the Labour Party, religious fundamentalism in America, racial prejudice and the preciousness of the imagination and of free expression.

    . . [will] take a place on my shelves beside the stories of Narayan — Graham GreeneThis volume presents two celebrated novels by Manoj Das, one of India’s most illustrious authors, who has been writing in English and Oriya (Odia)for over six decades.In A Tiger at Twilight the erstwhile raja of Samargarh returns to his abandoned palace in Nijanpur, after years of self-exile, with his sick daughter and his supposed half-sister, and immediately assumes the responsibility of killing a man-eating tiger. Assisting him are a few noted men of the valley including Dev the owner and manager of a resort. But as the hunt intensifies Dev realizes that things aren’t as they seem: Heera, the raja’s sister, has an inexplicable power over the men in the hunting party and a strange connection with the tiger. As the men get closer to killing the beast, bizarre things begin to happen, hinting at the influence of the supernatural.Cyclones is set in Kusumpur, a small coastal village, during the struggle for Independence. The village is devastated by a cyclone and Sandip, the scion of the zamindar (land-lord) family, helps restore it. The war-time colonial government, though, wants to turn the sleepy hamlet into a busy port town. They plan to fill up the river that flows by it, in the process angering all the villagers, including Sandip. But when the contractor for the project is found murdered, Sandip is accused of the crime, forcing him to flee from the authorities. This is the start of a series of adventures that take him from a remote ashram in a forest to the city where communal violence is rife. Cyclones is a powerful novel about the metaphorical storms that gripped the nation during the most turbulent period of its modern history.

    He was the most brilliant creative genius produced by the Indian Renaissance.

    This extraordinary body of literature and important documentary resource illuminates the lives of Indian women through 2,600 years of change and extends the historical understanding of literature, feminism, and the making of modern India. The biographical, critical, and bibliographical headnotes in both volumes, supported by an introduction which Anita Desai describes as “intellectually rigorous, challenging, and analytical,” place the writers and their selections within the context of Indian culture and history.Volume I: 600 B.C. to the Early Twentieth Century includes songs by Buddhist nuns, testimonies of medieval rebel poets and court historians, and the voices of more than 60 other writers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the diverse selections are a rare early essay by an untouchable woman; an account by the first feminist historian; and a selection from the first novel written in English by an Indian woman.

    The contributors to this volume focus on these "many" Ramayanas.While most scholars continue to rely on Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayana as the authoritative version of the tale, the contributors to this volume do not. Their essays demonstrate the multivocal nature of the Ramayana by highlighting its variations according to historical period, political context, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation, intended audience, and genre. Socially marginal groups in Indian society—Telugu women, for example, or Untouchables from Madhya Pradesh—have recast the Rama story to reflect their own views of the world, while in other hands the epic has become the basis for teachings about spiritual liberation or the demand for political separatism. Historians of religion, scholars of South Asia, folklorists, cultural anthropologists—all will find here refreshing perspectives on this tale.

    The anthology has attracted several learned commentaries and now, through Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's acclaimed translation of 207 verses from the anthology, readers of English at last have access to its poems. The speakers are mostly women and, whether young or old, married or single, they touch on the subject of sexuality with frankness, sensitivity and, every once in a while, humour, which never ceases to surprise.

    Born in the village of Chaundi, around 1725, she impressed Bajirao Peshwa and his dear friend Malharrao Holkar, with her brilliance, merely as a little girl of eight or nine. Malharrao Holkar brought her into his family as his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son, Khanderao Holkar.Ahilyabai undertook training under his mentorship and proved herself worthy of subsequently inheriting the reins of the Subhedari that was bestowed on Malharrao Holkar.Ahilyabai’s personal life was fraught with tragedies. A husband, who showed no interest in the administration of the state and later, a son, who not only carried his father’s vices a few steps ahead but was also a persistent source of concern for her. But Ahilyabai’s parents-in-law offered her a strong backing. After their death, Ahilyabai was still to face the loss of many relatives, one by one, either to ill health or to the evil tradition of Sati. Despite being battered by the deaths of her near and dear ones, she weathered many a political storms with tremendous fortitude and righteousness, taking a strong stand even against her own people, when required.Ahilyabai’s charity and philanthropic work during her reign, is celebrated far and wide. She built innumerable temples, embankments on the river Narmada, wells, roads, and rest houses for travellers…but what remains a lesser known fact is that she was not just a benevolent ruler but a visionary, an astute strategist and a keen statesman. She was a lone woman who not just survived but thrived among the shrewd and scheming statesmen of her times. That in itself was no mean an achievement in an era subjugated by male chauvinism. She was a lady ahead of her times in every way.Ahilyabai’s reign of nearly 30 years, after the death of Malharrao, is marked by the growth of commerce and trade as well as art and literature at Maheshwar. Her compassion for social concerns and passion for religious reforms remains unequalled. Her devotion to the country and her allegiance to the throne of the Peshwas remain exemplary!This is a humble effort to explore the emotional journey of the life of the lady who etched a special place in history not just with her altruistic work but also with her incomparable developmental work. She should be known not just for her charitable draft but political craft`a true Karmayogini!

    poems from ancient Sanskrit, tr Schelling

    Includes recipes for such dishes as sesame yogurt potatoes, Pishima's stuffed okra, cauliflower and potatoe surprise, and creamy pineapple and rice jubile

    On 20th May the Indian summer monsoon will begin to envelop the country in two great wet arms, one coming from the east, the other from the west. They are united over central India around 10th July, a date that can be calculated within seven or eight days. Frater aims to follow the monsoon, staying sometimes behind it, sometimes in front of it, and everywhere watching the impact of this extraordinary phenomenon. During the anxious period of waiting, the weather forecaster is king, consulted by pie-crested cockatoos, and a joyful period ensues: there is a period of promiscuity, and scandals proliferate. Frater's journey takes him to Bangkok and the cowboy town on the Thai-Malaysian border to Rangoon and Akyab in Burma (where the front funnels up between the mountains and the sea). Alexander Frater's fascinating narrative reveals the exotic, often startling discoveries of an ambitious and irresistibly romantic adventure

    As part of the said centenary, the Government also decided to publish the Collected Works of Mahatma Phule in English— in a number of volumes.The Government, therefore, constituted the Mahatma Phule Death Centenary Committee which organised a number of functions and activities throughout the year 1990-91 to mark the occasion.I am happy to present the First Volume of the Collected Works of Mahatma Phule—namely ‘ Slavery '. This was published in Marathi in 1873. The full title of the book runs as follows :—“ Slavery (in the Civilised British Government under the cloak ofBrahmanism)—exposed by Jotirao Govindrao Phule (1873).”The prescience of Jotirao is reflected in the ‘ Dedication ’ of this slender booklet. Jotirao dedicated this book to “ the good people of the United States as a token of admiration for their sublime, disinterested and self-sacrificing devotion in the causes of Negro Slavery ”.Jotirao hated slavery in any form. Physical slavery is bad enough, but the Slavery of the mind and spirit—perpetrated in the name of Religion upon the Shudra and Ati-shudra inhabitants of India down the ages is a blot on the fair name of Hinduism. Jotirao pours ridicule and contempt upon the Aryan interlopers for their tyranny.Jotirao hoped that his countrymen will be inspired by the noble example of the American people to undo this wrong by emancipating the Shudra and Ati-shudra “ from the trammels of Brahmin thraldom ”.The Centenaiy Committee entrusted the work of translating this important volumes by Jotirao into cnglish to Barrister P. G. Patil who is an eminent Professor of English and a reverent student of the philosophy of Mahatma Phule and the Satya Shodhak Movement in Maharashtra.I do hope the younger generation of Maharashtra will study this book reverently, will imbibe its seminal teaching and will try to translate those noble ideas into their personal and social life. By so doing, they (Vi) will blaze a new trail not only in Maharashtra but in India as a whole. This will please the soul of Mahatma Phule and will enrich and ennoble the fabric of Social and Cultural life of Maharashtra.I have great pleasure in commending and recommending this important volume ‘ Slavery ’ by Mahatma Phule to the discerning people of Maharashtra in particular and of India in general.

    Thomas in India legend―its origin, history and communal ramifications―and is named after the main, 24-chapter essay by Ishwar Sharan. The book also includes many independent, penetrating articles by senior journalists and scholars. The book exposes the vicious blood libel against Hindus perpetrated by Christians for centuries regarding the harassment and execution of St. Thomas during his alleged Mylapore sojourn. A chapter documents the pronounced pro-Christian bias of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and popular on-line reference portal Wikipedia. Both encyclopedias carry fanciful, non-factual entries for St. Thomas the Apostle in India that they refuse to correct or change.And last but not least, the book documents the destruction of the original Kapaleeshwara Shiva Temple by the Portuguese and its replacement by the San Thome Cathedral Basilica on the Mylapore beach in Chennai.With references and comprehensive bibliography.

    

    

    

    This book prepared by Swami Harshananda explains not only the historical evolution of the temple, its architecture and its symbology but also contains ideas for its rehabilitation.

    

    Juergensmeyer addresses the perplexing relationship between modernity and religious faith and examines it from historical, sociological, and phenomenological points of view.

    Records the work, travels, and adventures of one of the last of the great British explorers, a man who served in both world wars and carved out a special niche in science through his studies of desert sands.

    This new edition containing a preface and afterword, is a part of a larger exercise aimed at understanding the construction of Indian society, and politics as a whole in recent times by challenging the conventional analysis of communalism and providing alternative theoretical cues to grasp its nature and dynamics.

    A book written by a veteran Eelam Tamil politician that provides the modern historical context for the struggle for a sovereign Tamil Eelam.

    Drawing on contemporary reports, official documents and personal interviews with old residents of Simla, the book covers roughly the hundred years leading up to India's independence.

    Ramanujan and Dom Moraes--often considered the originators of modern Indian poetry in English. Vastly dissimilar in background, style, relationship to India, and vision, their poetry expresses in different ways some of the concerns of Indian writers in English. This work examines these concerns as well as each poet's major themes and preoccupations, the traits which characterize his poetry, and his evolution as a poet. Providing a brief biographical sketch of each poet, a close literary analysis of his work, and a discussion on technique and poetic process, Three Indian Poets should prove invaluable to poetry readers and those interested in commonwealth literature.

    In the process he uncovers the secret negotiations they conducted and the secret understanding they struck with the British; the reports they submitted to the imperial rulers about the work they were doing to subvert the movement Mahatma Gandhi had launched. He concludes with a review of the reactions of Indian communists to the break-up of the Soviet empire; showing how their mental make-up and habits have not changed in the six decades since independence.