Best of
India

1997

Mottled Dawn: Fifty Sketches and Stories of Partition


Saadat Hasan Manto - 1997
    The book includes unforgettable stories like "Toba Tek Singh", "The Return", "The Assignment", "Colder Than Ice" and many more, bringing alive the most tragic event in the history of the Indian subcontinent.

Cuckold


Kiran Nagarkar - 1997
    The Rajput kingdom of Mewar is at the height of its power. It is locked in war with the Sultanates of Delhi, Gujarat and Malwa. But there is another deadly battle being waged within Mewar itself. who will inherit the throne after the death of the Maharana? The course of history, not just of Mewar but of the whole of India, is about to be changed forever. At the centre of Cuckold is the narrator, heir apparent of Mewar, who questions the codes, conventions and underlying assumptions of the feudal world of which he is a part, a world in which political and personal conduct are dictated by values of courage, valour and courtesy; and death is preferable to dishonour. A quintessentially Indian story, Cuckold has an immediacy and appeal that are truely universal.

The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey from Peasant to International Legend


Phoolan Devi - 1997
    Enduring cruel poverty, Phoolan Devi survived the humiliation of an abusive marriage, the savage killing of her bandit-lover, and horrifying gang rape to claim retribution for herself and all low-caste women of the Indian plains. In a three-year campaign that rocked the government, she delivered justice to rape victims and stole from the rich to give to the poor, before negotiating surrender on her own terms. Throughout her years of imprisonment without trial, Phoolan Devi remained a beacon of hope for the poor and the downtrodden. In 1996, amidst both popular support and media controversy, she was elected to the Parliament. On July 25, 2001, Phoolan Devi was shot dead in Delhi. The identity of her killers is unknown, but it is thought that they may include relatives of villagers killed by her gang nearly twenty years ago. For over a decade millions have found the power and scope of Phoolan Devi's myth irresistible. Here is the story of her life through her eyes and in her own voice.

जूठन: पहला खंड [Joothan]


Omprakash Valmiki - 1997
    "Joothan" refers to scraps of food left on a plate, destined for the garbage or animals. India's untouchables have been forced to accept and eat joothan for centuries, and the word encapsulates the pain, humiliation, and poverty of a community forced to live at the bottom of India's social pyramid.Although untouchability was abolished in 1949, Dalits continued to face discrimination, economic deprivation, violence, and ridicule. Valmiki shares his heroic struggle to survive a preordained life of perpetual physical and mental persecution and his transformation into a speaking subject under the influence of the great Dalit political leader, B. R. Ambedkar. A document of the long-silenced and long-denied sufferings of the Dalits, Joothan is a major contribution to the archives of Dalit history and a manifesto for the revolutionary transformation of society and human consciousness.

Joothan: An Untouchable's Life


Omprakash Valmiki - 1997
    "Joothan" refers to scraps of food left on a plate, destined for the garbage or animals. India's untouchables have been forced to accept and eat joothan for centuries, and the word encapsulates the pain, humiliation, and poverty of a community forced to live at the bottom of India's social pyramid.Although untouchability was abolished in 1949, Dalits continued to face discrimination, economic deprivation, violence, and ridicule. Valmiki shares his heroic struggle to survive a preordained life of perpetual physical and mental persecution and his transformation into a speaking subject under the influence of the great Dalit political leader, B. R. Ambedkar. A document of the long-silenced and long-denied sufferings of the Dalits, Joothan is a major contribution to the archives of Dalit history and a manifesto for the revolutionary transformation of society and human consciousness.

Golden Afternoon


M.M. Kaye - 1997
    M. Kaye returns, after spending several years at a British boarding school, to India, the cherished country of her childhood. It is 1927, and nineteen-year-old Mollie makes her debut on the Delhi social scene. Feeling awkward and plain, party etiquette and society's intricate rules fluster her, but she finds comfort in her family, her Indian friends, her watercolors, and the country itself.The same humor, wisdom, and enchantment that inspired M.M. Kaye's bestselling novels fill the pages of Golden Afternoon. Kaye recreates with perfection the nuances of a lifestyle long past and brings the people and glorious terrain of India to vivid life.

The Heart of God: Prayers of Rabindranath Tagore


Rabindranath Tagore - 1997
    He was also a distinguished author, educator, social reformer, and philosopher. Today, Tagore along with Mahatma Gandhi is prized as the foremost intellectual and spiritual advocates of India's liberation from imperial rule. This inspiring collection of Tagore's poetry represents his "simple prayers of common life." Each of the seventy-seven prayers is an eloquent affirmation of the divine in the face of both joy and sorrow. Like the Psalms of David, they transcend time and speak directly to the human heart. The spirit of this collection may be best symbolized by a single sentence by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the renowned philosopher and statesman who served as president of India: "Rabindranath Tagore was one of the few representatives of the universal person to whom the future of the world belongs."

Breast Stories


Mahasweta Devi - 1997
    *Translated and introduced by Gayatry Chakravorty Spivak*As Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak points out in her introduction, the breast is far more than a symbol in these stories - it is the means of harshly indicting an explotative social system.In "Draupadi", the protagonist, Dopdi Mejhen, is a tribal revolutionary, who, arrested and gang-raped in custody, turns the terrible wounds of her breast into a counter-offensive,In "Breast-giver", a woman who becomes a professional wet nurse to support her family, dies of painful breast cancer, betrayed alike by the breasts that had for years been her chief identity and the dozens of 'sons' she had suckled.In "Behind the Bodice", migrant labourer Gangor's 'statuesque' breasts excite the attention of ace photographer Upin Puri, triggering off a train of violence that ends in tragedy.Spivak introduces this cycle of 'breast stories' with thought-provoking essays which probe the texts of the stories, opening them up to a complex of interpretation and meaning.

The God of Small Things


Arundhati Roy - 1997
    In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist workers' demonstration. Inside the car sit two-egg twins Rahel and Esthappen, and so begins their tale. . . .Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family—their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts).When their English cousin, Sophie Mol, and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, arrive on a Christmas visit, Esthappen and Rahel learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river "graygreen." With fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night, the broken yellow moon in it.The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.The God of Small Things takes on the Big Themes—Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite Joy. Here is a writer who dares to break the rules. To dislocate received rhythms and create the language she requires, a language that is at once classical and unprecedented. Arundhati Roy has given us a book that is anchored to anguish, but fueled by wit and magic.

Indian Art (Phaidon Art and Ideas)


Vidya Dehejia - 1997
    Considering Indian art within a chronological framework, Vidya Dehejia analyses the great cities of the Indus civilization, the serene Buddha image, the intriguing art of cave sites, the sophisticated temple-building traditions, the luxurious art of the Mughal court, the palaces and pavilions of Rajasthan, the churches of Portuguese Goa, the various forms of art in the British Raj and the issues related to taking Indian art into the twenty-first century.

The Last Spring: The Lives and Times of the Great Mughals


Abraham Eraly - 1997
    MASSIVE BIOLOGICAL STUDIES, READS WELL.

Mahatma & the Poet: Letters & Debates Between Gandhi & Tagore, 1915-1941


Sabyasachi Bhattacharya - 1997
    The introduction by the compilor examines the historical context of the correspondence and provides an overview of the major issues discussed.

Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division


Patrick French - 1997
    The greatest mass migration in history began, as Muslims fled north and Hindus fled south, over a million being massacred on the way. Britain's role as world power came to an end and the course of Asia's future was irrevocably set. Patrick French offers a reinterpretation of the events surrounding India's independence and partition, including the disastrous mistakes made by politicians and the bizarre reasoning behind many of their decisions. Exploring the interplay between characters such as Churchill, Mountbatten and Gandhi, it reveals a tale of idealism and manipulation, hope and tragedy. With sources ranging from newly declassified secret documents to the memories of refugees, Patrick French gives an account of an epic debacle, the impact of which reverberates across Asia to this day.

Land of the Tiger: A Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent


Valmik Thapar - 1997
    Marked by dramatic extremes of climate and terrain, it is home to black bears, snow leopards, elephants, and flying lizards, and it is the only place in the world where both lions and tigers reside.After a lifetime devoted to the study and conservation of the tiger, Valmik Thapar turns his attention to the plants and animals that share the tiger's domain. How have so many species survived on such a crowded continent, where twenty percent of the world's population exerts intense pressure on the environment? Thapar links the region's tremendous diversity to the reverence shown to nature by Eastern religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. But fifty years after India's independence, modern and urban values are seriously eroding the subcontinent's ecosystems.Thapar's careful natural history is enriched by his personal anecdotes and musings on spirituality and culture. His own reverence for the wildlife and landscape he encounters and his brilliant photographs make this book an enthralling read, and it is also a moving argument for more vigilant nature conservation on the Indian subcontinent.

Traditional Jewelry Of India


Oppi Untracht - 1997
    The book encompasses every area of the country, from sophisticated urban enclaves to isolated ethnic communities. Beginning with Paleothic body ornaments, the author goes on to identify the emergence of major traditional forms, such as amulets, rosaries, marriage ornaments, temple jewelry, theatrical jewelry, and adornment for animals. The illustrations are drawn from public and private collections around the world, and line drawings depict traditional design forms and techniques. 870 illustrations, 220 in color.

Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs


Christopher Pinney - 1997
    Studying photographic practice in India, Pinney traces photography's various purposes and goals from colonial through postcolonial times. He identifies three key periods in Indian portraiture: the use of photography under British rule as a quantifiable instrument of measurement, the later role of portraiture in moral instruction, and the current visual popular culture and its effects on modes of picturing. Photographic culture thus becomes a mutable realm in which capturing likeness is only part of the project. Lavishly illustrated, Pinney's account of the change from depiction to invention uncovers fascinating links between these evocative images and the society and history from which they emerge.

The Red Tin Roof


Nirmal Verma - 1997
    The story has a brooding tone. Nirmal Verma explores an inner world.

All the Way to Heaven


Stephen Alter - 1997
    The son of a Presbyterian missionary living in the Himalayas in India soon after independence looks back on the events and exotic setting of his youth.

Medieval India: From Sultanat To The Mughals 1526-1748


Satish Chandra - 1997
    

Carey, Christ, and Cultural Transformation: The Life and Influence of William Carey


Ruth Mangalwadi - 1997
    

Malabar and the Portuguese


K.M. Panikkar - 1997
    Panikkar (1895-1963) became well known as a distinguished administrator and diplomat. But the field in which he really excelled was history. His best work, Asia and western Dominance, was published in 1953, and raised a great uproar in Christian missionary circles, particularly in India. He had documented the role of Christian missions as accomplices of Western in 1929, was a prolegomenon to what came twenty-four years later.;It is customary to speak about the 'Portuguese Empire' in India as if it were something distantly alike, and predecessor to, the British Empire. The Portuguese never had any 'Empire' in India. They had a few coastal towns, and their authority never extended beyond a few miles of their naval bases. So far as Malabar was concerned this was undoubtedly the case. The hundred years' was with the Zamorin, which was essentially a bid for land power, failed miserably with the capture, by that ruler, of the fortress at Chaliyam in 1599. The result was that, except in Cochin and Quilon, the Indian rulers strongly resisted their encroachments and were always in open fight against their pretensions. Never were they able to gain either the confidence or the respect of the people with whom they came in contact. The popular idea, which was on the whole right, was that the Portuguese were, as a nation, treacherous, untrustworthy and barbarously cruel. Whenever there was an opportunity for plunder, they never allowed either considerations of humanity, religion or good faith to stand in their way. The Portuguese came to India with a Cross in the one hand and a sword in the other. King Joao III (1557-1578) was particularly anxious about the spread of Christianity and wrote to the Viceroy Joao de Castro demanding that all the power of the Portuguese should be directed to this purpose.

Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891–1970


Sumathi Ramaswamy - 1997
    Sumathi Ramaswamy suggests that these discourses cannot be contained within a singular metanarrative of linguistic nationalism and instead proposes a new analytic, "language devotion." She uses this concept to track the many ways in which Tamil was imagined by its speakers and connects these multiple imaginings to their experience of colonial and post-colonial modernity. Focusing in particular on the transformation of the language into a goddess, mother, and maiden, Ramaswamy explores the pious, filial, and erotic aspects of Tamil devotion. She considers why, as its speakers sought political and social empowerment, metaphors of motherhood eventually came to dominate representations of the language.

Mark Tully's India


Mark Tully - 1997
    Sir Mark Tully was the BBC's Foreign Correspondent in India from 1972 to 1994. He has become familiar to listeners around the world for his incisive and thought-provoking reports. On this special recording, he looks back at his career that coincided with a remarkable period in Indian history.

The Essential Writings of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (Oxford India Paperbacks)


Sugata Bose - 1997
    Distilled from the authoritative, twelve-volume Collected Works, this collection stands a concise introduction to the thought of India's foremost militant nationalist.

Mahatma Jotirao Phooley: Father Of Indian Social Revolution


Dhananjay Keer - 1997
    On Life Of Phooley, 1827-1890, Work with Lower Classes, Women, Peasant Movement

The King of the World: An Imperial Manuscript for the Royal Library Windsor Castle


Milo Cleveland Beach - 1997
    The manuscript will be exhibited in 1997 in celebration of India's 50 years of independence from British rule. This reproduction accompanies the exhibition. 200 illus. 100in color.

Rediscovering Gandhi


Yogesh Chadha - 1997
    It also presents a detailed account of the planning of his assassination, its execution, and the trial that followed it. With the help of Gandhi's own writings and many government papers which have become accessible in recent years, the book takes readers through the events which became turning points in Gandhi's intellectual, political and spiritual development.

Music in India


Bonnie C. Wade - 1997
    It is anintroduction to the principles, ideas, and systems of twotraditions of Indian classical music. It is geared to the listeneras well as to the performer. Chapter 1 concerns the listener andthe effect of music. Performance situations are described to showhow theory is put into practice. Chapters 2 and 3 contrast conceptsin Indian and Western classical music as well as classification ofmelody type, ideas about notating and notation systems used inIndian traditions are also explained. Chapter 4 describes theprimary melody-producing instruments. Chapter 5 contrastsHindustani and Western concepts of rhythm and meter. Additionalchapters are concerned with those performance genres which can beheard on available recordings. The final chapter combines all ofthe various elements by commenting on the requirements of a goodmusician. In this new edition, the author has revised the sourcematerials, pertinent information, and dates so that the reader isdirected to more current readings and audio-visual materials andwhere to find them. Thus, in the Appendix the bibliography has beenrevised; the discography and filmography have been updated.

The Firebird's Nest


Salman Rushdie - 1997
    

Quest for Kim: In Search of Kipling's Great Game


Peter Hopkirk - 1997
    Fascinated since childhood by this strange tale of an orphan boy's recruitment into the Indian secret service, Peter Hopkirk here explores the many mysteries surrounding Kipling's great novel."This is a fascinating, brilliantly written book, as interesting in its description of the author's journeys as it is in its investigation of the reality that lies behind 'the finest novel in the English language with an Indian theme,'" as Kim has been described by Nirad Chaudhuri." --T. J. Binyon, Times Literary Supplement"In an original combination of autobiography, travel writing, and literary detective work, Hopkirk manages accessibly to tell the story of Kim and his own obsession with it. Hopkirk illustrates how creatively and thoroughly the reading of a work of fiction can shape a whole life's experience." -- John R. Bradley, Independent on Sunday". . . a reminder of just how absorbing was the world Kipling knew, and how fabulous was his transformation of it into literature." --Richard Bernstein, New York TimesPeter Hopkirk has traveled widely over many years in the regions where his books are set--Central Asia, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. His nearly twenty years with The Times included work as an Asian affairs specialist. His previous books include The Great Game, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, Trespassers on the Roof of the World, Setting the East Ablaze, and Our Secret Service East of Constantinople. His works have been translated into twelve languages.

The Nationalization of Hindu Traditions: Bharatendu Hari'shchandra and Nineteenth-Century Banaras


Vasudha Dalmia - 1997
    It examines the life and writings of one major Hindi writer of the nineteenth century--the playwright, journalist, and polemicist Bharatendu Harishchandra (often called the Father of Modern Hindi)--as its focal point for an analysis of some of the vital cultural processes through which modern north India came to be formed.

The Proudest Day: India's Long Road to Independence


Anthony Read - 1997
    Macaulay's dream had become a flawed and bloody reality. The Proudest Day is a riveting account of the end of the Raj, the most romantic of all the great empires. Anthony Read and David Fisher tell the whole epic story in compelling and colorful detail from its beginnings more than a century earlier; their powerful narrative takes a fresh look at many of the events and personalities involved, especially the three charismatic giants --Gandhi, Nehru, and Jinnah --who dominated the final, increasingly bitter thirty years. Meanwhile, a succession of British politicians and viceroys veered wildly between liberalism and repression until the Raj became a powder keg, wanting only a match.

Resorts of the Raj: Hill Stations of India


Vikram Bhatt - 1997
    Within easy reach of these, nestled in the cool mountains, they built resorts to which they could escape for rest and recreation. Soon these became the summer capitals of the governors. This led to the vast network of roads, rail links and communications that allowed the British to rule from these comfortable surrounds. This became a major legacy of the British rule in the country, yet little has been published about them.

Lite and Luscious Cuisine of India: Recipes and Tips for Healthy and Quick Meals


Madhu Gadia - 1997
    Here are more than 100 traditional recipes from all over India that are incredibly tasty without overwhelming spices or fat. The book includes nutritional information, guidelines for healthy eating, and menu ideas for special diets including diabetes, low fat, low cholesterol, and vegetarian.

The St. Petersburg Muraqqa: Album Of Indian And Persian Miniatures From The 16th Through The 18th Century And Specimens Of Persian Calligraphy


Oleg F. Akimushkin - 1997
    

Mother Teresa: A Pictorial Biography


Courage Books - 1997
    Created before her death, this pictorial biography both enlightens and inspires as it sheds light on Mother Teresa's beginnings and illuminates the selfless and remarkable work that earned her a Nobel prize. Full-color and b&w photos.

The Artful Universe


William K. Mahony - 1997
    Provides an accessible introduction to the Vedic religious world by focusing on the role of divine and human imagination in sacred texts.

Nationalism, Democracy, and Development: State and Politics in India


Ayesha Jalal - 1997
    The contributors, including Amartya Sen and Pranab Bardhan, question the dichotomy between secular nationalism and religious communalism and take issue with cultural critiques of modernity and nationalism.

Buddhist India


T.W. Rhys Davids - 1997
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.