Laxmikanth needs no introduction. It is one of the most popular and comprehensive books on the subject and has been a consistent bestseller for many years. It has become a must-read book for aspirants appearing in various competitive examinations especially the civil services examinations. The wide range and scope of issues that it covers, also make it valuable to postgraduates, research scholars, academicians, researchers and general readers who would like to be well informed of the country's political and constitutional issues.

    Bitter Fruit presents the best collection of Manto's writings, from his short stories, plays and sketches, to portraits of cinema artists, a few pieces on himself, and his letters to Uncle Sam which have references to communism, Russia, politics after the Partition and his own financial condition. The concluding section of the book has acknowledgements and reminiscences from Saadat's friends and relatives. Bitter Fruit includes stories like A Wet Afternoon, The Return, A Believer's Version, Toba Tek Singh, Colder Than Ice, The Assignment, Odour, By The Roadside, Bribing the Almighty, The Kingdom's End, The Woman in the Red Raincoat, The Room with the Bright Light, The Great Divide, The Angel, Siraj, An Old Fashioned Man, The Price of Freedom, It Happened in 1919, The Girl from Delhi, A Man of God, Free for All, and A Tale of 1947. There is a collection of sketches too. Manto used to write radio plays and this book has one of the dramas he penned, called In This Vortex. His short stories bring out the most delicate nuances of human nature.

    The Mahabharata is obsessed with the elusive notion of dharma - in essence, doing the right thing. When a hero falters, the action stops and everyone weighs in with a different and often contradictory take on dharma. The epic's characters are flawed, but their incoherent experiences throw light on our familiar dilemmas. Gurcharan Das's best-selling book India Unbound examined the classical aim of artha, material well being. This, his first book in seven years, dwells on the goal of dharma, moral well being. It addresses the central problem of how to live our lives in an examined way - holding a mirror up to us and forcing us to confront the many ways in which we deceive ourselves and others. What emerges is a doctrine of dharma that we can apply to our business decisions, political strategies and interpersonal relationships - in effect, to life itself.

    . . A prison warder from Kerala is worshipped as an incarnate deity for two months of every year . . . A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment watching her closest friend ritually starve herself to death . . . The twenty-third in a centuries-old line of idol makers struggles to reconcile with his son’s wish to study computer engineering . . . An illiterate goatherd keeps alive in his memory an ancient 200,000-stanza sacred epic . . . A temple prostitute, who resisted her own initiation into sex work, pushes her daughters into the trade she nonetheless regards as a sacred calling.William Dalrymple tells these stories, among others, with expansive insight and a spellbinding evocation of remarkable circumstance, giving us a dazzling travelogue of both place and spirit

    This uncompromising fighter for an end of "exploitation of man by man and nations by nations" remains a revered hero of oppressed people around the world today.

    History Of Modern India is a book that is written by renowned historian, Bipan Chandra. The contents of this book are a result of Chandra’s research on the subjects of colonialism and nationalism in the country. Apart from his research, Chandra has also drawn from the works of renowned historians during that time in history.In total, there are 14 chapters in this book that cover different periods in Indian history. Some of the chapters in this book include Indian States And Society In The Eighteenth Century, Religious And Social Reform After 1858, The Struggle For Sawaraj, The Nationalist Movement, European Penetration And The British Conquest, Social And Cultural Awakening In The First Half Of The Nineteenth Century, The Decline Of The Mughal Empire, and The Revolt Of 1857. Some other chapters include The Nationalist Movement: 1858-1905, Administrative Changes After 1858, and Administrative Organisation And Society And Cultural Policy.This book doesn’t focus on the political factors during that period, but deals with the economic, religious, and social history of India. Through the course of this book, Chandra provides insight on several events in modern Indian history such as the establishment of the British East India Company, which led to a tightened grip of the British over India. Chandra also explains that the major reason behind the colonial rule was to exploit India by means of investment and trade. The chapters in this book are arranged in chronological order, starting from the British Rule to the independence of the country. This piece of literature provides its readers with loads of information on the nationalist movement, throwing light on the contributions made by several different individuals. This book is a must-have for history students as well as for those who want to gain insight into the history of modern India.

    The issue of Kashmir still is a crucial issue discussed across forums in the global arena and is one of the major hindrances in improving relationship with India’s neighbour and kin of one time. Much has been written about Kashmir and the separatist movement in Kashmir. But the beautifully scripted account of the brutality with which the separatist movement is carried on till date has no precedence. The book, Curfewed Nights, gives an honest, crude, and truthful account of what goes on in the paradise of India which is under the spell of the separatist movement.The author of the book, Basharat Peer, being a Kashmiri himself has related to each and every detail provided in the book from the first hand experiences gathered by him. Since independence of India, many Kashmiri youths have been mesmerised by the terrorism to the extent that they want to join the terrorist organisations even without thinking about their families or themselves. They have illusioned godfathers in the leaders of such terrorist outfits. In fact, the author was sent out of Kashmir by his family, just to keep him away from these painful romances with the militants.The book, Curfewed Night, has a lot of heart-rending accounts of how a mother watches her son who is forced to hold an exploding bomb or how a poet discovers his religion when his entire family is killed or how the politicians are tortured inside the refurbished torture chambers or how villages have been rigged with landmines which kills innocent civilians, and how temples have converted into army bunkers while ancient Sufi shrines have been decapitated in bomb blasts.

    It captures the dominance of a colonial power over the region that began with the entry of the Portuguese about four hundred years ago. The novel is a graphic description of the displacement of this strongly-rooted community which saw its resurrection in a new area. In the course of its narrative, the novel traces the gradual changes in the structure of the family that moved from a closely knit joint family of the bygone era to the nuclear family. It also deals with the factors that are responsible for the change in value systems of individuals in the wake of such paradigm shifts. With its vast canvas, it remarkably weaves fiction with myth and history, peppered with cultural details and linguistic nuances. The narration in Swapna Saraswatha progresses in the form of an epic detailing the story of nine generations spread over a period of two hundred and fifty years from 1510 to about 1760. It encompasses more than a hundred and fifty characters which include Hindus, Muslims, Christians, chieftains, traders, farmers, priests and black magicians, and covers a range of themes spread across folk tales, legends, armies, myths and a sprinkling of history.

    . . pitch-perfect prose. . . . In language of terrible beauty, she takes India's everyday tragedies and reminds us to be outraged all over again."written in response to new developments in India that have seen the government launch a full scale war, "Operation Green Hunt," against the tribal community of Naxals defending their land in central India), and a previously unpublished essay also dealing with the government's response to the tribals' demands for greater land rights. Arundhati Roy's writings on the Naxals and her public support for their cause have led to a government investigation and threats of imprisonment, engendering worldwide petitions and outcry in her defense.

    This story was fabricated in three phases. First, during the Crusades, scientific knowledge from across the world, in captured Arabic books, was given a theologically-correct origin by claiming it was all transmitted from the Greeks. The key cases of Euclid (geometry) and Claudius Ptolemy (astronomy)—both concocted figures—are used to illustrate this process. Second, during the Inquisition, world scientific knowledge was again assigned a theologically-correct origin by claiming it was not transmitted from others, but was “independently rediscovered” by Europeans. The cases of Copernicus and Newton (calculus) illustrate this process of “revolution by rediscovery”. Third, the appropriated knowledge was reinterpreted and aligned to post-Crusade theology. Colonial and racist historians exploited this, arguing that the (theologically) “correct” version of scientific knowledge (geometry, calculus, etc.) existed only in Europe. These processes of appropriation continue to this day.

    Based on extensive fieldwork and research, this work maps out the regional crafts identified across the country on the basis of prevailing craftwork patterns. It is closely woven with images to reveal the array of crafts in India, enabling the reader to discern subtle, sometimes unusual, differences in the same craft practiced by distinct regions or communities. Some of these are well known, like the woodwork of Kashmir, blue pottery of Jaipur, and the bamboo craft of Assam. The authors also describe lesser-known crafts like stitched boots from Ladakh, paintings from Jharkhand, and tinsel printing in Ahmedabad.With its extensive photography, this unique volume will be a tremendous resource for product and textile designers, artists, architects, interior designers, collectors, development professionals, and connoisseurs alike.

    The Muslims had to grapple with a nation that had suddenly become unrecognizable and where they found themselves to be second-class citizens. Not used to the Urdu, the mosques and the new avatars of domination, they were bewildered by the new Islamic state of Pakistan. Sindh as a nation had simultaneously become elusive for both communities. In Unbordered Memories we witness Sindhis from India and Pakistan making imaginative entries into each other’s worlds. Many stories in this volume testify to the Sindhi Muslims’ empathy for the world inhabited by the Hindus, and the Indian Sindhis’ solidarity with the turbulence experienced by Pakistani Sindhis. These writings from both sides of the border fiercely critique the abuse of human dignity in the name of religion and national borders. They mock the absurdity of containing subcontinental identities within the confines of nations and of equating nations with religions. And they continually generate a shared, unbordered space for all Sindhis— Hindus and Muslims.

    These persons also blocked her appointment as police commissioner. This kind of sabotage was the proverbial last straw that compelled her to 'shake off the shackles'. After a long and rewarding innings (35 years in all), Kiran Bedi decided to move on. She believed that she could no longer work with persons who were keeping the system enslaved. She was clear in her mind that she was not going to be subordinated by this team of saboteurs. What direction and leadership would such persons provide except to create pygmies and stifle initiative and crush morale? She did not want to be a part of such dubious 'history'. As she asserts: 'My self-respect, my innate sense of justice and my beliefs and values in life propelled me to throw off the "yokes" that were already obstructing my growth and I now made up my mind to set myself free and be a master of my own time.' This is a no-holds-barred narrative packed with punch, spirit and vitality. Chosen as 'India's most admired woman', Kiran Bedi is a highly recognized and decorated police officer, who has won several accolades, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service. Throughout her career, Kiran Bedi (who joined the Indian Police Service in 1972) dared to remain innovative to meet the challenges posed by her different assignments: be it policing, managing prisons or imparting training. She won the admiration and respect of millions, both outside and within India.

    This text is a comprehensive field guide to all the 400 species of mammals in India.

    Challenge and Strategy: Rethinking India's Foreign Policy examines India's foreign policy options in order to ensure that the country retains its space for manoeuvre, to follow an independent foreign policy in the 21st century global scenario.

    Ramesh says that life is like a deep river, flowing incessantly, whereas the day-to-day living for most people is a preference for the security and stagnancy of the little pools beside the river. What happens in life is that the challenge is always new, but our response is old because it is formed on the past, which is memory. Experiencing with memory is one state, but experiencing without memory is altogether different. A new thought, an inspiration can happen only when the mind is not caught in the net of memory. It is only when the mind is still, tranquil, not seeking any solution, any answer, neither resisting nor avoiding, that it is capable of receiving what is true, that which is eternal, timeless, immeasurable. You cannot go to it, it comes to you; what liberates is the truth, not your effort to be free. Ramesh uses the river as an apt metaphor for his concept that no one is a doer but, rather, all actions are happenings ordained by the One Source, who some refer to as God. To perceive ourselves as the doers is like the river thinking that it is pushing itself onwards to the sea, or the sea thinking that the tides are its own doing - totally oblivious of the fact that is the gravitational force of the moon that is responsible for their ebb and flow. To let life flow, in general terms, means that we should go about our daily routine with a relaxed attitude, based on the total basic understanding that nothing at all can happen unless it is supposed to happen according to one's destiny, according to the Cosmic Law.

    

    Determined to emulate his warrior ancestors, Babur's hunger for an empire leads him to attempt to re-establish Timur's legacy around the fabled city of Samarkand, accompanied by his loyal army of followers.

    

    They want to know how the monks live, how they solve their knotty problems of daily life, with what attitude, and how. And what kind of problems come to them; could they too have to face problems? This book tries to give a peep into all these.

    

    So they must flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family until school starts, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer.But Gopal has been deceived. There is no factory but, instead, a small, stuffy sweatshop, where he and five other boys are forced to make beaded frames for no money and little food. The boys are forbidden to talk or even to call one another by their real names. In this atmosphere of distrust and isolation, locked in a rundown building in an unknown part of the city, Gopal despairs of ever seeing his family again.Then, late one night when Gopal decides to share kahanis, or stories, he realizes that storytelling might be the boys' key to holding on to their sense of self and their hope for any kind of future. If he can make them feel more like brothers than enemies, their lives will be more bearable in the shop—and they might even find a way to escape.

    The second most Progressive economy of the world, India is also home of world class Industrialist like Ratan Tata. Today Ratan Tata is one of the world's top-most industrialists who took some far- reaching decisions in the fast changing Indian economic scenario. Tata is a household name in India. From salt to heavy military trucks are the products of Tata. You name one and Tata must be there. Ratan Tata has all what a man desire in his life Name, Fame and Riches. He is Chairman of the India's most prestigious industrial house. The voyage of jamsetji to Ratan Tata has been presented in a reader's friendly was This book is a sincere attempt to help you know more about Ratan Tam, and of course about his ancestors too. Table of Contents 1. Navsari 2. Tata Titans 3 Jamsetji Nusservanji Tata 4. Sir Dorabji Tata 5. Lady Meherbai Tata 6. Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata 7. Sir Ratan Tata 8. Lady Navajbai Tata 9. Naval Hormusji Tata 10. J.R.D. Tata 11. Ratan Naval Tata 12. The Man of Steel 13. From Parsi Priests to Profits 14. Companies & Brands owned by Tata 15. Tata Unbound 16. The Kohinoor of India 17. A World Icon 18. Tata Nano: The Dream Car 19. Bidders War for Corus 20. Corus Take-over 21. After Corus Take-over 22. Land Rover-Jaguar Deal 23. Singur Controversy 24. Nano goes to Gujarat 25. Taj Mahal Hotels 26. Taj was Warned of Terror Attacks 27. Tajm

    The tuneful purity and timeless quality of her voice have had a profound impact. For over six decades, as the much loved singer, she has reigned supreme in Indian film music and has been conferred in 2001, the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Lata Mangeshkar has recorded more songs than anyone else in the world and yet, despite her extraordinary fame, she is a deeply private person who has mostly shied away from glitz and glamour. "Lata Mangeshkar - in Her Own Voice," a series of fascinating conversations between Lata Mangeshkar and Nasreen Munni Kabir, takes us into the world of India's most gifted singer and reveals the person behind the voice that has provided the soundtrack for the lives of billions.

    As Gind, his father Karuppan, and Ongchu set out on their long, arduous journey from the island of Poompuhar, they are stalked by wild animals and magical beings, waylaid and terrorized by rakshasas, and thwarted by a wrathful Indra, the god of thunder. They meet an army of vanaras on a mission to rescue a human princess from the clutches of the wicked rakshasa king; help a giant vanara in his search for the magical herb sanjeevini; and winter with a band of yetis in the high Himalayas. Mysterious and momentous things are happening around the vanaras, but they are clueless about their own part in these events. What is Agastya’s secret purpose? Will the three vanaras make it to Baulpur? What are the shadowy forces at work?Gind’s exciting adventures will have you rollicking from one escapade to another in this action-packed fantasy. Meet delightful, strange and magical characters, and follow the trail of the vanaras as their light-hearted adventure turns into an odyssey…

    Here, more than a million people live on its 500 acres of former swampland surrounded by luxury high-rise condominiums. Yet this is a book filled with hope, telling the story of those with huge hearts and individuals from around the globe standing up to create a wave of conscious steps toward a better planet and better life for these 25 million Indian children.

    Soon after Mother India’s emergence in the late nineteenth century, artists, both famous and amateur, began to picture her in various media, incorporating the map of India into her visual persona. The images they produced enabled patriotic men and women in a heterogeneous population to collectively visualize India, affectively identify with it, and even become willing to surrender their lives for it. Filled with illustrations, including 100 in color, The Goddess and the Nation draws on visual studies, gender studies, and the history of cartography to offer a rigorous analysis of Mother India’s appearance in painting, print, poster art, and pictures from the late nineteenth century to the present.By exploring the mutual entanglement of the scientifically mapped image of India and a (Hindu) mother/goddess, Sumathi Ramaswamy reveals Mother India as a figure who relies on the British colonial mapped image of her dominion to distinguish her from the other goddesses of India, and to guarantee her novel status as embodiment, sign, and symbol of national territory. Providing an exemplary critique of ideologies of gender and the science of cartography, Ramaswamy demonstrates that images do not merely reflect history; they actively make it. In The Goddess and the Nation, she teaches us about pictorial ways of learning the form of the nation, of how to live with it—and ultimately to die for it.

    The present volume puts together a selection of his Frontline columns. This volume is a testimony to the variety of his interests, his erudition, and his ability to communicate complex questions of history and theory in simple and elegant prose. EMS discusses, among other things, the roles and contributions of Congress leaders from Dadabhai Naoroji and Ranade to Gandhi, Subhas Bose and Nehru to Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh; he discusses the thoughts and relevance of Marxist theoreticians including Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Mao Tse-tung and Stalin, as well as Nelson Mandela; he writes on religion, philosophy and art; he discusses important questions of the Indian polity including planning and centre-state relations; he comments on the Indian Communist movement (including on the decision not to join the United Front government at the centre in 1996); and he writes about the radical experiments in Kerala.E.M.S. NAMBOODIRIPAD (1909–1998) was among India’s pioneering Communist leaders and a Marxist theoretician of enormous stature. He became Chief Minister of Kerala on two occasions, in 1957 at the head of the historic first Communist government, and again in 1967 as head of a seven-party coalition. He was the author of several books and hundreds of articles and essays.

    

    

    At dawn, he arrived in front of a hut where an untouchable was cleaning out the carcass of a bull. As he was surprised to find himself there, the King was about to ask where he was and in which province and hamlet he had arrived, when he caught sight of a dazzlingly beautiful young girl. She was simple and smiling, the very embodiment of grace. And of course he fell in love with her.

    It also delves into related subjects such as poverty, regional disparities, policies, social change and social movements, the elements of democracy, dynamics of the party system, secularism, federalism, decentralization, etc...

    He explores Indian nationalism from a different perspective, and discusses the political core of liberatory ideas as well as modern thinker-activists.

    But quickly we learn that the seemingly direct way the community of monks, seekers, beggars, roof-top monkeys and dogs interact with each other is soul opening. It gives the author the space, the distance and the safety to circle her own deeply disturbing childhood memories. At the center of the gyre, are fragmented images of a mattress in an attic room, visits to strange adults for horrific reasons, images of hospital rooms and distant parents. For most of her life, Janet Thomas tells us, she has managed to present herself to the outside world as a well-functioning single-mother holding down a variety of jobs from government work to magazine editing. She managed a movie theater, she played in a soccer league, she wrote successful plays, she had love affairs. But internally she was dealing with a volcano of grief, sexual confusion and psychological damage. This is a book for seekers--who will find inspiration and, at the very least, profound insights from a complicated woman who is struggling to understand the damage done by childhood abuse not just on those who experience it but society as a whole.

    

    Lecture in Japan

    

    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

    The scene-by-scene accounts, incisive analyses, and an exclusiveinterview with a LeT representative along with a description of its training camp in Muridke, Pakistan, reveal how the failure of Indian intelligence agencies landed Mumbai in the quagmire of terrorism. Paying homage to the brave security officers who lost their lives fighting the terrorists, 26/11 Mumbai Attacked reiterates the chilling reality that India is under grave threat and the clock is ticking before the next big attack.

    How does such a violent and exclusionary movement recruit supporters? How do members navigate the tensions between the normative prescriptions of such movements and competing ideologies?To understand the expansionary power of Hindu nationalism, Kalyani Menon argues, it is critical to examine the everyday constructions of politics and ideology through which activists garner support at the grassroots level. Based on fieldwork with women in several Hindu nationalist organizations, Menon explores how these activists use gendered constructions of religion, history, national insecurity, and social responsibility to recruit individuals from a variety of backgrounds. As Hindu nationalism extends its reach to appeal to increasingly diverse groups, she explains, it is forced to acknowledge a multiplicity of positions within the movement. She argues that Hindu nationalism's willingness to accommodate dissonance is central to understanding the popularity of the movement.Everyday Nationalism contends that the Hindu nationalist movement's power to attract and maintain constituencies with incongruous beliefs and practices is key to its growth. The book reveals that the movement's success is facilitated by its ability to become meaningful in people's daily lives, resonating with their constructions of the past, appealing to their fears in the present, presenting itself as the protector of the country's citizens, and inventing traditions through the use of Hindu texts, symbols, and rituals to unite people in a sense of belonging to a nation.

    And indeed, the earliest Buddhist scriptures celebrate the teachings and inspiring influence of these path-blazing female renunciants. Nonetheless, through much of the Buddhist world, the order of nuns has disappeared or was never transmitted at all.Dignity & Discipline represents a watershed moment in Buddhist history, as the Dalai Lama together with scholars and monastics from around the world, present powerful cases, grounded in both scripture and a profound appeal to human dignity, that the order of Buddhist nuns can and should be fully restored.

    This fascinating collection from one of India`s greatest writers explores the myriad shades of life in nineteenth century Bengal. It transports the reader to a world where patriarchy and strict social norms still ruled, and women struggled to find a place for themselves. But as these stories show, it was also a world in transition, from the rural to the urban, from stagnant traditions to the joys of individual freedom. These new translations by Sipra Bhattacharya retain the spirit and flavour of the original tales even as they recreate the timeless world of Tagore

    Insight into the working of Central Intelligence Agency through various reports presented on South Asia from 1951 to 2001.

    Her poems in collections such as Fix (1979), Women in Dutch Painting (1988) and Ways of Belonging (1990) have been critically acclaimed and reflect a strong sense of individuality and feminism. Compelling and succinct, they dwell on the themes of love, relationships and family. Through her poetry Eunice explores the dependency of lovers and the fraught relationships between parents and their children. She also examines the Roman Catholic community she grew up in, exposing it for its hypocrisy and conservatism. Relying on sound and rhythm, her well chosen, hard-hitting words bring out her sharp, clear imagery. A Necklace of Skulls contains all the verse Eunice de Souza has published during her illustrious career, as also unpublished new and early poems. This is a profoundly intimate and intensely personal collection.

    It assumes minimal background in mathematics and science. The book aims to create increased sensitivity among students towards environmental issues. It also aims to develop in them an appreciation of the seriousness of the environmental crisis at the local and global levels. The text discusses the major environmental problems we face today: overexploitation of natural resources, degraded land, disappearing forests, endangered species, escalating pollution, growing population, dangerous toxins, global warming, and extreme weather, among others. The book illustrates various problems, solutions, successes, and failures with about 30 environment-related stories and real-life cases both in the Indian and global contexts. Written in a student-friendly manner, the text is enriched with a number of photographs and illustrations. About The Author: R. Rajagopalan is closely involved in environmental education and is a member of the Governing Board of the international Ocean Institute, Malta. He conducts several short-term courses on environmental issues. He is the author of several children's books, two of which have won national awards. He has also published a book titled Environmental Studies: From Crisis to Cure (OUP) for college students. He holds a PhD in Industrial and Management Engineering from IIT Kanpur and has over thirty-one years of teaching experience at IIT Kanpur and IIT Madaras. Table Of Contents: 1. Introduction: The Global Environment Crisis 2. Environment: Definition and Scope 3. Ecosystems 4. Impact of Human Activities on the Environment 5. Sustainable Development and Environmental Impact Assessment 6. Water Resources 7. Forest and Mineral Resources 8. Material Cycles 9. Conventional and Non-conventional Energy Sources 10. Pollution and Solid Waste Management 11. Types of Pollution 12. Populat

    In Pakistan, he is considered the 'saviour of the Muslims', protector of Islam and Islamic culture. In India he is dubbed as an 'evil-genius, a die-hard communalist, aseparatist, egoist, opponent of the freedom struggle, enemy of the Congress, particularly of Gandhi, an ally of the British imperialists and the one man responsible for the partition of the country. The real facts about Jinnah are suppressed by both Indian as well as Pakistani historians. The truth is that Jinnah was an uncompromising enemy of foreign rule from the very inception of his political career. He was a patriot, a secular nationalist, and an advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity. He fought for Indian interests in the Imperial Legislative Assembly more vigorously than any otherIndian representative. He refused any title from the British and struggled for united India for forty years of his life. He resisted for long the proposal of partition and sought fair play and safeguards for the Muslim minority in united India and when Pakistan was won he advocated the same for theHindu minority. Secular and Nationalist Jinnah questions many of the myths that have grown round Jinnah's role in the freedom movement and reveals his true character to readers around the world.

    For European colonisers, Orientalist scholars and Christian missionaries of the Victorian era, Tantra was generally seen as the most degenerate and depraved example of the worst tendencies of the so-called "Indian mind": a pathological mixture of sensuality and religion that prompted the decline of modern Hinduism. Yet for most contemporary New Age and popular writers, Tantra is celebrated as a much-needed affirmation of physical pleasure and sex: indeed as a "cult of ecstasy" to counter the perceived hypocritical prudery of many Westerners. In recent years, Tantra has become the focus of a still larger cultural and political debate. In the eyes of many Hindus, much of the western literature on Tantra represents a form of neo-colonialism, which continues to portray India as an exotic, erotic, hyper-sexualized Orient. Which, then, is the "real" Tantra? Focusing on one of the oldest and most important Tantric traditions, based in Assam, northeast India, Hugh B. Urban shows that Tantra is less about optimal sexual pleasure than about harnessing the divine power of the goddess that flows alike through the cosmos, the human body and political society. In a fresh and vital contribution to the field, the author suggests that the "real" meaning of Tantra lies in helping us rethink not just the history of Indian religions, but also our own modern obsessions with power, sex and the invidious legacies of cultural imperialism.

    Nilakanta Sastri provided a comprehensive account of the history of South India. Tracing the history from prehistoric times to the fall of the kingdom of Vijayanagar in 1565 AD, the book incorporated the results of the author's own researches and brought together material previously scattered in separate studies to present a coherent narrative. Over the years the book has achieved a near-classic status. The Illustrated History of South India, an adapted and illustrated version of the original book, aims to sensitize young readers to the country's historic past and rich cultural heritage, and the need to preserve it. Key chapters discuss the coming of the Aryans, the Mauryan Empire, the rise of Vijayanagar, social and economic conditions, literature, religion and philosophy, and the art and architecture of South India. The volume includes an Introduction by renowned historian R. Champakalakshmi, written especially for this edition, and a Prologue by eminent historian P.M. Rajan Gurukkal. Interspersed with photographs and line drawings, including maps and genealogical charts, this illustrated edition will be invaluable for students and teachers of history, in particular, history of South India, as well as general readers. India, which over the years has achieved a near-classic status, this illustrated edition provides a comprehensive account of the history of South India from the prehistoric times to the fall of the kingdom of Vijayanagar in 1565 AD. This volume includes a new Introduction by renowned historian R. Champakalakshmi, and a Prologue by eminent historian P.M. Rajan Gurukkal.

    This book deals with the representation of the Partition of India -- the experience of trauma and violence -- through fiction, literary motifs and narratives, and shows that in examining the nature of such testimony through history, cultural memory has a significant role to play.

    Early leaders selected Urdu as the natural symbol of the nation's great cultural past, but due to its limited base great efforts would be required to make it truly national. This paradox underscores the importance of cultural policies for national identity formation. By comparing Pakistan's experience with those of India and Indonesia, the author analyzes how their national language policies led to very different outcomes. The lessons of these large multiethnic states offer insights for the understanding of culture, identity, and nationalism throughout the world. The book is aimed at scholars in the fields of history, political theory and South Asian studies, as well as those interested in the history of culture and nationalism in one of the world's most complex, and challenging, countries.

    It focuses on the first five years - from independence on 15th August 1947 to the first general election in January 1952 - in the politics of West Bengal, the new Indian province that was created as a result of the Partition.The author, a specialist on the history of modern India, discusses what freedom actually meant to various individuals, communities and political parties, how they responded to it, how they extended its meaning and how in their anxiety to confront the realities of free India, they began to invent new enemies of their newly acquired freedom. By emphasising the representations of popular mentality rather than the institutional changes brought in by the process of decolonization, he draws attention to other concerns and anxieties that were related to the problems of coming to terms with the newly achieved freedom and the responsibility of devising independent rules of governance that would suit the historic needs of a pluralist nation.Decolonization in South Asia analyses the transitional politics of West Bengal in light of recent developments in postcolonial theory on nationalism, treating the 'nation' as a space for contestation, rather than a natural breeding ground for homogeneity in the complex political scenario of post-independence India. It will appeal to academics interested in political science, sociology, social anthropology and cultural and Asian studies.

    The title essay poses the problem of curriculum design and content as aspects of the relationship between education and society. The central theme of knowledge, its selection and representation is pursued in the other essays in the book in the context of the issues such as the teaching of reading, the use of the textbook, gender socialisation, and the values associated with secularism. Structural and historical characteristics of the Indian system are used as frames to study the social character of school knowledge and skills. What is worth Teaching? covers a wide range of issues concerning institutional and pedagogic choices. From reading and storytelling in the early primary classes to the teaching of history in India and Pakistan, this collection of Krishna Kumar's lectures and essays offers an accessible introduction to critical inquiry in education theory.

    But all these were research-oriented. He thus felt that there was a need to address the common reader. Hence the present book. Professor Lal tells the reader, with ample photographic illustrations, that almost every aspect of Indian culture is deeply rooted in the past, which is at least 5,000 years old. He then gives an integrated picture of the civilization of those days - variously called the Harappan, Indus or Indus-Sarasvati Civilization. Thereafter he deals with the ethnicity of the authors of this great civilization. With solid arguments, he refutes the theories that there was an 'Aryan Invasion' of India, which destroyed the Harappan Civilization or that there was an immigration of the (BMAC) people from Central Asia. He demonstrates that in all likelihood the Harappans themselves were the Vedic people and were indigenous. Further, archaeological and literary evidences combine to suggest that some time in the second millennium BCE a section of the Vedic people themselves emigrated westwards to Iran and even up to Turkey, contributing their mite to the local culture. It is hoped that the reader will enjoy going through this book. pp. xxii + 150 ; 33 col. Illustrations ; 71 Figures & Maps ; Bibliography ; Index.

    I felt as if something is going to be written. But I couldn't understand it - what was going to be written? When is it going to be written? I couldn't even understand where it would begin. I felt uneasy this way continuously for three days.I returned (mentally) to the natural ravines of the Himalayas, to the proximity of the Realized Saints through the medium of this book. I am an ordinary human just like you. I too had to face various problems in my life and I have written about the experiences that I had to undergo.This is not an ordinary book but 'Mysterious knowledge' of Guru-Energies which is reaching you through the medium of this book. It has been possible to write his book only after reaching a special meditative state…"Satguru Shree Shivakrupanand Swami is a living Saint of the 21st century. All that Swamiji shares with the seekers has not been acquired easily, nor from one place or source. This series of books is his tribute to all the Satgurus he visited during his long sojourn in the Himalayas. Samarpan Meditation is an 800 years old ancient technique of meditation which was practised in the Himalayas. This meditation technique was forgotten and was on the verge of extinction. Swamiji has performed the great task of reviving it and bringing it back to the society. Samarpan Meditation helps in awakening the Soul of each and every individual. It is being practised worldwide by people of many nations and spiritual persuasions regardless of their class, creed, color or race.

    The thirty-four selections--translated from Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Gujarati, Hindavi, Dakhani, and other languages--highlight a wide variety of genres, many rarely found in standard accounts of Islamic practice, from oral narratives to elite guidance manuals, from devotional songs to secular judicial decisions arbitrating Islamic law, and from political posters to a discussion among college women affiliated with an "Islamist" organization. Drawn from premodern texts, modern pamphlets, government and organizational archives, new media, and contemporary fieldwork, the selections reflect the rich diversity of Islamic belief and practice in South Asia. Each reading is introduced with a brief contextual note from its scholar-translator, and Barbara Metcalf introduces the whole volume with a substantial historical overview.

    It sets out to show, by examining principle historical documents and placing key events in proper context, that the root of today’s conflict is the rejection of the right to self-determination for the Arab Palestinians.

    A young magistrate on a police raid is saved from inhumanity by the sight of a hen and her chicks. A solitary bachelor brings home a pigeon and learns the pain of loving a wild thing. An egret visits a man on a moonlit night. Three schoolboys chance upon a leopard and her kill in the hills outside Guwahati. In lean, taut prose Dhruba Hazarika writes of moments when men encounter animals and the natural world—often, also the moments when they encounter themselves. These are poignant, memorable stories from a literary imagination of uncommon honesty and sophistication.

    More than 150 of his most celebrated recipes are featured in this, his first book, accompanied by sumptuous photography from Lisa Barber. With a beguiling mixture of modernity and classicism, Bhatia introduces elements of molecular gastronomy as well as Western influences, creating a style that sees him appear on platforms all around the world with the likes of inspirational fellow chefs Ferran Adria from El Bulli and Heston Blumenthal from the Fat Duck. New Indian Kitchen is a giant step forward for Indian cookery books and a long-awaited publishing event.

    The eight stories in this anthology, each from a different Indian state, feature educational facts and information about the cultures from which they are chosen.

    This scholarly work provides a comprehensive view of this architectural fusion, explaining in depth the key monuments of each period and region, including the unforgettable Taj-Mahal at Agra, Homayun's tomb at Delhi, and the Shalimar gardens in Lahore, Pakistan. This sweeping panorama of the history of architecture on the Indian subcontinent redresses an important lack of coverage of the subject of Muslim architecture.

    Harsh austerities, service, love, acceptance and motherhood prepare the ultimate transformation through the magical guru-disciple mystery. Acceptance is engrained in the short sentences and humble poetry that require no explanation. Truth is revealed with a clarity that turns our tears of bliss into pearls of rare spirituality.

    He has been a mentor and trendsetter for those seeking to follow in his footsteps on the cricket fieldand an inspiration to all who seek excellence in other walks of life. The fortitude and self-belief that enabled him to scale every conceivable peak in his chosen profession continues to inspire india’s youth. Smg is a comprehensive account of the remarkable life of the greatest opening batsman in cricketing history. The book takes readers through smg’s formative years and the battles he fought on behalf of his country. It analyses his impeccable technique, his hunger for runs, his monumental concentration, his ups and down sand above all, his resilience in crises, on and off the fieldand the facets of a journey that started with him being declared 'best schoolboy cricketer’ in 1966, to his record-breaking centuries and other achievements, many of which were unprecedented in cricketing history.the teenaged prodigy of the 1960s has evolved into a guru of the game in the 21st century. Smg maps his own life, from its middle-class beginnings and proceeds to give readers an insight into the mind and the methods of a legend.the author has been assisted in his endeavour by smg’s neighbours, friends, team-mates, opponents and fans.

    Through a fine blend of theory and new evidence on small scale industries, farming, and more, Gupta argues that, despite the promise of Independence and liberalization, India continues to remain caged in backwardness. In short, the country's phenomenal growth story has not translated into development.Questioning prevailing culture-based theories—and the academics who perpetuate them—that are used to explain India's poverty and its hampered development, Gupta attempts to "normalize" India, advocating a rigorous rejection of justifications that rely upon cultural otherness and exoticization. He critically examines the reluctance to acknowledge that structural impediments, not cultural factors, deny growth benefits to the majority of Indians, and explores the close link between growth in high technology sectors of the Indian economy on one side and sweat shops and rural stagnation on the other. Making a comparison with the developed West, Gupta underscores the point that affluence can be achieved only after living conditions improve across all social classes.Combining original scholarship with a lively narrative, Gupta debunks widespread myths about why India's democracy has yet to deliver and offers compelling explanations for the paradoxes that exist.

    Kargil was a landmark event not because of its duration or casualties, but because it contained a very real risk of nuclear escalation. Until the Kargil conflict, academic and policy debates over nuclear deterrence and proliferation occurred largely on the theoretical level. This deep analysis of the conflict offers scholars and policymakers a rare account of how nuclear-armed states interact during military crisis. Written by analysts from India, Pakistan, and the United States, this unique book draws extensively on primary sources, including unprecedented access to Indian, Pakistani, and U.S. government officials and military officers who were actively involved in the conflict. This is the first rigorous and objective account of the causes, conduct, and consequences of the Kargil conflict.

    It was outrage at this state of affairs that led Jarnail Singh, an unassuming, law- abiding journalist, to throw his shoe at home minister P Chidambaram during a press conference in New Delhi. He readily acknowledges that this was not an appropriate means of protest, but asks why, twenty-five years after the massacres, so little has been done to address the issues that are still unresolved and unanswered and a source of anguish to the whole community.? ? Who initiated the pogrom and why? ? Why did the state apparatus allow it to happen? ? Why, despite the many commissions and committees set up to investigate the events, have the perpetrators not been brought to book? ? I Accuse is a powerful and passionate indictment of the state's response to the killings of 1984. It explores the chain of events, the survivors' stories and the continuing shadow it casts over their lives. Because, finally, 1984 was not an attack on the Sikh community alone; it was an attack on the idea at the very core of democracy?that every citizen, irrespective of faith and community, has a right to life, liberty and security.

    It is a love story of a Yaksha separated from his Yakshini, who seeks the help of a cloud-envoy to convey the lovers re-uniting message. The author transcreated this `Allegoric Quest for Divine Beloved` into a well rhymed, brilliant work of art.

    It explains the postcolonial Indian polity by presenting an alternative historical narrative of the British Empire in India and India's struggle for independence. In contrast to much of existing scholarship, this book joins the colonial and postcolonial periods in modern Indian history into a seamless narrative. It pursues this narrative along two major trajectories. On the one hand, it focuses on the role of imperial judicial institutions and practices in the making of both the British Empire and the anti-colonial movement under the Congress, with the lawyer as political leader. On the other hand, it offers a novel interpretation of Gandhi's non-violent resistance movement and the discourse of freedom on which it was based. Departing from existing scholarship, it shows critical differences between Gandhi and the Congress. This book also offers a comprehensive and new reinterpretation of the Indian Constitution in the light of this historical narrative. Ambitious, original, thought-provoking, and rich in insight, this book will be indispensable for students and scholars of Indian history, the British Empire, legal history, constitutional history, political science, and sociology. It will also interest anybody seeking a broad understanding of the mainsprings of modern Indian history and politics.

    When a tantric saint demands that the goat be sacrificed to the goddess Kali, Mato runs away with Arjun in a desperate bid to reach the sanctuary of the Armenian church. Hunted by the entire village, the boy and his goat struggle to evade capture and reach safety. In the process, Mahasweta Devi exposes the manner in which religion exploits superstition for its own ends. This is a tender and charming tale primarily for young readers, for whom, over the years, Mahasweta Devi has written extensively, using her considerable experience of oral history and grassroot realities to weave stories which educate future adults about an India very few of them would otherwise know of.

    It analyzes the part played by Indian mathematics through the Kerala conduit, which is an important but neglected part of the history of mathematics.

    Mostly narrated by women, the poems reveal the world of local Indian village life sometime between the third and fifth centuries. The Sattasai offers a more realistic counterpart to that notorious theoretical treatise on love the Kāmasūtra, which presents a cosmopolitan and calculating milieu. Translators Peter Khoroche and Herman Tieken introduce the main features of the work in its own language and time.

    Anupama Rao's account challenges standard thinking on caste as either a vestige of precolonial society or an artifact of colonial governance. Focusing on western India in the colonial and postcolonial periods, she shines a light on South Asian historiography and on ongoing caste discrimination, to show how persons without rights came to possess them and how Dalit struggles led to the transformation of such terms of colonial liberalism as rights, equality, and personhood. Extending into the present, the ethnographic analyses of The Caste Question reveal the dynamics of an Indian democracy distinguished not by overcoming caste, but by new forms of violence and new means of regulating caste.

    You are mature as a person and that maturity calls for the recognition of a power other than yourself. Accepting one's limitations gracefully, doing what one needs to do makes one an effective person to face any crisis."(from back cover)

    Although they undoubtedly have ancient origins, Hindu goddesses and their worship is still very much a part of the fabric of religious engagement in India today. With no prior knowledge necessary, the book is an introduction to a complex and often baffling field of study. Part I - Beliefs - provides a series of encounters with a range of Hindu goddesses starting with the idea of 'Goddess' as a philosophical concept. Topics include textual evidence for belief structures, goddess mythology, and the importance of 'the Goddess' in Tantrism. Part II - Practices - leads the reader through the tangled web of goddess worship, pausing along the way to examine the contrast between temple worship and local worship, the splendor of festivals, and the importance of pilgrimage to those places in India where goddesses are considered to reside. The Conclusion provides details of contemporary developments in goddess worship, such as the appearance of new deities who supply the needs of worshippers in the 21st century.