In these pages, we watch a wild plum blossom and the moon come up between two deodar trees; we hear a redstart whistle and the rain drum on a tin roof; we recognize the ache of losing love and the consolation of old companions. A Book of Simple Living is a gift of beauty and wisdom from India’s most loved, and most understated, writer.

    In an attempt to escape this legacy that binds her, Mukta is transported to a foster family in Bombay. There she discovers a friend in the high spirited eight-year-old Tara, the tomboyish daughter of the family, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past. Tara introduces Mukta to a different world—ice cream and sweets, poems and stories, and a friendship the likes of which she has never experienced before. As time goes by, their bond grows to be as strong as that between sisters. In 1993, Mukta is kidnapped from Tara’s room. Eleven years later, Tara who blames herself for what happened, embarks on an emotional journey to search for the kidnapped Mukta only to uncover long buried secrets in her own family.Moving from a remote village in India to the bustling metropolis of Bombay, to Los Angeles and back again, amidst the brutal world of human trafficking, this is a heartbreaking and beautiful portrait of an unlikely friendship—a story of love, betrayal, and redemption—which ultimately withstands the true test of time.

    Life revolves around his family: Mama, Papa, sister Shahnaz, brothers Adil and Akhtar and, his favourite, older brother Bilal. It also revolves around Munnu’s two favourite things – sugar and drawing.But Munnu’s is a childhood experienced against the backdrop of conflict. Bilal’s classmates are crossing over into the Pakistan-administered portion of Kashmir to be trained to resist the ‘occupation’; Papa and Bilal are regularly taken by the military to identification parades where informers will point out ‘terrorists’; Munnu’s school is closed; close neighbours are killed and the homes of Kashmiri Hindu families lie abandoned, as once close, mixed communities have ruptured under the pressure of Kashmir’s divisions.Munnu is an amazingly personal insight into everyday life in Kashmir. Closely based on Malik Sajad’s own childhood and experiences, it is a beautiful, evocatively drawn graphic novel that questions every aspect of the Kashmir situation – the faults and responsibilities of every side, the history of the region, the role of Britain and the West, the possibilities for the future. It opens up the story of this contested and conflicted land, while also giving a brilliantly close, funny and warm-hearted portrait of a boy’s childhood and coming-of-age.

    Undeterred, she went back, telling herself she must talk to the devadasis about the dangers of AIDS. This time, they threw tomatoes.But she refused to give up. The Infosys Foundation worked hard to make the devadasis self-reliant, to help educate their children, and to rid the label of the social stigma that had become attached to it. Today, there are no temple prostitutes left in the state of Karnataka.This is the powerful, inspirational story of that change initiative that has transformed thousands of lives.

    When his father dies, Anil becomes the de facto head of the Patel household and inherits the mantle of arbiter for all of the village’s disputes. But he is uneasy with the custom, uncertain that he has the wisdom and courage demonstrated by his father and grandfather. His doubts are compounded by the difficulties he discovers in adjusting to a new culture and a new job, challenges that will shake his confidence in himself and his abilities.Back home in India, Anil’s closest childhood friend, Leena, struggles to adapt to her demanding new husband and relatives. Arranged by her parents, the marriage shatters Leena’s romantic hopes and eventually forces her to make a desperate choice that will hold drastic repercussions for herself and her family. Though Anil and Leena struggle to come to terms with their identities thousands of miles apart, their lives eventually intersect once more—changing them both and the people they love forever.

    It starts in the nineteenth century with Nusserwanji Tata - a middle-class Parsi priest from the village of Navsari in Gujarat, and widely regarded as the Father of Indian Industry - and ends with Ratan Tata - chairman of the Tata Group until 2012. But it is more than just a history of the industrial house; it is an inspiring account of India in the making. It chronicles how each generation of the family invested not only in the expansion of its own business interests but also in nation building. For instance, few know that the first hydel project in the world was conceived and built by the Tatas in India. Nor that some radical labour concepts such as eight-hour work shifts were born in India, at the Tata mill in Nagpur. The National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Tata Cancer Research Centre, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research - the list about the Tatas' contribution to India is a long one. A bestseller in Marathi when it was first published in 2015, this is the only book that tells the complete Tata story over two hundred years.

    From the darkest days of the British Raj through to the aftermath of World War I, Belonging tells the interwoven story of three generations and their struggles to understand and free themselves from a troubled history steeped in colonial violence. It is a novel of secrets that unwind through Lila's story, through her grandmother’s letters home from India and the diaries kept by her father, Henry, as he puzzles over the enigma of his birth and his stormy marriage to the mysterious Rebecca.

    Chosen by the author himself, from a body of work built over fifty years (starting with his award-winning first novel, The Room on the Roof, and ending with Tales of Fosterganj) this collection includes well-known masterpieces like ‘The Night Train at Deoli’, ‘The Woman on Platform No 8’, ‘Rusty Plays Holi’ (from The Room on the Roof), ‘Angry River’, ‘The Blue Umbrella’, ‘The Eyes Have It’, ‘Most Beautiful’, ‘Panther’s Moon’, as well as newer stories like ‘An Evening at the Savoy with H.H.’ (from Maharani) and ‘Dinner with Foster’ (from Tales of Fosterganj). Taken together, the stories in A Gathering of Friends show why Ruskin Bond has long been regarded as one of the pillars of Indian literature. This is a book that will delight his legions of fans as well as those lucky few who are new to his fiction.

    Ray’s short stories often explore the macabre and the supernatural, and are marked by the sharp characterization and trademark wit that distinguish his films. This collection brings together Ray’s best short stories—including such timeless gems as ‘Khagam’, ‘Indigo’, ‘Fritz’, ‘Bhuto’, ‘The Pterodactyl’s Egg’, ‘Big Bill’, ‘Patol Babu, Film Star’ and ‘The Hungry Septopus’—which readers of all ages will enjoy. A collection of forty-nine short stories

    A wide ranged knowledge base of the Indian, Art, paintings, music and architecture has been presented with the help of several pictures and diagrams which will arouse the readers interest. There are questions at the end of each chapter which will help students prepare for the examinations.

    It establishes Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar as one of our most important contemporary writers.

    From the origins of Amazon and Google, to the remarkable growth of Flipkart and Ola, he meticulously plots and chronicles a connected global sequence of events.Set in this background he recounts his personal roller coaster of a life. A story filled with ambition, greed, vanity, fear and success that all young entrepreneurs can relate to.Is this the business model of the future? Or merely a game of poker played by master investors? The answers pour out of The Golden Tap.

    India is fractured and divided into kingdoms, each independent and wary of one another, seemingly no match for the might of the English. But when they arrive in the Kingdom of Jhansi, the British army is met with a surprising challenge.Instead of surrendering, Queen Lakshmi raises two armies - one male and one female - and rides into battle, determined to protect her country and her people. Although her soldiers may not appear at first to be formidable against superior British weaponry and training, Lakshmi refuses to back down from the empire that is determined to take away the land she loves.Told from the unexpected perspective of Sita - Queen Lakshmi's most favored companion and most trusted soldier in the all-female army - Rebel Queen shines a light on a time and place rarely explored in historical fiction. In the tradition of her best-selling novel, Nefertiti ,and through her strong, independent heroines fighting to make their ways in a male-dominated world, Michelle Moran brings nineteenth-century India to rich, vibrant life.

    But it contains much more than conflict. An epic masterpiece of huge sweep and magisterial power, “a hundred times more interesting” than the Iliad and the Odyssey, writes Wendy Doniger in the introduction, the Mahabharata is a timeless work that evokes a world of myth, passion, and warfare while exploring eternal questions of duty, love, and spiritual freedom. A seminal Hindu text, which includes the Bhagavad Gita, it is also one of the most important and influential works in the history of world civilization.Innovatively composed in blank verse rather than prose, Carole Satyamurti’s English retelling covers all eighteen books of the Mahabharata. This new version masterfully captures the beauty, excitement, and profundity of the original Sanskrit poem as well as its magnificent architecture and extraordinary scope.

    -Faiz Ahmed FaizIn the two decades since the early 1990s, when India confirmed its allegiance to the Free Market, more of its citizens have become marginalized than ever before, and society has become more sharply riven than ever.In 'Looking Away', Harsh Mander ranges wide to record and analyse the many different fault lines which crisscross Indian society today.There is increasing prosperity among the middle classes, but also a corresponding intolerance for the less fortunate. Poverty and homelessness are also on the rise-both in urban and rural settings- but not only has the state abandoned its responsibility to provide for those afflicted, the middle class, too, now avoids even the basic impulses of sharing. And with the sharp Rightward turn in politics, minority communities are under serious threat-their very status as citizens in question-as a belligerent, monolithic idea of the nation takes the place of an inclusive, tolerant one.However, as Harsh Mander points out, what most stains society today is the erosion in the imperative for sympathy, both at the state and individual levels, a crumbling that is principally at the base of the vast inequities which afflict India. Exhaustive in its scope, impassioned in its arguments, and rigorous in its scholarship, 'Looking Away' is a sobering checklist of all the things we must collectively get right if India is to become the country that was promised, in equal measure, to all its citizens.

    The young and dashing Sultan Kowaishi has just returned from London to Bombay after passing his barrister exam. Among the first persons he meets is Mohammed Ali Jinnah, already an advocate of note, and is quickly drawn to him. It is also the time when Jinnah decides to join the Indian National Congress, soon to become its brightest star. The stir against the British rule holds no interest for Sultan but it attracts his wife Rehana, and, inexorably, weaves its way into their lives.In this brilliant saga of love and betrayal, pain and redemption, set amidst the long struggle for freedom and its terrible twin, the call for Pakistan, we confront questions that are as relevant today as they were a hundred years ago. Questions of identity, of purpose, of the shackles of a thousand memories . . .

    In here you will discover various things you never expected, such as the fact that we still greet each other like the Harappans did or that people used to think India was full of one-eyed giants. And sneakily you'll also know more about India's history and geography by the end of it. Full of quirky pictures and crazy trivia, this book takes you on a fantastic journey through the incredible history of India's geography.

    This boxed set includes five works. The title story, INDIA GRAY, is a poignant adventure set on the 1945 battlefront iof Assam, India and features Kamala and Simon, much-loved characters from the 2013 historical saga, THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY. Next in line is THE OXFORD INCIDENT, a mystery introducing Perveen Mistry, a young law student from Bombay who is tasked with finding a disappeared Indian servant at Oxford University in 1918. A novella set in 1920s Bengal, THE AYAH'S TALE, features Menakshi, a teenaged ayah working for an elite British family, who wonders if she will ever have a chance to live for herself. ALIPORE CLUB RULES, a short story set in early 1950s Calcutta, features Kabita Lewes, an Anglo-Indian teenager who struggles with her parents' intense relationship and her own anxieties. The collection rounds out with a thriller story, BITTER TEA. In the remote Northwest Frontier area of Pakistan, a peaceful Muslim village has been overtaken by foreign undamentalists. As women lose their rights to go to school or walk outside their homes, three teenage girls conspire to change the situation. This book realistically reflects the "gray" situations that in which cross-cultural characters find themselves, habitant a world irrevocably altered by almost 400 years of colonialism.

    But as tensions between India and China spilled over into war in the Himalayas, Sikkim became a pawn in the Cold War ideological battle that played out in Asia during the 1960s and 1970s. Rumours circulated that Hope was a CIA spy. Meanwhile a shadowy Scottish adventuress, the Kazini of Chakung, married to Sikkim's leading political figure, coordinated opposition to the Palace. As the geopolitical tectonic plates of the Himalayas ground together forming the political landscape that exists today, Sikkim never stood a chance. On the eve of declaring an Emergency in India, Indira Gandhi brazenly annexed the country. Thondup died a broken man in 1982; Hope returned to New York; Sikkim began a new phase as India's 22nd state.Based on interviews, archive research as well as a retracing of a journey the author's grandfather made in 1922, this is a thrilling, romantic and informative glimpse of life in Shangri La.

    Incensed at the villagers’ refusal to share any information, soldiers pulled residents from their homes, torturing men and raping women. According to village accounts, as many as thirty-one women were raped. The Indian army initially carried out cursory investigations before shelving the case without explanation. Kunan and Poshpora have since become known as the villages of raped women, and their residents have found it difficult to escape this stigma. Then in 2012, the rape and murder of a young medical student in Delhi galvanized a protest movement so widespread and deep that it reached far beyond India’s borders. In Kashmir, a group of young women, all in their twenties, were inspired to reopen the Kunan-Poshpora case and revisit their history and that of the 1991 survivors. Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora? is a personal account of their journey, examining questions of justice, stigma, state responsibility, and the long-term impacts of trauma. With rarely heard voices and concerns, this book gives readers an opportunity to know the lives of ordinary Kashmiris in a state suffocated by thirty years of military rule.

    It was only the bravery and well-executed strategic decisions of the soldiers of the Indian Army that countered the very real threat of losing Kashmir to Pakistan. Recounting the battles fought by five different regiments, the narrative reconstructs the events of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, outlining details never revealed before, and remembers its unsung heroes.

    Its pages are ripe with shame, honor, and survival-based decisions, such as a father killing his own daughter to preserve the family's reputation, a grandfather thieving a goat to feed his family and burying its bones in the night, and women employing natural poisons to kill their female infants in order to avoid the devastating costs of dowry.Perhaps it is also a story of how to survive as a "Most Backward" boy in a society that values light skin more than education, designated by British colonizers as "habitually criminal," where ancient caste rivalries persist even into an era of rapidly unfolding modernity. Is it possible, one wonders, for a boy to leave his caste identity behind and adopt new ways of seeing himself, shattering hundreds of years of prejudice?"Growing Up in India's 'Most Backward' Caste" illustrates the potential for faith, effort, and vision to overcome even the cruelest of abuses and biases. Its author, Dr. Hill Krishnan, later took on multiple identities disallowed by his roots: engineer, movie actor and performer, political scientist, professor, candidate for public office in the United States, motivational speaker, and now, as an author telling his story. In "Growing Up in India's 'Most Backward' Caste," one observes the earliest, most pivotal moments in which he first defies oppression."Growing Up in India's 'Most Backward' Caste" is truly eye-opening—a brave, intimate portrayal of life as a "Most Backward" child resisting all categorization, inspiring the rest of us to challenge our own perceived limitations.

    Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s protégé and the political leader of India, believed Indians were an inherently nonviolent, peaceful people. Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was a secular lawyer, not a firebrand. But in August 1946, exactly a year before Independence, Calcutta erupted in riots. A cycle of street-fighting — targeting Hindus, then Muslims, then Sikhs — spun out of control. As the summer of 1947 approached, all three groups were heavily armed and on edge, and the British rushed to leave. Hell let loose. Trains carried Muslims west and Hindus east to their slaughter. Some of the most brutal and widespread ethnic cleansing in modern history erupted on both sides of the new border, searing a divide between India and Pakistan that remains a root cause of many evils. From jihadi terrorism to nuclear proliferation, the searing tale told in Midnight’s Furies explains all too many of the headlines we read today.

    Kennedy. But the same week the world stood transfixed by the possibility of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, Kennedy was also consumed by a war that has escaped history’s attention, yet still reverberates significantly today: the Sino-Indian conflict.As well-armed and equipped troops from the People’s Republic of China surged into Indian-held territory in October 1962, Kennedy ordered an emergency airlift of supplies to the Indian army. At the same time, he engaged in diplomatic talks that kept the neighboring Pakistanis out of the fighting. The conflict came to an end with a unilateral Chinese cease-fire, relieving Kennedy of a decision to intervene militarily in support of India.Bruce Riedel, a CIA and National Security Council veteran, provides the first full narrative of this crisis, which played out during the tense negotiations with Moscow over Cuba. He also includes another, nearly forgotten episode of US espionage during the war between India and China: covert US support of Tibetan opposition to Chinese occupation of Tibet. He details how the United States, beginning in 1957, trained and parachuted Tibetan guerrillas into Tibet to fight Chinese military forces. The covert operation to help precipitate the conflict but the United States did not end its support of it until relations between the United States and China were normalized in the 1970s.Riedel tells this story of war, diplomacy, and covert action with authority and perspective. He draws on newly declassified letters between Kennedy and Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru along with the diaries and memoirs of key players and other sources make this the definitive account of JFK’s forgotten crisis. This is, Riedel writes, Kennedy’s finest hour as you have never read it before.

    The speech, included in this volume, aptly summarises the deep-seated hostility of Brahminic India towards the Dalit Bahujan. Similarly, the other essays and speeches collected in this volume, written and delivered by a number of writers, academics, students, and activists (referred to as the Ambedkar Age Collective in this book), unfurl before you a critical tapestry dissecting the hegemonic brahminic discourse which works towards delegitimizing the radical legacy of Amebdkarite thought. The most stark example of these efforts, from the 'left' and the 'right' of the Indian political spectrum, is the Navayana edition of Babasaheb's AoC with an 'introduction' by Arundhati Roy. The works collected here emerged as spontaneous reactions to the Roy-Navayana project from multiple locations and in multiple languages. The varied interventions, which began online, and the discursive terrains it opened up offer us a glimpse of the ways through which the marginalised resist continued attempts made at hegemonising their knowledge and lives by the brahminic oppressors irrespective of their political leanings. Authors include: Anu Ramdas, Kuffir, Gurinder Azad, Bojja Tharakam Adv. Dr. Suresh Mane, Anoop Kumar, U. Sambashiva Rao, Shakyamuni, Dr Sangeeta Pawar, Sunny Kapicadu, O.K. Santhosh, Dr B. Ravichandran, Dalit Camera: Through Un-Touchable Eyes, Karthik Navayan, Joopaka Subhadra Dr. K Satyanarayana, Vaibhav Wasnik, Nilesh Kumar, Asha Kowtal, Nidhin Shobhana, Gee Imaan Semmalar, Syam Sundar, Murali Shanmugavelan, Praveena Thaali, Dr Karthick RM, Huma Dar, Joby Mathew, James Michael, Akshay Pathak, Vinay Bhat, Yogesh Maitreya, Thongam Bipin, K K Baburaj, Sruthi Herbert, Gaurav Somwanshi, Kadhiravan, Rahul Gaikwad, Joe D'Cruz

    Pollutants from toxic pesticides seep through the rich soils of rural Punjab, where a “Cancer Train” shuttles droves of farmers sick with chemical poisoning to oncology centers in foreign states. Sixty percent of the population lives without access to potable water. India’s ecosystem is on a precipice.In Elemental India, Meera Subramanian explores this environmental catastrophe through the five elements that make the building blocks of life—earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Her journey through this country home to 17.5% of the world’s population, and over two thousand ethnic groups, is hopeful. She reveals the modest triumphs of ordinary men and women who struggle to preserve India’s crumbling environment. Kanhaiya has spent the twenty-five years in semi-arid Rajasthan, helping villagers revive rainwater-harvesting practices and resuscitate their land from pervasive drought; Vibhu was the first to notice a baffling and dramatic decline in India’s vulture population in the 1990s and has since devoted his life to rescuing the species from extinction; Pinki Kumari campaigns against over-population and poverty by teaching young adolescents the fundamentals of sexual health in Bihar, a region in the north of India with one of the nation’s highest fertility rates and a notorious reputation for violence.In these stories, Subramanian looks for answers—for a country smothering under cloud of smog so vast that it is visible from outer space; for a country that is now the world’s clearest example of environmental catastrophe. Elemental India beautifully and memorably captures the conflict between humanity and its natural world.

    

    On 4 October 2014, more than 300 individuals across the globe contributed close to 14,000 AUD and created crowdfunding history. This book became the highest crowdfunded book in India and the 6th highest in Asia. In a nation that is exasperatingly diverse, engineering seems to be one of the biggest obsessions. India produces more engineers annually than twice the population of Iceland. I set on a backpacking trip across the country to unravel this massive phenomenon at the end of which I lost a camera full of images, but I found a story to tell the world. It is through this journey that I present to you the world's most interesting educational story.

    Welcomed into a family of nomadic water buffalo herders, he joins them on their annual spring migration into the Himalayas. More than a glimpse into an endangered culture, this superb adventure explores the relationship between humankind and wild lands, and the dubious effect of environmental conservation on peoples whose lives are inseparably intertwined with the natural world.The migration Benanav embarked upon was plagued with problems, as government officials threatened to ban this nomadic family—and others in the Van Gujjar tribe—from the high alpine meadows where they had summered for centuries. Faced with the possibility that their beloved buffaloes would starve to death, and that their age-old way of life was doomed, the family charted a risky new course, which would culminating in an astonishing mountain rescue. And Benanav was arrested for documenting the story of their plight.Intimate and enthralling, Himalaya Bound paints a sublime picture of a rarely-seen world, revealing the hopes and fears, hardships and joys, of a people who wonder if there is still a place for them on this planet.Laced with stories of tribal cultures from India to Yellowstone, from Jordan to Kenya, Benanav deftly wends through the controversial terrain where Western ways of protecting the environment clash with indigenous understandings of nature. Himalaya Bound celebrates and mourns an ancient way of life, while revealing an unlikely battleground in the fight to save the earth.

    Tukaram's poetry hold its rejuvenating powers even in the turbulent times of our own twenty-first century. One Hundred Poems of Tukaram is a translation of selected poems of this visionary poet who makes his reader see every aspect of life in a new light, enabling them to rethink the whole world in more positive terms. Tukaram’s reputation as one of the greatest poets born in India resides on his four thousand or so extant poems which he composed in Marathi, his mother tongue. Unlike most of the poets of the seventeenth century, Tukaram did not write in highly Sanskitised Marathi, instead he chose the colloquial language spoken by the common-most people of his times. This has given a distinct vigour to his compositions which appeal straight to the heart of his readers. By temperament, Tukaram is as candid and as forthright as imaginable and does not hesitate to write about anything under the sun nor does he consider anything too holy to be left untouched. This makes his poems penetratingly consistent in taking aim at the very core of the questions grappling human existence. Though he wrote almost four hundred years ago, in a very different social milieu than today’s globalised and digitized world, somehow he seems to be dealing with and overcoming exactly the same dilemmas faced by the human populace in the twenty first century the world over. This continuum of human condition is what drew me more and more to the poems of Tukaram. Despite the fact that Tukaram was a widely revered saint, arguably the greatest of his times, his poetry is not conventionally devotional. Of course, the predominant theme in his poems is that of spirituality. Yet, even at a cursory reading, one understands Tukaram’s poems to be markedly different from other devotional/spiritual poems. The reason is Tukaram’s honesty when it comes to self-expression. He does not only harp upon his ‘oneness’ with the Lord or the bliss attained thereof or the knowledge obtained thereby, but he goes on to expressing in his poems his entire spiritual and worldly journey with all its dramatic ups and downs - with ‘downs’ seemingly outnumbering ‘ups’. Resultantly, in his poems we do not come across some spiritually enlightened ‘being’ talking down to us from his high pedestal but someone from amongst us who has started from the bottom and knows exactly how steep the climb is. Therefore, while reading Tukaram, one cannot help but feel that it is not just the poet’s journey that is unfolding; it is the journey of each one of us. As if Tukaram holds our hand and takes us on that path leading to the ultimate goal of human life. Thus Tukaram’s poetry does not remain the expression of one individual but of the entire humanity existent in all places at all times! While reading Tukaram, one gets an eerie feeling that Tukaram is a contemporary poet, that the content of his poems is of the present times, that he writes for the current generations. Thus we come across in his poems all that angst that we today experience on seeing innocent people suffering at the hands of the terrorists, when he exclaims: “Eyes cannot bear to see Such is the devastation Pains of others grieve My heart”It hardly matters that Tukaram is writing in this poem about the horrific droughts of his times that wiped out an entire generation; this becomes an expression of my heart writhing in pain seeing the images of the thousands of Nigerians killed in the Boko Haram attack. It hardly matters that Tukaram is talking about a nature-inflicted calamity, while our miseries today are self-inflicted. Tukaram’s words catch hold of our aching nerve like no contemporary of ours can.

    From the genocide in Rwanda, to war-stricken Bosnia, from child marriages in India to prostitution and drug trafficking in Colombia, these stories traverse a microcosm of reality. Be it the manifestation of Bacha Baazi in Afghanistan, or the fight for paradise on Earth, Kashmir, the repertoire of stories lend a soul to what otherwise remain a muddle of news reports and statistics. Through these stories, Kirthi embroiders a tapestry of the unvanquished human spirit in varied shades, and shakes you up to the reality that surrounds you.

    India produced the largest volunteer army in world history:over 2 million men. But, until now, there has never been a comprehensive account of India's turbulent home front and the nexus between warfare and India’s society.At the heart of The Raj at War are the many lives and voices of ordinary Indian people. From the first Indian to win the Victoria Cross in the war to the three soldiers imprisoned as ‘traitors to the Raj’ who returned to a hero’s welcome, from the nurses in Indian General Hospitals to the labourers, prostitutes and families—their testimonies reveal the great upheaval experienced throughout the land.Yasmin Khan presents the hidden and sometimes overlooked history of India at war, and shows how mobilisation for the war introduced seismic processes of economic, cultural and social change—decisively shaping the international war effort, the unravelling of the empire and India’s own political and economic trajectory.

    In the dark days that followed, Coomi Kapoor, then a young journalist, personally experienced the full fury of the establishment. Meanwhile, Indira Gandhi, her son Sanjay and his coterie unleashed a reign of terror that saw forced sterilizations, brutal evictions in the thousands, and wanton imprisonment of many, including Opposition leaders.This gripping eyewitness account vividly recreates the drama, the horror, as well as the heroism of a few during those nineteen months when democracy was derailed.

    She couldn't have been more wrong.A walk through the woods sends Tara on an adventure of a lifetime, as she stumbles upon a gang of poachers. A tigress and her cubs must be saved and Tara's only accomplice is her mysterious new friend, Satya. But can she trust him? And will this unlikely pair save the day?

    Millions displaced, thousands slaughtered, families divided and redefined, as home became alien land and the unknown became home. So much has been said about it but there is still no writer, storyteller or poet who has been able to explain the madness of Partition. Using the oral narratives of four generations of people - mainly Pakistanis but also some Indians - Anam Zakaria, a Pakistani researcher, attempts to understand how the perception of Partition and the 'other' has evolved over the years. Common sense dictates that the bitter memories of Partition would now be forgotten and new relationships would have been forged over the years, but that is not always the case. The memories of Partition have been repackaged through state narratives, and attitudes have only hardened over the years. Post-Partition events - wars, religious extremism, terrorism - have left new imprints on 1947. This book documents the journey of Partition itself - after Partition.

     This is a story of Sushyo, a toy maker from Mesopotamia who wishes to travel all over the world and spread the message of peace and joyousness. From his home in the city of Nineveh, on the banks of river Tigris, he voyages to the land of seven rivers, Melhua. What unfolds is an adventure of epic proportion with his destiny throwing at him, one challenge after another, probing him in the most frightful manner. An apocalyptic encounter with the Alchemist of the East prepares him for the road ahead. As events occur rapidly, the boy finds himself a part of a legacy for which he will have to face up to the ruler of Arianna, Queen Kassandrra, in an epic battle on the banks of river Helmand. The author pledges his share of the earnings from this book to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund, as a part of his effort towards the rehabilitation work in the Kedarnath region of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. The author was a witness to the catastrophe that occurred in the Kedar Valley on 15/16/17 of June, 2013 and did his best to assuage the sufferings of the victims of this horrendous tragedy.

    Stunned, he finds himself alone with his newborn son in the mountains of North India and no idea of what it means to be a father, and begins a journey through India with his baby, seeking understanding for loss and life and the way the two intertwine. Set among the stunning landscapes, train tracks, and winding alleys of India, A Traveler’s Guide to Belonging is a story about fathers and sons, losing and finding love, and a traveler’s grand quest for meaning.

    RESTLESS DAYS, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS is the story of a woman, in the early 1970’s, who sets out to pursue a career in a public sector bank, an all-male bastion.A must read for every working woman and all the perceptive men who have female colleagues in the work place.

    But neither Partition nor prostitution gave birth to the genius of Saadat Hasan Manto. They only furnished him with an occasion to reveal the truth of the human condition.My Name Is Radha is a path-breaking selection of stories which delves deep into Manto’s creative world. In this singular collection, the focus rests on Manto the writer. It does not draft him into being Manto the commentator. Muhammad Umar Memon’s inspired choice of Manto’s best-known stories, along with those less talked about, and his precise and elegant translation showcase an astonishing writer being true to his calling.

    

    Appointed by the then Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, to be chief economic adviser (CEA) to the Government of India, Basu—a theorist, with special interest in development economics, and a professor of economics at Cornell University—discovered the complexity of applying economic models to the real world. Effective policymaking, Basu learned, integrates technical knowledge with political awareness. In this book, Basu describes the art of economic policymaking, viewed through the lens of his two and a half years as CEA.Basu writes from a unique perspective—neither that of the career bureaucrat nor that of the traditional researcher. Plunged into the deal-making, non-hypothetical world of policymaking, Basu suffers from a kind of culture shock and views himself at first as an anthropologist or scientist, gathering observations of unfamiliar phenomena. He addresses topics that range from the macroeconomic—fiscal and monetary policies—to the granular—designing grain auctions and policies to assure everyone has access to basic food. Basu writes about globalization and India’s period of unprecedented growth, and he reports that at a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Obama joked to him, “You should give this guy some tips”—“this guy” being Timothy Geithner. Basu describes the mixed success of India’s anti-poverty programs and the problems of corruption, and considers the social norms and institutions necessary for economic development. India is, Basu argues, at an economics crossroad. As CEA from 2009 to 2012, he was present at the creation of a potential economic powerhouse.

    This historical fiction novel continues with Margaret's journey from the time she and her Canadian husband participated in the 1854 Crimean War. Doctor Margaret travels alone to India to be with her parents at the American Presbyterian Mission at Futtehgurh, and then on to her posting at a hospital in Delhi. There she has to not only overcome work pressures, but also deal with her intimidators and intrigues of the Mughals, at the Delhi Red Fort.Margaret's tormentor since her childhood, Captain Albert, also joins a British regiment bound for service in India. The Russian, Captain Count Nicholai, whom Margaret had met in Crimea, also arrives in India under the guise of a French physician.The events leading up to the Indian Mutiny/Rebellion that breaks out in 1857 profoundly affect not only Margaret's life, but also of those who love her and others’ who wish her harm.Also, mixed-up in the bedlam is one of the King of Delhi, Shah Zafar, Red Fort’s Guard’s sepoy, Sharif Khan Bhadur, the grandfather of Doctor Wallidad, an American doctor.The Azadi Series covers the exciting events and turmoil that inflamed India from 1857 to 1947, and led to her independence. Those incidences engulf the characters of this story at that time, and then later their descendant's lives, again in the 1960s.

    Even today, they continue to live as ‘internally displaced people’ in their own country. While most Kashmiri Pandits have now carved a niche for themselves in different parts of India, several thousands are still languishing in migrant camps in and around Jammu. The stories of their struggles and plight have remained untold for years. The authors of the memoirs in this anthology belong to four generations. Those who were born and brought up in Kashmir, and fled while they were in their forties and fifties; those who lingered on in their homes in Kashmir despite the threat to their lives; those who got displaced in their teens; and those who were born in migrant camps in exile.These are untold narratives about the persecution of Pandits in Kashmir during the advent of militancy in 1989, the killings and kidnappings, loss of homeland, uprootedness, camp-life, struggle, survival, alienation and an ardent yearning to return to their land. These are stories about the re-discovery of their past, their ancestry, culture, and roots and moorings.

    Speaking to investigative journalist and conflict specialist Kishalay Bhattacharjee, the confessor tells of the toll this brutality has taken on him. An essay by Bhattacharjee and a postscript that analyses the hidden policy of extra-judicial killings and how it threatens India's democracy contextualize this searing confession. An explosive document on institutionalized human rights abuse.

    Strange but alluring circumstances compel them to break the stereotype of a beach vacation and let themselves wild. Instead of treasuring memories, they memorize treasure-maps. Instead of scoring keys, they duplicate keys. Instead of haunting discotheques, they break into haunted-like houses. Instead of partying at EDM festivals, they gatecrash birthday parties. Instead of hitting on random hot women, they grow into subjects of hot pursuit. De-stress becomes distress, and their jolly vacation transforms itself into a cabaret of headless chickens. What motivates them to let adrenaline shoot to potent levels? What inspires them to act in a manner they’d term insane in their otherwise normal worlds? Is it a fair gamble or just another wild goose chase? Or is it really a goose that lays the golden eggs?Find out as you lose yourself in the frenzied, gripping and adventuresome tale about the 1000 kilograms of Goa.

    Ambedkar has dealt with the subject of Slavery and Untouchability in chapter 3 & 8 of Vol. 5 of this series, under the caption-' Roots of the Problem ' ' Parallel cases '. We have however now come in possession of a booklet in which there are certain paragraphs which do not find place in Vol. No. V chapter 3 & 8. The material reproduced here when read together, makes consistent and complete reading. We have also no reason to doubt the genuineness of the material as the publisher of the said booklet Shri Devi Dayal was associated with Dr.Ambedkar during 1943-47. The facsimile of the title at the beginning of the chapter, as printed in the booklet vouchsafe the authorship of Dr. Ambedkar. Earlier paragraphs in the booklet i. e. from page I to 11 upto * considerations of humanity ' are already printed in Vol. 5 at page nos. 80 to 88. Mr. Bhagwandas of Delhi deserves credit for publishing this article for Mr. Devi Dayal—Editor]

    He is the ultimate Yoga guru reflecting the highest Self-awareness. The current book unfolds the presence, light, energy and consciousness of the Supreme Shiva to take us beyond all death and duality.

    The Mughal empire already spreads from Kabul to Bengal on the border of Assam .The distant land, being ruled by the Ahom dynasty, is in disarray at the time. Mir Jumla swiftly sweeps across the hilly banks of the Brahmaputra, and annexes more than half the kingdom to the Mughal empire, including the prized city of Guwahati. Their villages and cities stand destroyed, their temples and places of burial are defiled and the Ahom princess is forcefully taken to the Mughal harem. The Ahom king, Chakradhwaj Singha, resolves to remove the stain of this insult to his land and people by waging war against the Mughals. He reposes his faith in a newly appointed commander – Lachit Barphukan. A long drawn campaign begins to oust the invaders from Assam….. This is the heroic tale of the Assamese and their leader Lachit Barphukan, who inspired his men to face the Mughal empire,. A story of the basic human desire for freedom, and the people’s struggle to achieve it. A tale of valour and sacrifice. At the same time, far away in the Deccan, the Marathas are also fighting for swarajya from the Mughals. Thus, linking the far flung lands with a common love of freedom and swarajya and the will to fight for it.

    Palkhivala, a multi-talented personality, played diverse roles in his life—lawyer, diplomat, orator, author, political and economic thinker, and social reformer. An advocate of civil liberties, he proactively defended the Constitution and the principles enshrined in it.This book contains select quotations—classified subject-wise under various chapters—from his writings and speeches over six decades of his working life. The book introduces the man through his thoughts and ideas with the aim of inspiring readers, particularly the youth.

     Joseph Dando, a resilient young Cockney, finds himself on Delhi Ridge in India fighting a bloody mutiny. After surviving the outbreak of the mutiny in Meerut, along with the ghastly killings, looting, and rapes, Dando and the rest of the survivors face the brutal hike across the Doab Desert to help protect Delhi…and prevent the fall of the British Empire in India. Will fortune favour the bold, or will Britain’s last line of defence be slaughtered on Delhi Ridge? Using brief flashbacks to fill in Dando's background and extend the scope and flexibility of the narrative, author Ronald Bassett paints a fascinating picture of Victorian England as well as India. ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’ was previously published under a different title, ‘Dando on the Delhi Ridge’. Praise for Ronald Bassett: ‘One of the most impressive things I found about the book was that you got a real feel for the time and place. Scenes set in India or England felt different and I think that's a great achievement.’ – Library Thing. Ronald Bassett was born in 1924 in Chelsea. During the Munich crisis, at age fourteen, he falsified enlistment papers to become a Rifleman of the King's Royal Rifle Corps (60th Rifles). Following active service, he was exposed and discharged. In his records, his colonel noted, ‘A good soldier. I am sorry to lose him.' Undismayed, he immediately entered the Royal Navy, in which he remained for fourteen years, serving in the Arctic, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, the Far East and, later, Korea. He died in 1996 in Surrey.

    It remained invisible for almost four thousand years, until its ruins were discovered in the 1920s by British and Indian archaeologists. Today, after almost a century of excavation, it is regarded as the beginning of Indian civilization and possibly the origin of Hinduism. The Indus: Lost Civilizations is an accessible introduction to every significant aspect of an extraordinary and tantalizing “lost” civilization, which combined artistic excellence, technological sophistication, and economic vigor with social egalitarianism, political freedom, and religious moderation. The book also discusses the vital legacy of the Indus civilization in India and Pakistan today.

    Austere yet grandiose, it was established as the seat of the Vijayanagara empire in the mid-14th century, a time when art and architecture flourished. Contemporary chroniclers from Persia, Italy, Portugal and Russia visited the empire during this period and left glowing accounts of a city that was conquered by Sultanate troops in AD 1565, pillaged for six months, and abandoned.Hampi Vijayanagara examines the temples renowned for their florid ornamentation, intricate carvings, magnificent pavilions, stately pillars and a wealth of iconographic and traditional depictions. The book also includes site plans and three-dimensional reconstructions.

    For a century the Lows of Clatto survived mutiny, siege, debt and disease, everywhere from the heat of Madras to the Afghan snows. They lived through the most appalling atrocities and retaliated with some of their own. Each of their lives, remarkable in itself, contributes to the story of the whole fragile and imperilled, often shockingly oppressive and devious but now and then heroic and poignant enterprise. On the surface, John and Augusta Low and their relations may seem imperturbable, but in their letters and diaries they often reveal their loneliness and desperation and their doubts about what they are doing in India. The Lows are the family of the author's grandmother, and a recurring theme of the book is his own discovery of them and of those parts of the history of the British in India which posterity has preferred to forget. The book brings to life not only the most dramatic incidents of their careers - the massacre at Vellore, the conquest of Java, the deposition of the boy-king of Oudh, the disasters in Afghanistan, the Reliefs of Lucknow and Chitral - but also their personal ordeals: the bankruptcies in Scotland and Calcutta, the plagues and fevers, the deaths of children and deaths in childbirth. And it brings to life too the unrepeatable strangeness of their lives: the camps and the palaces they lived in, the balls and the flirtations in the hill stations, and the hot slow rides through the dust. An epic saga of love, war, intrigue and treachery, The Tears of the Rajas is surely destined to become a classic of its kind.

    When a silver owl disappears from a neighbour's house, it's the shy supergirl who has to find the culprit!

    IT WILL HELP YOU MOTIVATE YOURSELF AND TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS AND CONTENTMENT BOTH IN YOUR LIFE. A HIGH UTILITY BOOK. CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND THE WAY YOU PERCEPT YOUR LIFE. Excerpt- For entering into this search you have to understand. Look at these rich people these millionaires, these billionaires, look at them. With such an accumulation of wealth! If you observe their lives deeply, they just live to accumulate, accumulation. Sometime I pass through a highway, connecting my city with other cities. There is a house by the side of that highway – house of a rich person. I have seen near about twenty cars standing there. The family of that rich person is small. A small family with only three members, and yet, they have so many cars of their own. Sometimes I think, what is the purpose of acquiring so many cars for such a small family? But I can understand somehow that the need is social. The need is of that perception, which says to him that the more cars he possess the more he is socially accepted; the richer he is believed to be. He wants to show that he is rich and he is showing through his cars. I have heard about a beautiful dead body. And, that was of Alexander the Great. But what was beautiful about his dead body? It was his ability to give a message to this world, through his body. And, the message was great. The message was his whole learning; what he had learnt through his life. That is why even his dead body was beautiful – it contained a beautiful message. When Alexander the Great was dying; he realized that now there is no way to survive. He was certain about his death. So, he called his ministers and told them that during his last journey, the journey to cremation ground, both of his hands should be kept open. So that, people could see that even a person like him; even Alexander the Great is leaving this world empty handed, with nothing to acquire; not a single penny. He realized in his last days that he wasted his life: wasted just in accumulating lands, in accumulating wealth. But finally he was going, he has to go and he could carry nothing with him. He was going; acquiring nothing for which he had fought so many wars with so much bloodshed. He visited India to won this place also. Here this realization slowly happened to him. What happened to him here in India that he came to this realization? India was always different. The perception of people here is the perception of east and it is different from the perception of the west. When he travelled India different experiences happened to him. Once he was travelling through India. After long journey he and his soldiers were hungry and thirsty. After long search for shelter and food, he reached at a temple, resided by a monk and his disciple. The monk welcomed Alexander. But Alexander was full of pride; after all he defeated so many countries; how a monk like this could even stand before him. So, out of his pride he ordered the monk to serve some food and drink for him and his soldiers. The food was served. But to his surprise, he was served with diamonds and bread made from gold. So, he called the monk and asked him that how such things can be eaten. The monk answered, “Sir, you are Alexander the Great, a great emperor, how can I serve you simple things which every normal person eats. You are so special. Hence, something special should be served. How can a thing lesser than gold satisfy your hunger?” Alexander said, “But these things can’t be eaten”. Monk answered, “How can I insult you by serving simple dishes. So, I have served you with gold and gems. Please accept it”. The message was clear and understood by Alexander the Great. And, when he was dying, he wanted to give this message to the whole world.

    Could India become a prosperous nation once again? - Do we have a silver bullet or a master key for transforming the nation? - What would it take to make the needed transformation? If you have, then this recently published and highly acclaimed book is a must read. The author makes the case that we can build a Golden India by unleashing the potential of its 1.3 billion people and transforming its higher education system. Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, Trustee, Deshpande Foundation, and Life Member, MIT Corporation has written a foreword for the book. Buy a copy for yourself. Give a gift to your friends. Donate to a library.

    

    A best seller book now available on Amazon Kindle.

    Koteswaramma is well known as the widow of Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, founder of the Maoist movement in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and her life spans a tumultuous century of Indian politics that included the Independence movement, Communist insurrection, and the militant leftist Naxalite movement. A child widow at the age of five, she went on to marry Seetharamaiah and work for the Communist Party of India. She was later forced to live underground with her family in the difficult years of the late 1940s. Then Seetharamaiah deserted her and everything changed. Painfully, Koteswaramma worked to rebuild her life, only to face tragedy again when both of her children died as young adults. When many others would have given up, Koteswaramma responded by enrolling in school, taking a job, raising her grandchildren, writing poetry and prose, and eventually establishing herself as a thinking person in her own right. Now in English, The Sharp Knife of Memory is a searing memoir that will resonate worldwide as it explores the nature of memory and gives a firsthand account of the arrival of women’s political independence in India. That Indian women often face incredible suffering is known, but that they can fight back and emerge winners is exemplified in the life of Koteswaramma.

    Marginalized people everywhere have aspired to build an inclusive world. Espousing the perspective of the commoners, this revised edition of Debrahmanising History brings out the beauty and resilience of a counter-tradition by visiting some of the major sites of resistance and creativity from below. Ranged against caste and brahminism, this liberating tradition is to be found in the egalitarians of diverse inclinations, particularly in the strands of shramanism, Buddhism, the movements of subaltern sant-poets, Sufism, and Sikhism. This counter-tradition was carried forward in modern India by, more than anybody else, Jotiba Phule, Iyothee Thass, Narayana Guru, Periyar, and Ambedkar. Recognizing the power of culture in the politics of transformation, they had emancipatory visions that embraced the whole of Indian experience, and stand firmly as an alternative to Tikak-Savarkarite, Gandhian, and Nehruvian visions. Their determined but diverse and 'resourceless' struggles fought in the teeth of opposition from the caste elites, could not arrest the neo-brahminism which under colonial complicity and the archaeology of knowledge derived from Orientalism went on to reincarnate - and nationalise - itself into octopus-like Hinduism and 'Indian Culture'. Their sublime failure adds to their enduring appeal to the dalit-bahujans as old forms of hierarchy and hegemony menacingly morph into new structures of inequality in the 'world's largest democracy'. In some studies, the emancipatory thrust of this tradition is occasionally recognized, but it is seldom integrated with civilizational studies on Indian culture and society. An attempt in that direction, this searing critique of caste and dominant historiography is meant for all those who are - or want to be - part of the ongoing struggle of human liberation. Braj Ranjan Mani is the author of Knowledge and Power: A Discourse for Transformation (2014). One of India's unconventional scholar-activists, Manu was formerly a journalist with The Times of India, a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, and worked for a while as Dr. Ambedkar Chair-Professor at NISWASS, Bhubaneshwar, before deciding to work autonomously.

    

    In this pioneering book, he traces the archaeological route of the Indo-Iranian languages from the Aryan homeland north of the Black Sea to Central, West, and South Asia. His new ideas on the formation of the Vedic literature and rites and the great Hindu epics hinge on the profound impact that the invention of the horse-drawn chariot had on Indo-Aryan religion. Parpola's comprehensive assessment of the Indus language and religion is based on all available textual, linguistic and archaeological evidence, including West Asian sources and the Indus script. The results affirm cultural and religious continuity to the present day and, among many other things, shed new light on the prehistory of the key Hindu goddess Durga and her Tantric cult.

    Ambedkar (Father of Constitution of India). Read this article to learn about the administration of the East India Company and Crown during the British rule in India! The only book on this subject.

    As a learner who has spent many years navigating the treacherous slopes of the language, Manish Gupta understands the challenges faced by an Indian learnHe recounts his own struggles and narrates his interactions with people to outline tips and tricks to improve vocabulary, pronunciation and spoken English.

    The expansive dialogue demonstrates that it is but a short leap — or no leap at all — from the personal practice of religion to resolute support for the emerging norms and institutions of global civil society. Readers, religious or not, will come away with a powerful sense of hope for the shared global future.

    A welfare legislation aimed at providing employment and commanding a huge budget becomes 'unimplementable' in a region bedeviled by high levels of poverty and unemployment. Paper Tiger provides a lively ethnographic account of how such seemingly bizarre scenarios come to be in contemporary India. Based on eighteen months of intensive fieldwork, this book presents a unique explanation for why and how progressive laws can do what they do and not, ever-so-often, what they are supposed to do. It reveals the double-edged effects of the reforms that have been ushered in by the post-liberalization Indian state, particularly the effort to render itself more transparent and accountable. Through a meticulous detailing of everyday bureaucratic life on the Himalayan borderland, Paper Tiger makes an argument for shifting the very frames of thought through which we apprehend the workings of the developmental Indian state.

    What began as impulsive travel to a swathe of land that had no roads criss-crossing it soon turned into a homecoming: each stint in the forest compelled him to return and, finally, to stay. Over the years he became a student of Durwa life, living in the forest, tending cattle, working a hill-slope in the village. He immersed himself in the Durwa world while indulging his passion for devising a botanical classification that would be accessible to a layperson. Woodsmoke and Leafcups is a first-hand account of life in Bastar: the routines of communal life and the interactions of the Durwas with the State machinery. He writes of a culture where energy and laughter are currency, although of no value to anyone else. He draws a portrait of friends and teachers, threats and ways of eliding them, and the lure of politics for those long indifferent to it. At a time when 'there are few places in which to lose oneself', Ramnath writes of a people and a place that exist outside, sometimes counter to, known narratives.

    DaruwallaThe old, who had seen peaceful times, rightly predicted, 'So much blood will seep through our land that someday we will have red kernels of maize instead of yellow. The day is not far when the hills will start to grow red maize, season after season.'As gun-toting militants of the Tanzeem swarm the hills of Morha Madana by the river Chenab, the joys of the harvesting season leach out of that once-idyllic village. Terrorists take over in the name of azadi, commanding, in equal measure, respect and fear from the villagers.Drawn by their call to jihad, Shakeel, second of the widow Kausar Jan's three sons, becomes Morha Madana's first mujahid - and, soon enough, the Tanzeem's dreaded area commander. Back in the Indian Army camp in the village, Major Rathore decides that Shakeel's decimation is his ticket back to a peace station and an impending marriage that awaits him in Jaipur. And Kausar Jan, like Kashmir itself, is caught in the crossfire between the militants and the army, even as the maize crops in her backyard are stained with the blood of her sons.Red Maize is a searing chronicle of the relentless siege of Kashmir, of the human cost of war, and of a way of life, forever lost.

    She finds her life to have striking echoes of his, not least travels to and within India, a career in indigo, and a passion for journal writing. She is also intrigued by his aspi­ra­tion to write ‘a novel in the form of an auto­bi­og­ra­phy’ and by his quirky water­colour sketches.Machell of Crack­en­thorpe, born in 1824, first demon­strated his yearning for adventure when only twelve, and at sixteen left the family rectory to follow his dream of trav­el­ling to the East.By chance, he witnessed many important his­tor­i­cal events, including the infamous ‘First Opium War’ and the ‘Indian Mutiny’. He spent most of his adult life in India; the author follows him to indigo plan­ta­tions of rural Bengal and Bangladesh, to coffee estates in Kerala’s Malabar Hills, to unex­plored regions of central India and to the city of Calcutta.Machell also travelled up the Indus River to Kashmir and the North-West Frontier and undertook an intrepid sea voyage with Muslim merchants. When the author voyages aboard the last freighter to take pas­sen­gers from UK to India, she faces the same threat of pirate attack in the Red Sea as Machell. She also follows in his wake by cargo ship to the most remote Poly­ne­sian islands, setting for his pas­sion­ate love affair, and she seeks his colourful descen­dants in the New World.This remark­able tale of East-West con­nec­tions brings to life the untold story of a spirited outsider at the height of the British Raj. Serendip­ity, intuition and an enchant­ing rela­tion­ship, as well as the author’s quest to uncover the missing years of Machell’s life, give this book its magical extra dimension.Described by A N Wilson as 'One of the most remarkable books I have ever read'.

    Ninan addresses a range of contemporary questions as only he can—looking at why the economy lost steam, the emerging trends in politics, the Chinese shadow over India, and the relationship between the state and the citizen. He asks whether manufacturing can be made a success story, what is the size of the neo-middle class, who really is the aam aadmi, and if it is possible to put an end to extreme poverty now. And, finally—what are the fears that should keep us awake at night?This wide-ranging book is an attempt to understand, through data and analyses, where India stands today, why it has emerged the way it has, and what the next ten years might bring. For anyone interested in India and its future, this is essential and enlightening reading.

    This subject has been discussed in numerous books, but mostly in terms of rapid economic growth and immense potential in the emerging market. There is also a vast collection of literature on India's 'soft power '- culture, tourism, frugal engineering, and knowledge economy. However, there has been no serious exploration of the alternative path India can take to achieving great power status - a combination of hard power, geostrategics, and realpolitik. In this book, Bharat Karnad delves exclusively into these hard power aspects of India's rise and the problems associated with them. He offers an incisive analysis of the deficits in the country's military capabilities and in the 'software' related to hard power--absence of political vision and will, insensitivity to strategic geography, and unimaginative foreign and military policies--and arrives at powerful arguments on why these shortfalls have prevented the country from achieving the great power status.

    

    Though it was at the peak of its opulence, the escalating rivalry between Shah Jahan’s eldest son Dara Shikoh and his third son Aurangzeb over the past two decades had split the family. Dara, the pampered prince, was a poet and philosopher who had to turn a soldier to combat his bitter but battle-hardened brother, The conflict between Dara’s love of all religions and Aurangzeb’s narrow Islamic beliefs was to make the battle much more than simply one for the throne. It became a series of battles for the very soul of India. The novel recounted by a eunuch intimate with all the princes, princesses and personages of the court, takes the reader through the magnificent royal palace into the harem, to royal hunts and to the kingdoms of rival and vassal rulers. Mubarak Ali, the narrator, fights in the armies of the rival princes and describes six exciting battles. His adventures take the reader from the limpid lakes of Kashmir to the deserts of Sind and the lush forests of every part of India. He tells a tale of high adventure, reckless courage, ruthless cunning, tender romance, treacherous betrayal and heart- Wrenching tragedy in a world of incredible luxury and decadence in what was once the richest empire of the world.

    It is a new interpretation of the activities and political impact of the north Indian revolutionaries who advocated the use of political violence against the British.Kama Maclean contends that the actions of these revolutionaries had a direct impact on Congress politics and tested its policy of non- violence. In doing so she draws on visual culture studies, demonstrating the efficacy of imagery in constructing-- as opposed to merely illustrating 00 historical narratives. Maclean analyses visual evidence alongside recently declassified government files, memoirs and interviews to elaborate on the complex relationships between the Congress and the HSRA, which were far less antagonistic than is frequently imagined.

    Each innovator comes from diverse backgrounds from those who hold a PhD to those who have had no formal education! Despite this difference, what unites them is their passion for innovation, the grit with which they have fought adversities and their vision for a better world.Each story celebrates the triumphant spirit of these determined individuals in a society that places little incentive on innovation. These innovators have resolved to break the status quo in the Indian innovation landscape!

    She chomps on textbooks, feasts on frocks and devours anything blue in colour. But once this incredible cow gets onto the ilish fish trail, there’s just no stopping her…The first book in the Illustrated Classics series featuring adaptations of stories by well known writers from across the country, this comical story of a common cow with uncommon taste is a tale to relish. Nyadosh’s extraordinary appetite unfolds through vivid photo collages, offset by light black-and-white doodles. Along with the almost unbelievable true-life story, they give readers a hilariously different depiction of what we usually think of as a mild-mannered animal!

    Tapas had a good job, a bright future and was about to marry the girl he loved but fate suddenly turned against him. That’s when he met a spiritual Guru who taught him Pranayama, meditation, and the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. Soon, he started taking classes of Pranayama, meditation and started giving Gita pravachan for a small fee. With this modest beginning, he went on to having the largest ashram in India at Puri, Odisha and many ashrams in various countries around the world. An MLA, an American and an Ayurvedic doctor, were instrumental in his rise. Everything was going well for everyone until there was a murder in the ashram. What was really going on?Was the ashram really, what it was supposed to be?

    This charm is supposed to ward off evil. With that belief, it is commonly hung at the doorposts of homes and offices, in vehicles, and even in local trains and buses. Such is the popularity of the humble nimboo-mirchi! But, like all superstitions, there is a deeper question here as well. Is there any shred of truth behind this almost ritualistic practice? And if not, why are millions of Indians following this practice since generations? The Evil Eye and The Charm is an anthology of three short stories, all of which are themed around the lemon-chili talisman. But more than the common notion of this charm, the stories are an analysis of the credulity of human nature when dealing with things unknown.

    Shankar Chatterjee, born in a wealthy Bengali family, Marilyn Benson, an artistic but emotionally unstable girl struggling to find her balance in New York City, and Narsimha Sastry, an outcast born in a small village in India, despised by the grandparents who raise him.Into this fray are drawn the beautiful sisters, Padma and Leela, whose lives entangle with Narsimha’s until it becomes a question of life and death. It is a story of the Indian Diaspora, the search for the American dream, and finally a story of diverse cultures connected in such a manner that we realise that what finally does matter are universal, humane principles and values.The book is driven by both mythological and psychological themes that intersect and merge at the end.

    I have written it in simple English and explained the terms in plain words so that any regular person can understand. The book explains in easy manner the various investing avenues that you have, the advantages and disadvantages of each. It gives the overall picture of the Indian market.Here are some of the topics that are covered in the book:* Finding and choosing a broker - Online vs traditional broker* How to invest, how much to invest and investment goals* The difference between mutual funds, index funds, and ETFs* How to make your first trade* The IPO's that made people crores* The legendary investors that you need to follow and listen to their adviceRead this and start making money in the share market. Happy Investing ! Happy Trading !

    Celebrated as one of the most popular and path-breaking novels of its time, it has received continual critical acclaim: The Rabindra Puraskar (the Tagore Prize) in 1966 and the Bharitiya Jnanpith, India’s highest literary award, in 1977. Spanning the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, Ashapurna tells the story of the struggles and efforts of women in nineteenth-century, colonial Bengal in a deceptively easy and conversational style. The charming eight-year old heroine, Satyabati is a child bride who leaves her husband’s village for Calcutta, the capital of British India where she is caught in the social dynamics of women’s education, social reform agendas, modern medicine and urban entertainment. As she makes her way through this complex maze, making sense of the rapidly changing world around her, Satyabati nurtures hopes and aspirations for her daughter. But the promises held out by modernity turn out to be empty, instigating Satyabati to break away from her inherited world and initiate a quest that takes her to the very heart of tradition.Indira Chowdhury’s confident translation, with its conscious choice of Indian English equivalents over British and American colloquialisms, carries across the language divide the flavour of Ashapurna’s unique idiomatic style. This edition also includes the translator’s reflections on the process of translation itself.

    Throughout the empire's three centuries of rise, preeminence and decline, it remained a dynamic and complex entity within and against which diverse peoples and interests conflicted. The empire's significance continues to be controversial among scholars and politicians with fresh and exciting new insights, theories and interpretations being put forward in recent years. This book engages students and general readers with a clear, lively and informed narrative of the core political events, the struggles and interactions of key individuals, groups and cultures, and of the contending historiographical arguments surrounding the Mughal Empire.

    

    Its domestic market is fast-growing and India is becoming increasingly important to global geo-strategic calculations, at a time when it has been outperforming many other growing economies, and is the only Asian country with the heft to counterbalance China. Indeed, so much is India defined internationally by its economic performance (and challenges) that other dimensions of its internal situation, notably relevant to security, and of its foreign policy have been relatively neglected in the existing literature.This handbook presents an innovative, high profile volume, providing an authoritative and accessible examination and critique of Indian foreign policy. The handbook brings together essays from a global team of leading experts in the field to provide a comprehensive study of the various dimensions of Indian foreign policy.

    Voices, Old & New is a collection of short stories featuring the very best submissions from Indireads’ 2nd Short Story Competition 2014.

    The pictures in the book establish the transformation of this society and the many forms of modernity that have emerged in it. It emphasises how 'indigenous people' in Mizoram used cameras to produce distinct modern identities and represent themselves to themselves, consistently contesting outsiders' imaginations of them as isolated, backward and in need of upliftment. The authors demonstrate how mostly amateur photographers used visual images to document a historical trajectory of heady change and continual reinvention, producing distinct modern identities. By virtue of its use of visual sources and its engagement with a wide range of important discourses, this book is relevant for students, historians, social scientists, political activists and general readers looking for a fresh approach to Northeast India.

    Jinnah, Sardar Patel and many other top leaders strongly opposed India s adoption of the parliamentary system. History has proven them right. Given its diversity, size, and communal and community divisions, the country needed a truly federal setup not the centralised unitary control that the parliamentary system offers. Why India Needs the Presidential System tells the dramatic story of how India s current system of government evolved, how it is at the root of the problems India faces. The result of years of meticulous research, this book makes a passionate plea for a radical rethink of India s future as a nation. Why India Needs the Presidential System is not just an expose of what is wrong, but a serious effort at offering a possible solution.

    It is about gods and goddesses, mythical creatures, ancient folklore and tales that abound in every village. Some of these are oft-heard stories. Some have seldom gone around. Some are spoofs. Some are parodies. They walk the ancient India or sound the chimes of modern India. From the celestial love of Shiva-Parvati, to the raging avatar of Kalki, from myths and legends of Brahmaputra to the stories of the Mahabharata, Rudraksha has it all. And there is more. Reading spoofs on present day icons provide high entertainment as do the satirical twists parodying modern issues; all through the perspective of mythology. This mélange of mythological tales is sure to leave you spellbound with anticipation even as ancient sagas jump out of the pages through modern retelling. They bind the real world with surreal myths and bring to you an anthology that is unique and entertaining.

    Evil knowledge hidden for hundreds of years has been exposed in Northern India. Now the young scholar Pratima and the inexperienced library worker William must join forces to end the threat. Will they be able to travel the rivers, valleys and village ways to arrive in time? Will they have the power to prevent the catastrophe? Their quest for the Librarian is a race against time to stop the unleashing of a grave danger on the land.

    Covering almost seventy years of conflict, it chronicles the events leading up to Partition, reflects on the consequent strife, and provides a fresh, discursive perspective on the figures who have shaped the story of this land—from Lord Louis Mountbatten and Muhammad Ali Jinnah to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.Covering historical, diplomatic and military perspectives, Where Borders Bleed is intrepid, engaging with a range of contentious issues that have shaped Indo-Pak relations—water sharing, Kashmir and Article 370. Equally, it is speculative. It asks: would terror have affected the world the way it has, if ‘PakIndia’ had been a benign single entity? What if India and Pakistan were to reunite, much like East and West Germany? As the now-largest nation in the world, would the mammoth PakIndia radically change the globe’s geo-political framework?These questions—combined with the author’s own diplomatic access to rare archival material and key leaders across borders—make this a one-of-a-kind book on the story of India and Pakistan.

    When a life-altering illness brings her to her knees at age thirty-two, Molly's long-held dream to travel solo through India is shattered, giving way to a journey of another kind. Set against the vivid sensuality of India's sounds, colors, smells, and nuanced contours, Learning to Walk in India is a true tale of love, loss, friendship, and the power of the human spirit. Told with unflinching honesty, Molly's raw and often humorous account takes us on her wild, unforgettable ride as she surrenders to India, to her herself, and ultimately to the unknown as she learns to walk again.

    Bhanubala and her daughter - in - law Behula dance naked at midnight in a remote field to appease the rain god. Firewood - seller Rabeya and her niece Dulali rebel against the Shariat. An opium - eater undertakes the challenge of eating a basketful of red hot chillies for a little opium and some money. In one sweep, Imran Hussain's writing examines the historical, the social, the individual and the assertion of the self in the face of hard - wired traditions. Entrenched in folklore, his stories weave in protest and perspective into contemporary realities. The stories in this collection are a rare portrait of Assam, a duet of darkness and beauty, a blend of mysticism and earthiness. Available in translation for the first time, Hussain is one of India's most compelling new voices.

    

    South Asia, despite being the site of the world's largest democracy and a vibrant if turbulent constitutionalism, is one of the important neglected regions within the field. This book remedies this lack of attention by providing a detailed examination of constitutional law and practice in five South Asian countries: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Identifying a common theme of volatile change, it develops the concept of "unstable constitutionalism," studying the sources of instability alongside reactions and responses to it. By highlighting unique theoretical and practical questions in an underrepresented region, Unstable Constitutionalism constitutes an important step toward truly global constitutional scholarship.

    This series is perfect for building reading confidence, whether reading aloud or reading alone.

    Hailed as India first Queer Graphic Anthology, this attempts at filling a void in the Queer space, and serves to make it a more relatable concept. The Zine’s contributors are a melee of straight and queer, young and old, artist and writer, all people looking for ways to engage with different ideas of identity and sexuality. The Zine is put together by a team comprising Priya Gangwani, member of Gaysi, who has curated and edited the stories; Sreejita Biswas, founder of StripTease The Mag, who compiled the magazine in its current avatar and gave it a fantastic art direction; Ojoswi Sur, Head of Art, StripTease the Mag, who illustrated the fabulous cover page; Sakshi Juneja, who managed the production of the Zine and Anuja Parikh, who took care of operations and got people together. Prashant Miranda’s wonderful guest cover and Karishma Dorai’s amazing posters were also an integral part of the anthology.

    INDIAN HISTORY Subjective Applicable For All Competitive Exams ________________________________ Contents ________________________________ INDIAN HISTORY ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY • INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION IN INDIA • ARYANS AND VEDIC PERIOD IN INDIA • THE MAHAJANPADAS • BUDDHISM IN INDIA • JAINISM IN INDIA • THE MAGADHA EMPIRE • ALEXANDER’S INVASION OF INDIA • THE MAURYAN DYNASTY • CENTRAL ASIAN CONTACT • KINGDOMS AFTER THE MAURYANS • SANGAM AGE IN INDIA • THE GUPTA DYNASTY • OTHER DYNASTIES AND RULERS MEDIEVAL INDIAN HISTORY • THE ILBARI DYNASTY • KHALJI DYNASTY IN INDIA • THE TUGHLAQ DYNASTY • SAYYID DYNASTY • THE LODHI DYNASTY • PROVINCIAL KINGDOMS • RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS • VIJAYNAGAR KINGDOM • BAHMANI KINGDOM • MUGHAL EMPERORS OF INDIA • THE AFGHAN INTERLUDE • COMMUNAL AND REGIONAL UPRISINGS MODERN INDIAN HISTORY • ADVENT OF EUROPEANS IN INDIA • GOVERNOR GENERALS AND VICEROYS OF INDIA • CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA • BRITISH EDUCATIONAL POLICY AND GROWTH OF MODERN EDUCATION • SOCIO-RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS • INDIAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT • PRESIDENT OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS • BOOKS BY INDIAN AUTHORS • NEWS PAPERS AND JOURNALS FOUNDER IN INDIA • IMPORTANT BATTLES INDIAN HISTORY • INDIAN AND INTERNATIONAL ANNIVERSARIES AND DAYS • FAMOUS NICKNAMES OF EMINENT PERSONS • FAMOUS PLACES ASSOCIATED WITH EMINENT PERSONS • CREMATORIUM OF FAMOUS PERSONS • IMPORTANT NATIONAL LEADERS • INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT STRUGGLE

    No family, no friends... And then one day she 'makes' her way out of oppressive loneliness into a world of creativity, beauty and joy. This sensitive telling of Sonabai's story follows her transformative artistic journey from the tactile experience of her first creations in clay, innovative experiments with colours and light, and unfettered play with pattern and design to being embraced by the art world. Rich photographs augment the telling, for a fascinating introduction to the life, work and milieu of this quitely strong, self-taught artist. Together, they offer a detailed look at art and the organic growth of her distinctive creative vision. In the process, they also evoke a compelling profile in courage, and the larger story of how Sonabai's art, like all great art, transcends from the personal to the universal.

    Mr. Gupta, a rich newcomer to the island, is also searching—he wants to sell the cub’s body parts on the black market. Neel and his sister, Rupa, resolve to find the cub first and bring her back to the reserve where she belongs.The hunt for the cub interrupts Neel’s preparations for an exam to win a prestigious scholarship at a boarding school far from home. Neel doesn’t mind—he dreads the exam and would rather stay on his beloved island in the Sunderbans of West Bengal with his family and friends.But through his encounter with the cub, Neil learns that sometimes you have to take risks to preserve what you love. And sometimes you have to sacrifice the present for the chance to improve the future.

    The remaining people have been infected and have become zombies.Aaditya’s life makes for a drastic change when he falls in love with a girl, Vaani, who has been missing since the outbreak of the plague. He now embarks on an extraordinary journey of love, hope and war for survival. But Aaditya discovers that their love will not be the same, for there are secrets, mysteries and dangers involving Vaani and her past life.Will Aaditya be able to protect his love which also happens to be the last love story of the universe before Mankind becomes extinct?