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CULTURE STUDIES [Social History]
Rs 100
'How many of us, as children, felt that it was entirely right that Tarzan should be the unquestioned leader of hordes of "natives"? Or . . . that Flash Gordon should vanquish Ming the Merciless, who was the very quintessence of the "Evil Oriental", even if he was from another planet?'
Rs 250 £ 12.95 $ 19.95
'.
. . one day, Sharan arrived. His virile body, his golden hair, the look
that glowed in his pale eyes, intense, brooding-all of this threw her
into a turmoil. Subhadra fell madly in love.'
Rs 550 £ 19.95 $ 25.95
This
is a major study of the sarod, a leading stringed instrument in
Hindustani classical music. It documents the cultural origins, historical
development and music styles of this instrumental tradition over
the last three centuries. It does this by documenting the history
of its musicians, their social organization, patron groups, modes
of patronage, musical and aesthetic developments, instrument design
and construction,
Rs. 250.00 £ 12.95 $ 19.95
Rs 275.00
For
almost three decades, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, has been ignoring the
Rs 625.00
£ 25.00 $ 40.00 This work is a complete account of probably the best-known
millenarian movement in tribal India. The movement of the Mundas led by
Birsa was typical of the resistance and revitalization movements in the
latter half of the nineteenth century. A combination of a religious and
a political movement, it represented the struggle and aspirations of his
people, sowing the first stirrings of nationalism among them and featuring
an urge to recreate the old world which had disappeared under the onslaught
of colonialism.
Acclaimed as the first of its kind, this study is based on anthropological
data and archival material. It traces Birsa’s early life and his transformation
into a ’black Christ’ against the background of the processes of transformation
of the tribal society of Chotanagpur. His political movement and his religion
are closely studied in the context of their impact on the course of history.
The book was translated into various languages of the country and inspired
various forms of creative adaptation in contemporary folk and regional
literature, including Mahasweta Devi’s major novel Aranyer Adhikar. Rs 595.00 £ 19.95 $ 25.95 'Taking its title
from Karl Marx's description of religion as 'the general theory of this
world ……. [and] its logic in a popular form', this volume of essays explores
the hidden logic behind the popular construction of certain myths, beliefs
about godlings and spirits, and cross-religious cults, viewing them as
popular inventions attempting to make sense of human existence in the
face of an overwhelming and often hostile environment.
These
religious manifestations of popular logic - ranging from Kali to Radha
- Krishna to Satyapir to Tantrik practice - are fluid, ever-changing,
and always innovative. They represent an alternative stream running parallel
to, and often challenging, the more strictly structured beliefs and practices
of the Indian religious establishments, whether Hindu, Islamic or Christian.
The essays in the present collection are an attempt to rediscover some
of the important aspects of this multi-faceted phenomenon of popular religion
in the context of nineteenth-century Bengal, including tracing the impact
of urbanization, colonialism, and nationalism. They also try to re-examine
the relevance of some of the beliefs and rituals that have flowed down
from that past and continue to survive n Bengali society today. Sumanta
Banerjee is a cultural historian who specializes in research into popular
culture, particularly of the colonial period. His best known works include
The Simmering Revolution: The Naxalite Uprising, The Thema Book of Naxalite
Poetry, The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth
Century Calcutta and Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitute in Nineteenth Century
Bengal. Rs 525.00
£ 19.95 $ 25.95 The eight essays that comprise this book offer a ‘dissenting, futurist, and hermeneutic’ perspective on India civilization and various aspects of the modern cultural history of India. Feminism, subaltern studies, have helped to pose new and important questions about our knowledge of India, but there has been insufficient engagement with local forms of knowledge, and with the non-modern, a historicist, mythic, vernacular and pluralist elements of Indian civilization. Although this scholarship offers rearrangements within the existing frames of knowledge, it seldom dispenses with the frames. This book is an attempt to help in establishing a tradition of modern Indian criticism; of which there are only a handful of parishioners n English in India today including Ashis Nandy, Rustom Bharucha, Shiv Visvanatajn, and T.G.Vaidyanathan
The essays, all in an easily readable style, cover a wide range of cultural phenomena and offer a sweeping perspective on contemporary Indian society. They explore the national obsession with the Guinness Book of Records and the paranoia over VIP security, the politics of sexuality as embodied in the lifestyles of hijras and the nationalist fevour over the nuclear tests. There are essays on the impossibility of the Other in the Hindi film, on he World Cup of Cricket, on Gandhi’s experiments with celibate sexuality, the idea of India as a nation-state is, as the essays suggest, slowly encroaching upon the idea of India as a civilization, and the essays explore how our finite games can be transformed into infinite games.
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Biology as Politics
Romtha
: The Selected Works of Mahasweta Devi
Inventing The Sarod
Dewana, Khoimala and Holy Banyan Tree
Death of a Discipline
Birsa Munda and his Movements
Logic in a Popular Form 
Of Cricket, Guinness and Gandhi