When Google Met WikiLeaks

When Google Met WikiLeaks by Julian Assange from Navayana.

Nobody wants to acknowledge that Google has grown big and bad. But it has. The firm’s geopolitical aspirations are firmly enmeshed within the foreign-policy agenda of the world’s largest superpower.

—Google, whose logo is imprinted on human retinas almost six billion times each day, has made petabytes of personal data available to the US intelligence community
—In 2008, Google helped launch an NGA spy satellite, GeoEye-1. It shares the photographs from the satellite with the US military and intelligence communities
—In 2010, NGA awarded Google a $27 million contract for ‘geospatial visualization services’
—In 2012, Google arrived on the list of top-spending Washington lobbyists

In June 2011, Julian Assange received an unusual visitor: the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt. For several hours the besieged leader of the world’s most famous insurgent publishing organization and the billionaire head of the world’s largest information empire locked horns. For Assange, the liberating power of the Internet is based on its freedom and statelessness. For Schmidt, emancipation is at one with US foreign policy objectives and is driven by connecting non-Western countries to American companies and markets. When Google Met WikiLeaks presents the story of the Assange–Schmidt encounter.

 In our Media section, Rs. 295, in paperback, 224 pages, ISBN :9788189059668, Sales Restriction: Sale In SAARC Countries Only

Medicine, Healthcare and the Raj

Medicine, Healthcare and the Raj: The Unacknowledged Legacy by Daya Varma from Three Essays Collective.

The book is a significant intervention in the debates and existing scholarship on colonialism and medicine. Equally critical of the postmodern perspectives and of those who claim modern medicine as “gift” from the western world, virtually identifying modern medicine with “western” medicine, Daya Varma sifts the irrational from the rational critiques of imperialism. He makes a strong defense of modern medicine, preventive care, hygiene and public health as core of a viable strategy for accessible medicine.

Particularly striking are the linkages he makes between poverty and health, and between the state of public health in Britain and colonial India in the corresponding years, themes ignored by most scholars. Less concerned with the effect of modern medicine on “indigenous” medicine, he argues for criteria that center on the health of Indian people.

Unlike most researchers and scholars of the subject, the author is well-versed in theory and practice of medicine and in medical history, which lends his book an originality and wider perspective. The book both provokes and educates.

Written in a lucid and accessible language, and with a clear historical approach, the book would be of as much interest to lay persons as to historians and those in the medical profession.

In our Public Health Studies section, Rs. 500, in hardback, xx+196 pages, ISBN :9789383968060

Sathyavathi

Sathyavathi: Confronting Caste, Class & Gender by Vasanth Kannabiran

I have the satisfaction of knowing that whatever I longed for—a full meal, an education, a roof over my head, self-respect—I have been able to bring all that within the reach of many of my people. Sathyavathi captures the struggle of a Dalit woman in Telengana to survive and acquire an education in the face of overwhelming odds—grinding poverty, discrimination, violence. Her determination to go back to work for her community, her hard-won success, despite lack of political backing, and the hostility and intolerance she faced are testimony to the triumph of the human spirit. Without a trace of self-pity or rancour she recalls her life with dispassionate clarity and an irony that are exceptional.

SATHYAVATHI is one among countless Dalit women in Telengana who battled starvation and discrimination for an education that she knew would change her life. She set up her own organisation, Rural Awareness and Development Society, committed to fighting for Dalits, minor girls, women and tribals. She was awarded the Resourceful Women Award of Merit from the Shaler Adams Foundation in 1994 and Swara Veda Charity—Spirit of Life Award of Appreciation by the NTR Memorial Trust in 2011.

 In our Gender Studies section, Rs. 175, in paperback, 124 pages, ISBN :9788188965908

'Letters for a Nation' "Nehru and Bose"

Letters for a Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief Ministers 1947- 1963 by Madhav Khosla from Penguin Books India.

In October 1947, two months after he became independent India's firstprime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote the first of his fortnightly lettersto the heads of the country's provincial governments-a tradition that hekept until his last letter in December 1963, only a few months before hisdeath.

Carefully selected from among nearly 400 such letters, this collectioncovers a range of themes and subjects, including citizenship, war andpeace, law and order, national planning and development, governanceand corruption, and India's place in the world. The letters also covermomentous world events and the many crises and conflicts the countryfaced during the first sixteen years after Independence.

Visionary, wise and reflective, these letters are not just a testimony toNehru's statesmanship and his deep engagement with every aspect ofIndia's democratic journey, but are also of great contemporary relevance forthe guidance they provide for our current problems and predicaments.

In our Literature section, Rs. 599, in hardback, 352 pages, ISBN :9780670087723

Nehru and Bose: Parallel Lives by Rudrangshu Mukherjee from Penguin Books India.

'Nobody has done more harm to me than Jawaharlal Nehru,' wrote Subhas Chandra Bose in 1939. Had relations between the two great nationalist leaders soured to the extent that Bose had begun to view Nehru as his enemy? But then, why did he name one of the regiments of the Indian National Army after Jawaharlal? And what prompted Nehru to weep when he heard of Bose's untimely death in 1945 and to recount soon after, 'I used to treat him as my younger brother'?

Rudrangshu Mukherjee's fascinating book tracks the growth of these two towering figures against the backdrop of the independence movement, delicately tracing the contours of a friendship that did not quite blossom as political ideologies diverged and delineates the shadow that fell between them for, Gandhi saw Nehru as his chosen heir and Bose as a prodigal son. Nehru and Bose: Parallel Lives brings to light the riveting story of two contrasting personalities who would go on to define modern India.

In our History section, Rs. 599, in hardback, 280 pages, ISBN :9780670087235

People's Mission to the Ottoman Empire

People's Mission to the Ottoman Empire: M.A. Ansari and the Indian Medical Mission, 1912-13 by Burak Akçapar from Oxford University Press (India).

During the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, concerned Muslims around India mobilized to dispatch three medical teams to treat wounded Ottoman soldiers. Among them, the one organized by Mohammad Ali Jauhar and directed by Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari caught the limelight, thanks to the regular letters sent home by the director of the Mission and published in the weekly Comrade journal. 

In the body of scholarship on Ottoman pan-Islamism, as a manifestation of pan-Islamist political ideology and Muslim internationalist action and its influence on the 1919 Khilafat Movement in India, the 1912-13 Indian Medical Mission has not been analysed in detail.This book studies the letters by the director of the Mission and the political and ideational context of the period to provide the first full narrative history of the Medical Mission, detailing its simultaneously humanitarian and political purposes and activities in Turkey. 

The Mission was as much a humanitarian initiative as it was an effort to heal the pride of the Muslim population in India. This is their story, reconstructing to the extent possible their thoughts, voice, and the era that shaped them.

In our History section, Rs. 995, in hardback, 352 pages, ISBN :9780198099574

Politics and Cosmopolitanism in a Global Age

Politics and Cosmopolitanism in a Global Age by Sonika Gupta And Sudarsan Padmanabhan from Routledge India.

This book offers a unique reconceptualization of cosmopolitanism. It examines several themes that inform politics in a globalized era, including global governance, international law, citizenship, constitutionalism, community, domesticity, territory, sovereignty, and nationalism. The volume explores the specific philosophical and institutional challenges in constructing a cosmopolitan political community beyond the nation state.

It reorients and decolonizes the boundaries of ‘cosmopolitanism’ and questions the contemporary discourse to posit inclusive alternatives. Presenting rich and diverse perspectives from across the world, the volume will interest scholars and students of politics and international relations, political theory, public policy, ethics, and philosophy.

In our Politics section, Rs. 795, in hardback, 288 pages, ISBN :9781138822405

Corporate Coaching

Corporate Coaching: The Essential Guide by Sraban Mukherjee from Sage India.

Worldwide, organizations invest heavily on their employees to enhance their capabilities and manage growth and build competitive advantage. Through a comprehensive approach, Corporate Coaching shows how organizations can use coaching as a development tool to improve the effectiveness of employees at all levels of management. This book focuses on how to improve individual and organizational performance using coaching, develop the leadership pipeline and evolve a coaching culture.

The book is a ’How To’ guide for corporate coaching, written primarily for human resource and learning and development professionals. It will help readers understand the nuances of corporate coaching and make better decisions in introducing coaching as an intervention for organization development. Sponsors or decision makers of coaching intervention can use the methods given in this book for measuring the return on coaching investment and evaluating the effectiveness of corporate coaching.

In our Management Studies section, Rs. 495, in paperback, 272 pages, ISBN :9788132114956

Cartel Regulation/ Culinary Culture in Colonial India

Cartel Regulation: India in an International Perspective by Lovely Dasgupta from Cambridge University Press (India).

The recent decision of the Competition Commission of India imposing Rupees 60 billion penalties on the Cement cartels exemplifies the extent to which cartelization affects the Indian consumers. The book looks into the law, policy and practice that inform the anti-cartel provisions within the Indian Competition Act 2002.

In the process, it tries to establish that even though the anti-cartel provisions of the Indian Competition Act are ambiguous on their support or opposition to cartels, the primary purpose of the Act is protection of the interest of consumers. Therefore, the Competition Commission of India and the Central Government are expected to come up with such regulations and notifications that help in clarifying the scope of the anti-cartel provisions in the interest of consumers.

The book also compares the Indian regulator’s approach vis-à-vis the approach taken by the fair trade regulators in more advanced jurisdictions like the EU, US and UK. Importantly, it introduces readers to a developing country perspective by bringing forth the impact of cartels on bargaining power of both end consumer as well as intermediaries. It also provides workable solutions to enhance the efficacy of anti-cartel provisions.

In our Governance section, Rs. 995, in hardback, viii+375 pages, ISBN : 9789382993759

Culinary Culture in Colonial India: A Cosmopolitan Platter and the Middle-Class by Utsa Ray from  Cambridge University Press (India).

This book utilizes the idea of cuisine to understand the construction of the colonial middle-class in Bengal. Colonial transformation contextualized the cultural articulation of a new set of values, prejudices and tastes for the colonial middle-class. This middle-class ensured that cuisine was not commoditized and remained domestic and embedded in the material culture of Bengal. One of the chief arguments of this book is that the middle-class in colonial Bengal indigenized new culinary experiences that came with colonialism.

This process of indigenization was an aesthetic choice imbricated in the upper caste and patriarchal agenda of middle-class social reform. While enabling the middle-class to soak in new culinary pleasures, the process of indigenization also made possible certain social practices, including the imagination of the act of cooking as a classic feminine act and the domestic kitchen as a sacred space. In these acts of imagination, there were important elements of continuity from the pre-colonial times, especially evidenced in the reinstitution of caste-based norms of gastronomy.

The process of indigenizing new gastronomic practices was at the same time anti-colonial yet capitalist, cosmopolitan yet gendered and caste based. Thus, the idea of a refined taste that was so integrally associated with the formation of the middle class in colonial Bengal became a marker of standards of good and bad, acceptance of some things, rejection of some others and in Pierre Bourdieu’s apt phrase ‘disgust for other tastes.

In our History section, Rs. 695, in hardback, 284 pages, ISBN :9781107042810

Talking of Justice

Talking of Justice: Peoples Rights in Modern India by Leila Seth from Aleph Book Company.

In Talking of Justice, eminent jurist Leila Seth discusses several critical issues that she has engaged with in a legal career spanning over fifty years - violence against women, the nurture of the girl child, the need for a uniform civil code, women's rights, prisoners' rights, gender sensitization of the judiciary, and judicial administration, among others.

From the landmark Justice Verma Committee (2012-2013), on which she suggested amendments to the law as well as speedier trials and more effective punishment for all those accused of sexual assault and violence against women, to her experience as a member of the 15th Law Commission of India (1997-2000), to her appointment as the one member commission to enquire into the custodial death of Rajan Pillai (1995-1997), Leila Seth shares her insights on some of the most substantive and contentious matters facing the nation today

Keenly observed and elegantly argued, Talking of Justice goes deep into the laws of the land that need to be reviewed and revised, and offers suggestions for protecting the rights of the people, especially those who are marginalized and vulnerable.

Interesting Facts
Essays on key points of law and human rights on critic al issues of women's rights, children's rights, judicial administration, gender sensitization of the judiciary and more.
Written by eminent jurist whose career spans fifty years - as lawyer, judge and chief justice.
An easy-to-understand guide for every citizen of India who wants to know his or her rights.

In our Sociology section, Rs. 500, in hardback, 228 pages, ISBN : 9789382277965

The Night it Rained Guns

The Night it Rained Guns: Unravelling The Purulia Arms Group Conspiracy by Chandan Nandy from Rupa & Co.

On the night of 1718 December 1995, an aging Russian Antonov26 plane dropped three weaponsladen wooden pallets over Purulia, a backward, nondescript district in West Bengal. Four days later, the same plane was forcelanded at Mumbai's Santa Cruz airport, from where the mastermind of the operation, Kim Davy aka Niels Christian Nielsen, managed a daring escape. Who were the endusers of the weapons? Why were they airdropped over that particular region? Were they, as claimed later, meant for the shady cult, the Ananda Marga? Was it an effort to topple the CPI (M)ruled state government of West Bengal?

Or was it a conspiracy of international proportions, spanning continents and masterminded by a global superpower? As a reporter for The Telegraph and later, the Hindustan Times, Chandan Nandy broke several stories on this bizarre covert operation. Nineteen years after the sensational arms drop, in this book, he exposes the grave lapses committed by India's security agencies and pieces together the story of how the operation was planned and executed.

He brings to light as yet undisclosed evidence about the end users, whose identity still remains a mystery. Based on scores of interviews with R&AW, IB and CBI insiders and relying on classified documents, The Night it Rained Guns is a riveting exploration of India's greatest security breaches.


In our Fiction section, Rs. 295, in paperback, 298 pages, ISBN : 9788129134738

A Descriptive Study of Bengali Words

A Descriptive Study of Bengali Words by Niladri Sekhar Dash from Cambridge University Press (India).

The book is about the study of modern Bengali words based on the data obtained from a corpus of written texts. The corpus contains more than five million words of written text samples collected from hundred subject domains published within 1981 to 2000. The author analyses Bengali words from empirical point of view to understand their form and function in the language.

It also deals with the form and function of Bengali words in a systematic manner from the perspective of structure and use of words to understand how Bengali words are formed and used. The book provides, for the first time, some important findings about the general patterns of use of Bengali morpheme. It sheds new light on the form and function of morphemes in construction of words in the language.

Bengali single word units (both inflected and non-inflected) are analyzed from the perspective of their structure or surface forms. The book also provides a solid empirical support for developing tools and systems for morphological analysis, morphological generation, lexical decomposition and lexical composition for the language for machine learning and language teaching.

In our Linguistics section, Rs. 895, in hardback, 374 pages, ISBN :9781107064249

India 2050

India 2050: A Roadmap to Sustainable Prosperity by Ramgopal Agarwala from Sage India.

Can India achieve a high-income status by 2050 when it celebrates the centenary of its Republic? Will the nation eliminate absolute poverty and improve its human development record?

This book emphasizes the centrality of a trade-oriented services sector led by communication, business services, health, education, research, and innovations for achieving these growth targets. It also argues that inclusiveness, financial prudence, and low-carbon lifestyles are preconditions to long-term growth.

India can achieve such prosperity neither through the socialistic policies of 195080 nor through the neo-liberalistic policies since 1980. It needs to, instead, follow a middle-path approach closer to the systems adopted by Germany and the Nordic countries. It is within this framework that India will devise its independent development paradigm rooted in its own traditions and realities.

In our Development Studies section, Rs. 995, in hardback, 388 pages, ISBN : 9789351500438

Behind the Door

Behind the Door: The Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp Story by Mandy Wiener And Barry Bateman from Macmillan India.

Oscar Pistorius was the golden boy of South African sport and an inspiration to millions around the world - until the tragic shooting that left his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp dead and Pistorius on trial for murder. Behind The Door will be written by South African journalists Mandy Wiener and Barry Bateman. Published once the trial is concluded, it will explore the characters involved, relate the courtroom interactions and unpack the forensic and circumstantial evidence.

But more than that, this book seeks to go beyond the facts of the case in search of the wider context behind this shocking tragedy: the back-story of the police investigation, the nature of the South African criminal justice system, the culture of violence in South Africa and the need of society to create flawed heroes who are destined to fail.

In our Biography section, Rs. 599, in paperback, 300 pages, ISBN : 9781447267867

One Hundred Years of Servitude

One Hundred Years of Servitude: Political Economy of Tea Plantations in Colonial Assam by Rana P. Behal from Tulika Books.

This book presents a hundred-year history of tea plantations in the Assam (Brahmaputra) Valley during British colonial rule in India. It explores a world where more than two million migrant labourers worked under conditions of indentured servitude in these tea plantations, producing tea for an increasingly profitable global market. The book is divided into six chapters. The first chapter traces the genesis and early development of the tea industry, from 1840 to the early 1860s. It examines the links between the colonial state and private British capital in fostering plantations in Assam. It also discusses the nature of the ‘tea mania’ and its consequences, which led to the emergence of the indenture labour system in Assam’s tea gardens.

In the second chapter, the focus is on the process of labour mobilization and the nature of labour relations in the tea plantations. It deals with the operational aspects of labour recruitment for the plantations, which involved the transportation and employment of migrant labourers, from the 1860s right up to1926 – when the indenture system was formally dismantled. The third chapter examines the power structure that ruled over the organization of production and labour relations within the plantations. This power structure operated at two levels: around the Indian Tea Association, the apex body of the tea industry, and the coercive authority exercised by planters.

The fifth chapter offers a critical analysis of the quantities of production, market prices, volume of exports and profitability, acreage expansion, labour employment and wage payments in the Assam Valley tea plantations from the 1870s to 1947. The final chapter tells the story of everyday labour life in the tea gardens, and of the resistance to the oppressive regime by ‘coolie’ labourers who had been coerced into generational servitude. It analyses the forms of their protests, and raises the question whether the transformation of these migrant agrarian communities working in conditions of unfree labour was proletarian in nature.
In our History section, Rs. 900, in hardback, xiv+390 pages, ISBN: 9789382381433

4 Aakars

Ideology Matters: China from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping by Manoranjan Mohanty from Aakar Books.

China's notable successes as well as the problems it has encountered have resulted from policy debates and choices made by the Communist Party of China from the time of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, to the less charismatic leaders Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and his successor Xi Jinping. The CPCs distinct style is to put the policy perspectives in fresh theoretical terms. These essays scrutinise the ideological statements to help understand Chinas reform strategy and the policy shifts.

One needs to know the contours of Maoism and its critical assessment by Deng Xiaoping to understand the reforms that he launched and the meaning of 'socialist market economy and the state-guided market process that has produced the high rate of growth in China. Deng's successor Jiang Zemin led China's accelerated growth with greater integration with the world economy and articulated his thinking as the 'Three Represents.

After him, Hu Jintaos decade of leadership, called by some as glorious decade by others a lost decade took China to become worlds second largest economy. How successful was he in addressing risings inequality and environmental degradation while practicing his scientific outlook on development? Xi Jinping after taking over in 2012 has given a stirring call for realising the Chinese dream and has initiated cautious measures on crucial issues.

In our Economics section, Rs. 550, in hardback, xx+208 pages, ISBN :9789350022658

Marxism as Scientific Enterprise by P. C. Joshi from Aakar Books.

In this collection of essays the eminent social scientist, Dr. P. C. Joshi, argues that Marxism needs to be extended beyond the traditional confines set by Lenin and Mao in order to remain relevant in societies in which individuals have freedom of political expression and which are witnessing gigantic strides in communication technology.

In democratic societies with a vibrant media, the Lenin-Mao inspired templates of conspiracy and peoples war carry far less traction than in autocracies where communism has been successful. Dr. Joshi argues that democracy is ingrained in the spirit and legacy of Marx and the two can be true partners in social development.

This require tapping into classes and strata not considered by mainstream Marxists such as intermediate classes, intellectuals and bureaucrats and harnessing the liberating potential offered by advances in technology.

In our Politics section, Rs. 295, in paperback, 223 pages, ISBN :9789350022757

Education, State and Market: Anatomy of Neoliberal Impact by Ravi Kumar from Aakar Books.

The volume looks at the nature of impact of neoliberal capitalism on education in India. It narrates the historical trajectory of shift from welfarism to neoliberalism; looks at how higher education as well as school level education has been impacted by neoliberalism. 

There are field-based narratives to document this impact while some chapters locate the language question as well as how disciplines like economics and legal studies are transformed within this context. It ends with discussing the possibilities to resist this onslaught of capital.


In our Education section, Rs. 595, in hardback, 309 pages, ISBN :9789350022818


When Godavari Comes: People's History of a River - Journeys in the Zone of the Dispossessed by R. Umamaheshwari from Aakar Books.

The book cruises through the length and breadth of Godavari (as much as possible), between years 2006 and 2013, into the villages to be submerged by the Indira Sagar Polavaram National multi-purpose Project of Andhra Pradesh-Telangana. Through an engaged first-person journal of journeys in these villages, the author records people's voices (and faces) and reflects on the issues, such as, historical past of Godavari region and its bearing on the present, idea of a river, forest and land and the male construct of a dam.

When Godavari comes, there is a churning that brings in new life, crops, on fields, marshes and wetlands and at the same time she also leaves some people stranded, manoeuvering their life's boat through, even as they are rendered at the mercy of the state. Yet, the destruction from a Godavari's coming is not permanent, nor an apocalypse, as a massive 'modern' displacement from 'development' is.

In journeying on Godavari, travelling with its flow, you meet these people- adivasi/tribal, dalits (and the other marginalised)- and hear their stories, their philosophies of life and of being reduced to a sunyam (zero). Indeed, a whole history is in the process of being written from above in this geographical-cultural-social space. This is the first book of this nature based almost entirely on people's voices from the submergence zone.

In our Ecology and Environment section, Rs. 1295, in hardback, 486 pages, ISBN : 9789350023082

Eleanor Marx, (1/e)

Eleanor Marx, (1/e): A Life by Rachel Holmes from Bloomsbury India.

Unrestrained by convention, lion-hearted and free, Eleanor Marx (1855-98) was an exceptional woman. Hers was the first English translation of Flaubert's Mme Bovary. She pioneered the theatre of Henrik Ibsen. She was the first woman to lead the British dock workers' and gas workers' trades unions. For years she worked tirelessly for her father, Karl Marx, as personal secretary and researcher. Later she edited many of his key political works, and laid the foundations for his biography. But foremost among her achievements was her pioneering feminism. For her, sexual equality was a necessary precondition for a just society.

Drawing strength from her family and their wide circle, including Friedrich Engels and Wilhelm Liebknecht, Eleanor Marx set out into the world to make a difference – her favourite motto: 'Go ahead!' With her closest friends - among them, Olive Schreiner, Havelock Ellis, George Bernard Shaw, Will Thorne and William Morris - she was at the epicentre of British socialism. She was also the only Marx to claim her Jewishness. But her life contained a deep sadness: she loved a faithless and dishonest man, the academic, actor and would-be playwright Edward Aveling.

Yet despite the unhappiness he brought her, Eleanor Marx never wavered in her political life, ceaselessly campaigning and organising until her untimely end, which – with its letters, legacies, secrets and hidden paternity – reads in part like a novel by Wilkie Collins, and in part like the modern tragedy it was. Rachel Holmes has gone back to original sources to tell the story of the woman who did more than any other to transform British politics in the nineteenth century, who was unafraid to live her contradictions.

In our Biography section, Rs. 699, in hardback, 528 pages, ISBN :9780747583844

Mulberry Sericulture in New Areas

Mulberry Sericulture in New Areas: Empowering Tribal Women by Sanjay Kumar Panda from Concept Publishing.

Because of its unique features like luster, tensile strength, capacity to absorb dye, silk is popularly known as the “Queen of Textiles”. Sericulture industry has special significance in poverty alleviation as it is labour intensive, less strenuous, requires less capital, low gestation and has good market. Promotion of sericulture covering both on-farm and off-farm activities generates sizable employment opportunity in the rural areas and is of particular relevance to the women, small and marginal farmers.

Mulberry sericulture, which contributes bulk of the silk produced in the country, is centered on five traditional states. Tripura, one of the non-traditional and new states in Mulberry sericulture, has seen significant success in promotion of mulberry sericulture on a sustainable basis. This has been possible as a result of mobilization of people, involvement of the local community/PRI bodies, provision of technical assistance and infrastructure along with required forward and backward linkages on a holistic basis.

The book has aptly dealt with various aspects of promotion of mulberry sericulture, which has led to the production of quality bivoltine silk yarn on the one hand and empowering the tribal women on the other. It seeks to provide firsthand information on various technical as well administrative aspects, which need specific attention for introduction of mulberry sericulture in a new area. It can serve as a practical guide for the people's representatives, policy formulators, administrators and field staff and officers in using mulberry sericulture for poverty alleviation and empowerment of women.


In our Agricultural Sciences section, Rs. 600, in hardback, xxii+176 pages, ISBN :9789351250296

Education or Ecology

Education, State and Market: Anatomy of Neoliberal Impact by Ravi Kumar from Aakar Books.

The volume looks at the nature of impact of neoliberal capitalism on education in India. It narrates the historical trajectory of shift from welfarism to neoliberalism; looks at how higher education as well as school level education has been impacted by neoliberalism. 

There are field-based narratives to document this impact while some chapters locate the language question as well as how disciplines like economics and legal studies are transformed within this context. It ends with discussing the possibilities to resist this onslaught of capital.

In our Education section, Rs. 595, in hardback, 309 pages, ISBN :9789350022818


When Godavari Comes: People's History of a River - Journeys in the Zone of the Dispossessed by R. Umamaheshwari from Aakar Books.

The book cruises through the length and breadth of Godavari (as much as possible), between years 2006 and 2013, into the villages to be submerged by the Indira Sagar Polavaram National multi-purpose Project of Andhra Pradesh-Telangana. Through an engaged first-person journal of journeys in these villages, the author records people's voices (and faces) and reflects on the issues, such as, historical past of Godavari region and its bearing on the present, idea of a river, forest and land and the male construct of a dam.

When Godavari comes, there is a churning that brings in new life, crops, on fields, marshes and wetlands and at the same time she also leaves some people stranded, manoeuvering their life's boat through, even as they are rendered at the mercy of the state. Yet, the destruction from a Godavari's coming is not permanent, nor an apocalypse, as a massive 'modern' displacement from 'development' is.

In journeying on Godavari, travelling with its flow, you meet these people- adivasi/tribal, dalits (and the other marginalised)- and hear their stories, their philosophies of life and of being reduced to a sunyam (zero). Indeed, a whole history is in the process of being written from above in this geographical-cultural-social space. This is the first book of this nature based almost entirely on people's voices from the submergence zone.

In our Ecology and Environment section, Rs. 1295, in hardback, 486 pages, ISBN :9789350023082

Concept Latest

Poverty And Development Planning In India by K. L. Datta from Concept Publishing.

This book covers a wide range of issues related to poverty and inequality in the context of development planning in India. It presents an account of the planning and development strategy at the backdrop of the measures to effect poverty reduction. It describes India's planning process and analyses the mathematical models of growth and investment, which are at the back of Plan formulation, and provides an account of the measures of poverty reduction. The centrality of this analysis is the transition from growth measures pursued until the 1970s, to a mix of growth and redistribution since the 1980s, and then to inclusive growth.

This book covers four core areas. First, the treatise on mathematical models to chart out a growth path, the manner and method of using poverty as a parameter in the consistency type growth models and the analytical details of the changes in the planning strategy during the period of economic reforms contained here give seminal insights into the role of planning in poverty reduction. Second, it comments on the methodology of the measurement of poverty, comprehensively summarising the debates surrounding it. Third, the identification of poor and accrual to their income through 'direct attack on poverty' has been chronicled with a critique's eye.

Here, a clinical examination of the specific strategies and their outcomes, with a quantitative analysis of the general growth process and the income redistributive anti-poverty programmes is also done. Fourth, it undertakes a disaggregated quantification of poverty – at the regional level, in rural and urban areas, and by social and occupation groups. These reflect the stratified nature of Indian society, and are integral to the formulation of meaningful plan for poverty reduction. The issues addressed here are essential to understand poverty and inequality in India's rapidly growing economy. Many of them are contentious and have been dealt with academic rigour so as to enable a fair assessment.

In our Development Studies section, Rs. 2500, in hardback, 510 pages, ISBN :9789351250005

Rediscovering Gandhi, Vol- VI: Gandhi and Jesus: The End of Fundamentalism by Wolfgang Sternstein And R.P. Misra  from Concept Publishing.

Gandhi and Jesus are brothers in spirit in spite of the great distance in space, time and cultural sphere that separates them. This is the thesis of this book. A completely new view of Jesus’ life and teaching derives from Gandhi’s religious thinking. It coincides to a vast extent with the findings of the Life-of-Jesus Research (which was unknown to Gandhi), but it also goes beyond it in crucial points.

To the various things they have in common belongs their rejection of any kind of fundamentalism and its underlying basis, the absolute truth claim of the Abrahamic religions.

In our Gandhi Studies section, Rs. 850, in hardback, xvi+256 pages, ISBN :9788180699856 


Federating Elected Women Representatives Of Local Bodies In India by G. Palanithurai from Concept Publishing.

Federating Elected Women Representatives in Rural Local Bodies is a current subject in the domain of new local governance paradigm. It was initiated first in South India with the support of the Ford Foundation. Subsequently many donor agencies evinced keen interest in federating the Elected Women Representatives in different parts of the country. As a result many civil society organizations have involved in forming federations among the Elected Women Representatives in their respective areas.

The federations have produced results of varying intensity. Having seen the larger implications, the Government of India has adopted this as a major exercise and supported those initiatives. Yet sufficient academic attention was not given on this subject. Worthwhile publications have not been brought out barring a few and they are also not exhaustive. A few documents are available but they are based on the experience of the project activities in the given state, hence this attempt.

This book is a compilation of the experiences of the institutions and individuals involved in federating the Elected Women Representatives in different states in India. Along with above articles a report prepared by SDC based on the experience shared in a workshop distilling the major achievements and weakness in those project activities in federating the women leaders is attached which gives an overall picture about the trend in federating the Elected Women Representatives in rural local governance in India.

In our Women Studies section, Rs. 600, in hardback, xvi+181 pages, ISBN :9789351250692

Right to Information

Right to Information: An Act for Best Citizenry by E. M. S. Natchappan from Concept Publishing.

Knowledge is power. Knowledge is enriched by information. A person, legal entity, a society, a corporate body, MNC and any country wants to use the information for their benefits. The amount of information, analysis, research and development enhances the individual’s life, society and the country. Much more importance for information of governance is the soul of democracy. The information and the right to access to it is the foundation of civilization.

This book is the exposure of the secret of importance on access to information which was transparent in the early part of civilization but shrinked into the hands of individuals during colonial rule. This made the individual into a slavery system loosing the entire freedom of information from which liberation happened after long struggle in various parts of the world.

India could achieve this Right to Information after practicing democracy for about 58 years. This book gives another opportunity to go through the Parliamentary procedure and to enjoy the way the law making is practiced to resolve lot of barriers being created in the system and Anna Hazare to Arvind Kejriwal and world renowned activists have played the role in this transparent law making system.

In our Law section, Rs. 950, in hardback, xii+418 pages, ISBN :9789351250890

India's National Security

India's National Security: Annual Review 2013 by Satish Kumar from Routledge India.

The thirteenth volume in the series Indias National Security Annual Review examines Indias security environment in the context of the changing global balance of power. It analyzes the manner in which India has structured its relations with major powers so that they serve as dependable anchors of its national security and discusses the imminent challenges faced by the country.

In addition, it makes an in-depth assessment of Indias relations with China and Pakistan, the attempts of China to establish a strategic foothold in all countries in Indias neighborhood, the extent of Islamist radicalization in South Asia and the role of Pakistan. The volume also includes a strategic profile of newly emerging countries in international affairs along with a chronology of the major events of the preceding year.

The book will be indispensable for policymakers and governmental organizations, those in defence and strategic sectors and students of defence studies, foreign policy, International relations and political science.

In our Strategic Affairs section, Rs. 1095, in hardback, 480 pages, ISBN :9781138796386

Essays on Indias Political Economy

Essays on Indias Political Economy by Prakash Sarangi from Knowledge World Publishers.

This monograph is an attempt to understand the symbiotic relationship between politics and economy in India since independence. A few essays are presented to delineate this relationship in simple, non-technical language. But a discerning reader could easily decipher a specific interpretation throughout the text: the process of economic transformation is viewed as a function of the decision makers’ changing calculus of political pay-offs.

Indian Political Economy is divided into three phases: (1) Nationalist Political Economy (1947-68); (2) Populist Political Economy (1969-1990) and (3) Competitive Political Economy (1991- ). The grand coalition in the first phase enabled the state to play an interventionist role and to estimate payoffs for the entire country; the minimum-winning coalition in the polarised politics of the second phase played a redistributive game and carefully calculated payoffs of its own supporters only and the uncertainty resulting from a fragmented politics in the third phase did not allow any party to be assured of a winning coalition and, therefore, made it difficult for any political party to predict political payoffs. Economic reforms of the 1990s were the result of this political uncertainty.

The radical changes in economic policy transformed contemporary politics. A running theme in these essays is that while political actors face uncertainty in a competitive political economy, the citizens, as consumers of public policies, are further empowered to question, accept or reject any policy initiative. Citizens and groups are able to assert their rights and, if necessary, throw out the non-performers. Rights dominate over welfare in this new policy regime.

In our Politics section, Rs. 480, in hardback, 104 pages, ISBN :9789383649280

India-US Partnership

India-US Partnership: Asian Challenges and Beyond by P.P. Shukla from Wisdom Tree.

India and the United States of America aim to form a strategic partnership of trust, cooperation and collaboration, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Indo-US relationship has had its share of ups and downs, but both admit to the necessity of greater understanding. The book covers economic and political aspects of the changes taking place in Asia, and provides a perspective different from the standard narrative, that of the inexorable rise of China to the top.

The authors examine the strengths and the weaknesses not only of China, but also of the other major countries and offer a more balanced picture. The book, a culmination of the joint study between the Vivekananda International Foundation of India and the Heritage Foundation of the US, has contributions by experts like Kanwal Sibal, Lisa Curtis, Walter Lohman, Ajit Doval and Jeff Smith.

A must-read for subject-experts as well as policy makers, it also looks at some of the important issues, including that of Afghanistan and Iran, which will determine how the situation in Asia-Pacific evolves, and the relevance of better Indo-US ties to address the challenges ahead.


In our Governance section, Rs. 795, in hardback, x+194 pages, ISBN :9788183283335

Political Order and Political Decay

Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama from Hachette India.

The Origins of Political Order , Francis Fukuyama took us from the dawn of mankind to the French and American Revolutions. Here, he picks up the thread again in the second instalment of his definitive account of mankind's emergence as a political animal. This is the story of how state, law and democracy developed after these cataclysmic events, how the modern landscape - with its uneasy tension between dictatorships and liberal democracies - evolved and how in the United States and in other developed democracies, unmistakable signs of decay have emerged.

If we want to understand the political systems that dominate and order our lives, we must first address their origins - in our own recent past as well as in the earliest systems of human government. Fukuyama argues that the key to successful government can be reduced to three key elements: a strong state, the rule of law, and institutons of democratic accountability. This magisterial account is required reading for anyone wishing to know more about mankind's greatest achievements.

In our Political section, Rs. 699, in paperback, 672 pages, ISBN :9781781255001

Governance Unbound

Governance Unbound: Public Services, Players and Rules of the Game by R. N. Gupta from Aakar Books.

Have you ever wondered why? More than 50% of labour in the organized sector is shadow labour. 50% of food subsidy for the poor is misdirected or misappropriated. The rate of conviction in criminal cases is abysmally low. Under-trial prisoners accused of petty crimes rot in jail for long periods, even much beyond the jail term for the offence. Cadaver organs are rarely available for transplantation.

Registration plates on motor vehicles carry so many digits and numerals that nobody can remember them. Find the explanation for these and many other perverse outcomes of otherwise well intentioned public policies and programmes in India, ranging from need based services, such as caste certificates, to public goods - education, control of crime and corruption.

The problem seems to lie not in the policy design, implementing structures or incompetent officials - the usual scapegoats - but the unimaginative rules of the game which appear to ignore the incentives and behaviour of the human actors involved and are mainly concerned with filing forms and filing returns. Governments would do well, it is argued, to design appropriate rules and institutions which are compatible with the incentives of players not as econs, angels or demons, but as humans.

In our Governance section, Rs. 795, in hardback, 338 pages, ISBN :9789350023167

Final Test

Final Test: Exit Sachin Tendulkar by Dilip D'Souza from Random House India.

Dilip D’Souza closely observes those two-and-a-half days of the last test match played by Tendulkar, at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai in November, 2013. The book captures the tumult of sentiments the match had spawned, the love and worship that was showered by the cricket lovers at the stadium, the choking emotion, and the match against the West Indies. This title discusses cricket from the olden days to the new, as Sachin takes to the pitch one last time.

The deafening noise in the Wankhede turns into stark silence as the Little Master begins his walk back to the pavilion, marking the end of a glorious era. The author poignantly describes how there will be no more swearing and switching off televisions when he got out; no resonating chants of “Sa-chi-i-i-n, Sa-chin!” on the fields anymore. Final Test is a must-read for all fans of Sachin and of the game itself.


In our General section, Rs. 299, in paperback, 254 pages, ISBN :9788184006360

Becoming Minority

Becoming Minority: How Discourses and Policies Produce Minorities in Europe and India by Sudarsan Padmanabhan And Jyotirmaya Tripathy from Sage India.

This book will make you revisit the ‘minority question' as it has been understood, conventionally. This book subjects to scrutiny some of the well-established social science concepts such as minority, ethnicity, inclusion, exclusion, and self-determination, among others. The purpose of the enquiry is neither to debunk these concepts nor to highlight their relevance/irrelevance, but merely to guard against their unselective usage by scholars.

The work is an endeavor to address some of the questions that animate current scholarship on minority and minoritization. In doing so, the book draws upon European and Indian experiences of cultural diversities as these regions are two of the most culturally diverse regions in the world and engage with diversity from within a democratic framework.

In our Sociology section, Rs. 995, in hardback, 376 pages, ISBN :9789351500353

Popular Problems and Puzzles in Mathematics

Popular Problems and Puzzles in Mathematics by  Asok Kumar Mallik  from Cambridge University Press (India).

Innovative thinking backed by logical reasoning is the key to the puzzles in Popular Problems and Puzzles in Mathematics. Collected over several years by the author, more than 150 elegant, intriguing numerical challenges are presented here. The answers are easy to explain, but one would devilishly find it hard without this book.

One’s ability to construct a mathematical proof will be rigorously tested in these problems – even in the case of a mathematics teacher. For true maths lovers, there is even a section on historically prominent problems. Designed for high-school students and teachers with an interest in mathematical problem solving, this stimulating collection provides a new twist to familiar topics that introduce unfamiliar topics.

Key features
1. Suitable for high-school students and maths buffs
2. More than 150 problems covering different areas of elementary mathematics
3. Brainstorming problems graded as easy, moderate and difficult
4. Complete solutions included
5. Appendices showing various applications in the end


In our Mathematics section, Rs. 225, in paperback, 170 pages, ISBN :9789382993865

The New Cold War, (2/e)

The New Cold War, (2/e): Putin's Threat to Russia and the West by Edward Lucas from Bloomsbury India.

While most of the world was lauding the stability and economic growth that Vladimir Putin's ex-KGB regime had brought to Russia, Edward Lucas was ringing alarm bells. First published in 2008 and since revised, The New Cold War remains the most insightful and informative account of Russia today.

It depicts the regime's crushing of independent institutions and silencing of critics, taking Russia far away from the European mainstream. It highlights the Kremlin's use of the energy weapon in Europe, the bullying of countries in the former Soviet empire, such as Estonia, Georgia and Ukraine – and the way that Russian money weakens the West's will to resist.

Now updated with an incisive analysis of Russia's seizure of Crimea and its destabilisation of Ukraine, The New Cold War unpicks the roots of the Kremlin's ideology and exposes the West's naive belief that Putin's sinister and authoritarian regime might ever be a friend or partner.


In our Politics section, Rs. 399, in paperback, 384 pages, ISBN :9781408859285

Neoliberal State and Its Challenges/ Multiculturalism

Neoliberal State and Its Challenges, (1/e) by Bhupen Sarmah And Joydeep Baruah from  Aakar Books.

Perhaps, the most fundamental and the overarching challenge to neoliberal state relates to establishing its legitimacy and perpetuating its hegemony. While neoliberal state with its inherent and distinctive class-bias produces extreme inequality almost in all fronts, still it attempts at pretending to be benevolent and pro-poor. Moreover, pretentious benevolence of neoliberal state often turns out to be self-limiting due to its unbridled obsession with growth, which characteristically accompanies dispossession of vast majority of people outweighing all its benevolent gestures. These innate contradictions naturally generate myriad frictions and tensions challenging its legitimacy and hegemony.

The collection of papers in this volume offers insights to come of the pressing issues of contemporary neoliberal statehood and statecraft, both theoretical and practical. The book presents views about the state in the context of post-colonial era, its crises in governance including various manifestations of 'internal colonialism' and subsequent contestations, its crises in maintaining the legitimacy and concomitant process of militarization, relations and frictions amongst the state, market and 'civil society' and attendant class configurations.

In our History section, Rs. 595, in paperback, 302 pages, ISBN :9789350023013

Multiculturalism in India and Europe by Rajendra K. Jain from Aakar Books.

Growing cultural diversity as a result of globalization, technological changes and migration poses major challenges of management and accommodation in most multicultural societies. This volume presents a broad overview of the actors and factors that have played an important role in the success and/ or failure of multiculturalism in contemporary India and Europe.

The study critically evaluates the multiculturalist discourse in Britain, France, Germany and India. It provides a comparative analysis of the historical roots of plurality in both Europe and India and discusses the challenge posed by multiculturalism to existing forms of secularism.

The book examines the implications and challenges of Indian migration to the European continent, the role of culture in the external relations of the European Union with special reference to India and seeks to answer the question whether Multiculturalism can promote gender equality. The book will be of interest to all those engaged in the fields of political science, international relations, sociology and philosophy.

In our Sociology section, Rs. 595, in paperback, xvi+ 214 pages, ISBN :9789350022795

Asean-India

Asean-India: Deepening Economic Partnership in Mekong Region by Prabir De from Bookwell Publications.

Research and Information System for Developing Countries. The Mekong countries comprising Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam grew rapidly during the last decade. With the exception of the years of global financial crisis, magnitude of growth rates and duration are remarkable in Mekong history.

In our Development Studies section, Rs. 750, in hardback, xxxv+314 pages, ISBN :9788171221028

BKP

Hinduism in India by R. K. Panda from Bharatiya Kala Prakashan.

Author has written this book because of his love for world-wide humanity, and his intense interest in the study of the religious beliefs of the human race.We look at everything relatively or by way of comparison. It is the instinctive method of every thoughtful observer, and it is inseparable from our study of human thought, philosophy and religion as outwardly expressed in the habits, customs,social and political life of a people through many centuries.

He has introduced much of the human element which is of universal interest and value, and in order to vitalize and give vivid realism to the religious thought of India, and its effect upon the practices and customs and life of the people as effected by the dominant religion of Hinduism.In other words, He has endeavoured to write so that the reader might be able to see the things about which have written.
In our Religion section, Rs. 295, in hardback, 398 pages, ISBN :9788180903540

Sher Shah by K. R. Quanungo from Bharatiya Kala Prakashan.

This book is about Sher Shah., the great ruler and administrator of his time. The book talks about Sher Shah right from the beginning of his life. How was his childhood, how he got education, his relations with the kings. Apart from his early days, this book also throws sufficient light upon Sher Shah getting to the post of Dy.

Governor of Bihar, his battle of Surajgarh, campaigning of Gujarat against Humayun, victory of Chaunsa, conquest of Makva, conquest of Maldev, campaigns in Rajputana and Bundelkhand and above all Sher Shah’s institution.


In our History section, Rs. 295, in paperback, 300 pages, ISBN :9788180903847


Great Epics and Puranas in Sanskrit Literature by  Dr N. C. Panda from Bharatiya Kala Prakashan.

The Sanskrit Epics fall into two main classes, the one comprising old stories and legends known as Itihasa and Puranic and the other comprising poems known as Kavyam or ornate epics. The Mahabharata has exercised a great influence on the later Puran as and the Ramayana has served as a model for later court epics of the post-Puranic age.


In our Literature section, Rs. 695, in hardback, 344 pages, ISBN :9788180903472

Indian Myths and Legend by Dornal A. Mackize from Bharatiya Kala Prakashan.


Indian Myths and Legends This volume deals with the myths and legends of India, which survives to us in the rich and abundant storehouse of Sanskrit literature, and with the rise and growth of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism, etc. The reader is introduced to the various sacred works of the Hindus, including the ancient invocatory hymns of the four Vedas, and great epic poems the Ramayana, which is three times longer than the Iliad, and the Mahabharata, which is four times longer than the Ramayana.

At the present day over two hundred millions Hindus are familiar in varying degrees with the legendary themes and traditional beliefs which the ancient forest sages and poets of India invested with much beautiful symbolism, and used as medium for speculative thought and profound spiritual teaching. The sacred books of India are to the Hindus what the Bible is to Christians.

To students of History, of ethnology, and of comparative religion they present features or peculiar interest, for they contain an elaborate sociology of the ancient Aryo-Indians, their political organizations, their code of law, their high ethical code, all their conception of God, the soul and the universe. Some knowledge of them is necessary for those who desire to approach with sympathy the investigation of the religious beliefs of our Hindu fellow men and to understand their outlook upon life and the world.

In our History section, Rs. 995, in hardback, 490 pages, ISBN :9788180902970

Ramayana of Valmiki by N. C. Panda from Bharatiya Kala Prakashan.

The Ramayana is a great epic of the mankind. It is also known as adi-kavya (first epic), written by the adi-kavi (first poet) Valmiki. This famous Indian epic deals with social, moral, political, spiritual and philosophical aspects of human life, besides principally narrating the story of Rama. 

The Ramayana is highly popular epic which has become the property of the Indian people and it is not an exaggeration if it is said that it has influenced more than any other poem the thought and poetry of a nation for thousands of years.

In our Literature section, Rs. 250, in paperback, 290 pages, ISBN :9788180903519

Door of Dispair

Door of Dispair: Modernism in Odia Poetry by Bhagaban Jayasingh from Authorspress.

Modern Odia poetry was on the threshold of a major breakthrough in the late 50s. The emergence of new poetic movements in Odisha was the outcome of a wide variety of influences that the modern Odia poets were exposed to through their reading of the new poetry of the West, especially of Europe and America. The Euro-American experiment helped the Odia poets break away from their romantic predecessors, and develop a style or technique appropriate to the spirit of the new age.

The new poetry, variously described as “western,” “modern,” or often as synonymous terms, became not only anti-romantic but difficult, complex, sophisticated and technique-oriented. It was characterized by an overwhelming sense of loss, despair, anguish and chaos though not in the same measure as in the West. The revolution in Odia poetry may be regarded as an offshoot of the Euro-American experiment, and the messiah among the new poets, who came to exercise his influence on the movement, was T.S. Eliot.

The purpose of this book is to study the range and magnitude of Odia poets’ encounter with the West, particularly Eliot, including the many crossovers and engagements that this encounter had generated in the Odishan context with special reference to the works of some major Odia poets of the new movement — Sachi Raut-Roy, Guruprasad Mohanty, Ramakanta Rath and Sitakant Mahapatra — who played a significant role in “modernizing” Odia poetry that assumed different modes of expression in exploring new poetic possibilities.

In our Poetry section, Rs. 800, in hardback, 230 pages, ISBN :9788172739041