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