A Passionate Eye

A Passionate Eye: Textiles, Paintings and Sculptures from the Bharany Collections by Giles Tillotson from The Marg Foundation.

Rarely in the history of collecting art in India has a father-son duo remained involved for as long as the Bharanys of Amritsar and Delhi. This book tells the remarkable tale of the aesthetic adventure of two generations of Bharanys – Radha Krishna and his son Chhotelal, spanning over a century.

It begins with an essay by Pratapaditya Pal placing the role of the Bharanys in the wider context of collecting in this field. This is followed by Chhote Bharany’s personal recollections of learning the trade from his father, and his interactions with many of the leading scholars, experts, famous writers, museum directors and connoisseurs of the 20th century. Giles Tillotson explores Chhote Bharany’s aesthetic, emotional and spiritual response to art in the intellectual context of his time. In Part Two, experts on textiles and other arts each highlight one aspect of the collections, together covering items from as far afield as Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir, Bengal, Punjab, Kerala and Rajasthan.

Showcasing the Bharanys’ personal collection and other objects donated to or purchased by museums, this book will be an eye-opener to those intrigued by how works of art are brought to light, how great collections are put together, and how such works are appreciated and understood.

In our Art and Architecture section, Rs. 2800, in hardback, 156 pages, ISBN: 9789383243006

Paradoxes

Paradoxes of Rationality and Norms of Human Behavior by Amitabh Kundu And Arash Fazli from Manak Publications.

Despite over siz decades of global development efforts involging no dearth of resources and good intentions, we still live in a world in which more than half of humanity lacks the means for a degnified existence, Furher, the gap between the rich and the poor across and within countries continues to viden at an alarming pace.

In our Psychology section, Rs. 600, in hardback, 136 pages, ISBN: 9789378313462

Remembering Pyarelal & Drone Wars

Remembering Pyarelal: Mahatma Gandhi's Secretary and Biographer by D C Jha from Knowledge World Publishers.

Thirty-Four years after Mahatma Gandhi's martyrdom in January 1948, his life-long Secretary and Biographer Pyarelal passed away in October 1982. In an editorial obituary, one of the national newspapers of India recorded the sad event as “passing away of Gandhi's Boswell".

This volume is the collection of tributes that were paid to Pyarelal by friends, colleagues and admirers soon after he passed away in 1982. These were planned to be published, along with a short biography of Pyarelal by his sister Dr. Sushila Nayar, in the form of a memorial volume.

Due to unforeseen circumstances however the planned memorial volume remained unpublished for all these long and many years. At the initiative of D.C. Jha, the compiler and the editor of this book, it was published in 2012 by the National Gandhi Museum.

In our Biography section, Rs. 795, in paperback, xxviii+252 pages, ISBN: 9789383649082


Drone Wars: Ethical, Legal and Strategic Implications by Dr. U. C. Jha from Knowledge World Publishers.

Lethal drones have been used in the last 12 years by the United States to strike targets and eliminate terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and a few other countries. Details of how armed drones are being used, in or outside of declared wars, are closely guarded secrets by all three states known to use them.

However, these drones have also been responsible for killing and injuring thousands of civilians, including women and children, besides destroying homes and property. The US and its allies have claimed that the drone strikes have been spectacularly successful—in terms of both finding and killing targeted enemies. Drones have been projected as a military necessity and their market is growing fast, especially for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The use of unmanned drones to target belligerents raises many complex issues.

It is of crucial importance that traditional ethical rules and practices are applied; that rules of international law are observed even while engaging with terrorists. There are a few who justify the use of drones, but their argument is somewhat similar to the argument used for dropping atomic bombs over Japan in WWII. Lethal drones are a weapon of rich nations who have used them to attack poor, defenceless nations. This book discusses the ethical, legal and strategic issues relating to the use of drones in armed conflict.

In our Engineering section, Rs. 880, in hardback, xviii+284 pages, ISBN: 9789381904732

People’s ‘Warrior’

People’s ‘Warrior’ : Words and Worlds of P.C. Joshi by Gargi Chakravartty from Tulika Books.

Faced with many disappointments within the Communist Party to which he had dedicated his life and in the realm of politics beyond, P.C. Joshi turned to a deep and life-long engagement with the history of the Party. It was an engagement that led to the creation of a rich archive on the complex history of the Indian Left. On 1 December 1970, this collection was formally acquired by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Joshi himself was the Director of this archive for the first five years, ably assisted by K. Damodaran. In 1974, the archive was set up as an adjunct to the School of Social Sciences, JNU, with its own advisory body. The materials in the ‘P.C. Joshi Archives on Contemporary History’ consist primarily of documents and papers from the personal collection of P.C. Joshi.

The cataloguing style that he developed, along with K. Damodaran, has been retained to the present. As such, it is divided between materials classified by year and those classified by themes. The materials include rare magazines and journals, publications of communist parties and various other Left groups from several parts of the globe; and books, pamphlets, photographs, and copies of important files and letters relating to the Communist Party of India. P.C. Joshi himself had long been writing on a wide range of issues, commenting on contemporary political developments, on Party positions and strategies, on historical events and processes, and on debates and concerns among workers and peasants, artists and writers, students and the youth.

Many of these were published in the journals with which he was associated, though some important reflections remained unpublished. This volume contains a selection from P.C. Joshi’s large body of writing, which will serve as an introduction to the man, his writings and his times. The articles are presented here in a chronological framework, starting with excerpts from P.C. Joshi’s memorable deposition in the Meerut Conspiracy Case and continuing to his last writings before he fell critically ill. The first chapter, titled ‘In His Own Words’, is an autobiographical note that he wrote on z7 November 1970. In addition to a selection of Joshi’s writings, the volume contains invited articles by scholars/ writers which evaluate and contextualize P.C. Joshi and his times.

In our Politics section, Rs. 995, in hardback, xxii+474 pages, ISBN: 9789382381365

The Perfect Theory

The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity by Pedro G. Ferreira from Hachette India.

Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is possibly the most perfect intellectual achievement in modern physics. Anything that involves gravity, the force that powers everything on the largest, hottest or densest of scales, can be explained by it. From the moment Einstein first proposed the theory in 1915, it was received with enthusiasm yet also with tremendous resistance, and for the following ninety years was the source of a series of feuds, vendettas, ideological battles and international collaborations featuring a colourful cast of characters.

A gripping, colourfully told story, A Perfect Theory entangles itself with the flashpoints of modern history. In this first complete popular history of the theory, Pedro G. Ferreira shows how the theory has informed our understanding of exactly what the universe is made of and how much is still undiscovered: from the work of the giant telescopes in the deserts of Chile to the way in which the latest work on black holes is providing a fresh, new perspective on what space and time are truly made of.

As we near the first centenary of Einstein's iconic theory, scientists the world over are wondering once again if we have reached the limits of the theory and just how much of the universe's future it can explain.

In our Physics section, Rs. 550, in paperback, 320 pages, ISBN: 9781408704301

OUP New Collection

The Theatre of Veenapani Chawla: Theory, Practice, and Performance by Shanta Gokhale from Oxford University Press (India).

One of the pioneers of experimental theatre in contemporary India, Veenapani Chawla has long been engaged in creating a unique form of performance methodology. A self-taught artist, she has evolved a new language of theatrical practice that fuses traditional and modern aspects of life and theatre.

Tracing Veenapani Chawla's journey from her schooldays, where she was encouraged to move beyond academics and develop an interest in music and dramatics, to her early plays in Mumbai, this volume goes on to explore her deepening relationship with theatre culminating in the founding of Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts and Research in Puducherry.

Veenapani Chawla's belief in plurality has helped her move beyond earlier notions of what theatre should be and demonstrate what theatre could be. Capturing the multidimensional aspects of her work, this book brings together a wide range of writings—essays, reviews, interviews, and performance texts, as well as papers by the artist herself. Accompanied by a DVD of her most complex play till date, The Hare and the Tortoise, this work offers insights into the artist's creative process and her oeuvre.

In our Performing Arts and Drama section, Rs. 895, in hardback, 352 pages, ISBN: 9780198097037



The Political Economy of Energy and Growth by Najeeb Jung from Oxford University Press (India).

The Gulf Crisis of the 1990s brought the concept of energy security to the fore. Global realities of the 21st century have further altered the concept of national security, and energy has fast become one of its pivotal components. With its dependence on energy imports to fuel basic but critical needs—transportation, communication, education, health delivery systems—India needs to focus on energy security to ensure both its economic growth and national interests.

Combining theoretical and empirical issues and drawing its conclusions from rigorous methodologies and latest data, this volume covers a wide range of global energy issues such as trends in oil markets, oil diplomacy, political economy of reforms, environmental concerns, interaction between macroeconomic policies and the energy sector, technology challenges, and innovations in the oil industry. Assessing the energy sector and its evolution, especially its significance for overall economic growth and development, it also analyses India's national energy policy and its long-term implications towards achieving energy security.

This volume honours Vijay Kelkar, whose contribution to the hydrocarbons sector in India continues to influence academics and practitioners associated with the energy sector.

In our Economics section, Rs. 995, in hardback, 392 pages, ISBN: 9780198099079


Power, Policy, and Protest: The Politics of India’s Special Economic Zones by Rob Jenkins, Loraine Kennedy And Partha Mukhopadhyay from Oxford University Press (India).

India's attempt to spur growth, boost exports, and create jobs by establishing Special Economic Zones remains a paradox. While the policy represents an intensification of the country's increasingly market-oriented development paradigm, implementation has required active government involvement. But an industrialization strategy pioneered in authoritarian China has faced huge political resistance in democratic India.

Protest movements arose in many localities where SEZs were proposed. A crucial point of contention has been the alienation of private and community-owned land by business interests, abetted by the state. To date, no systematic study of the politics of India's SEZ experiment has been undertaken. This volume fills this gap, examining variations in protest movements within and between eleven states where SEZs were proposed.

Detailed case studies investigate differences in the nature and extent of SEZ-related political mobilization and the means employed by governments to manage dissent. By covering a broad range of regional contexts, industrial sectors, and political conditions, this volume furnishes a comprehensive picture of the politics surrounding one of India's most controversial reform measures.

In our Politics section, Rs. 1145, in hardback, 396 pages, ISBN: 9780198097341


Medicine and Law by K. Kannan from Oxford University Press (India).

In the course of practicing medicine, a range of issues may arise that need a legal solution. As a result, the application of law to the field of medical practice has become increasingly important and this has further been strengthened by contemporary developments relating to law and ethics, medical malpractice, and bio-ethics and regulatory requirements for the healthcare industry.

With a comprehensive introduction and an appraisal of the Indian medical education system, this work examines a variety of issues that challenge the legal and medical fraternity in the face of rapidly advancing medical technology. It addresses issues such as organ transplant, euthanasia, surrogacy, abortion, the concept of consent, sex selection, clinical trials, designer babies, cosmetic enhancement procedures, and confidentiality.

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the author provides a comparative study with special focus on Indian case law and jurisdictions from other countries including the US and the UK.

In our Law section, Rs. 1595, in hardback, 608 pages, ISBN: 9780198082880

Towards a New History of Work

Towards a New History of Work by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya from Tulika Books.

This collection of essays is the outcome of a conference, organized by the Association of Indian Labour Historians in collaboration with the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, on the histories of work, from the long-term and comparative perspective. Why did the conference organizers and participants propose to look beyond ‘labour history’ to look at ‘the history of work’? Perhaps because at this moment of history we are in the midst of a huge change which compels our attention to turn to the notion of ‘work’ as distinct from that of ‘labour’. This change appears to us in the form of a technological transformation that affects not just our view of history, but our life itself. Every time we use the computer or the internet or the cyber networks we experience this transformation – which brings home to us the fragility of the conventional boundary between ‘labour’ and ‘work’. The information technology revolution has created a new space for some workers as a result of the relocation and dispersal of work, often to the home of the workers. In fact, this situates such information technology workers in a position analogous to that of the late medieval or early modern European artisans – an interesting recursive pattern in labour history.

Moreover, in the less developed countries where capitalist relations do not exhaustively define all production relations, we have a large proportion of the economically active population without being in someone’s employment, and thus it seems that the term ‘worker’ possibly accommodates them better than the term ‘labourer’. Further, when we consider the long run of history, the same proposition holds for the workers of the pre-capitalist era in many countries – i.e. the artisans and others who remained self-employed even if they were tied to a dependency network. The term ‘labourer’ appears to be inappropriate, as some authors in the present volume have argued, to people of that class in the pre-modern period in India or elsewhere. There are many other issues which need rigorous re-thinking in the agenda of constructing a ‘history of work’. In considering how the nature of ‘work’ is being transformed, the term ‘work’ needs to be defined because in common parlance it means many things. If value addition to a marketed product or service is the criterion, a pro tem working definition accepted since Adam Smith, there are problems to sort out.

For instance, there may be work which is socially useful but not marketed, e.g. the home-maker’s or house-wife’s work, a vital question from the gender history point of view. These and many other questions surface in the segment of the current discourse of ‘the history of work’ represented in this volume. The papers collected in the present volume have been arranged thematically into four sections in order to highlight some issues in focus at the conference and also to allow a cross-national perspective to develop. The first group of papers addresses the long run of history, extending to the late medieval and early modern period. The second section comprises papers on work communities and the development of their identity. The third group of papers looks at two of the oldest occupations in history, that of soldiers and sailors. Finally, we turn to the question: how was ‘work’ or ‘labour’ perceived by those who actually performed it? In the fourth section of the book we have essays which elaborate on that perception of work, the complexities of self-perception and the socially ascribed status of workers in different domains.

In our History section, Rs. 575, in hardback, x+286 pages, ISBN: 9789382381358