Piracy in the Indian Film Industry

Piracy in the Indian Film Industry: Copyright and Cultural Consonance by Arul George Scaria from Cambridge University Press (India).



Piracy in the Indian Film Industry: Copyright and Cultural Consonance sheds light on how copyright law works at the grassroots level in India, by exploring the social, cultural, historical, legal and economic dimensions of piracy in one of the biggest copyright-based industries: the Indian film industry.

Based on extensive fieldwork, this book provides novel and insightful findings on the complexity and diversity of perceptions regarding piracy within Indian society. The bottom-up approach to analysis adopted in the book elucidates how local factors influence copyright enforcement and the book proposes a mix of positive and negative incentives to increase the voluntary compliance of copyright law in India.

In our Law section, Rs. 795, in hardback, 338 pages, ISBN: 9781107065437

Secularism, Identity, and Enchantment

Secularism, Identity, and Enchantment by Akeel Bilgrami from Permanent Black.

Bringing clarity to a subject clouded by polemic, Secularism, Identity, and Enchantment is a rigorous exploration of how secularism and identity emerged as concepts in different parts of the modern world. At a time when secularist and religious worldviews appear irreconcilable, Akeel Bilgrami strikes out on a path distinctly his own, criticizing secularist proponents and detractors, liberal universalists and multicultural relativists alike.

Those who ground secularism in arguments that aspire to universal reach, Bilgrami argues, fundamentally misunderstand the nature of politics. To those, by contrast, who regard secularism as a mere outgrowth of colonial domination, he offers the possibility of a more conceptually vernacular ground for political secularism. Focusing on the response to Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, Bilgrami asks why Islamic identity has so often been a mobilizing force against liberalism, and he answers the question with diagnostic sympathy, providing a philosophical framework within which the Islamic tradition might overcome the resentments prompted by its colonized past and present.

Turning to Gandhi’s political and religious thought, Bilgrami ponders whether the increasing appeal of religion in many parts of the world reflects a growing disillusionment not with science but with an outlook of detachment around the rise of modern science and capitalism. He elaborates a notion of enchantment along metaphysical, ethical, and political lines with a view to finding in secular modernity a locus of meaning and value, while addressing squarely the anxiety that all such notions hark back nostalgically to a time that has past.

In our Religion section, Rs. 895, in hardback, 412 pages, ISBN: 9788178243856
Sales Restriction: Sale In SAARC Countries Only

Islanded

Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka and the Bounds of the Indian Ocean Colony by Sujit Sivasundaram from Oxford University Press (India).

How did the British come to conquer South Asia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? Answers to this question usually start in northern India, neglecting the dramatic events that marked Britains contemporaneous taking of the island of Sri Lanka. In Islanded, Sujit Sivasundaram reconsiders the arrival of British rule in South Asia as a dynamic and unfinished process of territorialization and state building, revealing that the British colonial project was framed by Sri Lankas traditions and maritime placement and built in part on the model they provided.

Using palm-leaf manuscripts alongside the colonial archive, Sivasundaram tells the story of two sets of islanders in combat and collaboration. He explores how the British organized the process of "islanding" and "partitioning": they aimed to create a separable unit of colonial governance and trade in keeping with conceptions of ethnology, culture, and geography. The advent of British rule in South Asia was thus a critical point in the fragmentation of the mainland from the island.

But rather than serving as a radical rupture, he reveals, how the colonists recycled and constantly redefined traditions that they learned from Kandy, a kingdom in the Sri Lankan highlands whose customs-from strategies of war to views of nature-fascinated them. Picking up a range of unusual themes, from migration, orientalism, and ethnography to botany, medicine, and education, Islanded is an engaging retelling of the advent of British rule and a theory of colonial impact that speaks to other places that have been lost from dominant histories.

In our History section, Rs. 895, in hardback, 384 pages, ISBN: 9780198096245
Sales Restriction: Sale In SAARC Countries Only

Integration of the Indian States & Colonialism

Integration of the Indian States by V. P. Menon from Orient Blackswan.

• Merging the 554 princely states with the Indian state was one of the most structurally monumental tasks that the Indian administration faced after Independence.
• V.P. Menon worked closely with Sardar Patel to help integrate the princely states with India.
• The book details the negotiations he carried out with each of these states.
• He has taken up the case of each state and shown how they were persuaded to sign the Instrument of Accession which made them a part of the Indian union.
• He also shows how various states were grouped together to form new administrative units.
• This reissue of the volume has a new Introduction that contextualizes it for contemporary readers. It gives us a brief account of the author, the book and the background in which it was written. It tells us how the process of carving out states from the jigsaw puzzle that India was after Independence is something that continues.

In our Politics section, Rs. 995, in paperback, 534 pages, ISBN: 9788125054511


Language Politics, Elites, and the Public Sphere: Western India Under Colonialism by Veena Naregal from Orient Blackswan.

The bilingual relationship between English and the Indian vernaculars has long been crucial to the construction of ideology as well as cultural and political hierarchies. Print was vital for colonial literacy—for initiating a shift in the relation between ‘high’ and ‘low’ languages. This book looks at the relationship between linguistic hierarchies, textual practices and power in colonial Western India. Whereas most studies of colonialism focus on India’s ‘high’ literary culture, this work looks at how local intellectuals explored their ‘middling’ position through initiatives to establish newspapers and influential channels of communication.

How was the ‘native’ intelligentsia able to achieve a position of ideological influence? This book shows that, despite their minority position and the bilingual division, such people negotiated the arenas of education policy, the press, and voluntary associations to advance their interests as a social class. In doing this it illuminates the Indian intelligentsia’s self-definitions before anti-colonial thinking articulated its hegemonic claims as nationalistic discourse. This book will interest readers of Indian history, cultural politics, and colonial thought.

In our Politics section, Rs. 450, in paperback, 312 pages, ISBN: 9788178243832

Courage Beyond Compare And The Bangladesh Military Coup and the CIA Link

Courage Beyond Compare: How Ten Athletes Overcame Disability and Adversity to Become Champions by Sanjay Sharma And Medini Sharma from Rupa & Co.

Sport,at every level,is about excelling. The most exciting and inspiring sports stories are the ones in which a sportsperson has overcome adverse circumstances and excelled at the highest levels. Cricketers who grew up playing in narrow by lanes,tennis players who used empty swimming pools to practice in,footballers who played barefoot because they could not afford shoes, the list is long and impressive. The stories in this book capture the never-say-die spirit of ten athletes who soared in sport despite their physical disability. These are stories that deserve to be told and I am glad that Sanjay Sharma and Medini Sharma have devoted an entire book to them.'-Salman Khan

The ten sports people profiled in courage beyond compare - champions in disciplines as diverse as athletics,long-distance swimming,badminton and cricket,who have brought glory to the country both in national and international arenas - overcame immense physical limitations to reach the pinnacle in their chosen fields.

Powerful and inspiring,these stories are heart-warming reminders that a strong mind,steely will and dogged determination almost always triumph over the limitations of the human body. At the same time,Courage beyond Compare brings into sobering focus how far India must still go to ensure an equitable society for the differently able,and how little it cares for the sports people who move heaven and earth for the glory of the nation.

Interesting facts

• A selection of profiles of differently-able athletes,this title will do well in the 'inspirational' space.
• The author wrote the acclaimed biography of Pullela Gopi Chand which has a fair amount of recall value.
• The book will appeal to readers who are interested in sports and sport-writing.
• Salman Khan,the actor,has blurbed the book and Sanjay Sharma will involve him in its launches well. That will grab us a lot of eyeballs.
• The media will also be interested in the book,since the stories are inspiring and quite eye-opening.

In our General section, Rs. 295, in paperback, 280 pages, ISBN: 9788129131195


The Bangladesh Military Coup and the CIA Link by B. Z. Khasru from Rupa & Co.

On 15 August 1975, several junior officers of the Bangladesh Army stormed the residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, killing the nation’s founder and most of his family members. Contrary to popular myth that the violent putsch was orchestrated by those countries which had opposed the creation of Bangladesh, American declassified documents suggest that the assassination was the culmination of a home-grown plot, but the United States had advance knowledge of it.

In tracing the events leading up to the murders, The Bangladesh Military Coup and the CIA Link narrates the untold stories of two statesmen of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman, whose legacies continue to dominate Bangladeshi politics to this day. It documents the events that occurred between 1971 and 1977—beginning with coup perpetrators, Major Shariful Haque Dalim and Major Nur Chowdhury’s defection from Pakistan, to General Ziaur Rahman’s rise to power.

The book also details the events that took place in India during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, events which shaped the Bangladesh military which would eventually pit itself against the nation’s founding leaders. It also seeks answers to several vital questions: Did Mujib favor a confederation with Pakistan after Bangladesh’s independence? Why did he authorize the release of Pakistani war prisoners, reneging on his vow to put them on trial in Bangladesh?

What prompted Mujib to form a Communist-style political system, discarding his life-long crusade for parliamentary democracy? And, most importantly, did his one-party policy catapult the grisly putsch that shook the foundations of the fledged nation? Well-researched, insightful and illuminating, The Bangladesh Military Coup and the CIA Link is a decisive account of one of the most turbulent events in the political history of Bangladesh.

In our History section, Rs. 995, in paperback, 420 pages, ISBN: 9788129129086

Overwhelmed Or Why Entrepreneurs Really Fail

Overwhelmed, (1/e): Work, Love and Play When No One Has The Time by Brigid Schulte from Bloomsbury India.

In her attempts to juggle work and family life, Brigid Schulte has baked cakes until 2 a.m., frantically (but surreptitiously) sent important emails during school trips and then worked long into the night after her children were in bed. Realising she had become someone who constantly burst in late, trailing shoes and schoolbooks and biscuit crumbs, she began to question, like so many of us, whether it is possible to be anything you want to be, have a family and still have time to breathe.

So when Schulte met an eminent sociologist who studies time and he told her she enjoyed thirty hours of leisure each week, she thought her head was going to pop off. What followed was a trip down the rabbit hole of busy-ness, a journey to discover why so many of us ?nd it near-impossible to press the 'pause' button on life and what got us here in the ?rst place. Overwhelmed maps the individual, historical, biological and societal stresses that have ripped working mothers' and fathers' leisure to shreds, and asks how it might be possible for us to put the pieces back together.

Seeking insights, answers and inspiration, Schulte explores everything from the wiring of the brain and why workplaces are becoming increasingly demanding, to worldwide differences in family policy, how cultural norms shape our experiences at work, our unequal division of labour at home and why it's so hard for everyone - but women especially - to feel they deserve an elusive moment of peace.

In our Sociology section, Rs. 559, in hardback, 368 pages, ISBN: 9781408826690


Why Entrepreneurs Really Fail: The Road to Success…Always Under Construction by Nozer Buchia from Bloomsbury India.

Whether you have already started your own business or are struggling with the idea of what to do next, Why Entrepreneurs Really Fail has invaluable advice for you. Get unstuck, be inspired, and find out how to take the next step on the road to success.

This book tells you how to identify your strengths and recognize what you need to do to be successful in what he calls this unforgiving world of business. Just as important, you will be able to determine what not to do and how to minimize your risk of failure. You will also learn how to recover from mistakes that cause failure, what entrepreneurship is all about, whether it is right for you, what is holding you back, and how to move forward.

Equip yourself with knowledge, develop successful winning habits, learn from case studies, and discover Why Entrepreneurs Really Fail. Nozer Buchia will help you decide whether or not to jump into the world of entrepreneurship even as he inspires, and will show you how to really succeed if you do decide to take the plunge.
In our Management Studies section, Rs. 350, in hardback, 255 pages, ISBN: 9789382951605

Hyderabad and Hyderabadis & India in Russian Orientalism

Hyderabad and Hyderabadis by Karen Leonard from Manohar Publishers.

This volume presents Karen Leonard's best articles on Hyderabad and Hyderabadis, pieces published since the 1970s that evoke the singular cultural ambience of the vanished princely state. Hyderabad's cosmopolitan Indo-Muslim culture distinguished the state from British colonial India, and Leonard captures the significant changes in state and society from the late eighteenth century to the late twentieth century, stressing the important role of the state in shaping culture and identity.

In our Anthropology section, Rs. 1250, in hardback, 442 pages, ISBN: 9789350980293








India in Russian Orientalism: Travel Narratives and Beyond by Amartya Mukhopadhyay from Manohar Publishers.

Russian Orientalism concerning India, through interpretation of Russian travelogues, is severely under-researched. The few exhaustive Indological studies exploring Indo-Russian cultural links either shun close readings of select texts, or do not make the Indian connection regarding Russian Orientalism in the Saidian sense, which burgeoned after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Rather, contemporary applications of Orientalism as a gaze to Russias activities in the East have remained, with only few exceptions, limited to the Caucasus and Central Asia, seldom extending to India.

Consequently, with the exception of Nikitins Voyage Beyond Three Seas most of the Russian travelogues, predating institutionalisation of Russian Orientlology, are not reinterpreted from modern perspectives. Researches on Lebedev, the most loved of Russian travellers in India, n Russia, Germany and India do not talk with each other, while Orientalist research of European-American provenance for India simply ignores him. Minor travelogues of Efremov and Daniebegov suffer worse fate. Prince Saltykovs travelogues, letters and pictures are the most neglected. Vereshchagins Orientalist, anti-war art and his travelogues in Caucasus and Central Asia receive attention.

But even after the current resurgence of interest in him, his travelogue of India written by him and his wife, where he is the main subject, lies forgotten. The diaries of Minaev are given short shrift, though they problematise Russian Orientalism in India most significantly. Amartya Mukhopadhyays original study, as a social scientist, seeks to fill this gap from an Indian point of vantage, showing how these travellers were imprisoned by, or broke free of, the stereotypes of observation called after Said as Orientalism.

In our History section, Rs. 1095, in hardback, 360 pages, ISBN: 9788173049972