Identity & Violence : The Illusion Of Destiny

Profound and humane, Amartya Sen's Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny examines some of the most explosive problems of our time and shows how we can move towards peace as firmly as we have spiralled towards war. In this penetrating book, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen argues that we are becoming increasingly divided along lines of religion and culture, ignoring the many other ways in which people see themselves, from class and profession to morals and politics. When we are put into narrow categories the importance of human life becomes lost. Through his lucid exploration of such subjects as multiculturalism, fundamentalism, terrorism and globalization, he brings out the need for a clear-headed understanding of human freedom and a constructive public voice in Global civil society. The hope of harmony in today's world lies in a clearer understanding of our sheer diversity. 'Identity and Violence is a moving, powerful essay about the mischief of bad ideas' The Economist 'Impassioned, eloquent and often moving, Identity and Violence is a sustained attack on the "solitarist" theory which says that human identities are formed by membership of a single social group' John Gray, Guardian 'Rich in ideas ... I would love to send it to Osama bin Laden and have his reply' Spectator 'Sen's moving and most personal book yet' The Times Literary Supplement 'Stimulating ... simple and persuasive' Financial Times 'An accessible and exceptional humanitarian' Jon Snow, New Statesman Heroes of Our Time Amartya Sen is Lamont University Professor at Harvard. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998. His other books published by Penguin include The Argumentative Indian and The Idea of Justice

Calcutta : Two Years In The City

"Calcutta is Amit Chaudhuri???s account of two years in the city. Using the 2011 elections as his fulcrum, Chaudhuri evokes all that is most particular and extraordinary about the city???from its houses with their slatted windows to its effervescent cultural life and its pujas and Christmas. He paints too an acute, and often ironic, picture of life in the city today???of its malls, restaurants, its middle class who leave and then return reluctantly, and of its itinerant poor. Lyrical, brilliantly observed, and profound, Calcutta is one of the finest books ever written on the city."

Ideology & Social Science

"One of the pioneers of sociological studies in India, Professor Andre Beteille has, over the past four decades, contributed a series of topical and stimulating articles to various newspapers. Some of these articles were collected in the book Chronicles of Our time, published a few years ago. Ideology and Social Science is a new and riveting collection of Professor Beteille???s writings on Indian society, politics and culture. The fifty articles in this book cover a very wide range of subjects: from the practice of sociology to the prospects of political liberalism, from contemporary debates about caste ad caste quotas to old and still persisting myths about what is said to constitute the essence of Indian culture. Beteille???s ambit includes the relevant and important themes of secularism, diversity and unity in cultures, the culture of tolerance, discrimination at work, value systems in the changing Indian family, and caste practices in village communities. Steering clear of passing intellectual trends as well as partisan politics, Beteille reaches his conclusions based on a careful examination of the evidence, not on a search for facts that fit a preconceived theory. Through his writings, he makes a cogent and passionate appeal to separate sociological theory from the frameworks of social activism. For students of sociology as well as the general reader, this is a book that will stimulate thought and generate interest in social and political issues that are at the core of India???s modernity and tradition. "

Speed Post : Letters To My Children About Living, Loving, Caring And Coping With The World

The relationship between a mother and her children is unquestionably the most special human bond there is. In this book, best-selling author Shobha De writes a series of letters to her six children on the key concerns of every mother and child in the 21st century: family values and tradition; growing pains and adolescent anxieties about love, sex and friendship; religion and God; and the challenge of being a responsible parent. Rich, compassionate, witty and wise, these letters will touch the hearts of readers everywhere.

Spouse : The Truth About Marriage

Intimate Relations : Exploring Indian Sexuality

Plumbing the hearts of women and men in India and exploring the relations they engage in, Sudhir Kakar gives us the first full-length study of Indian sexuality. His groundbreaking work explores India's sexual fantasies and ideals, the "unlit stage of desire where so much of our inner theater takes place." Kakar's sources are primarily textual, celebrating the primacy of the story in Indian life. He practices a cultural psychology that distills the psyches of individuals from the literary products and social institutions of Indian culture. These include examples of lurid contemporary Hindi novels; folktales; Sanskrit, Tamil, and Hindi proverbs; hits of the Indian cinema; Gandhi's autobiography; interviews with women from the slums of Delhi; and case studies from his own psychoanalytic practice. His attentive readings of these varied narratives from a vivid portrait of sexual fantasies and realities, reflecting the universality of sexuality as well as cultural nuances specific to India.

The Great Indian Middle Class

In this powerful and insightful critique, the author examines the evolution of the Indian middle class during the twentieth century, especially since Independence. He shows us how the middle class, guided by self-interest, is becoming increasingly insensitive to the plight of the underprivileged, and how economic liberalization has only heightened its tendency to withdraw from anything that does not relate directly to its material well-being. b An essential read, this fresh edition updated with a new introduction analyses the transformation of the middle class in the decade since 1997 and seeks to reconcile the seemingly dichotomous aspects of our economy and polity.

Remnants Of A Separation : A History Of The Partition Through Material Memory

Why Scams Are Here To Stay : Understanding Political Corruption In India

Corruption in India today is pervasive, omnipresent, and diverse, covering every branch of the Indian state and key sectors of the economy. Far from declining and fading away, as predicted, with deregulation and liberalization, it has increased exponentially in the twenty-first century at all levels???central, state, and local. It can be seen today as a normal, not a pathological, condition within the political economy. In several states, corruption involving politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, and in some cases, criminal elements has graduated to a new qualitative stage, transforming itself into a well-oiled, rule- and rate-bound and self-propelled system of collecting and sharing the illicit spoils of office. In this seminal book, N. Ram, who led the investigation into the Bofors grand corruption scandal, attempts to get a measure of ???political corruption??? in contemporary India, and explains why it has become an intractable problem.

Intimate Speakers : Why Introverted and Socially Ostracized Citizens Use Social Media

???What???s on your mind???? ???What???s happening???? Do you often find yourself answering these questions on social media? Do you often update your current status on WhatsApp? Are you more connected to the virtual world than the real world? Are you . . . an Introvert? Welcome to the Connected Space In the age of social media, where intimacy has found a new course, the introverts and ostracized citizens, including women, queer and the Dalit, have broken down the enforced social hierarchies, conventional norms and class divisions. Intimate Speakers is an account of Biju???s social media encounters with these citizens, as they came forward and shared their intimate stories.

India Since Independence

A thorough and incisive introduction to contemporary India The story of the forging of India, the world's largest democracy, is a rich and inspiring one. This volume, a sequel to the best-selling India's Struggle for Independence, analyses the challenges India has faced and the successes it has achieved, in the light of its colonial legacy and century-long struggle for freedom. The book describes how the Constitution was framed, as also how the Nehruvian political and economic agenda and basics of foreign policy were evolved and developed. It dwells on the consolidation of the nation, examining contentious issues like party politics in the Centre and the states, the Punjab problem, and anti-caste politics and untouchability. This revised edition offers a scathing analysis of the growth of communalism in India and the use of state power in furthering its cause. It also documents the fall of the National Democratic Alliance in the 2004 General Elections, the United Progressive Alliance's subsequent rise to power and the Indo-US Nuclear Deal that served to unravel the political consensus at the centre. Apart from detailed analyses of Indian economic reforms since 1991 and wide-ranging land reforms and the Green Revolution, this new edition includes an overview of the Indian economy in the new millennium. These, along with objective assessments of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rajiv Gandhi, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, constitute a remarkable overview of a nation on the move.

Capital

The boom following the opening up of India's economy in the early 1990s plunged Delhi, the capital city, into a tumult of destruction and creation: slums and markets were bulldozed or burnt down, and shopping malls and apartment blocks erupted from the ruins - or upon agricultural land taken over in the interests of business and modernization. Immense fortunes were made, and in the glassy stores lining the new highways, customers paid for global luxury with bags of cash. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people from the rural hinterland streamed into the newly formed 'National Capital Region' looking for work, which they often found constructing, cleaning or guarding the homes of the increasingly affluent middle class. The transformation of the city was stern, abrupt and unequal, and it gave rise to new and bewildering feelings. Delhi brimmed with ambition and rage. In his first work of non-fiction, Rana Dasgupta shows us this new Delhi through the eyes of its people.

Carving A Sky : A Perspective On Life

Evocative, expansive and intensely spiritual, Carving a Sky explores the necessity of space in a human's life that leads one to attain intellectual and emotional fulfilment.

It narrates the story of a monk and a passenger on a train who discuss the meaning of existence and the roots of a person's strength, growth and freedom. Deeply embedded in Hindu scriptures, this book will be an invaluable guide in your life's journey.

Enhancing Life : The Art Of Inner Awakening

Early Medieval Indian Society : A Study In Feudalisation

The traditional view of feudalism, defined by scholars like Karl Marx and Marc Bloch, describes a system where a dominant social group controlled ownership of land and enjoyed the benefits of labour of servile serfs who toiled to generate produce from land. While this model was based on conditions in Europe, Marx felt that this did not apply to medieval India as most peasants were technically free land-owners.

R.S.Sharma goes beyond this traditional view of feudalism.In hisEarly Medieval Indian Society,he shows how dominant groups used techniques such as land-grants, control of common services, caste and religion to gain control over the means of production. R.S. Sharma explains how despite differences from the European model of feudalisation, similarities in economic traits like decline of towns and long-distance trade, reduction in the usage of metal coins and the establishment of a subsidiary market economy made the feudal model a useful tool to understand this period. He uses feudalism to trace the emergence of early medieval India and to also understand developments in art, religion, literature, polity and society.

The Prologue to this edition is a fitting tribute to the author by Jaya Sinha Tyagi, a historian of ancient Indian history. Analysing R.S. Sharma’s pioneering study, she charts this erudite historian’s contribution to the transformation of the study of early medieval India. She also explains why this book continues to serve as a critical resource material for tracing the economic changes in history.

R.S. Sharma’s seminal work will be invaluable for students, scholars and teachers of ancient and medieval Indian history. It will be useful to readers interested in studying transitions in socio-cultural ideologies and institutions from the early medieval times.

My God Is a Woman

An innocuous article in a magazine lands nine-year-old Safia Mehdi in the world of purdah. Her father gets her married to Abbas Jafri, son of the famous Jafri family of Lucknow. Abbas is a barrister and author of a controversial book. Safia???s father hopes that she would be able to bring back her deviated husband to ???God???s true faith???. Ironically, Abbas who dreams of a liberated India where women enjoy equal rights as men, leads Safia to break free from the stereotype of a traditional Muslim woman. Set against the tumultuous period of pre-Independence, the husband-wife duo embarks on a journey, elucidating the way to a progressive nation. However, just when everything seems alright, Abbas is issued a fatwa for confronting the Imam, preaching inequality between men and women. His Marxist Party too ostracizes him for criticizing the Shariat for the sorry state of the Muslim women in the country. Consequently, Abbas is killed by Muslim fanatics and Safia is left all alone to fend for herself and her daughter.With time, Safia gains grit and common sense. Armed with her forth righteousness and sheer belief in her 'power' of being a woman, Safia walks on, championing the cause of women empowerment. But does she manage to bring about that much-awaited change or falls a victim to the repressive dogmas of the society? Can she help the Muslim women to step forward, wrench their tightly closed fingers open and set out to build a world to suit their destiny? Can women become the God that they were always meant to be? My God is a Woman tries to seek answers to some of these questions.

Lean In : Women, Work, And The Will To Lead

Many intelligent women tend to leave their professional careers and become homemakers for various reasons. One of the vital reasons is that women find it impossible to balance the growing career pressure and meeting increasing family demands. Sheryl Sandberg, in this book 'Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead' provides solution to this issue and guides women on how to find the perfect balance in life. The solutions given in this book are pragmatic and are based on practical experience and academic research. Sandberg uses various personal anecdotes and thus allows readers to peek in her highly successful career. And during this discussion, she touches various pressing issues like race, class and sexual identity. The author backs her views with strong arguments and makes the book an engaging read. She also talks about other powerful women in the world like Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo and Peggy McIntosh. The narration is flawless and the personal touch enhances the value of this book.

Advantage India : From Challenge To Opportunity

On the way from Delhi to Jaunpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh is the dusty town of Badshahpur. Even in this nondescript settlement, people receive money via mobile transfer from family members working in distant cities. There are computer training centres offering diploma courses in Bhojpuri, Hindi and English. Here is an example of India's numerous remote towns that have skipped the stage of basic learning and landed straight into digital literacy as they strive to keep up with the times. In his last book, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, writing with Srijan Pal Singh, draws upon examples ranging from entrepreneurship in places like Badshahpur to a sophisticated missile programme like Agni to show how it can be 'Advantage India' in the final lap of the journey to 2020-the landmark year by which he had envisioned the country could transform into an economic power. How can the new initiatives-such as Make in India, Swachh Bharat, smart cities and skill development for the youth-be used to unleash the country's vast potential? Advantage India offers the answer-a movement driven by every home and school to educate the new generation and give a fresh meaning to citizenship.

Fables From India : The Pillar Of Justice And Other Stories

An introduction to the rich cultural heritage and mythology of India. Bestselling author Terry OBrien brings together a delightful collection of fables, drawn from ancient folklore and mythology, showcasing the unique spiritual ethos of India. Including stories such as Samudragupta and his Courtiers,

The Emperors Disguise and The King and the Sculptor, this book highlights the age-old wisdom with which ancient emperors ruled their lands.

Seventy And to Hell With It

Shobhaa De's writing exudes an empathy that has turned several of her books into life manuals for generations of Indians. Her keen wit spears and spares none, least of all herself. Her delicious irreverence makes this book a delight to read. It is the lessons in loving and living woven into the writing-intensely personal and deeply felt-that form the wise heart of Seventy.