Manohar Publishers and Distributors: July 2012

30 July, 2012

Preserving Cultural Identity through Education: The Schools of the Chinese Community in Calcutta, India

By- Zhang Xing

Immigrants from China started settling in Calcutta, the British capital of colonial India, from the late eighteenth century, initially, the immigrant community comprised of male workers, many of whom sojourned between China and India. Only in the early twentieth century was there a large influx of women and children from China. To address the educational needs of the children—both immigrant and locality-born—several Chinese-medium primary and middle schools were established in Calcutta by the community in the 1920s and 1930s. Using many hitherto unexplored textual sources and interviews in India, China and Canada, this detailed and unprecedented study examines the history and significance of these Chinese-medium schools. It focuses on the role they played in preserving Chinese cultural identity not only through the use of educational curricula and textbooks imported from China, but also with the emphasis on the need to return to the ancestral homeland for higher education. This study also breaks new ground by examining the impact of political and other factionalism within the community as well as the India-China conflict of 1962 that resulted in the closure of most of the Chinese-medium schools in Calcutta by the 1980s.

Zhang Xing is a Ph.D. candidate at Peking University (China) and Martin Luther University (Germany).

ISBN 978-81-7304-905-7 2011 104p. Rs.350/ pounds 18

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Perilous Journey: Debates on Security and Development in Assam

By- Rakhee Bhattacharya and Sanjay Pulipaka (eds.)

The contours of Assam’s development and security reveal a continuum of turbulence and conflict. Over the centuries, Assam assimilated large number of ethnic groups, and remained the key state of India’s North-East. It anchors other smaller states of the region in terms of connectivity, geography, economy, history and society.

Except Tripura and Manipur, all other states in North-East India were carved out of Assam during the 1970s and 1980s due to ethno-identity politics. During this period, continuous migration from Bangladesh threatened its economic, cultural, political existence, and the psyche of the indigenous people of Assam. All this resulted in the historic Assam movement, which gradually got transformed into an insurgency. The ever present violence forever changed the destiny of Assam for worse with multi-layered security problems. The state’s economy which was leading in the first few decades after Independence became the most backward in the pan-Indian development space after liberalization.

The theme of the book dwells upon such multi-disciplinary issues that continue to fracture Assam. This book is premised on the belief that today, Assam’s economic prosperity and security issues can no longer be treated as mutually exclusive paradigms. While exploring the security-development linkages, this volume focuses on migration, insurgency, cross-border activities, counter-insurgency doctrines and development issues of Assam. It brings forth the views of experienced policymakers, academicians and young scholars. Conceptualizing the interdependence of security and development in Assam, the book calls for a more integrated and holistic approach to understand and address the security situation in Assam.

Rakhee Bhattacharya is a Fellow at the MAKAIAS, Kolkata. She was also an Endeavour Post-doctoral Fellow. Her areas of interest incorporate North-East India’s security, development, disparity and neighborhood issues.

Sanjay Pulipaka is a Fellow at the MAKAIAS, Kolkata. He was also a Fulbright Fellow and his areas of interest include Indian politics, political transitions, conflict transformation and international politics.

ISBN 978-81-7304-904-0 2011 258p. Rs.695/ pounds 45

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Our History, Their History:The Contrasting Historical Narratives of East and West

By- G.S. Cheema

Why is Indian history so different from European? Why did parliaments and democracy have their origins there and not here? Even though our peasantry was free and we never had landlords – until the British created them here in the later part of the eighteenth century?

Then, even more curiously, while India has been united for considerable periods of its history, the Western world has never been united – not since the fall of Rome in the fifth century. In spite of appallingly bloody wars the political subdivisions of Europe are seemingly permanent. Frontiers have changed only marginally over the past 700 years. In India, on the other hand, the states of the present Union are largely artificial. None of them can claim a history comparable to that of any European country.

It is not that European princes did not dream of world empire, but their empires were mostly overseas. All attempts to unify Europe itself under one emperor, after the Roman model, failed. The Holy Roman Empire was an empire only in name. The Emperor, in spite of his bombastic titles was scarcely even king of Germany.

These are some of the questions and paradoxes that the author has tried to answer and explain in this stimulating and thought provoking book.

G.S. Cheema was born in Ranchi in 1949. A career civil servant, he retired from the Punjab cadre of the Indian Administrative Service in 2009. this is his second book. His first work, The Forgotten Mughals, was published by Manohar in 2002. He lives in Chandigarh.

ISBN 978-81-7304-920-2 2012 248p. Rs.825/ pounds 45
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New States for a New India: Federalism and Decentralization in the States of Jharkhand and Chattisgarh

By- Samuel Berthet and Girish Kumar (eds.)

The creation of as many as three new states—Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal—around the same time was a big surprise of the year 2000. What was the rationale? What was the justification for their creation as independent states? Even if the idea was to create smaller states by carving out certain neglected regions of some of the unmanageable bigger states, there were many claimants, other than these three. By ignoring the longstanding demand for a separate Vidarbha, for instance, why was Chhattisgarh bestowed with statehood for which there was hardly any demand per se?

The half-century old history of independent India is replete with such demands. Later, when federal arrangements grew from two-tier to multi-tier phase, it was believed that decentralization could be a better route to take power to the doorsteps of the people. Was then the whole exercise aimed at addressing certain maladies of representative democracy? Or was it considered the safest political move to accommodate political aspirations of the leading constituent of the then ruling NDA? Or was it perceived as a necessity to meet an ever growing demand for minerals in a highly globalized market?

All these and related questions have been examined in a multi-disciplinary frame in this volume by scholars, administrators and activists alike, both Indian and French. Through this edited volume, the readers would also come face to face with the final outcome of the decision to create Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, a decade after the addition of these two states to the Indian Union.

Samuel Berthet is currently director of Alliance française de Chittagong (Bangladesh).

Girish Kumar is Senior Fellow, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.

ISBN 978-81-7304-915-6 2011 252p. Rs.645/ pounds 45

International and Transnational Political Actors: Case Studies from the Indian Diaspora

By- Eric Leclerc (ed.)

This volume explores a new field of Indian diasporic studies, the relations between international and transnational political actors. A number of issues have already been raised for the Indian diaspora: the question of identity in the host country, both in terms of religion or caste, as well as economic issues of integration in overseas territories and remittances to India, and impact of the brain drain on India. But the trans-State political activities involving the Indian diaspora have hardly been addressed so far. The book affords us an opportunity to analyse the construction of these new actors in international relations, in their many forms: lobbying, political parties, cultural associations.

The ten papers collected in this volume look at the role of Indian diaspora in international relations, within and beyond the traditional triangular framework of diaspora, State of origin and host State. The involvement of Indian diaspora in international relations has been assessed on two criteria: its global expansion; and how it defines new areas of legitimacy. The picture depicted for other diasporas (Jewish, Kurdish, Palestinian, Sri Lankan Tamil) is complemented and enriched here by the case of India.

The volume is organized into two thematic sections. The first is from the point of view of the Indian State, its involvement with the Indian diaspora overseas or with various diasporas on its territory. The second focus is on the diaspora actor through the study of few Indian communities. The contributors explore the processes of building transnational political actors in the Indian diaspora.

Eric Leclerc is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Rouen (France). He started his research in south India on developmental issues, both in rural areas as well as in small towns.

ISBN 978-81-7304-925-5 2011 246p. Rs.650/ pounds 45

Indo-French Perspectives on Local Government and Democracy

By- Lucy Baugnet and Girish Kumar (eds.)

Can practices of local level democracy in France and India as fostered by their local governments be compared? If contextualized in terms of their respective geographical expanse intertwined with their political history, levels of economic development, demographic attributes and cultural moorings, comparison would, at best be shallow. But juxtapose them in the context of their contemporary political developments and a viable common ground would appear, rendering their seemingly divergent features irrelevant. After all, starting from the inauguration of the Fifth Republic in France in 1958 and Independent India declaring itself a ‘Republic’ in 1950, both countries embarked on their post-war journey as highly centralized States.

Following several abortive or partially successful reform measures adopted in the next four decades, they eventually took bold strides in the 1990s, ushering profound changes in their respective governing structures and other areas, including creating space for political representation of women and marginalized sections. Going beyond their earlier tryst with the halting pace of multi-level decentralization, these moves were somewhat influenced by the decentralization wave that swept the world in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Set against this backdrop, the purpose of this volume, the first of its kind, is to sensitize readers with the nuances of democratic decentralization, viewed from both the angles of demand and supply in India as well as France.

Lucy Baugnet is Full Professor in Social Psychology and Counsellor for International Relations at the University of Picardy Jules Verne.

Girish Kumar is Senior Fellow, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.

ISBN 978-81-7304-916-3 2011 322p. Rs.800/ Pounds 50

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Descriptive Topographical Catalogue of Orissan Inscriptions

By- Snigdha Tripathy

The present book covers a subject of immense value, the epigraphic records of Orissa, the most indispensable source for the reconstruction of its history and culture. Present-day Orissa can now boast of a long chequered history of its own, exclusively due to its immense epigraphic wealth.

Material on inscriptions of different periods, dynasties and localities of Orissa and in the territories which once had formed the Orissan dominions in the past or that have a bearing on the history of this land, are scattered in various periodicals and unpublished works and rarely available to scholars and researchers. For their systematic study, a comprehensive descriptive and topographical catalogue of Orissan inscriptions like the present one. has so far remained a great desideratum for the benefit of students and researchers working on Orissan as well as Indian history and culture.

This volume, the first of its kind, which presents the material in an authentic, analytical and systematic way is sure to remain a source book for serious researchers and students for years to come.

Snigdha Tripathy obtained her M.A. in ancient History and Ph. D. in Numismatics in 1967 and 1983 respectively from the Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. She worked as an epigraphist in the Orissa State Museum, Bhubaneswar and retired in 2003.

ISBN 978-81-7304-840-1 2010 1190p. Rs.4000/ pounds 185

Debrahmanising History: Dominance and Resistance in Indian Society

By- Braj Ranjan Mani

Egalitarianism is neither alien to India nor the gift of the West. Marginalized people everywhere have always aspired to build an egalitarian world. Espousing the perspective of the non-elites, this book brings out the beauty and resilience of a counter-tradition by visiting some of the major sites of resistance and creativity from below. Ranged against caste and brahmanism, this rational-liberating tradition is to be found in the heterodoxies of various inclinations, particularly Buddhism, the movements of subaltern saint-poets, Sufism and Sikhism.

This legacy was carried forward in modern India by, more than anybody else, Phule, Iyothee Thass, Narayana Guru, Periyar, and Ambedkar. Recognizing the power of culture in the politics of transformation, they had emancipatory visions that embraced the whole of an Indian experience, and stand firmly as an alternative to Tilak-Savarkarite, Gandhian, and Nehruvian visions. Their determined, but diverse and resourceless struggles, fought in the teeth of opposition from the caste elites, could not arrest the neo-brahmanism which under colonial patronage and the archeology of knowledge derived from Orientalism went on to reincarnate – and nationalize – itself into octopus-like Hinduism. Their sublime failure adds to their enduring appeal to the marginalised as old forms of hierarchy and hegemony menacingly morph into new structures of inequality in post-1947 India.

In some studies, the egalitarian orientation of this tradition is belatedly being recognised but it is seldom integrated with macro-level theoretical studies on Indian culture and society. An attempt in that direction, this searing critique of caste and dominant historiography is meant for all those who are – or want to be – part of the ongoing struggle for human liberation.

Braj Ranjan Mani writes on Indian society and culture from the perspective of the marginalised majority.

ISBN 81-7304-648-4 2011 456p. Rs.394/ Pounds 22

Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The Non-Brahman Movement in Western India

By- Gail Omvedt

The colonial period saw important social movements in India. Among the strongest of these was non-Brahman movement in Maharashtra. Its founder was a remarkable intellectual and social activist from the gardener (Mali) caste, Jotirao Phule (1827-90). His writings laid the foundations of the movement, and the Satyashodhak Samaj (“Truthseekers Society”) which he founded in 1873, became its primary radical organization, lasting until the 1930s.

Shahu Maharaj, the Maratha maharaja of Kolhapur, who turned against Brahmans because they considered him a shudra, and became radicalized from this, was a major patron. The heyday of the movement took place between 1910 and 1930, when the Satyashodhak Samaj carried the message of anti-caste anti-Brahmanism throughout Maharashtra; one of its offshoots was a strong peasant movement.

In the 1920s a political party emerged, as did Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s Dalit movement, which drew sustenance also from support of the non-Brahmans and patrons such as Shahu Maharaj. Young radicals such as Keshavrao Jedhe and Dinkarrao Javalkar challenged Brahman cultural dominance in Pune and intervened in the Brahman-dominated Communist movement in Mumbai.

By the 1930s, however, the movement died away as the majority of its activists joined Congress. It has left a strong heritage, but the failure to really link nationalism with a strong anti-caste movement has left a heritage of continued and often unadmitted dominance of caste in Indian society today.

This classic study on the non-Brahman movement in western India is invaluable for scholars of sociology, caste movements, Dalit studies and colonialism.

Gail Omvedt currently holds the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Chair of Social Change and Development at IGNOU.

ISBN 978-81-7304-927-9 2011 332p. Rs.895/ pounds 50

Centres Out There?: Facets of Subregional Identities in Orissa

By- Hermann Kulke and Georg Berkemer (eds.)

In the 1970s, the first Orissa Research Project (ORP), financed by the German Research Council and conducted by the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University, revealed vital elements of Oriya identity and culture by its extensive research on the cult of Jagannath and the temple city of Puri. In 1999, the second ORP, ‘Various Identities: Socio-Cultural Profiles of Orissa in Historical and Regional Perspectives’ was sanctioned until 2005.

Whereas the former project focused on the dominant discourses of coastal Orissa, the second project was periphery oriented in a double sense. Geographically it extended its studies to the hinterland of coastal Orissa, and sociologically it gave a stronger emphasis on its peripheral or subaltern folk and tribal groups. With its complementary studies, the second ORP attempts to give a comprehensive view of the polymorphic and polycentric pattern of the great regional tradition of Orissa. They reveal the inherent vitality and dynamics of India’s regional traditions by paradigmatic studies on the genesis, historical development, competition and integration of various local and subregional traditions of Orissa.

Major themes of the present volume are narrative and ritual traditions of the former Feudatory States and their emergence as Centres Out There as well as studies on various ‘Facets of Subregional Identities’ and their impact on the urban culture of coastal Orissa. They shed light on issues which are generally not in the centre of academic research, like the central agency of women in folk performances and the social formation of tribal societies.

Hermann Kulke is retired Professor of South and Southeast Asian History at Kiel University.

Georg Berkemer is Senior Lecturer of South Asian History and Languages at Humboldt University, Berlin.

ISBN 978-81-7304-906-4 2011 436p. Rs.1350/ pounds 85
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29 July, 2012

Business Brahmins: The Gauda Saraswat Brahmins of South Kanara

By- Harald Tambs-Lyche

Village studies have dominated anthropological writing on India for a long time, though more recently, much has been written on the big cities. This study is original in focusing on a small-town bourgeoisie.

Udupi, in South Kanara (north of Mangalore), was just a famous pilgrimage centre, then an administrative unit, until the Gauda Saraswat Brahmins arrived there in the 1890s. They were instrumental in creating a flourishing market and town, and their businesses still form the core of the local economy.

Written like a piece of local history, this book tells the story of the town from the perspective of these ‘Business Brahmins’, but it also presents an analysis of kinship, religion and community in a Brahmin caste which, in some ways, does not correspond to the received ideas of Brahmin orthodoxy.

As Konkani speakers from Goa, they constitute an ethnic minority as well as the main part of the local bourgeoisie. This blend of caste, class and ethnicity nevertheless merges into a strong and integrated identity, while its various aspects lead the author to take a critical attitude to those who would reduce the complexity of social stratification in India to a single model of the ‘caste system’.

Udupi is a small town and easily identified, so no attempt has been made to mask the main actors by using fictitious names. The author feels that any criticism that may emerge of them is amply compensated for by documenting their important role in building and developing the lively urban community that Udupi is today.

Harald Tambs-Lyche studied anthropology in Bergen and at SOAS, London.

ISBN 978-81-7304-902-6 2011 326p. Rs.1095/ pounds 55

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Beauty in Money: Numismatic Art and Technology of Early South India (Up to and Including the Pallava Period)

Beauty in Money: Numismatic Art and Technology of Early South India

(Up to and Including the Pallava Period)

By- S. Suresh

Art historical studies have hitherto been mostly confined to sculptures, paintings, furniture and jewellery. Boldly moving away from the conventional approach to the study of coins as mere economic entities, the present volume is the first systematic, comprehensive and analytical study of ancient Indian coins as objects of art. Coins, like historical monuments, sculptures and paintings, have a symbolic meaning behind the visual form and epitomize the socio-religious conditions and the art traditions in which they emerged. Focusing on the coins of south India, the study, combining empirical data with theoretical insights, explores the subtle interrelationships between the steady evolution of coinage and the simultaneous development of art in this region.

Tracing thematic, iconographic and stylistic affinities between the art in coins and the art in stone, the study clearly reveals that as sculptural art was more pervasive than numismatic art, the latter recurrently felt the impact of the former. Often, the mint masters and coin makers, faithfully reproduced, on a miniature scale, specimens of sculpture and architecture on the coins. At the same time, coins too were rarely featured in other mediums of art. Probing the metallic composition and the process of production of the coins of different dynasties and periods, the present study also analyses the technical constraints of numismatic art.

The volume includes an exhaustive corpus, prepared for the first time ever, of the symbols and devices on the coins of the major dynasties of ancient south India.

The book will be of interest to archaeologists, numismatists, art historians and economic historians.

S. Suresh is presently in the U.S. as a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington D.C. and the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of the University of Maryland. He is Tamil Nadu State Convener of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and Academic Director, Bharat Travel Services, Chennai. He was earlier Nehru Visiting Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

ISBN 978-81-7304-909-5 2011 244p. Rs.795/ pounds 45

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Asia Annual 2009:Paradigms of Security in Asia

By- Arpita Basu Roy (ed.)

Security is increasingly becoming a complex concept acquiring new nuances with debates over its scope. There are arguments as to whether the current approache(s) to the study of security is(are) any longer suitable for dealing with the changing nature of contemporary security. At another level, the debate over security is if there can be geographical and cultural connotations to security and security studies in opposition to the state/power centric Western approach. Further there are criticisms related to increasing securitization of issues which, it is argued, may lead to politics of exception.

The volume is an interdisciplinary effort designed to respond to the changing nuances of security. It intends to address the changing notions and critically examine the foregoing uncertainties and the resulting unpredictability in the international politics of Asia. It builds on quest in the region for new analytical and policy frameworks, as well as for a new architecture for regional security.

Arpita Basu is a Fellow at the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (MAKAIAS), Kolkata and a Ph.D. from the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University. She was also a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Cambridge and the recipient of the 10th Wrangler Pavate Fellowship for International Studies (2010).

ISBN 978-81-7304-908-8 2011 358p. Rs.1050/ Pounds 70

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Asia Annual 2008: Understanding Popular Culture

By- H.S. Vasudevan (Editor-in-Chief) and Kausik Bandyopadhyay (Issue Editor)

Popular culture has long been a site which articulates the complexities and diversities of the everyday life of the nation. People, society, nation – all confront, negotiate and internalize or exclude the variegated and nuanced forms of popular culture in their own ways from time to time. Popular culture thus represents people, redefines society, and, to be bold, reconditions humanity. Asia Annual 2008: Understanding Popular Culture attempts to reveal at least part, if not whole, of the processes of how significant variegated aspects of popular culture was/has become for parts of Asia and particularly for India – politically, socially, economically, culturally and emotionally.

The volume is an interdisciplinary effort designed to respond to the growing interest in popular culture throughout Asia. It intends to address the changing intellectual ways of constructing, reconstructing, deconstructing, texts and activities as popular culture. Popular culture, in such context, is a broad canvas to incorporate lived and textual cultures, the mass media, ways of life and discursive modes of representation. Central to the formation of these popular cultures are articulations of the economic, social and political spheres, and the volume offers contributions that highlight these issues. Asian popular culture is of interest to cultural, media, film, and sports studies, as well as social geography, history, business management, international relations, area and diaspora studies, post-modern and post-colonial theoretical formulations.

The volume therefore intends to bring together scholars who offer critical appreciation on various forms of popular culture within Asia and across its borders. It thus attempts innovative discussions and debates on the emergence and vibrancy of new forms of social, cultural and political strategies and representations of popular culture in literature, film, music, theatre, sport, media, advertisement, science, politics and visual cultures.

Kausik Bandopadhyay, former Fellow of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, is Reader in History, West Bengal State University, Barasat.

ISBN 978-81-7304-844-9 2010 404p. Rs.995/ pounds 80

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The Armed Forces of Independent India: 1947-2006

By- Kaushik Roy

The Indian Army with one million men is the third largest in the world. The Indian Air Force is the second biggest aerial armada in Afro-Asia. And the Indian Navy is the most powerful naval force among the Indian Ocean states. To cap it all, India’s nuclear arsenal is the sixth largest in the world. In this monograph, an attempt has been made to analyse the historical evolution of independent India’s armed forces. The development of the armed forces as an institution, its nature, purpose and the formulation of the doctrines as regards the functions of the Indian military are the central concerns of this volume. It also opens up the question regarding the nature of the Indian state.

The methodology followed is an amalgam of organizational culture analysis and history of idea approach. In order to assess India’s success in harnessing military power vis-à-vis other developing countries, a comparative methodology is followed. A proper evaluation of the Indian armed forces’ combat effectiveness is impossible without a detailed analysis of the militaries of Pakistan and China. The rigorous analysis of the empirical data will probably provide the Indian strategic managers with some policy relevance. The present volume besides catering to the military officers, strategic analysts and the various institutions specializing in security studies would also be of interest to political scientists and the students of contemporary history.

Kaushik Roy is an Associate Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Civil War (CSCW) at International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). He is also a Lecturer in the Department of History, Presidency College, Kolkata.

ISBN 978-81-7304-778-7 2009 404p. Rs.995/ pounds 60

27 July, 2012

The Way to Liberation: Indological Studies in Japan

By- Sengaku Mayeda in collaboration with Y. Matsunami, M. Tokunaga and H. Marui

For the past 100 years, books and periodicals in the field of Indological studies in Japan have increased enomously year by year in number and diversity of subject and methodology. However, these achievements by Japanese scholars have overwhelmingly been published in Japanese and, therefore, they have hardly been accessible to most Indian, European and American scholars. This tendency remains true even today.

The present work in two volumes was planned for the purpose of rectifying the present situation even in some small measure. It consists of articles written by comparatively younger Japanese scholars who are at present actively engaged in the various fields of Indological studies and, in addition, selected bibliographies of Indolgical publications in Japan for the past 10 years from 1987 to 1997.

Sengaku Mayeda is Professor Emerius at the University of Tokyo and Head of the Graduate School of Human and Cultural Studies at Musashino Women’s University.

ISBN 81-7304-374-4 2001 290p. Rs.550/ pounds 45

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The Pandit: Traditional Scholarship in India

By- Axel Michaels (Eds.)

In January 1999, the distinguished scholar Pandit Dr. Parameswara Aithal retired from his position at Heidelberg University. To mark this occasion, Prof. Axel Michals organized a symposium on the institution of the Pandit and the future of traditional Sanskrit scholarship in India and the West. The present volume contains the learned papers of the conference which cover a wide range of topics, e.g. the pandit as a private scholar, university teacher, public intellectual or legal adviser, also traditional ways of Sanskrit teaching and learning, especially the methods of memorization and transfer of traditional knowledge, among other things. Life histories of some well-known pandits such as Krshnashastri Chiplunkar, Hazari Prasad Dvivedi, Goinath Kaviraj, V.S. Apte, and others are also provided.

Axel Michaels, studied Indology, Philosophy and Law in Munich, Hamburg and Varanasi. He was Director of the Nepal Research Centre (Kathmndu), Spalding (Oxford), and Professor for the History of Religions at the University of Berne. Since 1996 he is Professor of Classical Indology at the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg.

ISBN 81-7304-435-X 2001 266p. Rs.550/ pounds 55

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The Concept of Hero in Indian Culture

By- Heidrun Bruckner, Hugh van Skyhawk, Claus Peter Zoller (Eds.)

The concept of the hero (via, sura nayaka) is of crucial importance in Indian civilization, from the Vedic to the present times. The contributors to this volume include scholars of times. The contributors to this volume include scholars of Indology history, religion, literature, politics and anthropology.

Papers study, ‘The Birth of the Hero in Ancient India’, including Vedic gods as well as the Jina and the Buddha (Bollee), ‘Heroes and Kings’ (Jansen), ‘Kings as Heroes’ in the Sanskrit carita literature (Thapar), and ‘Himalayan Heroes’ in oral folk epics (van Skyhawk Shankaranarayana), Tamil folk narrative (Ferro-Luzzi) modern literature (Gatzlaff, Oesterheld) and Sanskrit drama (Byrski). Other papers deal with political leadership (Shelke), with Hanuman as Mahavira (Duncan) and ‘From Sacrificer to Hero’ (Sakharov). This is an indispensable volume for the scholars of Indian religion and culture.

Heidrun Bruckner is Professor of Indology and South Asian Studies at the University of Wurzurg.

Hugh van Skyhawk is Associate Professor (Privatdozent) of Indology and History of South Asian Religions at the Institute of Indology of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz.

Claus Peter Zoller is Associate Professor of Hindi at the University of Oslo.

ISBN 81-7304-710-3 2007 308p. Rs.795/ pounds 65

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Sanskrit and Orientalism: Indology and Comparative Linguistics in Germany, 1750-1958

By- Douglas T. McGetchin, Peter K.J. Park, and D. R. SarDesai (Eds.)

The groundbreaking studies contained in this volume present a history of Sanskrit philology and comparative-historical linguistics that is fully integrated with German political and intellectual history ranging from the Enlightenment to Cold War eras. The authors engage and extend the intercultural ‘dialogue’ that Wilhelm Halbfass powerfully initiated in India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding (1988). This volume contains his last public address, in which he challenges the ‘Otherness’ of German Indology, seeing Germany as fitting a European pattern.

While the lack of direct German colonial involvement in India does not completely eliminate the relevance of Edward Said’s arguments in Orientalism (1978) for German Indology, it does call for an individual appraisal of the German case. The long-tauted special historical relationship between India and Germany, as purported by some professional Indologists, is at last critically examined in this volume by historians who are able to approach the question with a knowledge of the particulars of institutional as well as intellectual and political history.

Douglas T. McGetchin is a Lecturer at the University of California, San Diego.

Peter K.J. Park is a candidate for a Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Los Angeles.

D.R. SarDesai is Professor Emeritus at UCLA. A member of the History faculty since 1966, he was the Department’s Vice-Chair and the first holder of the Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair in Indian History, from 1998 to 2001.

ISBN 81-7304-557-7 2004 386p. Rs.895/ pounds 55

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Popular Religion and Ascetic Practices: New Studies on Mahima Dharma

By- Ishita Banerjee-Dube and Johannes Beltz (Eds.)

This volume brings together new research by Indian and German scholars on Mahima Dharma of Orissa. It combines anthropological insights, historical research and textual analyses to offer a wide variety of perspectives on this popular yet relatively unknown religion: perspectives on this popular yet relatively unknown religion: perspectives which have taken shape in field experience in Orissa and research in Germany.

Starting with an essay by Anncharlott Eschmann, whose pioneering work in the last century had kindled academic interest in the Dharma, this book blends current investigations of different hue and textures in order to provide a nuanced and detailed account of this multi-dimensional religious order in the different phases of its evolution.

Apart from diverse assessments of the life and works of the life and works of the radical poet Bhima Bhoi, it also includes translations from his important works of Bhima Bhoi and and Biswanath Baba, crucial records of the archives and unpublished letters and photos of Eschmann. Needless to say, this volume will cater to a readership interested in the anthropology, sociology, philosophy and history of religions but also to people who are attached to the land of Orissa, its rich culture and the Dharma itself.

Ishita Banerjee-Dube is Professor at the Centre for Asian and African Studies.

Johannes Beltz is Curator of Indian art at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland.

ISBN 81-7304-756-1 2008 262p. Rs.695/ pounds 45

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Perception of the Vedas

By- Vidya Nivas Misra (ed.)

This collection of Ananda Coomarasamy essays taken from several volumes presents a full interlinking of not only Vedic texts and their exegetical texts in the Indian tradition itself but also of the related metaphysical texts in other traditions.

The essays are similar in character and although written on random topics, bear upon unity of thought and reflect single minded contemplation of him.

The volume opens a new vista of interpreting the Vedic lore.

Vidya Nivas Misra is an eminent scholar, sanskritist and distinguished educationalist. He was Professor, Head of Department and later Vice – Chancellor of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi. At present, he is a Member of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Trust.

ISBN 81-7304-254-3 2000 449p. Rs.800/ pounds 85

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Manohar Publishers and Distributors: Hanuman: God and Epic Hero

Manohar Publishers and Distributors: Hanuman: God and Epic Hero: Hanuman: God and Epic Hero By- Joginder Narula God Hanuman has an important place in India and is worshipped by millions of people....

Religion in Modern India

By- Robert D. Baird (Ed.)

Although this volume was initially written by scholars for scholars, it has become a popular text for courses in Indian religions and religion in modern India. The new chapters should help fill in some of the gaps in the original volume. Since 1981 there has been renewed interest in the study of modern India. In this fourth revised edition a new essay on Jainism by James F. Lewis has been added. Furthermore all contributors were offered an opportunity to make revisions in their original contributions.

The editor, Robert D. Baird is Professor Emeritus, History of Religions, University of Lowa.

ISBN 81-7304-273-X 2009 626p. Rs.650/ pounds 27.99

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Negotiating the Divine: Temple Religion and Temple Politic in Contemporary Urban Indi

Negotiating the Divine: Temple Religion and Temple Politic in Contemporary Urban India

By- Ursula Rao

The book investigates contemporary discourses on religion in urban India through the prism of Hindu temples. It is based on the material collected during extensive fieldwork in Bhopal between 1996 and 1998. Presenting and interpreting data of the history s well as the ritual, social and political life of to central goddess temples, the author presents the first comprehensive study of Hindu temples s socio-religious institutions in the urban environment of contemporary India. She also addresses several issues of general importance: questions of changes in community life in urban India with reference to caste and religious communities; the role of traditions in a fast changing cultural environment; the problematic relationships between religion and politics in the political life of India and a critical assessment of discussions of subalternity and resistance. These discussions appear in a new light n a study that avoids the classical dichotomies of politics and religion, tradition and modernity, elite and subaltern. In a detailed analysis of the religious/political practices and reflexive processes of a broad range of people the author shows how discourses are interconnected and dynamically re-created in practice.

Ursual Rao is lecturer in Anthropology at the University Halle, Germany. Recently she has started a study on the production of news through journalistic practices, with field research located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

ISBN 81-7304-515-1 2003 186p. Rs.500/ pounds 45

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Indo- Thai: Historical and Cultural Linkages

By- Neeru Misra and Sachchidanand Sahai (Eds.)

This volume brings together papers which were presented at a seminar to explore Indo-Thai historical and cultural linkages and the age of old relationship between the two countries, its historical contribution to the formation of global Asian Civilization and consciousness in today’s world.

The topics discussed include the linkages between Hinduism and Buddhism in Thailand, Trade Contacts between the two countries from ancient time. Artefacts and Heritage sites, The Theory of Mind in early Buddhist Philosophy, The Tai Communities of Northeast India, The Advent of Buddhism and Early Buddhist Kingdom in Central Thailand and the Mahayana Tradition in Thailand, among many others.

This is an invaluable volume for scholars of History, Religion and Culture of India and Thailand.

Neeru Misra is Head of the Department of Museology with the National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology, New Delhi.

Sachchidanand Sahai an alumnus of Banras Hindu University where he studied Indian and South-East Asian Art and Archaeology, specialized in the Khmer studies at the University of Paris, Sorbonne (1965-9).

ISBN 81-7304-757-X 2007 190p. Rs.475/ pounds 35

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Indian Ritual and Belief: The Keys of Power

By- J. Abbott

The author believes that the cosmic power is Sakti to the Hindus and Kudrat to the Muslims. And this all-pervasive force acts both for good and for evil. In a sense main’s whole endeavour in magic and religious rituals is to obtain control of this power for his own benefit and accumulate a fund of it as a source of all forms of blessing.

After giving his key concept, the author explains Key of Power or Keys of Punya, those axioms and rules of conduct that man frames in his effort to control power for his own purposes, to preserve it, to transfer it, to coerce it or invoke it. He has also sketched the factors that destroy power. Accordingly, he devotes separate chapters on the power of man, woman, evil-eye, ground, fire, metals, salt, stones, time, colours, numbers, sweet things, trees, grain, grain, bread and animals. There are also chapters on the ritual of agriculture, spirits, and curses and oaths.

John Abbott, B.A. (Oxon), was born in 1884. He joined the Indian Civil Service in 1908 and served in various positions in the Bombay Presidency, retiring in December 1932.

ISBN 81-7304-339-6 2000 576p. Rs.750/ pounds 75

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In the Company of Gods

Essays in Memory of Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer

Heidrun Bruckner, Anne Feldhaus, Aditya Malik (eds.)

This volume containing twenty-one essays written by Indologists, anthropologists, historians, expert on Indian law, art historians, a filmmaker and a poet from all over the globe – India, Germany, USA, Canada, Israel and Russia – are testimony to the shoreless reach of Sontheimer’s work. Contributors include David Shulman, Alf Hiltebeitel, Irina Glushkova, B.B. Chattopadhyaya, Romila Thapar, Dilip Chitre among many others.

Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer died in 1992. He was Professor of Indian Religion and Philosophy at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany.

Heidrun Bruckner is Professor of Indology and South Asian Studies at the University of Wurzurg.

Anne Feldhaus is Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University.

Aditya Malik is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.

ISBN 81-7304-591-7 2005 410p. Rs.995/ pounds 60

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