Manohar Publishers and Distributors: 10/02/12

Encyclopedia of the Nilgiri Hills (Parts 1-2)

By- Paul Hockings

Where was the game of snooker invented? Which hills welcomed visits from Nikita Khrushchev, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and also Edward Lear? Where did Maria Montessori, Madame Blavatsky and the Viceroys of India like to take their vacations? Where do tigers, bisons and elephants still roam the jungles? The answer in each case is the Nilgri Hills of Southern India.

Tennyson (though never there) wrote of ‘the sweet, half-English air of the Neilgherries’ - and thousands have gone there to enjoy it over past two centuries: Princes, tourists, scholars, missionaries, soldiers and officials alike.

This book is a Who Was Who of those people, and a broad, neatly organized, completely up to date and uniquely detailed account of the Nilgri Hills from every scientific perspective - from Anthropology to Zoology.

The editor, Paul Hockings, teaches anthropology and film history at United International College, in Zhuhai, China; Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of IIIinosis; Adjunct Curator of Anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History; and Editor-in-Chief of a journal, Visual Anthropology.

ISBN 978-81-7304-893-7 2012 1068p. Rs.6000/Pounds 275

MANOHAR PUBLISHERS & DISTRIBUTORS
4753/23 Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002
Phones: 23284848, 23289100
Fax: 23265162
E-mail: manbooks@vsnl.com
sales@manoharbooks.com

To order your copy at www.manoharbooks.com

Emerging Asia: Challenges for India and Singapore

By- N.N. Vohra (ed)

India and Singapore have enjoyed close relations in the historical past. In recent decades many factors have stood in the way of cooperation between the two countries. Meaningful interactions started evolving after the end of the Cold War, when the compulsions to view mutual relations through the prism of superpower preferences withered away.

The growing relationship has been spurred by diplomacy, domestic imperatives and changing perceptions (in the case of India) of economic nationalism. Singapore, which has achieved sustained growth, has also begun to see the need to create synergies with India and enlarge mutually beneficial economic relations.

While there is much of Asia within South-East Asia as a result of centuries of cultural and economic intercourse, the interactions among the scholars and experts in our countries have been limited, leading to an intellectual lag in the areas of social and political philosophy. These and related issues are discussed in this volume by prominent academics and specialists from India and Singapore.

N.N. Vohra was a member of the Indian Administrative Service (1959-94). During his tenure with the Government of India he served as Secretary Defence Production, Home Secretary and Defence Secretary.

ISBN 81-7304-484-8 2003 180p. Rs.400/Pounds 35

Dynamics of a Caste Movement: The Rajbansis of North Bengal, 1910-1947

By- Swaraj Basu

Dynamics of a Caste Movement deals with the attempts of the Rajbansi community to establish themselves as Kshatriyas in the first half of the twentieth century in Bengal. Situating the Rajbansi Caste Movement in the context of contemporary socio-political events this book examinies the complexities inherent in the movement.

The caste system, despite many changes over the years, remains significant in contemporary times. The colonization of the country and the response of indigenous society to the manoeuvres of colonial rulers provided a new impetus to mobilizations along caste lines in the nineteenth and the early twentieth century Bengal as in the rest of India.

The Rajbansis constituted the most predominant section of the local Hindu population in the districts of north Bengal, and were yet placed quite low in the hierarchy. Using Rajbansi caste literature and government records, this study explores the formation of the Rajbansi identity, the socio-cultural and economic profile of the community, their efforts towards Kshatriyaization and the legitimization of their social and political rights. The author argues that there can be many identities within a caste group which play crucial roles on different occasions and at different times. As class identity often cuts across caste lines, so also territorial identities can lead to a fragmentation of a caste.

In the context of recent political mobilization by the Rajbansis in north Bengal for a ‘separate Kamtapur state’ this book is essential reading for those wishing to understand the Rajbansis in their historical context.

Swaraj Basu is Professor in Modern History at the School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi Naitonal Open University, New Delhi.

ISBN 81-7304-509-7 2003 154p. Rs.350/Pounds 35

02 October, 2012

Encyclopedia of the Nilgiri Hills (Parts 1-2)

Emerging Asia: Challenges for India and Singapore

Dynamics of a Caste Movement: The Rajbansis of North Bengal, 1910-1947