Manohar Publishers and Distributors

04 October, 2012

Labour Market and Institution in India: 1990s and Beyond

By- Shuji Uchikawa

The purpose of this study is to examine change of institution in labour market after economic reforms. A dynamic element was introduced in the economy with reforms in an effort to achieve more flexibility in the system. The introduction of flexibility in the labour market led to some displacement of labour and an informalization of the labour force. On the other hand, reallocation of labour from declining to profitable sectors took place significantly within the organized sector and between the organized and the unorganized sectors. Labour market is different from other markets in role of institution. Institution plays an important role in labour market. At macro level, not only labour laws and trade unions but also subcontracting affect market. The value of subcontracting activity was growing at a faster rate than growth rate of output in organized manufacturing during the 1990s. At micro level, wage of employees depends on recruitment and promotion system and labour management. External and internal labour market institutions are primarily concerned with fairness in the distribution of workload and wages, within the non-market framework of the employment relation. Economic reforms had different impacts on industries and sector. We analyse the organized sector, the unorganized sector, the financial sector, declining sector and subcontracting sector.

Shuji Uchikawa is a researcher at Institute of Development Economies-Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO) in China. He has a Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru Univesity. He was a visiting faculty at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research between 2000 and 2002. He has published a number of articles on Indian economy.

ISBN 81-7304-486-4 2003 184p. Rs.400/Pounds 35

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Indian Federalism in the New Millennium

By- B.D. Dua and M.P. Singh (eds)

The Indian federal system has been dynamic in accommodating political and societal changes since its constitutional blueprint was drawn in 1949-50. However, there has been a fundamental transformation in the operative principles of federalism particularly during the last decade or so. The rhythm and the beat of the political system, and of the federal system within it, has changed on account of a variety of socio-economic and political factors, but primarily because of a disarray of the party system, neo-liberal economic policies, and judicial decisions. The centralizing thrust of the earlier years has yielded to some kind of a ‘confederal’ operation of the political system, making the formulation and implementation of public policies a ‘consociational’ exercise between political elites at the two levels of government—central and provincial—with the third, now constitutionally entrenched level—local institutions of self-government—waiting in the wings.

The eighteen papers in this volume, written by experts in the field, reflect on the new and emerging trends in Indian federalism in particular and in the Indian political system in general in the larger context of global and regional changes.

B.D. Dua is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. His area of specialization is Comparative Politics, Public Administration, and Federalism. He has chaired the Department of Political Science for a number of years and is the Dean (Emeritus), Faculty of Arts and Science at the University. He has several publications, including books, to his credit and is well published in prestigious journals.

M.P. Singh is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi and specializes in Indian and Canadian politics and Philosophy of Science. He was the Head of the Department of Political Science and the Dean of the Faculty of Social Science at the University, and a Director of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. He has authored, edited, and co-edited several books on Indian politics and contributed scholarly papers in professional journals in India and North America.

ISBN 81-7304-502-X 2003 448p. Rs.850/Pounds 60

03 October, 2012

From Heroines to Beneficiaries: From Beneficiaries to Heroines?: The Impact of a Small-Scale Irrigation Project on Gender in West-Bengal Terai

By- Loes Schenk-Sandbergen and Niren Choudhury

The impact study in this book shows that an ‘old-fashioned’ bi-lateral (between the Indian and Dutch Government) small scale irrigation project, namely the North Bengal Terai Project, has been very successful in its Phase II. What is more important is that the impact study shows that the project contributed to the empowerment of women of marginal and small farmers’ households. The instalment of simple handpumps has improved the income and health of families and has relieved the women of household drudgery. An increase in decision-making power of women in household- and agricultural matters has been found. The accomplishments have been achieved without any involvement of (women’s) NGOs. the underlying wisdom of the success of the project is embedded in the historical context of the farm households in the project area and the autonomy, political ideology and hish gender and social awareness of the implementing government staff.

Loes Schenk-Schenk-Sandbergen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Section South- and Southeast-Asia of the University of Amsterdam, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Social Science in 1975. She has published extensively or gender issues, linking them with povert and the process of empowerment. Besides, she is a consultant, in particular in gender (women) and empowerment. She did substantial anthropological research, and impact- and evaluation studies in India, Laos, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Bangladesh. Besides writing numerous articles, manuals and project reports she is the author of several books.

Niren C. Choudhury is a retired Professor in Anthropology and Rural Development of the University of North Bengal, Darjeeling. He has served many years as the director of the Anthropological Survey of West Bengal (Calcutta) of the Government of India.

ISBN 81-7304-423-6 2003 318p. Rs.625/Pounds 50

Essays on Jaina Art

By- Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

With an introduction by Richard J. Cohen

Fifteenth in the series of Collected Works of Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy in the IGNCA’s publication programme, this volume deals with his contribution to the study of Jaina Art.

His writings on Jaina art span the entire period of his active working life as an art historian. He published his first article on the subject in 1914, and ended with a book review in 1943, four years before his death. Jaina art and its symbolic inventory held a special place in Coomaraswamy’s formulation of the history of Indian painting, indeed Indian civilization itself. He was the first to recognize its chronological place in the succession of style. The Jaina paintings are not only important for the student of Jaina iconography and archaeology which are illustrative of costumes, manners and customs, but are of greater interest because they are the oldest Indian paintings on paper, representing an almost unknown school of Indian art.

Holding the view that in order to make these paintings fully comprehensivible, a short account of Jainism and of the legends of Mahavira and Kalakacharya, which are the main subject of the paintings is given in this volume. The chapters that follow deal with the explanation of various terms; Jaina cosmology; aesthetics and relationships of Jaina painting; the illustrated Jaina manuscripts; description of the figures; followed by a large number of illustrations.

Dr. Richard J. Cohen, an eminent American Indologist, has edited the book painstakingly, consulting not only the author’s authentic corrections, but also all the material available in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Library of the University of Pennsylvania. It is hoped that Coomaraswamy’s seminal and profound contribution to the study of Indian painting will benefit not only art historians, but also artists.

Dr. Richard J. Cohen, an eminent American Indologist, was Asstt. Director, South Asia Regional Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He has visited India in connection with his research work on a few occasions. He was appointed Executive Director, Indo-American Centre for International Studies, Hyderabad, in 2000. In 2001, he returned to the States and for some time worked in the University of Cornell, Ithaca, New York. At present, he is Associate Director, Asian Studies Centre, University of Pittsburg, Pittsburg, USA.

ISBN 81-7304-534-8 2003 188p. Rs.1450/Pounds 55

02 October, 2012

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

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