Manohar Publishers and Distributors: 09/26/12

26 September, 2012

Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia: Evidence, Interpretation and Ideology

By- Johannes Bronkhorst and Madhav M. Deshpande

The volume deals with the history of the concept of Arya and Aryans in East and West, with the linguistic, textual and archaeological evidence in South Asia and beyond.

The terms Aryan and Non-Aryan, corresponding to Sanskrit Arya and anarya, can readily be shown that among the literary traditions indigenous to South Asia have always evoked strong responses, both positive and negative, as they continue to do even today; but it can also be shown that while they designate a boundary that is in some sense an ethnic one in the Veda, in other literatures the distinction has a religious or moral character.

There have been reconsiderations and reinterpretations of the terms within and outside of the academy. There is on the one hand the established view of a migration of Aryans into South Asia; on the other hand there are new voices calling the whole endeavor fanciful, motivated by colonialism, “Orientalism”, nationalism, or something else. What is startling is that the criticism of the status quo comes from completely different directions.

Johannes Bronkhorst is Prof. of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Madhav M. Deshpande is Prof. in the Deptartment of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan, USA.

ISBN 978-81-7304-918-7 2012 414p. Rs.995/Pounds 80

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And the Bamboo Flowers in the Indian Forests : What Did the Pulp and Paper Industry Do?

By- Manorama Savur

Published in association with

Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development

The book is on Indian forests. In natural formations bamboo flowers at long intervals. But in the post-World War II era, especially in India after 1959, flowering of bamboo began to portend disaster. This study explores not only how and why the pulp and paper industry (PPI) caused the death of the bamboo forests that were an inexhaustible source of its raw material; it also investigates the impact that cultivation of alternate raw material has had upon the forest eco-system. In this context the negative role of the prestigious UNFAO is emphatically explored.

Clues to many of these issues are found in the natural and social history of the forests. The indigenous people are viewed as a part of the forest eco-system. The political economy of the forest-based industry has made the study many layered, into which is woven the intrigues of the FAO.

The industry’s four decades of shadow boxing with the state and its antipathy against the ‘Licence Raj’ followed by its fears upon opening up of the Indian economy need not have occurred. The profit generating private sector, the PPI did not care to modernize like the late emerging public sector newsprint industry had done. The latter has raw material saving technology and pollution free techniques for the production of newsprint. Incidentally, the study also touches upon the destruction of the timber forests by the ply and veneer industry.

Manorama Savur’s initial training was in natural sciences and later in social sciences and later in social sciences. She was awarded her Ph.D. in 1962. As a Professor of Sociology for over twenty years, she taught Sociology of Development and Rural Sociology at the University of Bombay. In early 1980s her interest shifted to forests and the forest question. The present study is her post-retirement project involving six years of research and extensive field work. She has three books and over thirty papers to her credit.

ISBN 81-7304-413-9 (2 vol. set) 2003 714p. Rs.1500/Pounds 100(set)