Notions of Life in Death and Dying : The Dead in Tribal Middle India

Notions of Life in Death and Dying : The Dead in Tribal Middle India

By- Eva Reichel


This anthropological study, sparked off by fieldwork among the Ho of Orissa and Jharkhand, is about ‘The Dead in Tribal Middle India’ who continue to be involved in the lives of the living.

The structured ceremonious treatment of corpse and soul of the dead and the symbolic interaction of the mourners - kin and affines – provide for the actors’ orientation and guidance from ritual. The public expression of the emotional response towards the ‘organic event’ in grieving is socially informed and life-oriented as much as death-centred. It is indicative of a culture-specific concept which conceives of death as a drawn out tranformative process and of the dead as integrally linked to the living and rooted in a known cosmic - societal perspective. The social obligations enacted in the drama of death and life contribute to reproducing tribal society, revealing marked differences from the radically decentred Western notion of the human condition with its focus on the individual as representing the supreme value.

This volume explores the cultural logic surrounding the conceptual unity and continuity of life, death and afterlife by examining the social and ideational setting of tribal middle India. The main body of the study is an analysis of the meaning of death as conveyed in the ethnographic literature on the Hill Juang of Keonjhar, the Sora in eastern Orissa, the Koya of Malkangiri, the Muria Gond of Bastar and the Ho of Singhbum and Mayurbhanj. The material on the Ho discussed here has so far not been published or is only locally accessible. Apart from anthropologists and sociologists, this volume will be of considerable interest to South Asian scholars, especially those working on Orissa and Jharkhand.



Born in 1948, Eva Reichel studied English language and literature and worked as a teacher. After retiring she read social anthropology at the Free University of Berlin where she currently is a lecturer at the Institute of Ethnology.

ISBN 81-7304-823-4 2009 124p. Rs.425/ Pounds 35

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Medicine, Disease and Ecology in Colonial India: The Deccan Plateau in the Nineteenth Century

Medicine, Disease and Ecology in Colonial India: The Deccan Plateau in the Nineteenth Century

By- Laxman D. Satya

Colonial Deccan like the rest of British India had all the social, economic, and material ingredients for the proliferation of epidemic diseases. Its population lived in the most unsanitary conditions, consumed contaminated water, and was crowded for space, living in wretched houses, extremely poverty stricken, sunk in debt, and suffered from serious food shortage and malnutrition. Diseases claimed lives on a regular basis even in the ‘officially’ designated non-famine and non-drought years. Failure to look at the material condition of the masses was in fact a reflection of not only the oppressive nature of British imperialism in India but also the insensitivity of European colonizers. The existence of mass poverty and its denial by the colonial state made the situation worse. This book argues that the reason for dysentery, diarrhoea, and bowel complaints was really malnutrition, undernourishments, and the general poverty of the masses.

Even though all the diseases were intimately associated with colonial modernization, yet the British imperial medical establishment continued to blindly adhere to the non-contagion miasmatic ideology. When the imperial state covered hundreds of miles of roads and railways, diseases like cholera, malaria, smallpox, plague, influenza, etc., travelled and proliferated everywhere. The absence of proper infrastructural response from the imperial establishment, made these epidemics even more deadly. This long-awaited study shows how the infrastructual changes brought about by British colonialism created eological conditions for the diseases to become epidemic.

Laxman D. Satya is a Professor of History at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. This is his third book on the subject of British imperialism, political economy, agrarian, and environmental history.

ISBN  81-7304-314-0    2009   310p.   Rs.775/ Pounds 50

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Maulana Daud’s Candayan: A Critical Study

Maulana Daud’s Candayan: A Critical Study

By- Naseem A. Hines


Candayan is the pioneer work in a series of Sufi love-narratives, the Masnavis, composed in India. The Indo-Sufi Masnavi genre continued to flourish for over 500 years, resulting in a substantial volume of every rich literature. Candayan also served as a model for subsequent Masnavis, such as Kutuban’s Mrgavati and Jayasi’s Padmavat.

In the Mahakoshal region of Madhya Pradesh, Canaini, a pastoral folk-tale also known as Lorikayan, was very popular. Maulana Daud based his Candayan on this oral epic. Lorik lives in Govar, a town on the banks of the Ganges river, with his wife Maina. One day he catches a glimpse of Canda, the princess of Govar, and falls in love with her. Canda also loves Lorik, and both elope to be able to live together.

After many adventures, Lorik and Canda return to Govar to live with Lorik’s family.

Until recently it was believed that the Sufi love narratives of India were substandard works, not quite representative of the Indian morals, and did not meet the Indian literary standards.

Consequently, for years, the Hindi Masnavi literature remained neglected. This study opens a window into the true nature of the Masnavi, and invites the reader to take a new look at the Indo-Sufi Masnavi genre and determine its rightful place in the history of Hindi literature.




Naseem A. Hines teaches Urdu-Hindi languages and Literatures in the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Harvard University. Her articles, fiction, and English translations of Urdu poetry have been published in a number of American and International Publications. She is now working on bringing out a Critical Edition of Candayan and its English translations.




ISBN 978-81-7304-619-0 2009 256p. Rs.645/ Pounds 45


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Mapping Criminal Justice Delivery in India: Towards Development of an Index

Mapping Criminal Justice Delivery in India: Towards Development of an Index

By- Pramod Kumar and Rainuka Dagar


Globalization and economic reforms process has changed the policing terrain. With the threat posed by terrorism, globalization of rights and crime, resurgence and reconfiguration of identity markets, the principles and scope of criminal justice system have to be redefined. It is, therefore, essential to address the fear and risk of crime, improve provisions for the security of individuals and their living environment by creating effective justice institutions and mechanisms that aim at the creation of a crime-free society. It is in this backdrop that the present work has given primacy to human rights and fair delivery of justice.

This instrument provides a framework to strengthen the delivery of justice. It uses an inclusive approach and links local cultural needs of justice with global standards of human rights. The criminal justice system is viewed holistically. The institutions of the police, the courts and the prisons are taken as part of the system performing specialized functions. The purpose of this mapping is to find out, how far the criminal justice system is accessible, effective and accountable. It also intends to capture the level of safety and security enjoyed by the citizens and the nature of access to justice across religion, race, caste and religion. This has been measured with the help of multiple indicators including those from the supply and demand side along with process indicators to capture a rounded view of policy progress.



Pramod Kumar is currently Director, Institute for Development and Communication, Chandigrah. He is on the Board of Directors of Global Altus Justice Alliance, The Hague. He has been a recipient of the Homi Bhabha Fellowship in 1988.

Rainuka Dagar is Regional Representative of the Altus Global Alliance in the Institute for Development and Communication, Chandigarh.





ISBN 978-81-7304-791-6 2009 278p. Rs.695/ Pounds 45


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Making of the Historian: J.S. Grewal

Making of the Historian: J.S. Grewal

By- Indu Banga in association with Karamjit K. Malhotra


This volume has been prepared in connection with an international seminar on ‘The State of Sikh and Punjab Historical Studies since Independence’ at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in March 2009. Since Professor J.S. Grewal’s work touches upon nearly all the major aspects in the field, to suggest future directions of research each theme is approached through a critical assessment of his work and its comparison with other major writers.

The Themes covered in the seminar include the treatment of Sikh movement, study of Guru Granth Sahib, Sikh polity, martyrdom, caste, gender and sacred space, Sikh literature from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century, the issue of Sikh identity, contemporary controversies in Sikh studies, general histories of the Sikhs, study of the Punjab region, treatment of colonial and contemporary Punjab, historical study of Punjabi literature, and methodology of history.

Indu Banga is Professor of History at the Panjab University, Chandigarh.





ISBN 978-81-7304-828-9 2009 80p. Rs.250/ Pounds 15


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Local Government in India: Policy and Practice: With Special Reference to a Field Study of Decentralization in Kerala

Local Government in India: Policy and Practice: With Special Reference to a Field Study of Decentralization in Kerala

By-, Rashmi Sharma


This book examines the development of panchayati raj policy in India and analyses the actual functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). In this analysis, panchayati raj is seen, not as a stand alone, static phenomenon, but is understood, on the one hand against the unique Indian sociopolitical context that has shaped it, and on the other, as a synamic process that varies spatially and temporally. The scrutiny is comprehensive: it includes the dynamics of policy formulation, i.e. the stated and unstated reasons for decentralization, as well outcomes, i.e. the organizational characteristics of PRIs and their larger impact. On the basis of this analysis, an attempt is made to assess the potential of decentralization in India, and the way in which it can be maximised.

There is a special focus on the experiences of states that have been leaders in decentralization, i.e. in the pre-Seventy Third Constitutional Amendment scenario, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and West Bengal, and in the post-constitutional amendment setting, the experience of Kerala, the most extensive so far in terms of financial devolution and highly ‘evolved’ in terms of processes. The analysis of Kerala’s decentralization is based on a detailed field study undertaken in 2003-4, which goes beyond the initial policy initiative phase (which has formed the subject of other books about Kerala), and looks at the actual functioning on PRIs in the field eight years later.



Rashmi Sharma, a member of the Indian Administrative Service, has an abiding interest in governance in India, and in changing it for the better.



ISBN 978-81-7304-805-0 2009 278p. Rs.675/ Pounds 45


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Invisible Women, Visible Histories: Gender, Society and Polity in North India (Seventh to Twelfth Century AD)

Invisible Women, Visible Histories: Gender, Society and Polity in North India

(Seventh to Twelfth Century AD)

By- Devika Rangachari

This book examines certain gendered aspects of the early medieval period in north India (between the seventh to twelfth centuries AD) through a study of prominent – but representative – regional kingdoms located in Kashmir, Kanauj, and across Bengal and Bihar. By examining important epigraphic and literary sources pertaining to these polities in as comprehensive a manner as possible, it shows that gender is a cardinal angle from which to view this period and, additionally, that the same set of sources can yield differing interpretations. It also highlights the indifference of most secondary sources towards gender and related issues. The book, therefore, strives to address a lacuna in the historical reconstruction of the society and polity of this time-span.

Although early medieval Kashmir, Kanauj and Bengal-Bihar are linked by their status as important regional powers in this period and by their close political interactions, the book shows that the role and status of women differed considerably according to their regional contexts. The picture, therefore, is not a unified one, thereby stressing the fact that sweeping statements on women cannot be made to apply to early medieval north India as a whole - as has hitherto been the trend. The problems and possibilities involved in a gender analysis of this sort that examines the role and presence of women vis-à-vis men is highlighted, in the process. Areas with the potential for future investigation are also indicated. The pivotal importance of gender in any historical reconstruction of the early medieval period in north India is thereby underscored.

Devika Rangachari graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and did her doctorate in history from the University of Delhi. She has published several articles in distinguished academic journals and is also an award-winning children’s writer.

ISBN  978-81-7304-808-1    2009   532p.   Rs.1295/ Pounds 70

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