Manohar Publishers and Distributors

11 October, 2012

Coalition Politics in India: Problems and Prospects

By- Mahendra Prasad Singh and Anil Mishra (eds)

With the replacement of the dominant party system in India, minority and/or coalition governments in New Delhi have become the order of the day. Except for the Congress minority government of P.V. Narasimha Rao and National Democratic Alliance government of Atal Behari Vajpayee, all such governments since 1989 have been unstable. Yet instability apart, coalition governments have been effective in enhancing democratic legitimacy, representativeness and national unity. Major policy shifts like neo-liberal economic reforms, federal decentring, and grass roots decentralization, in theory or practice, are largely attributable to the onset of federal coalitional governance. Coalition governments in states and at the centre have also facilitated gradual transition of the Marxist-Left and the Hindu-Right into the political establishment, and thus contributed to the integration of the party system as well as the nation. The same major national parties which initially rejected the idea of coalition politics have today accepted it and are maturing into skilled and virtuoso performers at the game.

In a rather short span of over a decade, India has witnessed coalition governments of three major muted hues: (a) middle-of-the-road Centrist Congress minority government of P.V. Narasimha Rao, going against its Left of Centre reputation, initiated neo-liberal economic reforms in 1991; (b) three Left-of-Centre governments formed by the Janata Dal-led National/United Front; and (c) two Right-of-Centre coalition governments formed by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Aliance under Atal Behari Vajpayee, a votary of secular version of Hindu nationalism.

In the wake of the decline of Congress dominance, the fragmentation of the national party system and the emergence of party systems at the regional level have turned India into a chequered federal chessboard. The past and likely future patterns of coalition governments in New Delhi are suggestive of at least three models of power sharing: (a) coalition of more or less equal partners, e.g. the National Front and the United Front, (b) coalition of relatively smaller parties led by a major party, e.g. National Democratic Alliance; and (c) coalition of relatively smaller parties facilitated but not necessarily led by a prime minister from the major parties formed in 2004 around the Indian National Congress, avowing secular Indian nationalism.

The fifteen papers in this book analyse the various dimensions of coalition government at the Centre and in some of the states of the Indian federation against the background of a theoretical framework that seeks to integrate coalitions among parties, castes and communities and tribes, as well as classes at electoral, parliamentary, and cabinet levels.

Mahendra Prasad Singh, Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi, Delhi.

Anil Mishra, Department of Political Science, PG-DAV College, New Delhi.

ISBN 978-81-7304-573-8 2004 338p. Rs.795/Pounds 50

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10 October, 2012

Caste: The Emergence of the South Asian Social System

By- Morton Klass

How and why did the caste system emerge in South Asia? Why do contemporary anthropologists and Indologists experience so much difficulty with this problem?

Morton Klass addresses both these questions in this book, and the result is an intellectual adventure story, an essay in ethnohistorical deduction and reconstruction.

Klass begins by examining the assumptions underlying the older explanations of the origin of caste, tracing their roots in dubious history, ethnocentrism, and outmoded theory. Then, using contemporary anthropological writings on ecology, economy, social structure, and cultural evolution, he develops a scenario in which caste emerges as a transformation of an earlier clan structure that until now has been considered an evolutionary ‘dead end’.

His radically new explanation is the result of a pioneering effort in theoretical synthesis. By employing the tools of what he calls ‘eclectic anthropology’—an approach frequently attacked by proponents of more rigid and exclusionary strategies—he brings together elements from the seemingly unconnectable approaches of such major theorists as Claude Levi-Strauss. Marvin Harris, and Karl Polanyi. Caste offers a challenge to scholars to free themselves of their theoretical fetters, to open themselves to ideas from all corners of their discipline.

Morton Klass is Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University. He has conducted fieldwork in India and among people of South Asian descent in the West Indies.

ISBN 978-81-7304-259-1 2004 238p. Rs.200/Pounds 18.99

Bullion for Goods: European and Indian Merchants in the Indian Ocean Trade, 1500-1800

By- Om Prakash

The spectacular rise in world trade following the great discoveries of the closing years of the fifteenth century had important implications for each of the major segments of the newly emerging early modern international economy. As far as Asia was concerned, the commercial operations of the European corporate enterprises as well as private traders in the Indian Ocean region between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries had far-reaching consequences for the economies and the polities of the countries of the region. Asian merchants engaged in the Indian Ocean trade interacted with the European intruders into the Ocean in a variety of ways.

The twenty-one essays included in this volume are firmly embedded in original archival sources. They deal mainly with issues arising out of the Europeans’ commercial presence in the Indian Ocean region and the interaction they had with their Asian counterparts. The volume discusses how over a span of three centuries, the Indian economy was integrated into the world economy as a result of these interactions. The macroeconomic implications of the European encounter for the Indian economy are analysed in detail. Another important area explored at some length is the monetary history of the subcontinent in the early modern period.

This collection of essays will be of interest of the historians of India and of the Indian Ocean. It will also have a great deal of appeal for the historians of early modern Asia as well as Europe. Those interested in what is being increasingly described as world history will also find the volume useful.

Om Prakash is Professor of Economic History at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.

ISBN 978-81-7304-538-7 2004 426p. Rs.850/Pounds 60

09 October, 2012

Back to The Roots: Essays on Performing Arts of India

By- Jiwan Pani

Jiwan Pani was born on 13 February 1933 in a Brahmin family from Baripada in the Mayurbhanj district of Orissa. From his early years he showed a keen interest in music, dance and theatre. His first poem was published when he was only fourteen years old. Later his lyrics began to be widely sung by the common man and were freely adopted by film makers. His film on the Ravanachhaya, the shadow puppet theatre of Orissa, and his video-films on the Mayurbhanj Chhau have all been widely acclaimed and are expressions of his master craftsmanship. There was no aspect of Indian art and aesthetics that he was not familiar with.

Back to the Roots is a collection of Jiwan Pani’s articles which have been put together themewise. This book reflects his wide-ranging interests: the cult of Jagannatha, an individualistic and an in-depth study of the Geetagovinda, the Oriya systems of music as the third school along with Carnatic and Hindustani, his numerous scripts for dance-dramas, tele-serials and films, his deep study and understanding of Hindu and Buddhist systems of philosophy. These articles only go to prove that Jiwan Pani was a leading scholar of traditional Indian performing arts and Indian aesthetics.

This handsome volume with numerous photographs is a celebration of the true vidwan that Jiwan Pani was.

List of Illustrations; Foreword; Dharma is Not Religoin; Yajna for the Eyes; The Doctrine of Natya Guru-Shishya Parampara; The Rasa Theory; The Six Limbs of Dance; The System and Tradition of Odissi Music; Krishna in Odissi Dance; The Tradition of Mahari Dance; Ballad Singing Traditions of Orissa; Tradition and Innovation in Odissi; Krishna in Indian Dance; Kavitt—The Poetry of Dance; Indian Folk Theatre; The Chhau Dances; Shadow Theatre: The Ancient Movie.

Jiwan Pani joined the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1970. In December 1983 he was appointed the Director of the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, and continued to hold the post until he retired in 1994. The Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi conferred on him an award for his outstanding study of the performing arts of Orissa. His in-depth studies of Chhau and Oddissi dance forms, and puppets and masks of India are truly pioneering works. In 1997 Jiwan Pani received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his Oriya translation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poems. One of the leading poets and lyricists in Oriya, he has published a collection of poems in Oriya, a monograph on the Ravanachhaya, another on the Purulia Chhau dance.

ISBN 978-81-7304-560-8 2004 124p. Rs.495/Pounds 35

An Oriental Biographical Dictionary: Founded on Materials Collected by the Late Thomas William Beale (A New Edition Revised and Enlarged)

By- Henry George Keene

An Oriental Biographical Dictionary is founded on materials collected by Late Thomas William Beale. This new edition expanded and revised by Henry George Keene is a classic reference guide of Oriental history tradition and personalities. Full of fascinating details. The concise dictionary is of some worth particularly because it is by and large free of the polemics of the colonial era.

Thomas William Beale a clerk in the office of the Board of Revenue, N.W.P.: a learned scholar, who assisted Sir H.M. Elliot in his work on the Muhammadans in India: he wrote the Miftah-ul-Tawarikh this work and died at a great age at Agra in 1875.

ISBN 81-7304-525-9 2004 432p. Rs.795/Pounds 75

Agricultural Incentives in India: Past Trends and Prospective Paths Towards Sustainable Development

By- Bruno Dorin and Thomas Jullien (eds)

This book gathers twelve papers which sustained the discussions and conclusions of an Indo-French seminar organized by the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH, New Delhi) on 3 and 4 April 2000 at the India International Centre (IIC, New Delhi).

The objective of this meeting was rather ambitious and sensitive: to debate the relevance and sustainability of a nearly forty-years old system of public incentives to Indian agriculture, mainly subsidies to water, electricity and fertilizers.

The sensitivity of the subject, as also its pertinence, is rooted in the difficult challenge that India had to take up since the early 1990s: to liberalize and open to the world its domestic market in order to bypass some inefficiencies or failures of its mixed economy, without selling of in the process its decision-making independence, as well as some social and environmental objectives peculiar to the subcontinent or to the world community.

Bruno Dorin, Ph.D. in economics and postgraduate in agricultural engineering and management, was Director and Researcher of the CSH (1995-2000). He lived 8 years in India where he conducted various research programmes on contemporary Indian economy and society. He works now for the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD, Montpellier, France).

Thomas Jullien, postgraduate in economics, was Research Assistant at the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH, New Delhi) in 1999-2000. He works now for the Institute de Stratégies Patrimoniales of the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (INA-PG, Paris).

ISBN 978-81-7304-589-9 2004 334p. Rs.950/Pounds 70

A Memoir on the Indian Surveys

By- C.R. Markham

The object of this classic memoir is to furnish a general view of all the surveying and other geographical operations in India from their first commencement in order that, in reading reports of current work, ready means of reference to the previous history of each branch of the subject may be at hand. In case it is desired to follow up an enquiry into the details of any particular operation or series of operations, the references in the footnotes have been made as copious as possible.

Sir Clements Robert Markham (20 July 1830 – 30 January 1916) was an English geographer, explorer and writer. He was secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) between 1863 and 1888, and later served as the Society’s president for a further 12 years. Markham also served as a geographer to the India Office. He was a prolific writer as his publications include: A Memoir of an Indian Survey.

ISBN 978-81-7304-526-4 2004 512p. Rs.895/Pounds 70