Manohar Publishers and Distributors

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

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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

30 September, 2012

Dr B.R. Ambedkar: A Study in Just Society

Dr B.R. Ambedkar: A Study in Just Society

By- James Massey

Published in association with Centre
for Dalit/Subaltern Studies

The theme ‘just society’ is the main subject which runs throughout this work, as envisaged by Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The entire discussion is based mainly upon his original writings. Besides the main theme, this work also carries the detailed discussions on the related themes, which include: ‘Buddha’s Dhamma’, ‘Dalits and the Conversion’, ‘Christianity and the Dalit Christians’, ‘Dalits: A Minority’ and ‘Framing the Constitution’. The author intentionally has allowed
Dr Ambedkar to speak for himself, therefore the readers will find many quotations throughout this work. The themes discussed are most relevant today, therefore it is being offered to the readers with this belief that Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s thoughts can became the basis of dealing with the current problems related to the Dalits, tribals, women, minorities and other weaker sections of the Indian society.

Introduction; 1. Buddha’s Dhamma; 2. Dalits and the Conversion; 3. Christianity and Dalit Christians; 4. Dalits: A Minority; 5. Framing the Constitution; 6. Vision of a ‘Just Society’; Index.

James Massey is currently the General-Secreatay/Director of Dalit Solidarity Peoples in India, which is a national multi-faith movement. He is also the Hon. Director of the Centre for Dalit Studies, New Delhi. He also worked actively for inter-faith dialogue in the Indian context with special interest in Sikh religion. For his work in Sikh religion he was awarded Doctor of Philosophy by Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany, and again Post-Doctoral Academic Degree (Habilitation) in the field of Religious Studies by the same university.

ISBN 81-7304-523-2 2003 124p. Rs.250/Pounds 35

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Divorce and Remarriage among Muslims in India

By- Imtiaz Ahmad (ed)

Divorce is usually studied in terms of two distinct perspectives. One focuses on the procedure laid down for giving the seal of final authority to a divorce. The other explores the processes that are set in motion once the stability of a marriage is threatened. The latter perspective does not see divorce in isolation but treats it in the wider context of social structure.

When divorce in Muslim communities is discussed, the tendency quite often is to place theology and law at the centre. This book recognizes that divorce in Muslim communities entails substantial theological and legal dimensions, but takes as its point of departure the view that it is only by placing divorce in the social and cultural context that meaningful conclusions can be arrived at. It examines, in the light of empirical evidence, the incidence of divorce and separation, the social and other causes due to which divorce and separation takes place, and the position of divorced women in society as well as their prospects of remarriage. In the process substantial methodological and theoretical questions relevant to the study of divorce as a social phenomenon are raised.

The book has an immediate practical aim as well. Muslim law of divorce, particularly the provision of triple divorce, which vests a unilateral right in the husband to pronounce a summary divorce upon his wife, has been the subject of considerable controversy. Essentially, the papers brought together in this book are sociological analyses of divorce and remarriage among Muslims in India and the data thrown up as part of these analyses should clear some points in the controversy.

Imtiaz Ahmad is former Professor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

ISBN 81-7304-493-7 2003 436p. Rs.850/Pounds 60