Manohar Publishers and Distributors

06 November, 2012

Power, Politics and Rural Development: Essays on India

By- G.K. Lieten

Based on fifteen years of intensive anthropological and sociological fieldwork, this book presents provocative insights in the daily life of men and women in various villages of India.

The topics dealt with are varied as also important and policy relevant. The author deals with the propensity of the village panchayats and their actual working in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the impact of land reforms on development, the causes of the high human development index in Kerala, communalism at the village level, the views of poor villagers on the post-modernist views on development, child labour and family views on children as capital, and with the changing world view in relation to religion, caste and the position of women.

The author deals with these issues drawing on a multifaceted background, taking care at the same time that the views of the villagers, and their daily concerns come through as the principal empirical evidence.

G.K. Lieten has a long-standing research interest in South Asia, which started with his studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in the early 1970s. He has written and edited a dozen books on India, the latest of which deal with land reforms in West Bengal and the functioning of panchayats in Uttar Pradesh. He is presently working on the development debate and on issues related to child labour in various developing countries. Kristoffel Lieten is a professor at the University of Amsterdam, where he teaches development sociology, and is associated with the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research.

ISBN 81-7304-475-9 2003 284p. Rs.575/Pounds 45

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05 November, 2012

The Plough and The Pen : Peasantry, Agriculture, and the Literati in Colonial Bengal

By- Bipasha Raha

Since the 1830s Bengal witnessed a vast outpouring of creative writing. Their authors came from diverse social background. In some cases their portrayal of the peasantry was a manifestation of their coherent agrarian thinking. The interest centred on the legal and social status of peasants; types of tenures and their obligations; organization of agrarian production; impact of world economic forces on agrarian economy and; existing land legislations.

This book brings forward hitherto unexplored aspects of literati perception of peasants and agriculture in colonial Bengal. It focuses on representation of the peasant in different literary genres, on issues related to agriculture and rural resuscitation at a time when there was intensification of the nationalist movement and the necessity of acquiring a mass base becomes crucial for some members of the literati. Analysis of vernacular literature, including tract literature and those authored by men not well known socially, much of it still untapped, makes this book a pioneering one.

This book will be of interest to students, researchers and scholars of history, sociology, literature and South Asian studies.

Bipasha Raha is Associate Professor of History at Visva-Bharati (a central University), Santiniketan. She was awarded the Charles Wallace Fellowship by the Charles Wallace India Trust.

ISBN 978-81-7304-941-5 2003 318p. Rs.975/Pounds 50

Perso-Arabic Hybrids in Hindi: The Socio-Linguistic and Structural Analysis

By- Agnieszka Kuczkiewicz-Fraś

From the very beginning of its existence Hindi has been subjected to foreign influences. Close contact with Persian brought to India by Muslim invaders, lasting for several centuries, has borne fruit in the form of an enormous quantity of borrowings of different types. It has also reached the most advanced stage in the whole process of enriching one language by the elements of the other—the phenomenon of hybridization, creating words of mixed Perso-Hindi etymology, has appeared.

Though hybrid words exist probably in every language, in Hindi their role is particular. They demonstrate its extraordinary ability for syncretising new, alien components without much harm to itself.

The main aim of this book is to show the scale of hybrid Perso-Arabic word-formation in Hindi and to discuss the factors that have been influencing this hybridsation. The features and linguistic processes crucial to it have also been pointed out.

Agnieszka Kuczkiewicz-Fraś studied Indian Philology in Poland and did her M.A. and Ph.D. in Hindi linguistics from the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, where she presently teaches Hindi, Urdu and Indian History. She has published several articles on Hindi-Urdu linguistics and on the problems of translation from Indian literataure.

ISBN 81-7304-498-8 2003 190p. Rs.400/Pounds 35

02 November, 2012

People’s Movements in the Princely States

By- Y. Vaikuntham (ed)

People’s movements in the Princely States forms an important aspect in the history of modern India with 45 per cent of the land and 24 per cent of the people, the Princely States played second fiddle to the imperial dictates. From the nineteenth century, till they joined Indian Union in 1947-8, mostly lived under the umbrella of the British. They never took serious measures or introduced steps for radical transformation of the states. There was no coherent place for the princes in the British Imperial ideology. When the princes were using different strategies to retain centralized power, the people fought against the princes to demand for responsible government and later to force them to join Indian Union. This was an absorbing encounter and an incredible story. In fact, not many books are there to cover as many states discussing the situation in the Princely States. In fact, the growth of nationalism in those autocratic Princely States was difficult, slow and painstaking. The present book tries to answer some of these issues. This book broadly covers number of Princely States, including Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, Jammu & Kashmir, Gwalior and small states like Nilgiri in Orissa, Banaganapalle in Andhra Pradesh. Simultaneously along with anti-colonial struggle, the people’s movements in Princely States symbolizes their struggle against the feudal and autocratic princes, which helped in the ushering of Indian Union once India got Independence.

Yallampalli Vaikuntham is a Professor of History and Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Osmania University. He was a former Vice-Chancellor of Kakatiya University, Warangal.

ISBN 978-81-7304-528-8 2004 246p. Rs.500/Pounds 40

Paradigms of Dissent and Protest: Social Movements in Eastern India (c. ad 1400-1700)

By- Basanta Kumar Mallik

This book focuses on the historical perspectives of state formation in Orissa from sixth century to sixteenth century ad and on the process of how tribals were integrated and their indigenous culture was assimilated into the Sanskritic mainstream life.

The cultural deprivation of the larger common people initiated widespread dissents and protests. The leadership of this movement was taken up by a team of Sudramunis of the pre-Colonial Orissa. The composition of epics like the Mahabharata, the Jagamohan Ramayana, the Harivamsa and other devotional poems in colloquial Oriya by the Sudramunis was indeed, an intellectual challenge against the orthodoxy and literary hegemony of the established order which has been vividly analysed in this book. ‘Knowledge can not be monopolized by a particular section of society nor it can be expressed in a particular language’ was the lofty message of these Sudramunis.

The study of the regional cultural interaction between Orissa, Bengal and Assam has been well defined emphasizing the spread of egalitarian outlook through the Samkirtan movement of Sri Chaitanya. The period ad 1400-1700 in the history of eastern India has proved to be very important that it witnessed an emerging trend not only of the protest against social cleavages but also an endeavour to the assimilatory compromise with a changing direction of the order for social cohesion.

Basanta Kumar Mallik teaches History in the Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar.

ISBN 978-81-7304-522-6 2004 230p. Rs.475/Pounds 40

30 October, 2012

Occupational Choices, Networks and Transfers : An Exegesis Based on Micro Data From Delhi Slums

By- Arup Mitra

This volume analyses occupation, earning, and standard of living of the low income households from slum clusters in Delhi, and lays emphasis on strategies and efforts initiated by the slum dwellers to cope with uncertainties they face. The role of informal institutions or networks in accessing information pertaining to the urban labour market, and in experiencing an upward mobility, constitutes an important dimension of the analysis. Transfer of resources—monestary and/or non-monetary—across individuals/households, which can be either based on altruistic behaviour or motivated by the principle of exchange (or strategic exchange) takes the central position in the analysis. This helps derivea the domain of public policy, which would not be in conflict with the existing institutions, and would emerge as supportive measures instead of appearing as direct interventions. Interspatial variations in economic activities performed in the city and their impact on the labour market in terms of physical segmentation, constitute the other major aspect that the study focuses on. Differences in occupational choices, incomes and consumption expenditure across seems in the broad context of intra-household inequality are dealt with. Finally, it reviews the past and ongoing programmes relating to urban poverty, and compares them with the policy directives following from the present study.

Arup Mitra is Professor of Economics at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. His area of research encompasses labour and welfare, urban development, industrial growth and productivity, infrastructure development, and gender studies.

ISBN 81-7304-483-X 2003 168p. Rs.340/Pounds 35

Nuclear Stability in Southern Asia

By- P.R. Chari, Sonika Gupta and Arpit Rajain (eds)

Konrad Adenauer Foundation

India’s and Pakistan’s reciprocal nuclear tests in 1998 irrevocably altered the strategic situation in Southern Asia and sparked off a global debate on nuclear weapons, arms control and nuclear deterrence. The trilateral nature of the nuclear adversarial relation in the region, comprising the security concerns of China, India and Pakistan, presents a challenge to existing theories and practices of nuclear deterrence premised on dyadic structures. The security situation on the Indo-Pak border and its linkages with cross border terrorism has serious implications for nuclear deterrence in the region. The Kargil War, a conventional war fought under the nuclear shadow, has thrown up new challenges for Southern Asian nuclear stability. This volume discusses different aspects of nuclear weapons including doctrinal issues, nuclear confidence building, terrorism and its linkages with nuclear deterrence, and nuclear safety within the context of Southern Asia. The book taps into the vast experience of senior defence personnel involved in preparing India’s draft nuclear doctrine and senior policy and strategic analysts in the country to present a comprehensive debate on nuclear stability in the region.

P.R. Chari, former member of the Indian Administrative Service, is currently the Director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi. He has worked extensively on nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and Indian defense issues and has authored many books on these subjects.

Sonika Gupta is Research Officer at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies and a doctoral student at the Chinese Studies division, Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Arpit Rajain has been working as Research Officer in the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies since 1997 on WMD issues.

ISBN 81-7304-520-8 2003 222p. Rs.450/Pounds 40