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Memoirs/Asian
Studies/Sociology/Politics The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth: A Dalit’s Life B. Kesharshivam Translated from the Gujarati by Gita Chaudhuri This is how B. Kesharshivam describes the quintessential experiences of the life of a dalit. In the sixty years after independence, many believe that much has changed for dalits. The author himself, born and raised in poverty in the dalit moholla of Kalol in North Gujarat, passed the Gujarat Public Service Examinations to become a mamlatdar, a revenue officer, and finally a Class 1 officer who held many significant postings including comptroller of the household to the governor of Gujarat. Yet as he says, ‘At every step in life I was made aware of being a dalit.’ Translated from the Gujarati original, Purnasatya, this is the first autobiography of a dalit in Gujarati. Beginning with his life as a child who plays in the dust of the bone meal factory, where he later works, going on to labour with his parents in the ‘cotter mill’, the book presents a non-sentimental account of a childhood where friendships exist, sometimes across castes, and discrimination and abuse are constants. The second part of his story relates to his working life, his struggles on behalf of the dalits and the tribal populations against a backdrop of continuous discrimination. As the author questions accepted norms and verities, he forces readers to confront themselves. B. Kesharshivam is the pen name of B. S. Jadav, which he coined by combining his parents names and placing Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s first initial in front. He has written many novels and short stories, getting published while he was in school. His autobiography won the Dasi Jivan award of the Government of Gujarat, 2003. Gita Chaudhuri is associated with Katha’s Translation Centre at St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad, and has recently translated M. K. Gandhi’s My Experiments with Truth from Gujarati to Bengali. Demy octavo pb 342pp ISBN 978-81-85604-87-9 Rs350
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Fiction/Literature/Women’s Studies
Her Story, Our Story and On the Swing: Short Stories and a
Novella
Translated from the Marathi by Yashodhara
Deshpande Maitra
This was the extreme reaction that greeted these two books when they were published in the 1930s. In the short stories, Vibhavari Shirurkar (the pseudonym of Malatibai Bedekar), had bravely written on the complex yearnings of young girls, touching upon their sexuality and their tentative steps to an inchoate self-hood, and in the novella, of an abandoned wife’s courage in forming a new relationship. This outraged middle class respectability. When the yet undiscovered author’s effigy was burnt on the streets of Pune, the pseudonym used protected her. In the 1976 edition of Kalyanche Nishwas (Popular Prakashan), the author wrote a note on the public reaction to these two works when first published, which has also been included in this volume. She declared that her portrayal of young working women being financially exploited by their fathers, of their being drawn towards devious men despite themselves, or their severe stress as widows or abandoned wives, was a diluted version; the reality was much worse. These two fictional works, translated into English from the original Marathi for the first time, and accompanied by a critical note, written in 1933, by the sociologist and Marathi encyclopaedist S. V. Ketkar, are like a slice of social history. Together, Her Story, Our Story and On the Swing speak about women who loved and lost, despaired, doubted the choices they made, yet made them nevertheless. Malatibai Bedekar, who used the pen name Vibhavari Shirurkar, was born Balutai Anant Khare in 1905. She graduated from Karve University (now S.N.D.T.) at seventeen and later undertook scholarly research on 'Alankarshastra', an aspect of Sanskrit aesthetics. She was married to the distinguished writer and film director Vishram Bedekar. Yashodhara Deshpande Maitra taught natural sciences at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. She is an experienced translator from Marathi into English. She has worked closely with the Bedekars and has translated several works by these two illustrious writers. She lives in Webster, NY, USA. Demy octavo pb 266pp ISBN 978-81-85604-94-7 Rs 275 |
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Economics/Sociology/Politics/Asian Studies Women Workers and Globalization: Emergent Contradictions in India Indrani Mazumdar
Primary surveys were conducted amongst 500 women workers in 2002-04, covering the capital and its satellite townships of Noida and Gurgaon through a combination of structured questionnaires, individual and group discussions. These locale-specific primary surveys constitute the basis of identification of the main issues and concerns of women workers in these sectors. In addition, by using secondary sources, the study links the experiences of these Delhi-based women workers with their counterparts in the same sectors in other parts of the country for a more general understanding of the impact of globalization. The analysis of garment exports, electronics and IT services, which are clearly linked to global production and service networks, brings out global sectoral trends and their ramifications. The study of home-based workers, on the other hand, has focused more on the policy framework towards this particular section and the changes in perspective that have accompanied the liberalization process. The advent of middle class women workers in the new forms of employment in the service sector has led to much euphoric celebration of globalization among some sections of the business and middle classes. IT-enabled service, the product of the digital age, are seen by ‘globalizers’ as being singularly important for employment generation as well as in terms of the potential to transform India from a still largely backward and overwhelmingly poor country into the ‘superpower’ league. The authors suggests that in this new IT enabled sector, new avenues of employment can be seen combining with new forms of cultural degradation, with technology itself becoming an instrument of closer and more oppressive systems of social control. A crucial indicator of the effects of liberalization has been the steep fall in the work participation rates among women in both rural and in urban India. The globalization decade in India has been marked by an extreme volatility in employment that is generalized across all sectors. The general results have been an extreme and continuous pressure on the wages and incomes of the majority of women workers in the manufacturing sector, in many cases to levels far below subsistence. Moreover, the gap between male and female employment has been widening. An incisive guide to the impact of globalization on women’s work, the book will be invaluable for scholars, activists, the general public, whose very livelihood is at stake, and indeed for policy makers. About the author Indrani Mazumdar is fellow, Centre for Women’s Development Studies, Delhi and a long time activist in the women’s movement. Demy octavo hb 374pp ISBN 81-85604-84-3 Rs 550 Feb 2007 |
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Economics/Anthropology/Politics/Asian Studies Gender, Food Security and Rural Livelihoods Edited by Maithreyi Krishnaraj The reality is that women lack rights to land. Meanwhile technological change means that women lose their jobs like threshing rice or making rice products at home. They may get jobs in rice mills, but at low wages. They end up having less to eat when they never got enough anyway. The book is divided into two parts: Part I, Perspectives, examines conceptual and macro issues; Part II, Regional Insights, presents field studies, discussing the day-to-day implications of the crisis. Offering an engaged and lively debate, these contributions raise important questions that affect the well being of countless women who work in agriculture. The Editor A pioneering scholar in gender studies, Maithreyi Krishnaraj was formerly professor and director, and presently Senior Honorary Fellow, Research Centre for Women’s Studies, SNDT Women’s University. Contributors: Sara Ahmed, Pralhad Burli, Barbara Harriss-White, Mahabub Hossain, Aruna Kanchi, Praveena Kodoth, Maithreyi Krishnaraj, Joyce Luis, Kanchan Mathur, Alka Parikh, Thelma Paris, Nitya Rao, Amita Shah, Abha Singh and Swarna Vepa. Demy octavo hb 402pp ISBN 81-85604-89-4 Dec 2007 Rs 600 |
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Sociology/History/Politics/Asian Studies/Gender Studies Patriarchy V. Geetha
This book deals with the nature, origin, hermeneutics and sociology of patriarchy. Reviewing the sources available, it discusses the historical contexts which have nurtured patriarchal societies. Finally it applies these ideas to Indian history and sociology and examines how caste has interacted synergistically with patriarchy in India. A useful text for students as well as for the general reader.
V. Geetha writes in Tamil and in English on history, culture
and gender. She has co-authored with S. V. Rajadurai, Towards a
Non-Brahmin Millennium: From Iyothee Thass to Periyar Demy octavo pbk approx228pp ISBN 81-85604-46-0 Feb2007 Rs240 |
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Gender Studies in Bengali
Pather Ingit: Nirbachito Samvad-Samayik Patre Bangali Meyer Samajbhavna [The Way Ahead: Political Writings of Bengali Women in Select
Newspapers and Periodicals, 1927-1967] This book attempts, perhaps for the first time, to trace the history of Bengali women's political activities and to connect its trajectory to the journals that these women founded and edited. Dutta Gupta unearths what women wrote in these periodicals, demonstrating their appraisal of a wide range of socio-political issues while they were becoming agents of political change. Divided into two parts, in the first the author provides an overview and an analysis of the journals selected. In the second, she offers selections from the journals themselves, arranged thematically. The selections have been taken from Sougat, Jayshree, Mandira, Prabashi, Swadhinata, and Ghare Baire. The annotation provided places the pieces in their context as well as provides information on the writers. Sarmistha Dutta Gupta is an independent researcher, book-editor, translator and publisher of Ebang Alap. Her published works include The Stream Within: Short Stories by Contemporary Bengali Women (co-edited with Swati Ganguly; Stree, 1999), Outcast: Stories by Mahasweta Devi (Seagull, 2001) and Giving Away the Girl: Plays by Malini Bhattacharya (Seagull, 2002). Demy octavo pbk approx 250pp ISBN 81-85604-93-2 May 2007 |
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Memoirs/Asian Studies/Sociology/Politics A Prattler’s Tale: Bengal, Marxism, Governance Ashok Mitra
From the reviews
Offering a thought-provoking, incisive analysis of Bengal and India, Ashok Mitra’s memoirs, translated for the first time into English from the Bengali original, Apila Chapila (Ananda, 2003), brings contemporary India alive. Growing up in British India, in old East Bengal, as a member of the middle class, the bhadralok, he dissects its ideals, foibles, prejudices and flaws. The Partition of India found him and his family in the new country of East Pakistan, that they were to leave, like millions of other refugees, to a new India where they had to re-build lives. He goes on to analyze the fledgling democracy of India, taking readers through the heady days of the five-year plans, with which he was involved in the 1950s. Always taking the view of a maverick, Mitra held considerable positions of power within the establishment. He was chairman of the Agricultural Prices Commission and held the position of economic adviser to the Government of India when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister. It was while he was the economic adviser that the political crisis in East Pakistan turned into the war of liberation and Mitra provides much new insider information. He had many friends amongst the leaders of the war of liberation from his college days in Dhaka, and with his political influence and contacts in Delhi, he was in a unique position to brief the Indian Government. Highlighting a different aspect of his life, that of his association with writers and intellectuals, Ashok Mitra talks of his friendship with Sachin Chaudhuri and his brothers and the founding of the Economic Weekly and its second coming as the Economic and Political Weekly. Throughout the book, he also weaves in the cultural and literary history of Bengal as his literary interests have been as vital as his political ones. Mitra’s reminiscences are enriched by his analysis of Marxism and Marxists in a poor country, of how the alliance of parties that formed the Left Front that has been elected to power in the state of West Bengal functioned, his story of his stint as minister of finance and planning in the late 1970s and 1980s, and what lay behind his sudden resignation. He also discusses his experience in the Rajya Sabha, reflecting on the changing face of India’s democracy. He is open about his disagreements with the current worldwide mantra of globalization and liberalization. Ashok Mitra is an economist, political
activist and essayist who writes in both Bengali and English. He was at
various times chairman, Agricultural Prices Commission, chief economic
adviser to the Government of India, minister of finance and planning in
the Left Front Government of West Bengal, and a member of the Rajya
Sabha.
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Politics/Sociology/History/Asian Studies Mai Hindu Kyun Nahi: Hindutva Darshan, Sanskriti Aur Rajnitik Arthashashtra ka Ek Shudravadi Vishleshan [Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy] Kancha Ilaiah Translated from the English by Omprakash Valmiki This is the authorized Hindi translation of the revised edition, as true to the original as is possible in a translation. Translated and edited meticulously, the book is presented to the Hindi-speaking public in the hope that it may be of use to Dalitbahujan activists as well as awaken the interest of the wider society. In this revised edition, Kancha Ilaiah presents an afterword that discusses the history of this book, often seen as the manifesto of the downtrodden Dalitbahujans. He talks of its reviews as well of the abuse he has received from its detractors, and his analysis of the text that was first published in 1996 and has been reprinted eight times before the appearance of the new edition. He reminds us of the need for an ongoing dialogue. Kancha Ilaiah is Professor Department of Political Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad, and an activist in the Dalitbahujan and civil liberties movement. Demy octavo pbk pp ISBN 81-85604-91-6 Oct 2006 Rs 120 |
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