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Sociology/Asian Studies/Anthropology/History Culture, Power and Agency: Edited by Lina Fruzzetti and Sirpa Tenhunen Examining the notions and meanings of gender, power and agency, this book bridges theoretical discussions with empirical studies on agency and power. The rich variety of recent empirical studies on subversive activities have been inadequately theorized and conceptualised. The contributors ask: Does agency empower women? Do cultural, gender-based alternatives, openly or secretly, assist women in search of the freedom to voice themselves? At what costs are women prepared to extend their newly acquired agency? Critically examining the relationship between agency and symbolic structures, the book presents the growing reality confronting Indian women. Lina Fruzzetti is professor, Department of Anthropology, Brown University. Nonfiction demy octavo, hardbound 254pp ISBN 81-85604-81-9 Feb 2006 Rs 500 |
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Environment Studies/ Women’s Studies/Sociology/Anthropology Fluid Bonds:
Edited by Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt The bonds between women and water are enduring and vital. Indeed, women are the key to the success of water resource management. Throughout the world they play important roles in dealing with water, primarily at the household level, but also as agricultural labour. One can find innumerable differences in which women and men related to and use water. Because of the various roles women play in water resource management, they have considerable knowledge about water, including availability, quality and reliability, restrictions and acceptable storage methods. At the same time, the nature of jobs usually performed by women is such that they are in constant contact with polluted or poor quality water. They are affected by the lack of sanitation, and thus are most vulnerable to water-related diseases. When it comes to decision-making about water resource management, women are almost invisible. Divided into four parts, the book considers global discourses on water, water culture and the economy; water, time and place; and water, women and agency. It highlights the achievements and failures, in both developed countries and developing countries, and urges the mainstreaming of gender in the water sector. Reflecting upon the various relationships between gender and water, it examines various issues in water resource management, aiming to generate awareness about these issues, and to mainstream gender in water-related decision-making in the North and the South. Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt is research fellow, Resource Management in Asia Pacific Program, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University, Canberra. Nonfiction demy octavo hardbound approx 450pp ISBN 81-85604-70-3 Jan 2006 Rs 650 |
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Women’s Studies/Asian Studies/Sociology/ Women’s Writing in Translation The Trauma and the Triumph: Edited by Jasodhara Bagchi and Subhoranjan Dasgupta The trauma of the partition in Eastern India is discussed explicitly in a way that has not happened before. Drawing upon interviews with women who were uprooted from old East Bengal in 1947, on diaries, memoirs and creative literature, the editors lift the ‘veil of silence’ that has surrounded partition. The lack of overt public discourse has meant that people outside Bengal have tended to believe that the impact was very much less on the people in the eastern region. In truth, the sufferings, the loss of life and livelihoods and of shelter were very real but of a different nature from the fast-moving horror of the Punjab. It was more like an oozing wound that seemed not to heal than a one-time severance of a limb. Seminar, Feb 2002, devoted itself to an in-depth discussion of the eastern partition, inviting Bagchi and Dasgupta to edit the issue. Many contributions have been taken from this pioneering work and many more have been added to focus on what women experienced, felt, and witnessed. Weaving together the voices of many women and incisive analysis, the book provides an invaluable discussion on displacement, rape, loss and why women pay the price. It thus traces the strenuous triumph attained in the crucible of suffering. Jasodhara Bagchi has retired recently as the Chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Women Subhoranjan Dasgupta is Professor, Human Sciences, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata Nonfiction demy octavo, paperback approx 284pp ISBN 81-85604-64-9 Jan 2006 Rs 350 |
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Women’s Writing/Literature/History/Asian Studies Harvest Song:
Sabitri Roy Sabitri Roy’s trilogy, Paka Dhaner Gan, translated for the first time into English, and abridged, brings a neglected woman novelist to a wider audience. A committed socialist who was critical of the Communist Party and fell foul of its patriarchy and hierarchy, Roy tries to show how socialist mores could come to fruition in relationships, how young women and men tried to take decisions on their own lives, free from the bonds of an oppressive social hierarchy. Focusing on the freedom movement, the Second World War, and the Tebhaga movement, the peasants uprising against unjust ‘taxes’ by the zamindars or landlords, when the Communist Party sent many educated young men to the villages, the novel provides an epic panorama of rural Bengal of the late 1930s and the 1940s. Roy depicts a range of women, from the educated and aware Lata and Bhadra to the less educated and more deprived villagers like Debaki and her sisters-in-law, the tribal feisty women like Saraswati, providing convincing portraits of what women’s lives were like. As Tanika Sarkar writes in her Foreword, ‘Timeless patriarchal strategies of control inflict death on a widow who has sinned by drinking water on the day of the ritual fast without water, and a mother, suspected of illicit liaison has her baby snatched away from her: at the same time, the same families and the same milieus witness unexpected female resistance, defiance, new resources for self-making.’ Sabitri Roy was a sympathizer but not a member of the Communist Party, which censored her novel, Swaralipi. She wrote many novels and short stories, all focusing on the political and social issues of her time. Chandrima Bhattacharya is a journalist. Adrita Mukherjee is a writer based in New Zealand. Fiction in translation demy octavo, paperback 388pp ISBN 81-85604-50-9 Jan 2006 Rs 350 |
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Literature/Asian Studies/History/Sociology/Politics Five Lords, Yet None a Protector and Timeless Tales:
Saoli Mitra
These two plays by Saoli Mitra, a veteran actress and dramaturge of the Bengali stage, are both based on the Mahabharata. The story of Draupadi is narrated in Five Lords, Yet None a Protector (Nathabati Anathabat). She was married to the five royal Pandava brothers and narrates her humiliation at the hands of the Kauravas, the cousins of her husbands and rivals for the throne. The second, Timeless Tales (Katha Amritasaman), is again set within the Mahabharata, looking at the destruction of an age and of a civilization. The tragedy of the royal women, Satyavati, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika, the abducted princesses; of Kunti Gandhari, Draupadi, Subhadra and the young Uttara, continues to have bearings on our times. Both the plays are one-woman performances in the tradtion of kathakatha, a rural Bengali genre of dramatized storytelling, and use live music, some of it played by the narrator herself. The apparent naïveté of the single woman’s voice in the play builds a relationship of collusion with the audience. Subverting traditional theatre of the Western type and by the gendering of the stories, Mitra’s plays challenge the audience’s views of ‘decorum’. Saoli Mitra combines the diverse roles of actor, director and playwright in her person. She received the Ibsen Centennial Award in January 2006. Nabaneeta Dev Sen is a scholar and a writer; she was formerly professor, department of comparative literature, Jadavpur University. Rita Datta is a teacher and an art critic; Ipshita Chanda is reader, department of comparative literature, Jadavpur University; Moushumi Bhowmik is a singer, researcher and a composer. demy octavo, paperback 274pp ISBN 81-85604-79-7 Nov 2004 Rs 450 |
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Bengali Gender Studies Karmakshetre Jouno Henasthar Mokabilaye Ain Byabaharer Nirdeshika: Edited by Jasodhara Bagchi with Anindita Bhaduri
As more and more women enter the workplace they increasingly fall prey to sexual harassment in its many forms, most not necessarily overt. The Constitution of India guarantees the right of women to work and women also have the right to be protected from sexual harassment. Indira Jaising, the distinguished feminist lawyer, has compiled a handbook of laws that are applicable in cases of sexual harassment. Moreover, the question-and-answer format helps women who are conscious that something is very wrong in the way they are being treated, both verbally and physically, to identify more closely that it is indeed an offence that is being perpetrated on them and that there are specific legal steps that can be taken to protect themselves. The West Bengal Commission for Women took the initiative to have it translated into Bengali, thus widening its access to many women who have until now lacked such support. Jasodhara Bagchi recently retired as chairperson, West Bengal Commission for Women. Nonfiction demy octavo pbk 132pp ISBN 81-85604-85-1 May 2006 Rs 125 |
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