Focusing on the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA), A Revolutionary History . . . delivers a fresh perspective on the ambitions, ideologies and practices of this influential organization formed by Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh, and inspired by transnational anti-imperial dissent. It is a new interpretation of the activities and political impact of the north Indian revolutionaries who advocated the use of political violence against the British.
Kama Maclean contends that the actions of these revolutionaries had a direct impact on Congress politics and tested its policy of non-violence. In doing so she draws on visual culture studies, demonstrating the efficacy of imagery in constructing-as opposed to merely illustrating-historical narratives. Maclean analyses visual evidence alongside recently declassified government files, memoirs and interviews to elaborate on the complex relationships between the Congress and the HSRA, which were far less antagonistic than is frequently imagined.
Catagory: History
Bhujia Barons
In the early twentieth century, young Ganga Bhishan Agarwal, aka Haldiram, gained a reputation for making the best bhujia in town. Fast-forward a century and the Haldiram’s empire has a revenue much greater than that of McDonald’s and Domino’s combined.
In Bhujia Barons, Pavitra Kumar manages to tell the riveting story of the Agarwal family in its entirety-a feat never managed before. It begins in dusty, benign Bikaner and traces the rise and rise of this homegrown brand which is one of the most-recognized Indian brands in the world.
The Haldiram’s story is not an average business story, it’s chock-full of family drama with court cases, jealousy-fueled regional expansion, a decades-old trademark battle, and a closely guarded family secret of the famous bhujia. Fast-paced and riveting, this book provides a delicious look into family business dynamics and the Indian way of doing business.
Economics without Tears
If you are a layman wondering what economics is all about or a freshman student of the subject, this is a book you cannot afford to miss. Starting from the first principles and stripped of mathematics and almost all jargon, it introduces you to all the basic concepts of economic theory as well as to some of its more surprising depths.
Economics pervades every aspect of our lives and our world. This book shows how anyone can acquire an understanding of its key principles while finding the exercise not only an exciting intellectual adventure but also great fun.
Orientalism
In this highly acclaimed seminal work, Edward Said surveys the history and nature of Western attitudes towards the East, considering Orientalism as a powerful European ideological creation-a way for writers, philosophers and colonial administrators to deal with the ‘otherness’ of Eastern culture, customs and beliefs. He traces this view through the writings of Homer, Nerval and Flaubert, Disraeli and Kipling, whose imaginative depictions have greatly contributed to the West’s romantic and exotic picture of the Orient. In the preface, Said examines the continuing effects of Western imperialism and racism, manifest in the events leading up to and post 9/11, establishing Orientalism as a canonical text of cultural studies.
Savaging The Civilized
This evocative and beautifully written book brings to life one of the most remarkable figures of twentieth-century India. Verrier Elwin (1902-64) was an anthropologist, poet, Gandhian, hedonist, Englishman, and Indian.
Savaging the Civilized reveals a many-sided man, a friend of the elite who was at home with the impoverished and the destitute; a charismatic charmer of women who was comfortable with intellectuals such as Arthur Koestler and Jawaharlal Nehru; an anthropologist who lived and loved with the tribes yet who wrote literary essays and monographs for the learned.
Savaging the Civilized is both biography and history, an exploration through Elwin’s life of some of the great debates of our times, such as the impact of economic development, and cultural pluralism versus cultural homogeneity. For this new edition, Ramachandra Guha has added a long new introduction, stressing the relevance of Elwin’s work to current debates on adivasis, Naxalites, and Indian democracy.
Goras and Desis
The story of corporate India is linked to managing agencies, an organizational form dominant in the subcontinent from 1875 until its abolition in 1970 that allowed entrepreneurs to promote diverse companies while exercising disproportionate control over cash flows. This is the definitive economic history of Indian companies through the lens of managing agencies, whether controlled by goras or desis.
Indian Railways
The railways brought modernity to India. Its vast network connected the far corners of the subcontinent, making travel, communication and commerce simpler than ever before. Even more importantly, the railways played a large part in the making of the nation: by connecting historically and geographically disparate regions and people, it forever changed the way Indians lived and thought, and eventually made a national identity possible.
This engagingly written, anecdotally told history captures the immense power of a business behemoth as well as the romance of train travel; tracing the growth of the railways from the 1830s (when the first plans were made) to Independence, Bibek Debroy and his co-authors recount how the railway network was built in India and how it grew to become a lifeline that still weaves the nation together.
This latest volume in The Story of Indian Business series will delight anyone interested in finding out more about the Indian Railways.
Red Sun
A revealing journey into the heartland of India’s insurgency problem
Spread over fifteen of the country’s twenty-eight states, India’s Maoist movement is now one of the world’s biggest and most sophisticated extreme-left movements. Hardly a week passes without people dying in strikes and counter-strikes by the Maoists-interchangeably known as the Naxalites-and the police and paramilitary forces. In this brilliant and sobering examination of the ‘Other India’, Sudeep Chakravarti combines reportage, political analysis and individual case histories as he takes us to the heart of Maoist zones in the country-areas of extreme destitution, bad governance and perpetual war.
The Communist Manifesto
On the occasion of Karl Marx’s 200th birth anniversary, here is an authoritative edition of The Communist Manifesto
‘Apart from Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species,’ notes the Los Angeles Times, The Communist Manifesto ‘is arguably the most important work of nonfiction written in the 19th century.’ The Washington Post calls Marx ‘an astute critic of capitalism.’ Writing in The New York Times, Columbia University Professor Steven Marcus describes the Manifesto as a ‘masterpiece’ with ‘enduring insights into social existence.’
Since it was first written in 1848, the Manifesto by Marx and Engels has been translated into more languages than any other modern text. It has been banned, censored, burned and declared ‘dead’. But year after year, the text only grows more influential and more relevant, and is required reading in courses on philosophy, politics, economics and history.
In this extensively researched edition, renowned Marxist scholar Phil Gasper provides an authoritative introduction to history’s most important political document, with the full text of the Manifesto. Thoughtfully presented in a reader-friendly format, it is fully annotated, with clear historical references and explanations, additional related texts, and a glossary that will bring the text to life for students as well as the general reader.
The New Yorker recently described Karl Marx as ‘The Next Thinker’ for our era. This book shows readers why.
India Transformed
In this commemorative volume, India’s top economic luminaries and business leaders come together to provide a balanced picture of the economic reform process initiated in 1991 and its consequences. They ask themselves some imperative questions: What were the reforms? What were they intended for? How have they affected the overall functioning of the economy?
Covering the impact of the reforms on the evolution of India businesses, India’s foreign and security policy, the changing face of Indian governance and sectoral and human developments, among other themes, India Transformed delves deep into the life of liberalized India through the eyes of the people who helped transform it.