In recent decades, Nepal’s history has been marked by tumultuous events and transformations, and its relations with India by sharp fluctuations. From the Maoist insurgency to the hijacking of IC 814, from the Palace Massacre that wiped out King Birendra and his entire family to the coup by King Gyanendra against democracy, among others, the much-vaunted India–Nepal ‘special relationship’ has repeatedly experienced setbacks, some of them with long-term implications.
What are the real causes of regular anti-Indian eruptions in Nepal, and why is there so much mutual distrust and suspicion despite India’s best intentions? Anecdotal, definitive and deeply researched, Kathmandu Chronicle opens a window to many stories of India–Nepal relation that largely remain untold and therefore unknown till date.
In 1871, the British enacted the Criminal Tribes Act in India, branding numerous tribes and caste groups as criminals. In This Land We Call Home, Nusrat F. Jafri traces the roots of her nomadic forebears, who belonged to one such ‘criminal’ tribe, the Bhantus from Rajasthan.
This affecting memoir explores religious and multicultural identities and delves into the profound concepts of nation-building and belonging. Nusrat’s family found acceptance in the church, alongside a sense of community, theology, songs and carnivals, and quality education for the children in
missionary schools.
The family’s conversion to Christianity in response to caste society highlights their struggle for dignity. Parallelly, we see the family’s experiences during Gandhi’s return to India in 1915, the Partition, the World Wars, the Emergency and the prime ministers’ assassinations.
In a way, this is a story like and unlike the stories all of us carry within us—the inherited weight of who we are and where we come from, our tiny little freedoms and our everyday struggles and, mostly, the intricate jumble of our collective ancestry. Nusrat pays homage to her foremothers, the first feminists, and her forefathers, the ones who tried hard to fit into a caste society only to be disappointed, eventually choosing alternative faiths in pursuit of acceptance.
‘A great man in Indian politics’
—Dr Ram Manohar Lohia on Dr Ambedkar
Dr Ambedkar’s role in the cause of social emancipation has been researched and written about extensively. His part in the drafting of the Indian Constitution between 1946 and 1950 has also received considerable attention.
In The Foresighted Ambedkar, Anurag Bhaskar argues that India’s Constitution was drafted not just between 1946 and 1950 but over the course of four decades. Dr Ambedkar was the only person to have been involved at all the stages related to the drafting of the Indian constitutional document since 1919. These stages bear the imprint of his contribution and role.
This book seeks to focus on Dr Ambedkar’s influence on the Indian constitutional discourse from 1919, when he entered public life, until the actual writing of the Constitution and even beyond. Covering the different constitutional moments as and when they happened, it highlights Dr Ambedkar’s role in those moments.
A seminal work of intellectual and constitutional history, this volume demonstrates why Dr Ambedkar is rightly called the ‘Father of the Indian Constitution’.
THE ALGEBRA OF INFINITE JUSTICE brings together Arundhati Roy’s early political essays, from the iconic ‘The End of Imagination’ and ‘The Greater Common Good’ about India’s nuclear tests and the dam industry to the equally influential ‘The Algebra of Infinite Justice’ about the 9/11 attacks and the US government’s War Against Terror.
The essays in AN ORDINARY PERSON’S GUIDE TO EMPIRE draw the thread of empire through seemingly unconnected arenas, uncovering the links between America’s War on Terror, the growing threat of corporate power, the response of nation states to resistance movements, the role of NGOs, caste and communal politics in India, and the perverse machinery of an increasingly corporatized mass media.
THE SHAPE OF THE BEAST is a collection of fourteen interviews, conducted between January 2001 and March 2008, that examine the nature of state and corporate power as it has emerged during this period, and the shape that resistance movements are taking.
In eleven powerful, and closely argued, linked essays, LISTENING TO GRASSHOPPERS takes a hard look at the underbelly of the world’s largest democracy.
BROKEN REPUBLIC consists of four essays including ‘Walking with the Comrades’, a travelogue that reports on the conflict in the forested heartland of India where indigenous peoples’ lands have been handed over to corporate companies, and the widely read ‘Capitalism: A Ghost Story’ about the complex ways in which modern Capitalism works.
THE DOCTOR AND THE SAINT is about the debate between two of India’s most beloved and iconic figures, Dr B.R Ambedkar and Mohandas Gandhi.
Seventy-five years after Independence, India has much to be proud of. We are both the world’s biggest democracy and the fastest-growing large economy. Yet, we also face profound challenges that hinder both individual well-being and aggregate growth, including education and skills, health and nutrition, public safety, justice, social protection, and jobs.
This seminal book systematically analyses India’s governance challenges, especially in delivering essential public services, and highlights how these are limiting India’s development. Drawing on a wealth of research and practical insights, it provides actionable, evidence-based strategies, emphasizing state-level reforms as critical for India’s advancement.
Accelerating India’s Development is addressed to all Indians—leaders, officials, entrepreneurs, teachers, students, citizens, and civil society—and provides an urgent call to action. It argues that building a more effective state is the great unfinished task of Indian democracy, because quality public services are key to translating the political equality of ‘one person, one vote’ into greater equality of opportunity for all Indians.
Every chapter showcases the author’s dedication to bridging the gap between scholarly research, public understanding, and actionable governance. This book is a testament to cautious optimism and the belief that with the right public systems in place, India’s next twenty-five years can be a period of unprecedented growth and societal enrichment.
Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) is widely remembered as the fiery iconoclast who fought against the structures of oppression and orthodoxy. The iconic ‘rebel poet’ of Bengal, Nazrul continues to be loved for his songs and poetry. But what of his prose, his journalism, and his politics?
Selected Essays reveals to us the extraordinary versatility of Nazrul as an essayist. Addressing subjects as diverse as social reform, politics, communal harmony, environmental concerns, education, aesthetics, ethics, and philosophy, this rich collection showcases Nazrul’s dynamic vision and unique use of language as an instrument of change. The essays chart his evolving consciousness as a thinker, writer and activist, offering vivid glimpses of the ethos of his times, his relationships with leading figures such as Tagore and Gandhi, and his active engagement with social, political and cultural processes. These new translations bring Nazrul’s powerful voice to life, all its vibrant immediacy.
Today global democracy is at a crossroads because of the rise in polarized politics, authoritarian regimes and the use of social media to manipulate and amplify lies, hate and misinformation.
While electoral democracy continues to be the most prevalent form of government, a series of indicators measuring political and civic freedom reveal that the institution of democracy is in deep distress. With the liberal foundations of democracy shakier than ever before, confidence in institutions has plummeted. This book looks at this paradox of so-called democratic success coupled with its liberal decline. It provides a detailed analysis of the essence of democracy, its workings, the kind of values it needs to encapsulate, forces and safeguards which work in liberal democracy’s favour and how they can be preserved.
This book is meant to stimulate conversation, particularly among the youth on what the idea of democracy means to them and the role that they can play in helping democracy survive—and thrive—in the coming era.
The power sector and transportation tend to dominate conversations about climate change, but there’s an under-the-radar source of climate pollution that must be addressed: industry.
Globally, industrial activity is responsible for one-third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Though industry is a major emitter, it is essential for producing the tools we need to fight climate change—like wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles—and for meeting our everyday needs. How can industry eliminate its climate pollution while supplying transformational technologies?
This book delivers a first-of-its-kind roadmap for the zero-carbon industrial transition, spotlighting the breakthrough innovations transforming the manufacturing sector and the policies that can accelerate this global shift. Jeffrey Rissman illustrates the scope of the challenge, diving into the workings of heavy polluters like steel, chemicals, plastics, cement, and concrete. He examines ways to affordably decarbonize manufacturing, such as electrifying industrial processes, using hydrogen, deploying carbon capture and storage, and growing material efficiency with lightweighting and 3D printing. But technologies are only part of the picture. Enacting the right policies—including financial incentives, research and development support, well-designed carbon pricing, efficiency and emissions standards, and green public procurement—can spur investment and hasten emissions reductions. Rissman provides a framework to ensure that the transition to clean industry enhances equity, health, and prosperity for communities worldwide.
Engaging and comprehensive, Zero-Carbon Industry is the definitive guide to decarbonizing the vast—yet often overlooked—global industrial sector.
What would it take to achieve a genuinely food-secure world—one without hunger or malnutrition, where everyone gets to consume the right quantity and quality of food to live a healthy, active, and productive life?
Bringing about such a future requires transforming how our food is grown, managed, and distributed. From production to consumption, food systems must be sustainable, halting environmental degradation and even repairing the damage we have previously done.
This book provides an accessible guide to making healthy diets from sustainable food systems available to all. Glenn Denning bridges the divisive worlds of science, policy, and practice. He synthesizes the most relevant literature and shares personal perspectives and insights gained over four decades working in more than fifty countries, coupled with the real-world experience of hundreds of leading experts. Universal Food Security lays out key priorities—sustainable intensification, market infrastructure, postharvest stewardship, healthy diets, and social protection—and presents how to achieve food systems transformation.
Denning identifies the education and development of practitioner-leaders as the critical trigger of change. Universal Food Security informs and inspires those leaders—acting on their own and with others through institutions—to achieve a food-secure world. This book is an ideal handbook for students and practitioners looking to transform our food systems at all levels.
A provocative case for the inherently political nature of language.
In The Politics of Language, David Beaver and Jason Stanley present a radical new approach to the theory of meaning, offering an account of communication in which political and social identity, affect, and shared practices play as important a role as information. This new view of language, they argue, has dramatic consequences for free speech, democracy, and a range of other areas in which speech plays a central role.
Drawing on a wealth of disciplines, The Politics of Language argues that the function of speech―whether in dialogue, larger group interactions, or mass communication―is to attune people to something, be it a shared reality, emotion, or identity. Reconceptualizing the central ideas of pragmatics and semantics, Beaver and Stanley apply their account to a range of phenomena that defy standard frameworks in linguistics and philosophy of language―from dog whistles and covert persuasion to echo chambers and genocidal speech. The authors use their framework to show that speech is inevitably political because all communication is imbued with the resonances of particular ideologies and their normative perspectives on reality.
At a time when democracy is under attack, authoritarianism is on the rise, and diversity and equality are being demanded, The Politics of Language offers a powerful new vision of the language of politics, ideology, and protest.
