India has the second-largest legal profession in the world, but the systemic delays and chronic impediments of its judicial system inspire little confidence in the common person. In India’s Legal System, renowned constitutional expert and senior Supreme Court lawyer Fali S. Nariman explores possible reasons. While realistically appraising the criminal justice system and the performance of legal practitioners, he elaborates the different aspects of contemporary practice, such as public interest litigation, judicial review and activism. In lucid, accessible language, Nariman discusses key social issues such as inequality and affirmative action, providing real cases as illustrations of the on-ground situation.
This frank and thought-provoking book offers valuable insights into India’s judicial system and maps a possible road ahead to make justice available to all.
On 6 March 1967; fifty-eight-year-old Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai became chief minister of Madras state; when his party; the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK); swept to power for the first time. Marking the pinnacle of his public life; it reflected his popularity among ordinary people who revered him as Anna; or elder brother. This rich biography illuminates his many lives-as a charismatic leader of modern India; as a stalwart of the Dravidian movement; as the founder of the DMK; as spokesman for the South-besides documenting his abilities as an acclaimed orator and littérateur in Tamil and English; and as a stage actor.
Born into a weaving caste family in Kanchipuram; Anna was exposed to the non-Brahmin politics of the Justice Party during his college years and this interest led him to become a protégé of the radical thinker Periyar E.V. Ramasamy in 1935. Anna promoted his mentor’s ideas of Self-Respect and Tamil identity but not his atheism. Like him; he attacked Brahminism and ‘Aryan’ values as the cause of Tamil political and cultural decadence and opposed the imposition of Hindi as the official language. In 1962 Anna took his independent Dravida Nadu demand to the Rajya Sabha; threatening the nation’s unity. Importantly; he used public speaking; journalism; theatre; cinema and agit-prop to broaden the base of the party; which drew renowned film actors into its fold; a bond that endures to this day.
The book does not shy away from the controversies that surrounded the Dravidian movement and candidly examines Anna’s complex relationship with Periyar. It records Anna’s move to form the DMK in 1949; his split with Sampath in 1961 over the party’s strategy and course; and his disillusionment with the corruption and power politics he witnessed as chief minister.
Kannan draws on Anna’s considerable body of writing; the memoirs of other leaders and authors in Tamil; including critics like the poet Kannadasan; Jayakanthan and P. Ramamurti; apart from secondary sources. Featuring luminaries like Rajagopalachari and Kamaraj; Kalaignar Karunanidhi and MGR; among many others; Anna offers a warm and rounded portrait of a man who showed the way for the democratic expression of regional aspirations within a united India.
Battles in the Mind provides a unique insight into the human spirit, the beauty of trials and tribulations, and the subsequent emergence of a positive self. In the book, author Anna Chandy, co-founder of the Live, Love, Laugh Foundation along with actress Deepika Padukone, shares her deeply moving personal story sprinkled with highs and lows, and how she found a way out of it. She also shares techniques of transactional analysis, and how mental health issues can be dealt with to bring about a difference in people’s lives. Battles in the Mind is a book about hope and a way to transition from pain to happiness and success.
If you’re new to writing prompts, indulge in all the different ways you can kick-start the creator inside of you. If you’re a veteran of writing prompts from the Internet or newspapers, you will find comfort in familiar formats, but also challenge yourself with ones you’ve never seen before and discover interests and abilities that you didn’t even know you had.
From casual flash fiction authors and scriptwriters to non-fictioneers and branding executives, this book will set your creativity on fire. Be a story alchemist. Transform your writing. And above all else, have fun doing it!
As India approaches its seventy-fifth year of Independence, its people continue to grapple with multiple discourses: a few from the left, a considerable sum from the right and an impressive lot from the centre. This book brings together diverse views from people across a wide spectrum of life-politicians, activists, administrators, artistes, academicians-who offer their idea of India. With a contextual introduction by Nidhi Razdan, this politically charged, argumentative, candid and humorous book opens a window to our understanding of India that largely remained untold and unknown for a long time.
Among all disciples of Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita occupies pride of place. Margaret Noble arrived at India’s shores in the late nineteenth century, took the vows of a brahmacharini, and devoted the rest of her life to the cause of India. Apart from educating women, Nivedita wrote valuable treatises on Hindu thought and Indian culture, inspiring nationalist sentiment and unity. She won over leading national figures of the day with her fierce intellect, and even influenced the ending of Rabindranath Tagore’s novel, Gora. Known to be ‘drunk with India’, she provided immense professional support to the brilliant scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose; dialogued with great leaders like G.K. Gokhale and Aurobindo Ghosh; and inspired Abanindranath Tagore to create a painting that eventually became the iconic Bharat Mata. In this compelling biography, the author traces the development of Margaret from a loyal Irish woman into Sister Nivedita, and finally into ‘Lok Mata’ or ‘People’s Mother’-a title bestowed on her by Tagore. She draws on Nivedita’s vast corpus of writings and personal letters to provide an intimate view of her life and thought. Through an insightful and moving narrative, Margot reveals the feisty, irrepressible spirit behind one of India’s greatest friends.
‘We are warriors, Painda. The Khalsa does not think of war as entertainment; death is not a joke, killing men is no festival,’ said Gobind.
A boy grows up, suddenly, into adulthood when he is brought the severed head of his father. He is born to rule but never acts like a monarch. Invincible as a warrior, he has the soul of a mystic. Poetry fills his heart. Few men before or after him have used a bow as he does, few men mastered their sword like him. Guru Gobind Singh turned villagers into warriors, sent shivers up the spine of the army of Aurangzeb and set the foundation stone of the great Sikh empire. The Sacred Sword is a historical fiction based on his life and legend.
Born into the Muhammadzai tribe, from the Charsadda valley in the Pakhtun heartland, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a passionate believer in the nonviolent core of Islam and sought to wean his people-the fierce warrior Pakhtuns or Pathans of the North-West Frontier Province-from their violent traditions and fight for a separate Pakhtun homeland that would no longer be a buffer between Russia and Britain in the Great Game.
In 1929 came Mahatma Gandhi’s call for nonviolent resistance against British rule and Badshah Khan responded by raising the Khudai Khidmatgars (Servants of God), an army of 1,00,000 men who pledged themselves to the service of mankind and nonviolence as a creed. For this, and for his steadfast devotion to his principles, this towering figure was imprisoned for a total of twenty-seven years, first by the British and later by the Pakistani government.
This is a perceptive biography that offers fresh insights into the life and achievements of an extraordinary man, drawing close parallels with the life of Mahatma Gandhi, his brother in spirit.The author looks at Ghaffar Khan ‘with the spectacles of today rather than those of 1947’, emphasizing that for people in the twenty-first century who live in the shadow of 9/11, Badshah Khan’s unwavering commitment to nonviolence and Hindu-Muslim unity offers valuable lessons.
The idea of Pakistan stands riddled with tensions. Initiated by a small group of select Urdu-speaking Muslims who envisioned a unified Islamic state, today Pakistan suffers the divisive forces of various separatist movements and religious fundamentalism. A small entrenched elite continue to dominate the country’s corridors of power, and democratic forces and legal institutions remain weak. But despite these seemingly insurmountable problems, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan continues to endure. The Pakistan Paradox is the definitive history of democracy in Pakistan, and its survival despite ethnic strife, Islamism and deep-
seated elitism.
This edition focuses on three kinds of tensions that are as old as Pakistan itself. The tension between the unitary definition of the nation inherited from Jinnah and centrifugal ethnic forces; between civilians and army officers who are not always in favour of or against democracy; and between the Islamists and those who define Islam only as a cultural identity marker.
The biryani is India’s most beloved dish-one that has spread to all the four corners
of the country and assumed many forms.
It originated in the Mughal courts, flowering in the jagirs of Awadh, and it is in Lucknow, Delhi and
the small Muslim principalities of north India that one finds the classic versions, subtle, refined and
delicately flavoured. Pratibha Karan gives us not just the definitive recipes from these regions but
unearths rare and old dishes such as a biryani made with oranges, Rose Biryani and Kebab Biryani.
In the south, the biryani has an equally distinguished lineage, if not more so. There are the blue-blooded
biryanis of Hyderabad which include gems such as the Doodh ki Biryani, Keeme ki biryani
and Bater ki biryani. Away from the royal courts, the biryani has adapted itself into a spicy local
delicacy in Tamil Nadu, with many towns like Salem, Aambur, Dindigul boasting of their own
signature version of the dish. Kerala too is home to many-a prawn biryani spiced with curry leaves
and aniseed, a mutton one laced with star anise.
There are as many stunning variations in the east and west-Goan biryanis using vinegar and
olives; unusual dishes from the Parsi and Sindhi communities; Bengali adaptations using fish and
mustard seeds, even a dish from Assam!
Immaculately researched, full of extraordinary recipes, and beautifully designed and photographed,
Biryani is the ultimate book on this princely dish.
