Published 2006

Written in English, with a small proportion in Bengali, the book includes essays by emerging as well as internationally renowned writers and scholars (Dipesh Chakrabarty, Gayatri Spivak and so on) which discuss historical links between Melbourne & Kolkata; that examine the relation between memory and tram travel, ticketing and travelling; that revisit past events of the Tramjatra project; that locate Tramjatra in the context of western notions of public art, and in the context of debates on transculturalism and international education; and which unravel issues of translation in inter-cultural arts practice. The volume also includes short writings by a diverse range of participants and 'passengers' responding to and building upon the Tramjatra project. Supplemented with stunning visuals, this unique volume published simultaneously in India and Australia offers a journey through two cities and a contemporary relation between them via the medium of tramways.

Mick Douglas is an artist and senior lecturer in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT in Melbourne.

ISBN: 81-902272-4-6
Extent: 304pp.
Size: 120mmX160mm
Binding: Paperback
Price: Rs 295

'It is a collective voice of reason that comes shining through, with its definitive and inclusive spirit of the human struggle for dignity and equality.'
Mahesh Dattani
The Week

'….This anthology expands the reach and scope, and illuminates the presence of queer politics in different spaces in India. What is most impressive, however, is that it confronts the unquestioned, “compulsory” nature of heterosexuality in India, in a language that is not restricted to the academic.'
First City

To speak of sexuality, and of same-sex love in particular, in India today is simultaneously an act of political assertion, celebration, defiance and fear. Indeed, in times when the issue of queer sexuality is beginning to find more space in popular representation, as seen in recent Bollywood films and the mainstream media, this groundbreaking collection of writings states boldly and clearly that queer lives and politics are inextricably linked with each other. The words of this anthology are those of the queer community itself, spoken in their own voice, as one and yet as individuals, each of whom has a story to tell, and a view to share.

In giving voice to a concept, an identity and a politics that is only now, and slowly at that, beginning to enter the consciousness of the nation, the two editors of the anthology and its twenty-seven contributors discuss the queer mo(ve)ment in terms of its definition and composition; the legal challenges which face the community, particularly the activism against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code; queer protests and demonstrations which have played a strong role in building wider public consciousness about the issue; a burgeoning queer culture; and the everyday lives of queer people which become in themselves creative sites of resistance. The volume is divided into three parts. The first attempts to place the diverse sexuality-related struggles within a conceptual framework; the second narrates untold stories of activism, and critically reflects on the directions of the Indian queer movement; and the last, and perhaps the most critical, records the personal journeys of queer lives which articulate what it means to live a life on the margins of institutions such as marriage, monogamy and family. This volume is in many ways an unprecedented effort, as the voice of a community that refuses to be silenced, and the words on these pages are, perhaps, the beginning of its own moment of assertion.

Arvind Narrain graduated from the National Law School of India University, and did his LLM from Warwick University. He is the author of Queer: Despised Sexuality, Law and Social Change. He is currently working as a part of a collective of lawyers at the Alternative Law Forum based in Bangalore, a young group working on a critical practice of law.

Gautam Bhan is a queer rights activist and writer based in New Delhi who writes extensively on queer issues and social movements. He is a member of PRISM, Voices against Section 377, and the Nigah Media Collective.

ISBN: 81-902272-2-X
Extent: 288pp.
Size: Demy Octavo
Binding: Paperback
Price: Rs 295

In the late nineteenth century, as dominance of British power in India led to the imposition of an alien culture on indigenous life-ways, the entire world of local domestic life and its most intimate relationships became contested ground. This anthology offers translated selections from nine Bengali domestic manuals written by both men and women in the course of these debates and contestations. In simple and often colloquial language these ‘how to do it’ books act as guides to conducting relations within a family context, child rearing, and household management. Often presented in the form of an intimate dialogue between husband and wife in the dead of the night, the translations provide an unusual insight into the home of the Bengali bhadralok in colonial times. As one hurtles from one representation of middle-class reformism to another, it becomes clear that this anthology is an invaluable addition to the rather thin collection of translated primary sources of this period. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of gender studies, history, sociology, lay readers interested in the culture of the colonial period, as well as all informed women readers.

Judith E. Walsh is a professor in the Humanities and Languages Department at the State University of New York/ the College at Old Westbury and a Research Associate at Columbia University's Southern Asian Institute. She is the author of Growing Up in British India (Holmes & Meier 1983), and Domesticity in Colonial India: What Women Learned When Men Gave Them Advice.

ISBN: 81-902272-3-8
Extent: 280pp.
Size: Demy Octavo
Binding: Paperback
Price: Rs 325

Beautifully written. The best and most comprehensive study on Islamic mysticism in the English language.
Religious Studies Review

Students of Islam and of comparative religion--as well as those who respond to mysticism--are deeply in the author's debt for giving us what will surely be the standard treatment of Sufism for a long time to come.
America

Mystical Dimensions of Islam presents, for the first time, a balanced historical treatment of the transnational phenomenon of Sufism—Islamic mysticism—from its beginnings through the nineteenth century. Through her sensitivity and deep understanding of the subject, Annemarie Schimmel, an eminent scholar of Eastern religions, draws the reader into the mood, the vision, and the way of the Sufi in a manner that adds an essential ingredient to her analysis of the history of Sufism.

Besides exploring the origins of the mystical movement and its development through different stages, the author also examines the various aspects of mystical poetry in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Sindhi, Panjabi, and Pashto. The author skillfully demonstrates how Sufi ideals permeated the whole fabric of Muslim life, providing the average Muslim—villager or intellectual—with the virtues of perfect trust in God and the loving surrender to God's will.

Professor Schimmel's long acquaintance with Turkey, Iran, and the Indian subcontinent provides a unique emphasis to the study, and the author's personal knowledge of Sufi practice in these regions lends a contemporary relevance to her work.

This is the first time the work of this renowned Islamic studies scholar is being brought to India.

Annemarie Schimmel (1922-2003) was a renowned German scholar of Islam and author of eighty books, including Gabriel’s Wing: A Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1963), Triumphal Sun: A Study of the Works of Jalaloddin Rumi (1978), Islam in the Indian Subcontinent (1980), Muhammad is His Messenger (1985), Islamic Names (1989), A Two-Coloured Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poetry (1992), and Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam (1994),

Forming a pair with the classic, Aryans and British India, this pioneering work examines the phenomenon discussed in the former book from a different perspective and in a different local expression, that of colonial Madras in the Ellis years, especially the years from the founding of the College of Fort St George in 1812 to the untimely death of Ellis in 1819. This was a period when the most interesting interactions about languages and nations were taking place between Indian and English scholars in Madras, resulting eventually in a distinctive Madras School of Orientalism. In this book Trautmann in his trademark expertly incisive manner highlights the most spectacular and durable results of the intellectual production of the Madras School of Orientalism, which he calls the Dravidian proof. Mandatory reading for all students and scholars of ancient and modern Indian history, this book is a most compelling sequel to the classic Aryans and British India.

Thomas R. Trautmann is Professor of History and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, USA. He is the author of Dravidian Kinship (1981) and Lewis Henry Morgan and the Invention of Kinship (1987). He is the editor of Time, Histories and Ethnologies (co-edited 1995), Transformations of Kinship (1998), and The Aryan Debate (2004).

Since the late 1950s when he first began to paint, landscape elements have remained a constant point of reference in Paramjit Singh’s canvasses. With titles as innocuous as Monsoon Light, Red in the Woods, Evening Light, and Lakes these canvasses throw open to the viewer and collector an exquisite mélange of colour, light, and the fragrance of the vibrant countryside. In this present volume, noted art critic, Ella Datta, familiarises the reader and art lover with details of the veteran artist’s life, the influences which shaped his art, and the streams of thought which gave substance to the mystical landscapes that he is renowned for. Based on extensive interviews with the artist, the volume includes some of his best-known work, which includes landscapes, as well as the more rarely seen black & white drawings and pastels. Ella Datta’s eminently readable account of the artist’s life and work is supplemented by valuable photographs from the Singh family archives.

Ella Datta is a well-known art critic, regularly contributing articles on contemporary Indian art to national dailies such as the Hindustan Times and the Telegraph. She is also the author of a number of titles on contemporary Indian artists including Ganesh Pyne: His Life and Times (1998).

Maya Sharma…argues that the issue of same sex relationships between women in India is not necessarily an urban phenomenon…she feels that the women’s movement ought to do more than just empathise with such women.
The Hindu

An unusual new book by Maya Sharma documents the lives of lesbian women in rural and unprivileged India. Thrice oppressed? Not quite. What emerges are startling stories of freedom.
Gautam Bhan
Tehelka

The narratives in this volume constitute immense challenges and small but profoundly significant triumphs. Located within a personal journey of emergence from a space fraught with silences and half-truths, the book documents the life-stories of ten working-class queer women living in north India. In doing so, it dispels the myth that lesbians in India are all urban, westernized and come from upper and middle classes. These real-life narratives create a space for voices with little or no privilege, providing these women with an opportunity to share their lived realities with one another and with others. The stories effectively challenge the notion of women as sexual beings without agency, and it is hoped, will influence the women’s movement towards an inclusion of lesbian women in the movement.

Maya Sharma, a feminist, is an activist in the Indian Women’s Movement. She is, at present, working with a grassroots women’s organization, called Vikalp in Baroda, Gujarat.

ISBN: 81-903634-1-7
Extent: 204pp.
Size: Demy Octavo
Binding: Paperback
Price: Rs 245

A scooter ride of a book, whizzing past the intriguing metaphors of Tamil culture….scholarly, relaxed and informal…'
Shiv Visvanathan
Outlook

'Few are the scholars who now travel between these now separate [bilingual] worlds [of English and the mother tongue]. One of these exceptions is the brilliant social historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy, who writes fluently in English and more fluently in Tamil….'
Ramachandra Guha

'A.R. Venkatachapathy deftly combines social and cultural history, and draws on a spectrum of literary sources…. [His essay on coffee] could also form part of an as yet unwritten history of consumption in colonial India.'
Sanjay Subrahmanyam

This delightful new volume represents that rare thing in Indian history-writing—a thoroughly engaging read! Venkatachalapathy’s writings on the cultural history of nineteenth-century Tamil Nadu would be enjoyed equally by both the academic-minded scholar looking for a nuanced and lucid narrative based on thorough research, as well as the lay informed reader in search of a classic good read.

'Here is a scholar whose writing is scholarly but also lucid and engaging. What’s more, Lorenzen is not into political posturing, so he has no problem in taking controversial stands, if evidence demands….Lorenzen’s position on religious conflict in ancient and medieval India steers clear of both those who magnify it and those who deny it. But Lorenzen also recognizes the internal divisions and diversity within Hinduism.'
Upinder Singh
Tehelka

A significant collection of essays by a renowned scholar of religious studies, the present volume contains ten essays that discuss the history of religious movements and religious ideologies in India. The volume begins with an essay which asks and seeks to answer the rather provocative question: who invented Hinduism? Most of the essays included here attempt to uncover and criticize scholarly arguments that the author feels are based as much on ideology or conventional inherited opinions as on the evidence available in historical documents. For instance, in the lead essay about the supposed invention of Hinduism by the British, he argues that the concept of a Hindu religion was clearly recognized by Hindus themselves at least as far back as the beginning of the fifteenth century. Thought-provoking in style and lucid in composition, this volume will be of much interest to students and scholars of religious history, medieval Indian history, sociology, anthropology, and South Asian studies.

David N. Lorenzen, a senior scholar of religious studies, is Professor of South Asian History at the Center for Asian and African Studies, El Colegio de Mexico. He has authored and edited numerous significant publications, which include Kabir Legends and Ananta-das's Kabir Parachai (1991), The Kapalikas and Kalamukhas: Two Lost Saivite Sects (1991), Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action (1995), Praises to a Formless God: Nirguni Texts from North India (1996) and Religious Movements in South Asia 600-1800 A.D. (2004).

ISBN: 81-902272-6-2
Extent: 308pp.
Size: Demy Octavo
Binding: Hardback
Price: Rs 595

'Ruth Vanita's Gandhi's Tiger and Sita's Smile is a major contribution to public debates on issues of gender and sexuality that frames these issues in highly original and provocative ways. Vanita has an astonishing ability to make texts speak to each other. Her intimacy with medieval devotional literature, Urdu poetry as well as modern forms of popular culture result in essays that are sparkling with wit and humor and will make us reexamine what it is to become man, to become woman, or to become animal.'
Veena Das

'Ruth Vanita’s scholarship is staggering. She scours
the intellectual landscape, from the Upanishads to writers of our times, from the tale of Oedipus to that of Ashtavakra, from Sappho to the story of lesbian love in the Bengal version of the Padma Purana. And, through it all, she builds up a case for a more humane society and for the tolerance of diversity, deftly demonstrating how the celebration of diversity has roots in ancient India.'
Kaushik Basu

The essays in this collection, written over the last five years, interrogate a variety of Indian texts and contexts along intersecting axes of gender, nation, and desire, addressing both the material and the representational. A couple of these essays grew out of seeds planted during the author’s years at Manushi (she is co-founder of this ground-breaking Indian feminist magazine). Most others emerged from further research in areas that first opened up to Vanita while working on Same-Sex Love in India and her subsequent books, Queering India and Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West. Intertextuality is a primary theme in these essays. Vanita is interested in the ways in which medieval texts speak to each other and draw on earlier canonical works, rewriting and transforming narrative in a spirit of respectful conversation. In very different registers, modern texts, such as nineteenth-century poetry and twentieth-century fiction and cinema, also converse with each other and with older texts. Another equally interesting but distinctly different area of enquiry addressed in these essays is the way texts are received in later periods or by other cultures in the same period. Boldly written, and addressing a number of issues which South Asian society would ‘rather not talk about’, this is a timely volume which effectively narrows the seemingly looming gap between sexuality and gender.

Ruth Vanita is Professor of Liberal Studies and Women’s Studies at the University of Montana.