Books published by OUP India

This book is a significant contribution to this discourse on land. Land is a subject of great conflict and debate in India. Over the past decade, the debate has focused on land acquisition, which some have called India's biggest problem. Land and the issues related to its acquisition have heavily influenced electoral verdicts and political fortunes in various parts of India. A new law for acquisition was created by the left-of-center Congress-led UPA government in2013, which was immediately sought to be amended (unsuccessfully) in 2014 by the newly elected right-wing BJP-led NDA government. These differing visions on acquisition have often been simplified into opposing camps: people-friendly vs. business-friendly; o

SDR 2018 takes an overview of economic, social, regional and gender inequalities that persist in India. Despite a growth in the country's GDP, access to health, education, employment, credit or property still remains difficult for various sections of society. Poverty and debt is very high among SCs, STs, women and other vulnerable groups.

Reconsidering American Power offers trenchant studies by renowned scholars who reassess the role of the social sciences in the construction and upkeep of the Pax Americana. The thematic image for this enterprise is the 'fiery hunt' for Ahab's whale, which focuses attention on the strange brew of mixed motives for American ventures abroad. The reach of Pax Americana exceeds its grasp, but this verdict requires deeper insight than simply flushing out cultural premisesand conceptual limits. The volume's purpose is to understand the USA's 'fiery hunt,' and thereby to help to end it.

This book brings together contribution from 21 Indian and global scholars and journalists to write informatively and critically about Indian journalism today. The contributors in this volume focus on the changes in journalism practices within the context of India's long journalism history, socio-economic conditions of the Indian state, and minority politics.

This book examines the contemporary nature of caste disparities in India by using a framework that integrates discussions on caste from other social science disciplines with those from within economics. It brings together quantitative evidence on different dimensions of caste disparities based on two large national-level data sets, in order to analyse the degree of change in the caste system over the last two decades. Offering evidence based on economic analysis, itquestions commonly-held views and challenges traditional wisdom.

Religions in South Asia have tended to be studied in blocks, whether in the various monolithictraditions in which they are now regarded, thus Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, or indeed intemporal blocks: ancient, medieval, modern. This volume seeks to look at relationships both withinand between religions. It explores the diversity and the multiplicity within each tradition, but also thespecific forms of their co-existence with each other, whether in accord or in antagonism. Its secondmajor concern is to look for grounds shared in the process of modernizing. And finally, it also looks atthe changing social and political frames of reference shared by both religious and secularist strandsof thought. The 'religions' targeted include Hindu discourses, Dalits, Jains, Sikhs, Islamic traditionsincluding the various Sufi orders, and Indian Christians.

Digital India is shaped by political and economic considerations. This book places Digital India in its local and global contexts and attempts to account for its dynamism, its contestations, its key actors including the State, civil society and foreign governments such as the USA - in other words, the multifaceted shapings of Digital India

In 1909, while still in South Africa, Gandhi publicly decried the caste system for its inequalities. Shortly after his return to India though, he spoke of the generally beneficial aspects of caste. Gandhi''s writings on caste reflect contradictory views and his critics accuse him of neglecting the unequal socio-economic structure that relegated Dalits to the bottom of the caste hierarchy. So, did Gandhi endorse the fourfold division of the Indian society or was hetruly against caste? In this book, Nishikant Kolge investigates the entire range of what Gandhi said or wrote about caste divisions over a period of more than three decades: from his return to India in 1915 to his death in 1948. Interestingly, Kolge also maps Gandhi''s own statements that undermined hisstance against the caste system. These writings uncover the ''strategist Gandhi'' who understood that social transformation had to be a slow process for the conservative but powerful section of Hindus who were not yet ready for radical reforms. Seven decades after it attained freedom from colonial powers, caste continues to influence the socio-political dynamics of India, and Gandhi against caste ΓÇöthe battle is not over yet.

This edited volume is dedicated to the study of social, economic, and political elites in India. It's contributors address some fundamental questions regarding India's social and economic elites, the change in their composition in recent years, their relationship with each other and with the rest of the social body, and the role of caste in the configuration and reconfiguration of social and economic elites by analysing elite discourses andrepresentations.

Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India for sixteen years, was as charismatic as she was controversial-at once admired and criticized for her political judgements and actions. Yet beyond such debate, what has not been fully understood is her life-long communion with nature and how that defined her very being. Weaving personal, political, and environmental history, politician-scholar Jairam Ramesh narrates the compelling story of Indira Gandhi, the naturalist. He tellsus why and how she came to make a private passion a public calling; how her views on the environment remained steadfast even as her political and economic stances changed; how her friendships with conservationists led to far-reaching decisions to preserve India''s biodiversity; how she urged,cajoled, and persuaded her colleagues as she took significant decisions particularly regarding forests and wildlife; and how her own finely-developed instincts and beliefs resulted in landmark policies, programmes, initiatives, laws, and institutions, that have endured. Drawing extensively from unpublished letters, notes, messages, and memos, Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature offers a lively, conversational narrative of a relatively little known but fascinating aspect of Indira Gandhi''stumultuous life. Equally, the book acts as a compass to India at a time when the country faces the formidable challenge of ensuring ecological security and sustainability in its pursuit of high economic growth.

Who was Sir B N Rau and why is it important to remember him in the history of the Indian constitution? This book answers this question by taking us into the years leading to India's independence and the framing of the Indian constitution. In recovering his ideas by revisiting the political context of the day, one understands why he must be remembered and why, unfortunately, he has been forgotten.

Part of the ''Occasional Papers'' series of CSSSC, this essay is a brief, and sharply posed, exchange between Dipesh Chakrabarty and Ranajit Das Gupta on working class consciousness in Bengal. it posits that this consciousness is not a mechanical outcome of the capitalist mode of production, it is not a thing but a process; that even failure must be taken on board in order to flesh out that process; that not only was the working class present (and therefore conscious)of its own making, but drew from rich pre-capitalist cultural traditions of dissent, rebellion and republicanism. The essay asks pertinent questions about the morality of labour, history of peasant revolts, capitalist intervention, religious discrimination among labourers etc.

Dark Fear, Eerie Cities analyzes a film form that began to emerge in Hindi cinema in early 21st century. The author locates the new cinematic development in a much broader context of cultural change in contemporary India, and traces the roots of imagining India darkly.

This volume is a compilation of thematically arranged essays that critically analyse emerging developments, issues, and perspectives across different branches of law. It presents cutting-edge research from scholars around the world with the view that comparative study would initiate dialogue on law and legal culture across jurisdictions.

The book is a timely contribution in the context of the sustainable development goals pursued globally and the need for India to re-examine its infant and child mortality reduction policy. The book builds the argument with a strong theoretical framework and political philosophy such as John Rawls'

This book is an important contribution to critical literature on public administration in India. It examines efforts at administrative reforms and the shifts that created new institutions and practices that are being planted on the existing foundations inherited from colonial rule. The book argues that hybrid architecture for delivering public goods and services has been the most significant transformation to be institutionalized in the current era. This is marked bythe blurred boundaries between public values of access and equity and the interests of private profit, as well as the erosion of democratic accountability.

The Oxford India Gandhi looks beyond the plaster-cast image of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Mahatma. Gandhi''s autobiography ends in the late 1920s, several historic years before his assassination in 1948. This book seeks to fill that void left by Gandhi himself. Edited by Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the book tells Gandhi''s story in his own wordsΓÇö-the story of his life as he himself might have narrated it to a grandchild.Through speeches and articles, and also the more informal diary entries, letters, and conversations, the writings unfold chronologically unexplored facets of Gandhi''s evolving world view, his responses to persons and events, relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. The result is a collection that manages to look beyond the oft-repeated detailsΓÇö-into the little things that almost always went unnoticed. As for example his playful retort ''Ask Mrs Gandhi'' when asked whether he eversuffered from nerves, or his condemning of spitting in public places as ''a national vice'', or his telling response ''You will be as free as any scavenger'' to the zamindar who had asked him what will become of them (meaning the zamindars) when India became independent.Gopalkrishna Gandhi''s general and part introductions locate the writings in their proper context, while the detailed notes provide a wealth of additional information for interested readers and explain the relevance of selected entries. The photographs that preface each part vivify a life that roused a million hearts and spearheaded one of the greatest marches to freedom ever witnessed in human history.The Oxford India Gandhi offers a look into the personal life of one of the subcontinent''s most public figures of all time. Part of Oxford University Press''s prestigious ''Oxford India Collection'', the book is as much for those who know Gandhi as for young readers encountering the Mahatma for the first time.This special edition commemorates Mahatma Gandhi''s sesquicentennial year and includes a new Introduction by Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

This is a short introduction to the life and ideas of Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India's first prime minister, aimed at the general readers and the students.

Charting the country's interactions with other countries from the early days of independence to now, Indian Diplomacy reviews the changes in stance. Lucidly written and well argued, the book covers these and other questions comprehensively, without fuss or bombast. A much-needed book in light of the sweeping changes on the global stage-and India's increasing role in them.

Biographical essays-mini-biographies for each of the first 93 (1950-1989) judges of the Supreme Court of India, most of the contents collected by the author from interviews with the judges. By whom and why each was chosen is discussed for the first time. Attention is paid to changes in their backgrounds and the selection processes over the four decades.

With the demolition of the Babri Masjid and subsequent riots of the late 1980s and 1990s in Uttar Pradesh, the period that followed appeared relatively peaceful. Only at the turn of the century, India witnessed a strong wave of communalism in early 2000s. After the Godhra riots of Gujarat in 2002, Uttar Pradesh saw a series of themΓÇöin Mau in 2005, Lucknow in 2006, Gorakhpur in 2007, and Muzaffarnagar in 2013ΓÇöannouncing the return of fundamentalism in the BharatiyaJanta Party''s core agenda of Hindutva politics. Everyday Communalism not only attempts to explore the anatomy of a Hindu-Muslim riot and its aftermath, but also examines the inner workings that enable deep-seated polarization between communities. Pai and Kumar show that frequent, low-intensity communal clashes pegged on routine everyday issues and resources help establish a permanent anti-Muslim prejudice among Hindus legitimizing majoritarian rule in the eyes of an increasingly polarized, intolerant, and entitled majority community ofHindus. Uttar Pradesh''s rising cultural aspirations; economic anxieties to move away from its traditionally backward status; a deep caste-marked agrarian crisis; and sharp inequalities and acute poverty further play into the making a new post-Ayodhya phase of Hindutva politics.

The first of its kind, this book delineates the strategies and tactics employed by the Indian state through its clientele governments and patronage democracies to manage the conflicted state of Jammu and Kashmir. In the process the book unfolds the nature and functioning of the state, politics and governance in Kashmir after 1947.

This volume is an adda of great minds, spanning generations and multiple nationalities. Through lively engagements emerge key insights into the ideas, writings, and life of one of the foremost intellectuals of our time in Indian and global scholarship, thought, and dissent-Ashis Nandy.

Untangling the logical, lexical, and semantic patterns of the multiple official speeches of Indian prime ministers, Speaking the Nation gauges how the Indian state has been projected by different governments in different times, in the face of challenges from internal and external actors that put pressure on its leaders to safeguard their status as legitimate elites in power.

Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha (1883-1942) was an exceptional ruler, a princely ''rebel'' who resisted the paramount power in different ways. Forced to abdicate in 1923 ostensibly on account of ''maladministration'', Ripudaman Singh was sent to Kodaikanal in 1928, where he died after 14 years in captivity without any recourse to judicial appeal.Set against the backdrop of Indian nationalism, Sikh resurgence, and British paramountcy, J.S. Grewal and Indu Banga trace the Maharaja''s political career, revealing the devious ways in which the paramount power dealt with traditional nobility. They explore his career, education, and upbringing to explain his ideological stance, appreciation for Indian nationalism, and his active involvement in the Sikh reformist movement.Moved by Panthic and nationalist concerns, the Maharaja of Nabha bridged ''Indian India'' and British India through the concerns he affirmed, reforms he introduced, and the causes he espoused as a patriot.

Talking Architecture (Revised Edition) is one of the latest additions in the series of Ramin Jahanbegloo's interviews of prominent intellectuals who have influenced modern Indian thought. It focuses on the life, work, and ideas of Raj Rewal, one of India's leading contemporary architects. This revised edition includes an extended conversation between Rewal and Jahanbegloo and also about 40 additional visuals.