Böcker utgivna av Bloomsbury India

Ravi Dutt Bajpai examines some of the pivotal episodes in the modern history of China and India to argue that their behaviours reflect the self-identity of a civilization-state. The book starts from the progression of China and India into putatively modern polities during the colonial period, as the two indigenous societies imagined their national identities and nationalist aspirations primarily by contrasting their civilizational attributes with the Western colonial occupiers. As newly independent nation-states, both believed that their international status flowed from their civilizational glories. Therefore, despite their material and institutional fragility, China and India decided to pursue complete autonomy to manage their domestic and foreign affairs. Indian Prime Minister Nehru's policy of non-alignment, envisioning an alternate world order beyond the great power competition, was inspired by Indian civilizational ethos. The book also examines the Sino-Indian war of 1962 from a civilization-state perspective and argues that Tibet represented a conflict of civilizational influence.Chapters also explore some of the more recent developments, such as the Indian nuclear test of 1998, China's ambitious Belt and Road (BRI) infrastructure project aimed at reviving the ancient Silk Road, and India's campaign to regain its civilizational status of Vishwa Guru, as the continued manifestations of the two civilization-states endeavouring to regain their past glories in the contemporary world.

This book elaborates the politico-ideological viewpoints of Aurobindo, as displayed when he reigned as one of the major nationalist leaders defining Indian nationalism. Bidyut Chakrabarty examines Aurobindo's politico-ideological ideas during the period (1893-1910) when he was an active participant in the 'New Nationalist' or 'Democratic Nationalist' campaign, which started with the bifurcation of the Indian National Congress between the Moderates and Extremists (also known as the Revolutionary Nationalists) in its 1907 annual session, held at Surat.Chapters cover Aurobindo's distinctive ideas of nationalism, which he evolved in collaboration with his colleagues, especially Lal-Bal-Pal (Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal), and how he redefined the practice of nationalism. The book also demonstrates that unlike his predecessors, the Moderates, Aurobindo set out many strategies - including boycott and passive resistance - to execute the distinctive plan he designed to attain his politico-ideological goal. Other topics include the relatively less discussed aspect of Aurobindo's socio-political ideas, namely his unique model of education as an antidote to many of the crippling socio-cultural prejudices, and the importance of Bhagavad Gita in shaping Aurobindo's politico-ideological priorities.

This book explores narratives of nationalism in the Hindi novel (1940s-80s), engaging with mainstream, populist, political conceptualisation of a postcolonial nation and local, cultural, often marginalised fictional parallels and alternatives to it.Analysing processes of nation-formation and nationalism(s) via experiments with the novel form and versions of realism in Hindi, conversations between the political and the cultural, rural/borders and the urban/central spaces, individual subjectivity and social structures, and the challenges Hindi novels' internal linguistic diversity poses to formalised Hindi's hegemony, Imagining a Postcolonial Nation: Hindi Novels and Forms of India (1940s-80s) traces Hindi fiction's history of postcolonial India. The multiplicity of realisms indicates significant responses to postcolonial nationalism, idealistic, critical, regional, satirical and psychological.Looking at indigenous narrative methods employed by authors to critically evolve Western ideas of the nation and novel, the book explores the simultaneous convergences and divergences between literary and political understandings of ideological, religious and linguistic nationalisms. Surveying the broad sentiments of idealism, enchantment and disenchantment with freedom and postcoloniality, it studies the possibilities of fiction embodying national history without an outright commitment to mainstream nationalism or nationalist literary canon formation.It also briefly tries to understand the repercussions of nationalism as a masculinist project and its gendered nature affecting a section of writing, novels by women authors, to present counter-narratives to both national and literary canons. Choosing a fairly broad historical timeframe, the book reveals the radical potential of narratives that have over the years been critically categorised as canonical. It reopens discussions around nationalism within novels that have been often canonised as apparently uncritically nationalist.

Human interventions with living entities have had to be in a constant state of negotiating space necessary for co-habitation with animals, birds, trees, plants, grasslands, forests, hills, water bodies in the creation of villages and other settlements. The book argues that negotiating this space meant sharing, which impacted economic strategies, religious experiences, cultural interactions and oral performances that humans have strategized and preserved. This intersectional theme, through individual case studies, ultimately provides us the civilizational ethos of the Indian sub-continent on how human non-human relations informed it. The book provides a window on how this relationship was represented in a variety of material and literary texts, visual representations, archival records, folklore and oral testimonies. It brings to the fore these narratives over the longue durée to explicate the complex and delicate relationships in region specific ecological settings and thus give readers a perspective that crosses disciplinary and conceptual boundaries.

In this volume of writings from Bangla and Urdu literature, editors Rakhshanda Jalil and Debjani Sengupta raise issues of language, identity, nationhood and varied aspects of feminism and women's writings in the Indian subcontinent. Both the languages have lived a life across political borders and are spoken, read and loved by people across diverse geographical sites, including a large diaspora. They have had an afterlife after 1947 that helped them to refashion their cultural spheres in a divided land. Women's Writings from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh brings these languages together, to speak to each other and to showcase their strengths. By creating a platform for contemporary literary works, especially by women, it provides a new, radical view of the ways in which these languages have shaped women's creative universes.

Celebrated as the national poet of Bangladesh and fondly commemorated in India as the 'Rebel Poet', Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) is widely known for his poetry and music, although his political philosophy and anti-colonial revolutionary sentiments are best expressed in his journalistic writings.Nazrul's journalistic career spans across three key newspapers: Nabajug, Dhumketu and Langol. Editorials in Nabajug addressed a diverse range of subjects, including untouchability, racial discrimination, power structure and the importance of communal harmony. Dhumketu, perhaps the most signifi­cant amongst Nazrul's revolutionary contributions, became a testimonial to the reclamation of India's complete freedom, which eventually proved perilous for Nazrul. Langol, the mouthpiece of the Labour Swaraj Party, was the ­first Bengali paper speci­fically for and by the working class. It provided voice to the labourers and peasants, speaking self-reflexively about the nation's agro-economy.Kazi Nazrul Islam's Journalism brings together for the fi­rst time in English Nazrul's editorials published in the colonial Indian subcontinent and showcases Nazrul's far-reaching views on subjects close to his heart. By critically examining these essays, Arka Deb establishes Nazrul's relevance in the current times.

Kannagi and Silappatikaram are important parts of the cultural landscape of Tamil Nadu-the story has been told in many genres of literature and continues to be told. Every narrative, however, carries the imprint of the times it was released in. Kannagi through the Ages: From the Epic to the Dravidian Movement aims to understand the ways in which representations of Kannagi in the epic Silappatikaram differ in every new narrative. Looking at the portrayals of Kannagi in plays, commentaries and folk narratives, the book examines how representations of gender and culture have evolved over time. Focusing on the interrelationships between a text and a society as well as between society and the way it moulds the category of 'woman' at different times through symbols and icon, the author analyses the social, cultural and political processes that contributed to the emergence of Kannagi as an icon of Tamil culture and epitome of Tamil womanhood.

Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent: Development, Culture(s) and Representations explores the gaming culture of one of the most culturally diverse and populous regions of the world-the Indian subcontinent. Building on the author's earlier work on videogame culture in India, this book addresses issues of how discussions of equality and diversity sit within videogame studies, particularly in connection with the subcontinent, thereby presenting pioneering research on the videogame cultures of the region.Drawing on a series of player and developer interviews and surveys conducted over the last five years, including some recent ones, this book provides a sense of how games have become a part of the culture of the region despite its huge diversity and plurality and opens up avenues for further study through vignettes and snapshots of the diverse gaming culture. It addresses the rapid rise of videogames as an entertainment medium in South Asia and, as such, also tries to better understand the recent controversies connected to gaming in the region In the process, it aims to make a larger connection between the development of videogames and player culture, in the subcontinent and globally, thus opening up channels for collaboration between the industry and academic research, local and global.

Appreciating Melodrama: Theory and Practice in Indian Cinema and Television seeks to identify and appreciate the continual influence of the ancient Sanskrit drama treatise, the Natyashastra, and its theory of aesthetics, the rasa theory, on the unique narrative attributes of Indian cinema.This volume of work critically engages with a representative sample of landmark films from 100 years of Indian film history across genres, categories, regions and languages. This is the first time a case study-based rigorous academic review of popular Indian cinema is done using the Indian aesthetic appreciation theory of rasa (affect/emotion). It proposes a theoretical model for film appreciation, especially for content made in the melodramatic genre, and challenges existing First World/Euro-American film criticism canons and notions that privilege cinematic 'realism' over other narrative forms, which will generate passionate debates for and against its propositions in future studies and research on films.This is a valuable academic reference book for students of film and theatre, world cinema and Indian cinema studies, South Asian studies and culture, Indology and the 'Sociology of Cinema' studies. It is a must-have reference text in the curriculum of both practical-oriented acting schools, as well as courses and modules focusing on a theoretical study of cinema, such as film criticism and appreciation, and the history of movies and performance studies.

Nominated, 2023 Teaching Literature Book AwardIndian Science Fiction has evolved over the years and can be seen making a mark for itself on the global scene. Dalit speculative fiction writer and editor Mimi Mondal is the first SF writer from India to have been nominated for the prestigious Hugo award. In fact, Indian SF addresses themes such as global climate change. Debates around G.C.C are not just limited to science fiction but also permeate in critical discussions on SF. This volume seeks to examine the different ways by which Indian SF narratives construct possible national futures. For this looking forward necessarily germinates from the current positional concerns of the nation. While some work has been done on Indian SF, there is still a perceptible lack of an academic rigor invested into the genre; primarily, perhaps, because of not only its relative unpopularity in India, but also its employment of futuristic sights. Towards the same, among other things, it proposes to study the growth and evolution of science fiction in India as a literary genre which accommodates the duality of the national consciousness as it simultaneously gazes ahead towards the future and glances back at the past. In other words, the book will explore how the tensions generated by the seemingly conflicting forces of tradition and modernity within the Indian historical landscape are realized through characteristic tropes of SF storytelling. It also intends to look at the interplay between the spatio-temporal coordinates of the nation and the SF narratives produced within to see, firstly, how one bears upon the other and, secondly, how processes of governance find relational structures with such narratives. Through these, the volume wishes to interrogate how postcolonial futures promise to articulate a more representative and nuanced picture of a contemporary reality that is rooted in a distinct cultural and colonial past.

Horror Fiction in the Global South: Cultures, Narratives, and Representations believes that the experiences of horror are not just individual but also/simultaneously cultural. Within this understanding, literary productions become rather potent sites for the relation of such experiences both on the individual and the cultural front. It's not coincidental, then, that either William Blatty's The Exorcist or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude become archetypes of the re-presentations of the way horror affects individuals placed inside different cultures. Such an affectation, though, is but a beginning of the ways in which the supernatural interacts with the human and gives rise to horror. Considering that almost all aspects of what we now designate as the Global North, and its concomitant, the Global South - political, historical, social, economic, cultural, and so on - function as different paradigms, the experiences of horror and their telling in stories become functionally different as well. Added to this are the variations that one nation or culture of the east has from another. The present anthology of essays, in such a scheme of things, seeks to examine and demonstrate these cultural differences embedded in the impact that figures of horror and specters of the night have on the narrative imagination of storytellers from the Global South. If horror has an everyday presence in the phenomenal reality that Southern cultures subscribe to, it demands alternative phenomenology. The anthology allows scholars and connoisseurs of Horror to explore theoretical possibilities that may help address precisely such a need.

Political Economy of Social Change and Development in Nepal is an accessible contemporary political economic analysis of social change in Nepal. It considers whether and how Nepal's political economy might have been transformed since the 1950s while situating these changes in Nepal's modern history and its location in the global economic system. It assembles and builds on the scholarship on Nepal from a multidisciplinary and synoptic perspective. Focusing on localdiscourses, experiences and expectations of transformations, it draws our attention to how powerful historical processes are experienced and negotiated in Nepal and assess how these may, at the same time, produce ideas of equality, human rights and citizenship while also generating new forms of precarity.

Today there is a new battle going on over the 'idea of India', with some groups questioning if there ever was any real nation called 'India' prior to the British rule. Challenging this notion are those who claim that India has a profound national and cultural heritage since ancient times and was one of the main centres of civilization in the world, with its own characteristic ideals and practices born of dharma and yoga. The Constitution speaks of India that is Bharata, proclaiming this ancient name for the country. If we look at India as Bharata, the idea of the country and its unique identity and history become clear. Awaken Bharata is a plea for that eternal India to awaken and reclaim its esteemed place as the guru of nations, expressing once more its vast civilizational ethos. The book encourages a new vision of the country, linking its magnificent past with a more brilliant future. It emphasizes the role of a new 'intellectual kshatriya'-intellectual warriors of dharma-to challenge the inimical forces seeking to deny or displace India's great civilization.

For thousands of years, philosophers have been struggling to prove God. To modern atheists, these are monumental failures. Atheism, then, is the rational position. Or is it? By combining the most sophisticated philosophies (falsification, scientific method, confirmation holism) with the most advanced sciences (quantum, relativity, evolution theories), "Confessions Of A Dying Mind" takes a fresh look at this oldest and profoundest anxiety of man. Uniquely, the book is a novelized nonfiction - indeed, "the first philosophical novel on God". The story is set in the near-death experience of the atheistic protagonist, Albert Dyers. Its central plot proceeds as an adventurous investigation, argument after argument ... till a certain conclusion becomes inescapable. "Confessions" is laced with novel ideas found nowhere else. It is narrated in a highly readable language for all educated laypersons to comprehend with relative ease. The book is therefore a must-read for theists, atheists, and everyone else interested in exploring the relationship of God and science, in light of leading developments.

Today, we are leading our lives in mindless pursuit, unable even to articulate what we are pursuing. We are unhappy even after achieving what we desire. Happiness is all we want! suggests that the source of peace and happiness is within us, if we know the secret. The book's objective is to help us unlock that secret and attain a high level of overall well-being in order to lead a happy and fulfilling life and be the healthiest we can be, mentally and physically. A wide variety of tools and techniques are explained in simple language. Many real life experiences of the author as well as other people are interspersed through the book. Demystifying the spiritual aspect of wellbeing, this book integrates it with your life objectives. You can immensely improve not only the peace and happiness in your life but your beauty and appearance as well.

A lot of us are caught up in the race of acquiring and multiplying wealth. Often, this comes at the cost of harmony in relationships, health and emotional well-being. We fail to strike the right balance in life and believe that life is meant to be such. Then, there are others who believe that it's impossible to be materially successful and yet have peace and joy-believing that prosperity and peace cannot coexist. Hence, they either resort to the life of a recluse or lose themselves in material indulgence.Busting these myths related to money, Discover Your Real Wealth guides you to your true wealth of consciousness. It explains how your thoughts and emotions affect your consciousness and provides various techniques to retain and raise it. If you safeguard this wealth everything else will fall into place.The book explains the art of functioning in a relaxed state, enabling you to assuredly watch how all your wishes come to fruition, instead of struggling and hankering after them. A calming read during cacophonous times, the teachings of Sirshree will help you enjoy all the riches of the world and lead the path to the ultimate state of peace, success, harmony and abundance.

Islam does not discriminate between men and women. The Quran promises as much reward for a roza (fast), a Hajj or an act of charity for a woman as a man. At nearly 60 places, it asks both men and women to establish prayer, as opposed to merely offering prayer. Establishing prayer, scholars agree, is done through congregation. Men do it by praying in mosques. But what about women? They are denied the right to enter mosques across the Indian subcontinent. Women in Masjid aims to give voice to those women who have been denied their due by our patriarchal society. It tells the reader that Prophet Muhammad clearly permitted women to enter a mosque. It is a permission well respected in mosques across West Asia, Europe and America. Yet, in an overwhelming majority of mosques across India, women are virtually barred from entry. No explicit ban, just a tacit one. Drawing its arguments from the Quran and Hadiths, the book exposes the hypocrisy of men who deny women their right to pray in mosques in the name of religion, thus revealing entrenched patriarchal beliefs masquerading as faith.

Swami Vivekananda: The Journey of a Spiritual Entrepreneur details the events of Vivekananda's life, encompassing his transformation from a nameless wanderer to the most renowned representative of Hinduism of all times. In this book, we come across the Vivekananda who not only created history by delivering the Chicago Lecture in 1893 but also established the Ramakrishna Order through an unparalleled entrepreneurial spirit which brought to the fore his qualities as a decisive leader and an excellent communicator who reached out globally to convey the message of the Vedanta. These attributes of Vivekananda's personality have remained largely unexplored in most of the books written on him. This book also maps Hinduism and its present-day challenges vis-à-vis its attributes in light of Swami Vivekananda's philosophy and brings forth its contemporary relevance in a practical manner for the reader at a time when the fire of fundamentalism among different faiths has turned religions of the world essentially into separating factors within humanity. Further, it also contains detailed descriptions of practical approaches to translation that will help scholars build a comprehensive framework for translation of complex texts such as the Vedas and Upanishads. It finally concludes with the Indian media's articulate advocacy of Vivekananda's approach on a number of platforms in recent times, to unite humanity despite all its diversity as it is ever more relevant today.