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Serving India : A Political Biography of Subimal Dutt (1903-1992), India's Longest Serving Foreign Secretary /
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This is the first academic biography of Subimal Dutt, best known as India's longest serving Foreign Secretary, covering the nearly nine eventful decades of his life. It tells the story how a Bengali village boy without any connections had one of the most distinguished careers of his generation without ever forgetting his roots. Struggling all his life between professional ambition and deep spirituality, Dutt never transformed into one of those 'brown Englishmen' so typical of South Asia's civil servants, but remained a strictly impartial, straightforward and incorruptible officer of - as he formulated it himself - the 'vernacular type'. Intellect and discipline brought him into the Indian Civil Service and soon to Delhi, where he excelled as an outstanding administrator and moved into the field of foreign relations. After an interlude as Indian Agent in Malaya, as Bengal's Secretary for Agriculture he held a most important posting during the Second World War. Working closely with Nehru in his capacity as Commonwealth and later Foreign Secretary for over twelve years, he became one of the most influential advisors of India's first Prime Minister. His career seemed to come to an end as Secretary to the President and later Vigilance Commissioner, but in 1972 he was appointed India's first High Commissioner to Bangladesh, building bridges between the country of his birth and the one he had chosen in 1947. Though Dutt made it a point to be nearly invisible throughout his career, thereafter he did everything possible to be rediscovered posthumously.
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1 online resource (616 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004752467
Culture, Vernacular Politics, and the Peasants: India, 1889-1950 : An Edited Translation of Swami...
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India's twentieth-century struggle for political freedom was and remains an epic achievement in the human experience. Quite apart from its global influence, this is perhaps as familiar a story as it is remarkable, given the legacy of Gandhi, among others of that small generation of founders, whose unique leadership roles are rightly considered to have been transformational in the achievement of freedom in 1947, and in the promulgation of the Constitution of January 1950. But it must then also be said that the roles of the founding leadership were balanced and in many ways defined by the people of India themselves, primarily its peasants, whether the generic masses of Gandhi's definition and direction, or the independent and self aware peasants of the field. It is this broader peasant story, and particularly that of the deeply engaged peasants of the kisan andolan, the peasant movement of the late 1920s and the 1930s, that appears here in the words of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. It was their shared experience, or as Sahajanand put it more pointedly and more accurately, their common struggle. In fact, Sahajanand and the peasants had lived this history, and the Swami recorded it for posterity in his 1952 Hindi memoir Mera Jivan Sangharsh ( My Life Struggle ), translated here for the first time by Walter Hauser and Kailash Jha. Given Sahajanand's direct involvement in this history, his representation of the peasant story from the perspective of the peasants amounts to a paradigm shift in how the lives of the peasants of India have been understood and represented over time, either in politics or in scholarship. The intimacy, detail, and ethnographic richness of peasant activism as conveyed by Sahajanand is simply unique. This is true for many reasons, not least because the peasants understood fully what their struggles and movement meant, not only in social, cultural, and economic terms, but equally so in political, conceptual, and ultimately in human terms. It was their voice, loud and clear, and hence their history.
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1 online resource (760 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753921
My Life Struggle : A Translation of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati's Mera Jivan Sangharsh /
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India's twentieth-century struggle for political freedom was and remains an epic achievement in the human experience. Quite apart from its global influence, this is perhaps as familiar a story as it is remarkable, given the legacy of Gandhi, among others of that small generation of founders, whose unique leadership roles are rightly considered to have been transformational in the achievement of freedom in 1947 and in the promulgation of the Constitution of January 1950. But it must then also be said that the roles of the founding leadership were balanced and in many ways defined by the people of India themselves, primarily its peasants, whether the generic masses of Gandhi's definition and direction, or the independent and self- aware peasants of the field. It is this broader peasant story, and particularly that of the deeply engaged peasants of the kisan andolan, the peasant movement of the late 1920s and the 1930s, that appears here in the words of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. It was their shared experience, or as Sahajanand put it more pointedly and more accurately, their common struggle. In fact, Sahajanand and the peasants had lived this history, and the Swami recorded it for posterity in his 1952 Hindi memoir Mera Jivan Sangharsh (My Life Struggle), translated here by Walter Hauser and Kailash Jha. Given Sahajanand's direct involvement in this history, his representation of the peasant story from the perspective of the peasants amounts to a paradigm shift in how the lives of the peas¬ants of India have been understood and represented overtime, either in politics or in scholarship. The intimacy, detail, and ethnographic richness of peasant activism as conveyed by Sahajanand is simply unique. This is true for many reasons, not least because the peasants understood fully what their struggles and movement meant, not only in social, cultural, and economic terms, but equally so in political, conceptual, and ultimately in human terms. It was their voice, loud and clear, and hence their history.
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1 online resource (464 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753914
The Coins of India : The Mughal Emperors. Part VIII (M8): The Coins in the Name of Jahangir Shah Including the Pre-Accession Coinage of Azim-ush Shan /
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This is the second book in our series of publications on the Coins of India. Like the earlier volume this work also presents a generational change in the method of recording, illustrating and presenting numismatic data on the coins. In the first book only the silver coins of Shah Alam I Bahadur were included but in this volume on Jahandar Shah, his coins in all three metals - gold, silver and copper have been included. Pre-accession coinage of Azimush-Shan, who lost out the battle for succession to Jahandar Shah is also included in the book. The legends on the coins and couplets have been illustrated in full colour coding. The separate sections of the coin inscriptions are clearly defined and colour coded by illustrating the individual coins - both obverse and reverse. This makes learning and understanding the calligraphic inscriptions on the coins very simple. Short histories of all the emperors and other coin issuers have been included. In this work more mint maps have been provided than in the previous volume. Changes in types and styles of the coins have been recorded carefully. The knowledge of the secrets held in these inscriptions, i.e. dates, mint, ruler's name, etc., is unlocked for all and is very easy to follow. The volume will be of immense help to coin collectors, dealers, researchers, scholars, students of numismatics and South Asian History.
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1 online resource (360 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004751521
My Journey : A Tale of two Births /
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My Journey: A Tale of Two Births is the unputdownable saga of the two avatars of the eminent Odissi danseuse Ileana Citaristi. Growing up in the times of hippie culture, among the flower children of the seventies, Ileana Citaristi's life is a fascinating story of a rebellious soul which migrates across continents, from the small town of Bergamo in the mountainous ranges of north Italy to bustling Cuttack on the east coast of India. In this autobiography, Ileana recounts her journey, going back in time to the sixties, in her frst avatar, doing it all; from a rebellious teenager to acting in theatre, from researching in Western psychoanalysis of Carl Gustav Jung to Tibetan mandala, from hitch-hiking across a pre-Taliban Kabul to entering India and learning Kathakali in Kerala, from being high on LSD to turning vegetarian, and finally metamorphosing from a bohemian foreigner to a disciplined Indianized shishya. In the second avatar she takes a gigantic leap of faith, when she embraces an alien land and language as her own and surrenders everything at the feet of her Guru, Shri Kelucharan Mohapatra, to learn the ancient art form of Odissi, she is able to give shape to the inner strivings of her soul.
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1 online resource (284 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004752337
Bagha Jatin : Life in Bengal and Death in Orissa (1879-1915) /
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Bagha Jatin, alias Jatindranath Mukherjee, is one of our legendary figures in the history of revolutionary efforts in India. The truth of this matter is unfortunately shrouded in inaccurate tales. Bagha Jatin was involved in the German Conspiracy Plot during the First World War, hoping to get arms from the Germans for a country-wide rising, but died fighting with the British army and police before the arms could arrive. We now know from this factually accurate account of the last phase in his career written by his grandson that the Tiger had a very sophisticated understanding of the contemporary political reality. He was not hoping to overthrow the British power in India by one single revolutionary action, but hoped to inspire his countrymen with the ideal of self-sacrifice in the cause of independence and by his own martyrdom infuse them with courage. This accurate description of his struggle with the ruling colonial power shows the nature of the initiative and also the impact it had on the national psyche. In short, it is a great book. - Tapan Raychaudhuri, Emeritus Fellow, St. Antony's College, Oxford / Professor of Indian History and Civilization, University of Oxford
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1 online resource (184 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753426
Memories of a Malabar Lady : M. Sreekumari Vasudevan's Reminiscences of Life with Justice K.S. Menon 1926-1956 /
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Memories of a Malabar Lady: M. Sreekumari Vasudevan's Reminiscences of Life with Justice K.S. Menon, 1926-1956 , emerged from conversations between a mother and son spanning a decade. It recalls Sreekumari Vasudevan's early life in the company of her father, K.S. Menon, whose career in the law took them from Mamballikalam, the matrilineal family estate in Malabar, to Madras, other places in Madras Presidency, and the princely state of Jodhpur. It is a story of smaller units and individuals in a sprawling joint family and a young woman's widening arc of experience. The book is remarkable for how Hari Vasudevan combines the skills of a professional historian and the empathy of a son to fashion the story of an era through the personal, modest and smaller scenes of historical change. This book was in manuscript form when Hari passed away, and was finalized for publication by Ravi Vasudevan.
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1 online resource (272 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004752764
Roots in the air : a philosophical autobiography of a philosopher, artist, and musician /
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By way of dialogues, Michael Krausz offers philosophical reflections about his life as philosopher, artist, and musician. He also rehearses his views about relativism, interpretation, creativity, and self-realization. Much of Krausz's work has been inspired by conversations with thinkers such as Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Isaiah Berlin, the Dalai Lama, and musicians such as Josef Gingold, Frederik Prausnitz, and Luis Biava. While the death of his grandparents in Auschwitz continues to disquiet his consciousness, Krausz's critiques of versions of Advaitic Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism led him to a distinctive humanism. This thought-provoking book includes personal and professional accounts about particular philosophers, artists, and musicians. It will edify anyone who, like Krausz, has confronted issues of self-identity and human existence.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004388017 :
0929-8436 ;
Maḥakk-i Khusrawī /
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When the founder of the Qajar dynasty of Iran, Āqā Muḥammad Khān Qājār (r. 1789-97), conquered the capital of Georgia Tiflis in 1795, two infant sons of the defeated king Heraclius II were captured. Of these, the eldest died on the way. The other, Khusraw Khān, the later Mīrzā Khusraw Bayg Gurjī (d. 1277/1860), was taken back to Tehran by the commander of the Persian forces, Ḥājjī Ibrāhīm, who treated him as if he were his own child, calling him Mīrzā. When Ḥājjī Ibrāhīm was executed in 1803 on the orders of Fatḥ ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1249/1834), Mīrzā Khusraw first lived with a family in Shiraz and then, in 1805, he was adopted by the childless Talpur ruler of Sind, Mīr Karam ʿAlī Khān (r. 1227-44/1812-28). It is there at the court in Hyderabad that he developed into a refined man of letters and where he compiled this poetical anthology, then only 27 years old.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405776
9786002030146
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 4, Shīn-Ẓāʾ /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405530
9789648700824
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 3, Dal-Sīn /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405233
9789648700831
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 5, ʿAyn-Fāʾ /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405547
9789648700848
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 6, Qāf-Mīm /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405554
9789648700855
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 2, Bāʾ-Khāʾ /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405226
9789648700817
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 8, Indices /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405578
9789648700879
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 1, Āʾ-Alif /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfi-yi Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405219
9789648700800
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 7, Nūn-Yāʾ /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405561
9789648700862
Muntakhab-i risālāt-i Ṣafāʾ al-Ḥaqq /
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Ṣafāʾ al-Ḥaqq (1879-1962) is the artist's name of an Iranian Kurd whose family had moved from Kurdistan to Hamadan when he was still a child. His father was a respected businessman and a follower of the ideas of Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsāʾī (d. 1241/1826). Though well-educated, having studied traditional and herbal medicine and animal husbandry, as an adolescent Ṣafāʾ al-Haqq spent a lot of time in his father's business in the bazaar. Due to his convictions, his father lost his livelyhood and Ṣafāʾ al-Ḥaqq started travelling. He spent several years in India, where he worked in a British hospital in Bombay. He then returned to Hamadan, where he settled as a physician. As a poet Ṣafāʾ al-Ḥaqq wrote in the Hindī style. He was an amateur musicologist as well as an accomplished calligrapher. This volume contains his autobiography, a treatise on animal husbandry, and two further treatises on various aspects of Shaykhism and music.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404892
9789648700466