New books connected to South Asia research


Uppsala University publishes book on Dalit identity in Kanpur

Neuer Buddhismus als gesellschaftlicher Entwurf. Zur Identitätskonstruktion der Dalits in Kanpur, Indien, written by late Dr. Maren Bellwinkel-Schempp, a sociologist and anthropologist connected to the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University, Germany. She carried out fieldwork in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India from 1972 onwards, first studying labour migration for her PhD, but gradually shifting her focus to Dalit issues. Dr. Bellwinkel-Schempp passed away in July 2011. More information on Maren.
The volume contains eight articles, four of them written in German, and four in English. They all deal with Dalits and their constructed identities in Kanpur. One chapter focus on ”Industry and Identity. Changing Identities under Urban Industrial Conditions”, another on ”Bhakti and Buddhism. Text, Context and Public Representation of Dalit Religiosity in Uttar Pradesh”. The book has been published by Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis (Uppsala University, Sweden), in its publication series Historia religionum. Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Peter Schalk; co-Editors: Gabriele Reifenrath and Heinz Werner Wessler. More information, with a link to full-text book. 


Addressing regional inequality issues in Bangladesh public expenditure

In the end of 2008, the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Bangladesh published a book on ”Addressing Regional Inequality Issues in Bangladesh Public Expenditure” written by C S Mahmoud, S N Wadood, and K S Ahmed.
The book examines the relation between government spending and citizen well-being in Bangladesh by looking at various districts of the country and comparing the urban areas with the rural. The main queston investigated by the authors is whether politically-motivated government policies have contributed to an increased inequality in Bangladesh in which some areas (mainly the capital, Dhaka) have a decrease in poverty among the citizens, while in other areas poverty has on the contrary increased.
The data used as a basis for the book are the Planning Commission's Annual Development Plans (ADPs) from 1995/96 to 2005/06, supplemented by household and income data. The book looks at district-wise ADP allocations in Rural Development and Institutions (RDI), road transport, health, polulation and family welfare and education and religious affairs to find that on average, spending in all sectors tends to be concentrated in Dhaka and districts with relatively higher per capita incomes. 
Read the complete book online here.


Power and Influence in India – Bosses, Lords and Captains, by P. Price and A. Ruud

In the midlde of 2010, Routledge published a book by Scandinavian researchers that explores how leadership is practiced in the Indian context across varied domains — from rural settings and urban neighbourhoods to political parties and state governments.
The volume is edited by Prof. Pamela Price and Prof. Arild Ruud from the University of Oslo, both of whom have long history of collaboration with SASNET. 
Their book explores further the importance of individual leaders in the projection of politics in South Asia which is evident from how political parties, mobilisation of movements and the media, and all focus on carefully constructed personalities. Besides, the politically ambitious have considerable room for manoeuvre in the institutional setup of the Indian subcontinent. This book focuses on actors making their political career and/or aspiring for leadership roles, even as it also foregrounds the range of choices open to them in particular contexts. The articles in this volume explore the variety of strategies used by politically engaged actors in trying to acquire (or keep) power — symbolic action, rhetorical usage, moral conviction, building of alliances – illustrating, in the process, both the opportunities and constraints experienced by them. In taking a qualitative approach and tracking both political styles and transactions, this book provides insights into the nature of democracy and the functioning of electoral politics in the subcontinent.
Read more. 


Economic Cooperation and Infrastructural Linkages between Two Punjabs: Way Ahead

In September 2010, an edited colume entitled ”Economic Cooperation and Infrastructural Linkages between Two Punjabs: Way Ahead” was published by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development in Chandigarh, India. The book seeks to  explore the possibility and benefits of resumption of natural and historical development processes between two Punjabs (East which is part of India, and West that is part of Pakistan) looking closer at the possibility of infrastructure linkages between the two regions. It presents a study that claims that closer cooperation between the two regions around infrastructure would bring benefits on account of low prices of directly imported goods and economy in transport via live rail links reducing shipping charges, transshipment costs, storage cost, etc. The book focuses on six areas, within which infrastructure linkages between the two Punjabs can be explored, namely energy; extension services and marketing in agriculture; transport, communication and logistics; credit and banking infrastructure; health sector; and education. 

The authors contributing with articles are Sucha Singh Gill (on photo), Ranjit Singh Ghuman, Inderjeet Singh, Lakhwinder Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, and Jaswinder Singh Brar. Professor Sucha Singh Gill is one of the foremost social scientists in India when it comes to the analysis of agricultural transformation and rural change with a specialization on Punjab and Northwest Indian agriculture. He  was a guest scholar at the Dept. of Sociology at Lund University in 2006. 
More information about the book.
Read more about Prof Sucha Gill. 


New book on Women Empowerment in India

Women Empowerment in India, edited by Shamim Asmat and Chanda Devi. Mittal Publications 2012.
This publication, which comes in two volumes, looks at women in India and the issue about women empowerment. Women in India now participate in all activities, such as education, politics, media, art and culture, service sector, science, technology and sports, etc. The status of women in India has been subject to many a great change over the past few millennia. From equal status with men in ancient times, through the low points of the medieval period, to the promotion of equal rights by many reformers, the history of women in India has been quite eventful. The Constitution of India guarantees to women, equality, no discrimination by the State, equality of opportunity equal pay for equal work, etc. In addition, it allows special provisions to be made by the State in favour of women. The feminist activism in India picked up momentum, during late 1970s. Female activists are united over various issues. Indian woman plays a vital role. Her image has changed from that of a housewife to a useful person in almost all spheres. A woman’s physical weakness is no longer a barrier in getting herself established in the modern world. This book, in its comprehensive and compact form is an asset for scholars, researchers, social activists and general readers, alike.  
Go for the book.


Sharp-sighted analysis of the Afghanistan conflict

Thirty Years of Conflict: Drivers of Anti-Government Mobilisation in Afghanistan 1978-2011, by Dr Antonio Giustozzi, traces structural factors driving anti-government mobilisation in Afghanistan in each successive phase of the country’s thirty years of conflicts. Drawing on extensive literature from both international and Afghan sources, it analyses the social and political forces behind the ideological war of the 1980s, the factional conflict of the 1990s, and the current insurgency. In doing so, it explores how such an extended period of warfare has fundamentally reshaped Afghan society, spurring changes which have in their turn altered why the conflict is fought. 
The study also devotes specific focus to examining the Taliban as an example of a political organisation enabling and driving conflict. Starting with the origins of the Taliban insurgency, it goes on to explore what is known about its ability to mobilise communities and the kind of non-military, tacit support it receives from them. It also looks at the role played by different groups of individuals such as mullahs, madrassa students and young people, and the economic and funding dimensions of the movement.
Published by Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) in Kabul, January 2012. The book is now available for download at www.areu.org.af.


New book on Yoga Powers, edited by Knut A. Jacobsen

The book, entitled "Yoga Powers – Extraordinary Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration" is published by BRILL, and was released in the end of 2011. It is edited by Professor Knut A. Jacobsen, Dept. of History of Religion, University of Bergen. His present book focuses on the extraordinary capacities called yoga powers that are at the core of the religious imagination in the history of religions in South Asia – a topic neglected in the research on yoga and meditation traditions. Yoga powers explained the divine, the highest gods were thought of as great yogins, and since major religious traditions considered their attainment as an inevitable part of the salvific process the textual traditions had to provide rational analyses of the powers. The essays of the book provide a number of new insights in the yoga powers and their history, position and function in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions, in classical Yoga, Haṭha Yoga, Tantra and Śaiva textual traditions, in South Asian medieval and modern hagographies, and in some contemporary yoga traditions. Brill.
Go for the book.


Doctoral thesis on Community-Based Water Management in Gujarat

Socio-Cultural Implications of the Community-Based Water Management. A Case Study of Gujarat, India. Doctoral dissertation by Farhat Naz, a graduate from the Centre for Development Research (ZEF) at University of Bonn, Germany. Dr. Naz defended her PhD at University of Bonn on 20th July 2011.
This thesis takes up the analysis of socio-cultural aspects affecting actors’ participation and strategies in various water-related community groups in the formal and informal participatory arenas of managing water. The thesis examines the role of power relations in the linkages between the formal and informal institutions operating in rural India, as well as shaping the participation of the key actors in the formal participatory arenas in context of groundwater management.
The failure of the state-led development projects and the growing concerns for participation in the 1980s and 1990s gave rise to community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). This in turn led to a paradigm shift in natural resource management from centralised state control towards CBNRM, in which the local communities now play actively and have direct control over resource use and management. These community-based approaches are a departure from the statecentered government polices of natural resource management. But the mixed successes and failures of these approaches have led to a question in the Indian development policy context, namely why CBNRM projects fail to achieve their expected level of results and equity.
Read the full-text doctoral thesis.


Swedish book on Learning Diversity in India

Learning Diversity in India: Do Priorities in Primary Education Enable Capabilities, Enhance Equal Opportunities and Encourage Cultural Diversity?. Written by Martin Eksath, MSc from the Dept. of Sociology, Lund University, currently working with the Swedish School Inspectorate with quality assessement, project management and social outcomes.
The author is an educationalist with a strong belief in diversity as a necissitate for a vivid democracy. He has a strong  interest in the priorities of education in India.
India is sometimes described as a democracy forged together with a strong sense of unity in its diversity. Simultaneously, the possibility of real democracy in a country marked with social inequality, depths of poverty and low rates of literacy could be questioned. This book relates to the focal point where education, democracy, development and politics team up in educational policies and reforms. India has subscribed to the goals of education for all by 2015 and has embarked on immense priorities in education to reach the goals. However, goals are often measured in rather narrow terms of outcomes of literacy or school attendance. But what is the relevance of education and the meaning of school attendance if it does not furnish for essential capabilities to cope with life? Without doubt, primary education of good quality is necessitous to development, democracy and social inclusion. By the use of a mixed methods design, this book explores and reflects upon the initiatives taken in primary education and discusses whether they have the potential to enable capabilities, enhance equal opportunities and encourage cultural diversity among the children in India.


Lawrence Saez writes on SAARC’s effectiveness as an organisation

In his new book, which will be of interest to Asian security studies and institutions in general, Dr. Lawrence Saez from the Centre for South Asian Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London examines the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) institutional structure, objectives and effectiveness in it's role as South Asia's leading regional institution. The book focuses also on providing a comprehensive introduction to the SAARC, describing the historical developments that lead to its formation and examining issues such as: the inner workings of Regional Centres and, their success in implementing the decisions reached at SAARC summits. The work of SAARC to address critical new security challenges, such as health pandemics, terrorism, energy security South Asia's economic cooperation and the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) Challenges that expansion pose to the organization, particularly China's suggestion to expand beyond the traditional borders of South Asia are also examined. Routledge.
Go for the book.

Dr. Saez soon publishes yet another book, entitled ”New Dimensions of Politics in India”. In the book, Saez critically examines the performance of the current Indian United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ruling government. The book offers new insights into the structure of Indian politics, and is a useful contribution to studies in South Asian Politics, Governance and Political Parties. Routledge.
Go for this book.


Making peace with the Taliban, at what cost? – new report on Afghanistan

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has published a research report entitled ”Making peace with the Taliban, at what cost? Seven keys to a just peace for the people of Afghanistan”, that examines the current challenges to ensuring a just peace process in the country.
The report, inspired by the approaching Bonn Conference on Afghanistan, to be held on 5 December 2011, stresses that the security situation for the common people is steadily deteriorating, and the current peacemaking policy is not efficient in guaranteeing peace. FIDH makes seven proposals for change to occur and the process to move in a positive direction. Among these are strengthening the human rights, especially with regards to women's rights, as well as social, cultural and economic ones. Read the full report.


Power, Knowledge, Medicine: A Study of Ayurvedic Pharmaceuticals in India

"Power, Knowledge, Medicine: A Study of Ayurvedic Pharmaceuticals in India" by Dr Madhurlika Banerjee, University of Delhi

The book explores the transformation of the understanding of modern Ayurveda. It draws insights from a number of disciplines that have analysed various aspects of Ayurveda making sense of some of the big changes that have marked its transformation in the twentieth century. The author argues that this transformation cannot be seen as purely cognitive, technological or economic change, for it involves an irreducible political play between regimes of knowledge and exercise of state power. It also argues that processes of commercialisation and standardisation have resulted in pharmaceuticalisation of this ancient medical system accounting for both the resilience and shrinkage of Ayurveda as a medical system. The book might be of interest for any social scientist interested in technological choice, knowledge and power or alternative modernity. Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad


Unruly Hills: Nature and Nation in India’s Northeast, by Beppe Karlsson

Unruly Hills: Nature and Nation in India’s Northeast, by Beppe Karlsson, Dept. of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University. This book summarises the 10 year old research project on the politics of indigenousness and nature in India. More particularly, it related to the struggle over forests and natural resources in Meghalaya, a small hill state of about two million people situated in the north-eastern region, where the majority of the population (about 85 %) are indigenous peoples or so-called ”scheduled tribes”; the main ones being the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo people. The focus of the project was to investigate discourses or regimes of nature and how a number of actors perceive, engage with and claim nature. Social Science Press/Orient Black Swan, January 2011. 


Religion, Caste & Politics in India by Christophe Jaffrelot

Jaffrelot 2010

Religion, Caste & Politics in India by Christophe Jaffrelot, Centre d' Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS) in Paris. After Independence the Nehruvian approach to socialism in India rested upon three pillars: secularism and democracy in the political domain; state intervention in the economy; and diplomatic Non-Alignment mitigated by pro-Soviet leanings after the 1960s. These features defined the 'Indian model', and even the country's political identity. From this starting point Christophe Jaffrelot explores the manner in which some of these dimensions have been transformed over the course of time, more especially since the 1980-90s. The world's largest democracy has sustained itself by making more room, not only for the vernacular politicians of the linguistic states, but also for Dalits and OBCs, at least after the Mandal Commission report. But the simultaneous-and related-rise of Hindu nationalism has put the minorities-and secularism-on the defensive, and in many ways the rule of law is on trial too. The liberalisaton of the economy has resulted in growth but not necessarily in development: while the new middle class is changing the face of urban India, the rural areas lag behind and inequalities have become more acute. India has also acquired a new global status, that of an emerging power seeking new political and economic partnerships in Asia and in the West, where the United States remains the first choice of the Indian middle class. The traditional Nehruvian system is giving way to a less cohesive but a more active India, a country that has already become what it is against all the odds. Christophe Jaffrelot tracks India's tumultuous journey of recent decades, exploring the role of religion, caste and politics in weaving the fabric of a modern democratic state. Hurst, 2010.


Trysts with Democracy. Political Practice in South Asia.

TrystsTrysts with Democracy. Political Practice in South Asia. Edited by Scandinavian researchers Stig Toft Madsen, Kenneth Bo Nielsen and Uwe Skoda. A cross-disciplinary approach to the diverse and entangled political and democratic practices of South Asia. This volume addresses the current configuration of democratic politics in South Asia from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The essays seek to examine the larger questions of how democratic values are embedded in social and political institutions, and how localised and everyday political values inform the multiple ways in which democracy is understood and practised. One of the strengths of this collection is the fact that it does not seek to provide answers to these questions from within one academic discipline only, but rather brings together scholars with backgrounds in a variety of social science disciplines and the humanities. Anthem Press March 2011. 


The Politics of Religion in South and Southeast Asia.

The Politics of Religion in South and Southeast Asia. Edited by Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor Emeritus at the Dept. of Political Science, Stockholm University. The notion of a ‘politics of religion’ refers to the increasing role that religion plays in the politics of the contemporary world. This book presents comparative country case studies on the politics of religion in South and South Asia, including India, Pakistan and Indonesia. The politics of religion calls into question the relevance of modernist notions of secularism and democracy, with the emphasis instead on going back to indigenous roots in search of authentic ideologies and models of state and nation building. Within the context of the individual countries, chapters focus on the consequences that politics of religion has on inclusive nation-building, democracy and the rights of individuals, minorities and women. Routledge May 2011. 


Himalayan Languages and Linguistics. Studies in Phonology, Semantics, Morphology and Syntax

Turin bookHimalayan Languages and Linguistics. Studies in Phonology, Semantics, Morphology and Syntax, by Mark Turin, University of Cambridge where he directs the Digital Himalaya and World Oral Literature Projects, and Bettina Zeisler, Free University Berlin. The book gathers together nine outstanding and original contributions on the Tibeto-Burman and Indo-Aryan languages of this important and culturally diverse mountainous area. Filling a marked gap in our understanding of the languages of this underdocumented region, the collection offers a snapshot of the state of the field of Himalayan language research and linguistic comparison. Draws on primary fieldwork in China, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Brill's Tibetan Studies Library 2011.


Pakistan: Beyond the ‘Crisis State'

Pakistan: Beyond the ‘Crisis State', a collection of articles by Pakistani scholars offering an “insiders' perspective” on Pakistan, edited by Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistani Ambassador in Washington from 1999 to 2002 and then in London from 2003 to 2008. According to Ms Lodhi, it is intended to challenge the “doomsday scenarios” about Pakistan painted by “outsiders”. Hurst & Company, May 2011. 


The Politics of Belonging in India. Becoming Adivasi.

The Politics of Belonging in India. Becoming Adivasi. Edited by Daniel J. Rycroft and Sangeeta Dasgupta. Since the 1990s, the Indigenous movement worldwide has become increasingly relevant to research in India, re-shaping the terms of engagement with Adivasi (Indigenous/tribal) peoples and their pasts. This book responds to the growing need for an inter-disciplinary re-assessment of Tribal studies in postcolonial India and defines a new agenda for Adivasi studies. It considers the existing conceptual and historical parameters of Tribal studies, as a means of addressing new approaches to histories of de-colonization and patterns of identity-formation that have become visible since national independence. Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series, March 2011.


Pakistan – Upprorens land by Dr. Henrik Chetan Aspengren

Chetan bookPakistan – Upprorens land by Dr. Henrik Chetan Aspengren, Dept. of History, Uppsala University, who has lived for a long period in Pakistan. In his Swedish language book, the author mixes writings on South Asian history with travel writing. Through detailed descriptions on life in, for example, a Sufi-shrine in Sindh, or a village of land less peasants in Malakand close to the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Aspengren discusses a wide range of topics: the Pakistani military’s role in politics; struggles for women’s rights, democracy, or land rights; religious tolerance and extremism. As such, the book provides social and historic context to events reported in the news. Norstedts, April 2011.

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