The Fabulous Feminist
Suniti Namjoshi
Zubaan (hardcover), 2013
PRs 900
Born in Mumbai in 1941, Suniti Namjoshi is an important figure in contemporary Indian literature in English, a writer whose deep engagement with issues of gender, sexual orientation, cultural identity, and human rights infuses everything she writes. The Fabulous Feminist brings together for the first time in one volume a vast range of Namjoshi’s writings, starting with her most famous collection, Feminist Fables, and including excerpts from St. Suniti and the Dragon, The Mothers of Maya Dip, From the Bedside Book of Nightmares, and her series of Aditi books for children, such as Aditi and the Thames Dragon. Here readers will find her fables, poetry, prose, autobiography, and children’s stories, works that are both playful and deeply serious. In these beautifully composed and entertaining works, she ingeniously reworks fairytales, Greek and Sanskrit mythology, literary monsters such as Grendel’s mother, and icons such as Saint Sebastian, and stitches the ideas together with her vivid imagination and wisdom. Writing with insight and wit about power, inequality, and oppression, Namjoshi brilliantly uses language and the literary tradition to expose what she finds absurd and unacceptable in modern life. This provocative and entertaining collection will be welcomed by Namjoshi’s fans as well as admirers of the feminist intellectual tradition.
Balochistan, the British and the Great Game
T A Heathcote
Hurst (hardcover), 2016
PRs 5725
The Great Game for Central Asia led to British involvement in Balochistan, a sparsely-populated area in Pakistan, mostly desert and mountain, and containing the Bolan Pass, the southern counter- part of the more famous Khyber. It occupies a position of great strategic importance between Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the Arabian Sea. Heathcote’s book is a history of the Khanate of Kalat and of British operations against the Baloch hill tribes who raided frontier settlements and the Bolan caravans. Its themes include rivalry between British officials in Sind and the Punjab, high profile disputes between British politicians over frontier policy and organisation, and the British occupation of Quetta, guardian city of the Bolan, in the run-up to the Second Afghan War. Among the many strong characters in this story is Sir Robert Sandeman, hitherto hailed as ‘the peaceful conqueror of Balochistan’, now revealed as a ruthless careerist, whose personal ambitions led to the fragmentation of the country under British domination. The closing chapter summa- rises subsequent events up to modern times, in which the Baloch have maintained a long-running struggle for greater autonomy within Pakistan.
Reviews
‘This book comprehensively details the greater Balochistan area, its place in the strategic Great Game, and the interesting role played by British officials there. It enhances our understanding of this still volatile and important region and is a must read for those wanting to know about Balochistan s history in depth.’ – Christopher Snedden, Professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu.
‘Tony Heathcote, the author of several distinguished works on the British military in India, brings a wealth of expertise to this study of the Great Game. He tells a fascinating story that needs to be read by anyone who seeks to understand an area that remains, to this day, strategically vital.’ – Gary Sheffield, Professor of War Studies, University of Wolverhampton.
The Automobile Club of Egypt
Alaa Al Aswany
Random House India (paperback), 2015
PRs 1195
Abd el-Aziz Gaafar, formerly a well-respected landowner now in the grip of penury, moves his family to Cairo and takes on menial work at the Automobile Club—a place of refuge and luxury for its European members, but one where Egyptians may appear only as servants. Alku, the lifelong Nubian servant of Egypt’s corrupt king, runs the show in all but name. The servants, a squabbling, humorous, and deeply human group, live in a perpetual state of fear: beaten for their mistakes, their wages dependent on Alku’s whims. When Abd el-Aziz’s pride gets the better of him and he stands up for himself, his death—as much from shame as from his injuries after Alku has him beaten—leaves his widow further impoverished and two of his sons obliged to work in the Club. As the family is drawn into the turbulent politics of Egypt—public and private—both servants and masters are subsumed by the country’s social upheaval. Soon, the Egyptians of the Automobile Club face a stark choice: to live safely but without dignity as servants, or to fight for their rights and risk everything.
A Life in Words: Memoirs
Ismat Chughtai
Penguin Classics (paperback), 2013
PRs 800
A Life in Words, the first complete translation of Ismat Chughtai’s celebrated memoir Kaghazi hai Pairahan, provides a delightful account of several crucial years of her life. Along side vivid descriptions of her childhood years are the conflicted experiences of growing up in a large Muslim family during the early decades of the twentieth century. Chughtai is searingly honest about her fight to get an education and the struggle to find her own voice as a writer. The result is a compellingly readable memoir by one of the most significant Urdu writers of all time.
Nehru
B N Pandey
Rupa (paperback), 2001
PRs 595
India’s first prime minister has long been of enduring interest to biographers the world over. His rise to power and his vision of a new world order, as well as his secularism, intellect and liberty of thought have been a focus of scholarship for decades. Nehru explores the private and public life of a remarkable man, ahead of his time, his intellectual growth, his policies as the first leader of free India and his enduring bond with Mahatma Gandhi.
About the Author
Dr B N Pandey was born in Uttar Pradesh. He taught modern Indian history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He was also the chairman of the Centre of South African Studies. His publications include The Rise of Modern India, The Introduction of English Law Into India, The Break-Up of British India, The Evolution of India and Pakistan: Selected Documents, 1858-1947 (edited with C H Philips and H L Singh) and Nehru, a full length, scholarly biography.