This book is a pioneering study of when and why Hindu Nationalists have engaged in discrimination and violence against minorities in contemporary India. Amrita Basu asks why the incidence and severity of violence differs significantly across Indian states, within states, and through time. Contrary to many predictions, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has neither consistently engaged in anti-minority violence nor been compelled by the centrifugal pressures of democracy to ...

**In the remote Mahamaya Valley in the Himalayas, wildlife biologist Tara has vanished. Hunting for answers, Tara’s best friend Mansi sets out to retrace her whereabouts in the days before her disappearance. The prime suspect Bhaskar sits in police custody, his obsession with Tara laid bare, his testimony a labyrinth of contradictions and half-truths. As the investigation deepens, the valley reveals its own mysteries—a backpacker paradise where the timeless and the ephemeral collide, where...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is scarcely ten years old, but even in these early years of its existence it has generated debate, controversy and even outrage. Rulings on beef hormones and tuna-dolphin cases provide graphic examples of how the organization regulates and intrudes into areas of individual consumer choice, ethical preferences, and cultural habits. This deep and far-ranging impact of the WTO on peoples' everyday lives means that it is not just an institution of interest to...

Ayurveda is a holistic healing tradition from India whose history is linked to the development of yoga. It is an ancient system in which physical and spiritual well-being comes from a number of sources, including a healthful diet based on one’s individual constitution.Ayurveda is about achieving a physical and spiritual balance through a number of means, including yoga, aromatherapy, and diet. This all-vegetarian cookbook based on Ayurvedic traditions features delectable and nutrit...

Ahmedabad's makeover in the wake of the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat brought Narendra Modi to national attention as a development wizard. Reports of gleaming roads and new infrastructure swayed the watershed election of 2014. How was this whirlwind development achieved and what was it all about?Amrita Shah immersed herself in the six-hundred-year-old former textile town where once Mahatma Gandhi launched his struggle against British rule. Amidst the lingering devastation of the ri...

This book tells the stories of Indian immigrants in Germany, including Blue Card holders and students categorized as highly skilled migrants, as well as others choosing shadow migration pathways in order to leave the country. It investigates their motivations for leaving India and choosing Germany as an immigration destination. Grappling with the stories of tech workers fleeing the pandemic, activists fleeing the witch hunting of the government, women escaping gender(ed) violence and queer...

Why did I choose the title? I have very little experience in this role. I could not spend too much time home as I had to go through a very extensive school/work/professional life. But with great helplessness and respect, I watched the life of my most intelligent, kindhearted, well-educated, beautiful friends spending their lives in this hardest job in the world. There are almost no vacations, no sick leaves, no gratuity, no raise, and few, if any, thank-yous. There is no special work-relat...

In this work, Amrita Narlikar argues that, contrary to common assumption, modern-day politics displays a surprising paradox: poverty - and the powerlessness with which it is associated - has emerged as a political tool and a formidable weapon in international negotiation. The success of poverty narratives, however, means that their use has not been limited to the neediest. Focusing on behaviours and outcomes in a particularly polarising area of bargaining - international trade - and illust...

The first title in the Say Again Essentials series, Lead Yourself looks at Leadership with a different lens. How do leaders who have been top of their game define success and failure? What is their unvarnished and most authentic take on burnout, resilience and the flip side of startup life? Is there a playbook to leadership in this this age of AI? And how should we all look at the importance of work-life integration? Featuring thought leadership from select leaders from the Say Ag...

This book examines the social and legal regulation of domestic violence (DV) within the Kesarwani business community following the enactment of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. It analyses the existence of the formal law in Kolkata and the relevance of the law in the familial lives of the Kesarwani community.The book offers a new conceptualisation of examining the relationship between formal law and social life. It provides a deep insight into how l...

This book addresses urgent current debates on decolonisation by offering reimagined teaching and learning interventions for obtaining greater epistemic justice in the contemporary postcolonial university.At a time when debates on decolonisation have gained urgency in academic, civic and public spaces, this interdisciplinary collection by authors based at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, serves as a valuable archive documenting and reflecting on a turbulent period in South...

India's Imperial Formations explores the ways in which empire building occurs and consolidates through the Indian and diasporic cultural landscape, where a collusion with whiteness, Hindu fundamentalism, casteism, and religious and racial bigotry are rampant, and create hegemonic imaginaries of an India that denies a democratic space of multiple Indias to coexist together. India is not only home to the world's largest film industry but also has one of the oldest media ecosystems t...