<p>Film and literature are two mediums - one literary, the other performative - which use language and image in order to capture the lived reality of cultural constructs. But the processes of producing meaning and interpreting meaning are complex and multilayered, getting caught up in histories, locations, and experiences. Neither film nor literature is a self-contained autonomous medium or artifact, and even as they use and produce culture, they become its subverters. Ã?Â?Films, Literature and Culture is a collection of 19 essays that focus on film director Deepa Mehta's Elements Trilogy, exploring the interconnections in the three categories and the manner in which they feed into each other. The range of the interpretative strategies is very diverse: social and political history --- gender positions and feminist theory --- cinematic frameworks and the theory of the gaze --- landscape, space and exteriority --- diasporic location and relationship to the culture of origin --- religion and patriarchy --- the city and its history --- the history of the making and reception of the three films Fire, 1947: Earth, and Water. The various interpretations provide a base for working out the psychodynamics of the relationship of the viewer with the text, and invite the reader to participate in this multi-directional debate between reality and representation.</p>

Films, Literature & Culture: Deepa Mehta's Elements Trilogy

Humor & Entertainment

Rawat Publications

"This volume highlights the movement from a shared past under the broad rubric of `Commonwealth', to an individual assertion of separate identities. Although, of the writers included in the volume, some may have adopted Western traditions of the novel, others have moved towards their own regional/local traditions of form and style. There is an unapologetic assertion of ethnic pride, a consciousness of the `otherness' in their literary production at the same time that they appeal to a larger global readership. Although a distinct pattern may not emerge out of the novels discussed, a distinct voice does emerge out of the artistic expression of the writers which is at once assertive and subdued, subtle and belligerent, artistic and propagandist, regional and cosmopolitan, subjective as also preoccupied with the universal concerns of humanity. Of interest also is the way these writers reconstruct the complexities and multiplicities of their lives through the various literary techniques they employ. The majority of the novelists included in this volume are those whose works have attracted critical attention not merely in their own countries but also internationally. Established writers like Margaret Atwood, Nadine Gordimer, Keri Hulme and Kate Grenville figure side by side with younger upcoming writers like Manju Kapoor, Monica Ali and Chandini LokugÃ©."

Women on Women: A Reading of Commonwealth Women Writers

History

Asia

<p>"It is being gradually realized today that the present civilization of India is not merely a development of the Aryan culture, as has so far been generally held. Indian culture is a composite product, resulting from the fusion of several cultures, in which the contribution of the Sindhu valley civilization has been significant. The Harappan civilization stood alongside the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations as the early, advanced civilizations of humankind, during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. Initial archeological excavations that took place as late as between 1922-1927 in the region of the Indus valley, have thrown up rich evidence of the existence of the Harappan civilization, but much study still needs to be done to arrive at a clear and scientific understanding of this civilization. The Harappan script has still not been deciphered. This book is a search for and a clarification of the various strands of diverse cultures that have contributed to the emergence of Indian culture."</p>

Cultural History of Ancient India: Diversity, Syncretism, Synthesis

D'Souza, Leela

"In India, over 30 per cent of the total population lives below the poverty line. Such a high degree of poverty highlights a serious dimension of the country's urban scenario also. The insufficient employment opportunities and poor income levels add to the miseries of the urban poor. They live in sub-standard settlements like slums, unauthorized colonies, squatters, pavements, resettlement colonies, etc. These settlements are considered to be the most filthiest in the world. Taking a serious note of the growing urban poverty, the Government of India spent hundreds of crores of rupees on implementing various schemes and programmes with no significant result. Urban poverty continues to be an area of major concern and unbeatable challenge. It was against this backdrop, experts working on different aspects of urban poverty were approached to contribute articles expressing their views and giving their first-hand experiences. The reading of this volume can be immensely useful to professionals, government officials, activists etc., who are involved in poverty alleviation programmes."

Dimensions of Urban Poverty

"Changing Indian Society, penned by India's leading social scientist of international renown, encapsulates the enormous empirical and statistical data to present a profile of Indian society as a multicultural entity composed of different ethnic origins, various religions, and belonging to a variety of speech communities, and yet bonded together as a nation, sharing a common polity and economy. Written simply and without jargon, in a style intelligible to a lay reader, the book provides a sound sociological perspective to comprehend Indian society and its major social institutions. It introduces urban and rural India; gives a glimpse of tribal India; explains marriage, kinship, and the caste system; and outlines major changes occurring in Indian society. The book offers a good Introduction to Indian society for a variety of audiences: students graduating in social sciences, candidates preparing for competitive examinations, business executives -- particularly representatives of multinationals in need of orientation to Indian culture and society, foreign tourists, and students in other countries auditing a course on India, and, of course, the general public. "

Changing Indian Society

Atal, Yogesh

"What makes something social? Is human social reality, the object-domain of the human sciences, essentially opaque to the explanatory method of nomological objectivity that characterizes the physical sciences? Do historical and cultural underpinnings of human existence severely restrain the ambition of objectivity in the human sciences? Or, is there a sui generis paradigm of social objectivity in social enquiry, such as illustrated by Marxism and Ethnomethodology? Besides, do diversity of traditions constrain social understanding in a way that inevitably results in cultural relativism? What does understanding tradition consist in, including whatever we might mean by ``the Indian tradition''? These questions about humanity and tradition are dealt with in this book from a variety of interesting perspectives. Together these various modes of understanding provide an illuminating account of human self-understanding in social enquiry."

Social Reality and Tradition: Essays in Modes of Understanding

"Modern digital technology of Internet has become increasingly popular in India in the last one decade. The kinds of opportunities that it opens up for its users and the ways it throws behind those who are unable to access the technology for various reasons has emerged as an area of interest among social scientists. This book tries to understand sociologically the dynamics of changes brought in by the introduction of Internet technology in rural India. It studies how the traditional rural social structure responds to the Internet technology. It also tries to see to what extent the technology has been able to tackle the problem of inequality in Indian context where society is sharply stratified along caste, class and gender. The study explores whether the new technology has succeeded in dissolving the traditional bases of stratification in rural India or has it merely deepened the existing lines of division. The book would provide a valuable reading to anyone interested in studying the interface between information technology and society or the issue of digital divide. It will be useful for both the general reader and the students of information society. "

Information Technology and Social Change: A Study of Digital Divide in India

Computers & Technology

Kumar, Deepak

Computer Science

"The symbiotic relationship between urbanisation and development that had been obtained in the industrialised countries of the West, was not found to be replicated in case of developing countries because of the differential roles of the capitalist development. Spatial development pattern in these countries became uneven as also the pattern of urbanisation, evident in the differentials between core and periphery at various scales. Resultantly, large cities in such countries have become centres of population and economic activities as well as extractors of regional resources, but not foci of regional development. Environmental degradation has further surfaced as an associated element of such growth, both in urban and rural areas. In recent years operation of international capital has intensified the pattern further leading to extreme metropolitanisation and intra-regional disparity. It is in this backdrop the book analyses the complex pattern of urbanisation, development and the environmental situation primarily in India in longitudinal terms. It deals with the wide range of topics on economy, society and environment both at general and spatial scales, linking theoretical discussions with empirical analyses."

Urbanisation, Development and Environment India; C.D. Deshpande Memorial Volume

Swapna Banerjee-Guha

Indian Administration: Retrospect and Prospect is a textbook with a difference. Prepared mainly for the benefit of students of Public Administration, it includes a wide range of materials, from academic journals, reports of government commissions and committees, as well as the experiences of the Indian civil servants in the field. It is a comprehensive compendium that not only sums up the events of the past, but also suggests workable guidelines for the future administration of the country. The challenges of democracy, development, information technology, liberalization, privatization, and globalization are being accommodated in the developing structures and changing processes of Indian Public Administration. Students of the discipline can explore the impact of past legacies, the maladies that ail the present, and the new public management patterns that are emerging for the future.

Indian Administration: Retrospect and Prospect

Sharma, P. D.

Sharma B. M.

The book is based on an empirical study of women domestic workers serving in middle class households. Observable facts collected from Ranchi city have been analyzed and interpreted in the backdrop of literature available on gender issues and women's studies. The overlap in the women domestics' social sphere as workers and as women has been well explained and elaborated. Issues such as their socio-economic status, everyday struggles and the relationship with their employers have been observed and analyzed. Theoretically, the book makes use of Marxist and functionalist categories drawn from a variety of feminist literature. It could well prove to be a sequel to other studies and deserves wider attention of sociologists, social workers, activists, policy makers, planners and even housewives who are the potential employers.

Women Domestics: Workers within Households

Singh, Vinita

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