History of India's Caste System
By Kallie Szczepanski, About.com Guide
Sources:
Ali, Syed. "Collective and Elective Ethnicity: Caste among Urban Muslims in India," Sociological Forum, 17:4 (Dec. 2002), 593-620.
Chandra, Ramesh. Identity and Genesis of Caste System in India, New Delhi: Gyan Books, 2005.
Ghurye, G.S. Caste and Race in India, Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, 1996.
Perez, Rosa Maria. Kings and Untouchables: A Study of the Caste System in Western India, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2004.
Reddy, Deepa S. "The Ethnicity of Caste," Anthropological Quarterly, 78:3 (Summer 2005), 543-584.
Africa–India relations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Africa–India relations
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
References
Lionel Casson, The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text With Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Princeton University Press, 1989) ISBN 0-691-04060-5
Shanti Sadiq Ali, The African dispersal in the Deccan: from medieval to modern times (Orient Blackswan, 1996) ISBN 8-1250-0485-8
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
References
Lionel Casson, The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text With Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Princeton University Press, 1989) ISBN 0-691-04060-5
Shanti Sadiq Ali, The African dispersal in the Deccan: from medieval to modern times (Orient Blackswan, 1996) ISBN 8-1250-0485-8
iLink iLink at University of Alberta Library
The Mah¯abh¯arata : an inquiry in the human condition
Personal Author: Badrinath, Chaturvedi.
Title: The Mah¯abh¯arata : an inquiry in the human condition / Chaturvedi Badrinath.
Publication info: New Delhi : Orient Longman, 2006.
Physical descrip: xi, 683 p. ; 25 cm.
Title subject: Mah¯abh¯arata--Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Subject term: Dharma.
Subject term: Philosophy, Hindu.
Subject term: Hindu ethics.
Bibliography note: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Language: Includes passages in Sanskrit.
ISBN: 8125028463
ISBN: 9788125028468 (jkt.)
Personal Author: Badrinath, Chaturvedi.
Title: The Mah¯abh¯arata : an inquiry in the human condition / Chaturvedi Badrinath.
Publication info: New Delhi : Orient Longman, 2006.
Physical descrip: xi, 683 p. ; 25 cm.
Title subject: Mah¯abh¯arata--Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Subject term: Dharma.
Subject term: Philosophy, Hindu.
Subject term: Hindu ethics.
Bibliography note: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Language: Includes passages in Sanskrit.
ISBN: 8125028463
ISBN: 9788125028468 (jkt.)
Deccan heritage / editors, Harsh K. Gupta, Aloka Parasher-Sen, D. Balasubramanian: University of Alberta Library
Title: Deccan heritage / editors, Harsh K. Gupta, Aloka Parasher-Sen, D. Balasubramanian.
Publication info: Hyderabad : Universities Press : Distributed by Orient Longman, 2000.
Physical descrip: xi, 253 p., [23] p. of plates : col. ill., maps ; 25 cm.
Geographic term: Deccan (India)--Congresses.
General Note: "Indian National Science Academy."
Bibliography note: Includes bibliographical references.
Summary: Papers presented at a seminar held during the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Indian National Science Academy in Hyderabad, India.
Added author: Gupta, Harsh K., 1942-
Added author: Parasher-Sen, Aloka.
Added author: Balasubramanian, D. (Dorairajan), 1939-
Added author: Indian National Science Academy.
Added author: Indian National Science Academy. Meeting (63rd : 2000? : Hyderabad, India)
ISBN: 8173712859
ISBN: 9788173712852
Publication info: Hyderabad : Universities Press : Distributed by Orient Longman, 2000.
Physical descrip: xi, 253 p., [23] p. of plates : col. ill., maps ; 25 cm.
Geographic term: Deccan (India)--Congresses.
General Note: "Indian National Science Academy."
Bibliography note: Includes bibliographical references.
Summary: Papers presented at a seminar held during the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Indian National Science Academy in Hyderabad, India.
Added author: Gupta, Harsh K., 1942-
Added author: Parasher-Sen, Aloka.
Added author: Balasubramanian, D. (Dorairajan), 1939-
Added author: Indian National Science Academy.
Added author: Indian National Science Academy. Meeting (63rd : 2000? : Hyderabad, India)
ISBN: 8173712859
ISBN: 9788173712852
Where are the storytellers?
The Hindu 22 July 2003
IT'S BEEN a month since Harry Potter ruled the headlines and the bestseller lists, and while the posters still adorn the glass doors of bookstores around the city, the everyday quiet has returned to the children's sections. The usual American and British potboilers dominate the shelves, with the occasional unknown name or title that doesn't begin with The mystery of... And somewhere among those shiny, slick paperbacks nestle a few dozen somewhat less glossy spines, with different-sounding titles-"Trash!" Aditi and the one-eyed monkey, Ajanta Apartments, The Bulbul's Ruby Nose Ring, Sorry, Best Friend, among others. The authors sound like they could be names from our telephone books, while the sketches remind us of people and places somewhat closer to home than we are accustomed to. Those browsing in the children's section of Walden or Crossword invariably walk away with a couple of comics or good old Enid Blyton; few explore these more local stories.
It is supposed to be the heyday of Indian writing in English. But what about the Indian writer of stories for children? While Vikram Seth makes headlines for a record advance, rarely-almost never-do we hear of a children's writer from India being similarly celebrated. Recent years have seen the emergence of publishers like Tara and Tulika in Chennai, and Katha in New Delhi, that have focused largely on books for young people. Penguin and HarperCollins have put out the occasional children's title by an Indian author, while Orient Longman's Gulmohur imprint has produced a steady trickle of little books for little people by Indian-even local--authors. Ruskin Bond has in his own way popularised the Indian milieu in writing for children. And of course the stalwarts, Children's Book Trust and National Book Trust, have done their bit to bring out relatively inexpensive children's books.
Despite all this activity, the number of locally-nationally-produced children's books available in bookstores today is very small. Where are all our storytellers? If the richness of a children's literature is an indicator of the value a culture places on childhood, then what does the state of children's writing in India say about us? And what about Hyderabad, celebrated for its culture and its diversity-where are our own writers?
"It's not just Hyderabad, it's the whole country-there is no real culture of writing," says M. C. Gabriel, author of books for children and adults. "No one really believes in children's books. Writers, in general, tend to look down on this genre."
Part of the problem is the poor returns from the work. Sheel, a partner with the new Hyderabad-based Spark India (which publishes educational resource books) and a writer herself, feels that children's writing can take off only if there is a supportive publishing culture. "Our publishing industry has to nurture writers," adds Gabriel. However, publishing houses actually shy away from investing too much in children's books because they are not always commercially viable. Hyderabad-based Orient Longman, for instance, has scaled down its literary publishing overall, and apart from textbooks, has consciously cut down its publishing for children. Those who write for children, therefore, have to look hard for other avenues of publication. Newspaper supplements and magazines for children provide one avenue of publication. Cheryl Rao, award-winning children's writer, publishes many of her short stories in local papers and children's magazines, while Radha Sampath, an upcoming writer whose first book for beginning readers is to be published by Spark India, got her start writing for a children's web site. "People don't want to buy books by unknown authors," she says. "And publishing in papers and magazines is one way of building familiarity with your name." Of course, neither periodicals nor online magazines pay very much for children's fiction-even as little as Rs. 100 for a short story!
The other part of the problem with children's literature in English is its quality-or lack of it. Most writers write "because they have to write," says Cheryl Rao. "You don't think about the audience, or of publication, when you work with a story." Shanta Rameshwar Rao, writer and educationist, agrees. "The writer just writes, and the audience happens. When you write with a purpose or an audience in mind, the writing becomes very artificial."
This artificiality is what hampers a lot of Indian writing for children. "Much of it is very didactic, very moralistic," says Shanta Rameshwar Rao. Gabriel agrees. "Being preachy seems to be a part of our nature, and we have to break that."
Radhika Menon of Tulika observed at a recent workshop, "Even well-known publishers who have entered the children's book arena seem content with slick production and packaging, without much attention to content.
There is an obsession with moralistic and didactic textbook-like writing, and the choice seems to be Amar Chitra Katha-like stereotypes on the one hand and colonial-hangover stories on the other, with Michaels, Marys and strawberry-flavoured jellybeans."
"Writing for small children requires an imagination that breaks all boundaries," says Shanta Rameshwar Rao.
According to her, the problem is not just that there isn't enough locally produced reading material for children. "There's just too much bad children's writing around. People tend to be happy with second-rate work; even publishers are not looking at material critically enough," she says. Children, on the other hand, look at material very critically, and when they find something is not entertaining enough, they will not hesitate to throw it aside.
Zia Marshall, another Hyderabadi writer of stories for children, says, "though we have a lot of good creative writers, most of them seem to shy away from children's writing-they feel that this requires too much imagination, that you have to pull things out of thin air!"
As a result, we have a lot of retold stories from mythology, and grandmothers' folktales, but not enough stories of "ordinary children having a good time", as Cheryl Rao puts it. "All children want to read about adventure and excitement," she says, and if these stories are well written, and take place within a context that the children feel close to, there is no reason why they cannot succeed. "You might be able to fob off little children with retellings," says Shanta Rameshwar Rao, "But children's writing also needs to have fun and beauty."
The lack of quality, feels Mrs Rameshwar Rao, also stems from the fact that most adults - even those who write - do not spend enough time reading, or absorbing the culture around them. "We need to read a wide range of children's literature ourselves, not to imitate but to see how successful writers use language and ideas. In this sense, Hyderabad is still very insular."
Omana Hirantara, who runs Kaleidoscope Library and children's centre, agrees that Hyderabad does not have enough of a reading culture, whether among adults or children. "People who come here from other cities always comment on the fact that there are so few libraries in the city," she notes.
A `reading culture' would definitely help boost children's writing - of local authors and others-because it would help create a discerning and demanding clientele. Sheel suggests that reading groups for children, in and outside schools, could help get children interested in books, and perhaps gently lead them into exploring works of Indian authors. "Teachers can do a lot to encourage children to read more widely, and to introduce them to local books," she says.
Omana and her partner at Kaleidoscope have made a conscious effort to introduce Indian writers to children, reading from their works, and recommending them to children who ask for suggestions. "Often many parents-and of course children-don't even know that there is so much Indian writing for children. It's like they don't expect it to be available."
"Parents tend to recommend books that they themselves have read as children - and thirty years ago, there was little other than Enid Blyton or the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys stories," says Cheryl Rao. Cheryl, whose books have been published by HarperCollins, CBT, and Orient Longman, feels that booksellers too could play a role in encouraging sales and reading of Indian authors by displaying them more prominently. "But then, a foreign thing is a foreign thing, and a trend is a trend," says Mrs Rameshwar Rao, "And children will tend to read what all their friends are talking about."
"All children have cut their teeth on important stories, so publishers and booksellers prefer to stick with that known commodity," says Mr Gabriel. "But Ruskin Bond's stories, which are very Indian, have roots - so why can't more writers do it?" He argues for more awards for children's writing, accompanied by more publicity for award-winning writers. "And of course, more nurturing of illustrators-a key element in children's publishing."
Target magazine, during its years of existence, `nurtured' a team of writers and illustrators in Delhi who now are important names in Indian publishing for children. Katha continues that tradition in the capital. In Chennai, Radhika Menon of Tulika and Gita Wolf of Tara Publishing organise workshops for children's writers, giving them a forum to brainstorm, exchange ideas and tools, and the opportunity to feel part of a network. While some writers, like Cheryl Rao, feel that "writing is such an internal activity that is doesn't require these supports", others, like Sheel, are of the opinion that "a community of people who share ideas and can bounce criticism off each other" can really help writers.
Omana notes that many more children are today interested in books by Indian authors. Cheryl feels that many more children are reading today-thanks to J.K. Rowling. So perhaps this interest can be positively exploited by those who can help Indian authors give our children a taste of local magic. If publishers, booksellers, parents and teachers-and of course children--all conspired to give Indian children's literature a boost, we might see many more writers coming out of the crevices of the city's rocks to make their work see the light of day.
IT'S BEEN a month since Harry Potter ruled the headlines and the bestseller lists, and while the posters still adorn the glass doors of bookstores around the city, the everyday quiet has returned to the children's sections. The usual American and British potboilers dominate the shelves, with the occasional unknown name or title that doesn't begin with The mystery of... And somewhere among those shiny, slick paperbacks nestle a few dozen somewhat less glossy spines, with different-sounding titles-"Trash!" Aditi and the one-eyed monkey, Ajanta Apartments, The Bulbul's Ruby Nose Ring, Sorry, Best Friend, among others. The authors sound like they could be names from our telephone books, while the sketches remind us of people and places somewhat closer to home than we are accustomed to. Those browsing in the children's section of Walden or Crossword invariably walk away with a couple of comics or good old Enid Blyton; few explore these more local stories.
It is supposed to be the heyday of Indian writing in English. But what about the Indian writer of stories for children? While Vikram Seth makes headlines for a record advance, rarely-almost never-do we hear of a children's writer from India being similarly celebrated. Recent years have seen the emergence of publishers like Tara and Tulika in Chennai, and Katha in New Delhi, that have focused largely on books for young people. Penguin and HarperCollins have put out the occasional children's title by an Indian author, while Orient Longman's Gulmohur imprint has produced a steady trickle of little books for little people by Indian-even local--authors. Ruskin Bond has in his own way popularised the Indian milieu in writing for children. And of course the stalwarts, Children's Book Trust and National Book Trust, have done their bit to bring out relatively inexpensive children's books.
Despite all this activity, the number of locally-nationally-produced children's books available in bookstores today is very small. Where are all our storytellers? If the richness of a children's literature is an indicator of the value a culture places on childhood, then what does the state of children's writing in India say about us? And what about Hyderabad, celebrated for its culture and its diversity-where are our own writers?
"It's not just Hyderabad, it's the whole country-there is no real culture of writing," says M. C. Gabriel, author of books for children and adults. "No one really believes in children's books. Writers, in general, tend to look down on this genre."
Part of the problem is the poor returns from the work. Sheel, a partner with the new Hyderabad-based Spark India (which publishes educational resource books) and a writer herself, feels that children's writing can take off only if there is a supportive publishing culture. "Our publishing industry has to nurture writers," adds Gabriel. However, publishing houses actually shy away from investing too much in children's books because they are not always commercially viable. Hyderabad-based Orient Longman, for instance, has scaled down its literary publishing overall, and apart from textbooks, has consciously cut down its publishing for children. Those who write for children, therefore, have to look hard for other avenues of publication. Newspaper supplements and magazines for children provide one avenue of publication. Cheryl Rao, award-winning children's writer, publishes many of her short stories in local papers and children's magazines, while Radha Sampath, an upcoming writer whose first book for beginning readers is to be published by Spark India, got her start writing for a children's web site. "People don't want to buy books by unknown authors," she says. "And publishing in papers and magazines is one way of building familiarity with your name." Of course, neither periodicals nor online magazines pay very much for children's fiction-even as little as Rs. 100 for a short story!
The other part of the problem with children's literature in English is its quality-or lack of it. Most writers write "because they have to write," says Cheryl Rao. "You don't think about the audience, or of publication, when you work with a story." Shanta Rameshwar Rao, writer and educationist, agrees. "The writer just writes, and the audience happens. When you write with a purpose or an audience in mind, the writing becomes very artificial."
This artificiality is what hampers a lot of Indian writing for children. "Much of it is very didactic, very moralistic," says Shanta Rameshwar Rao. Gabriel agrees. "Being preachy seems to be a part of our nature, and we have to break that."
Radhika Menon of Tulika observed at a recent workshop, "Even well-known publishers who have entered the children's book arena seem content with slick production and packaging, without much attention to content.
There is an obsession with moralistic and didactic textbook-like writing, and the choice seems to be Amar Chitra Katha-like stereotypes on the one hand and colonial-hangover stories on the other, with Michaels, Marys and strawberry-flavoured jellybeans."
"Writing for small children requires an imagination that breaks all boundaries," says Shanta Rameshwar Rao.
According to her, the problem is not just that there isn't enough locally produced reading material for children. "There's just too much bad children's writing around. People tend to be happy with second-rate work; even publishers are not looking at material critically enough," she says. Children, on the other hand, look at material very critically, and when they find something is not entertaining enough, they will not hesitate to throw it aside.
Zia Marshall, another Hyderabadi writer of stories for children, says, "though we have a lot of good creative writers, most of them seem to shy away from children's writing-they feel that this requires too much imagination, that you have to pull things out of thin air!"
As a result, we have a lot of retold stories from mythology, and grandmothers' folktales, but not enough stories of "ordinary children having a good time", as Cheryl Rao puts it. "All children want to read about adventure and excitement," she says, and if these stories are well written, and take place within a context that the children feel close to, there is no reason why they cannot succeed. "You might be able to fob off little children with retellings," says Shanta Rameshwar Rao, "But children's writing also needs to have fun and beauty."
The lack of quality, feels Mrs Rameshwar Rao, also stems from the fact that most adults - even those who write - do not spend enough time reading, or absorbing the culture around them. "We need to read a wide range of children's literature ourselves, not to imitate but to see how successful writers use language and ideas. In this sense, Hyderabad is still very insular."
Omana Hirantara, who runs Kaleidoscope Library and children's centre, agrees that Hyderabad does not have enough of a reading culture, whether among adults or children. "People who come here from other cities always comment on the fact that there are so few libraries in the city," she notes.
A `reading culture' would definitely help boost children's writing - of local authors and others-because it would help create a discerning and demanding clientele. Sheel suggests that reading groups for children, in and outside schools, could help get children interested in books, and perhaps gently lead them into exploring works of Indian authors. "Teachers can do a lot to encourage children to read more widely, and to introduce them to local books," she says.
Omana and her partner at Kaleidoscope have made a conscious effort to introduce Indian writers to children, reading from their works, and recommending them to children who ask for suggestions. "Often many parents-and of course children-don't even know that there is so much Indian writing for children. It's like they don't expect it to be available."
"Parents tend to recommend books that they themselves have read as children - and thirty years ago, there was little other than Enid Blyton or the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys stories," says Cheryl Rao. Cheryl, whose books have been published by HarperCollins, CBT, and Orient Longman, feels that booksellers too could play a role in encouraging sales and reading of Indian authors by displaying them more prominently. "But then, a foreign thing is a foreign thing, and a trend is a trend," says Mrs Rameshwar Rao, "And children will tend to read what all their friends are talking about."
"All children have cut their teeth on important stories, so publishers and booksellers prefer to stick with that known commodity," says Mr Gabriel. "But Ruskin Bond's stories, which are very Indian, have roots - so why can't more writers do it?" He argues for more awards for children's writing, accompanied by more publicity for award-winning writers. "And of course, more nurturing of illustrators-a key element in children's publishing."
Target magazine, during its years of existence, `nurtured' a team of writers and illustrators in Delhi who now are important names in Indian publishing for children. Katha continues that tradition in the capital. In Chennai, Radhika Menon of Tulika and Gita Wolf of Tara Publishing organise workshops for children's writers, giving them a forum to brainstorm, exchange ideas and tools, and the opportunity to feel part of a network. While some writers, like Cheryl Rao, feel that "writing is such an internal activity that is doesn't require these supports", others, like Sheel, are of the opinion that "a community of people who share ideas and can bounce criticism off each other" can really help writers.
Omana notes that many more children are today interested in books by Indian authors. Cheryl feels that many more children are reading today-thanks to J.K. Rowling. So perhaps this interest can be positively exploited by those who can help Indian authors give our children a taste of local magic. If publishers, booksellers, parents and teachers-and of course children--all conspired to give Indian children's literature a boost, we might see many more writers coming out of the crevices of the city's rocks to make their work see the light of day.
PUBLISHERWISE MONTHLY LIST OF MAY, 2006
Orient Longman
1/24, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110002.
* Beyond methods:macrostrategies for language teaching/ by B
Kumaravadivelu. 2006. ix,339p. 22cm. Rs.475.00. Pbk. EN65114.
* Clinical obsterics/ by A L Mudaliar, M K Krishna Menon; edited by
Sarala Gopalan and Vanita Jain. 10th ed. 2005. 416p. 28cm.
Rs.400.00. Pbk. EN65115.
* Dalit visions:the anti-caste movemennt and the construction of an
Indian indentity/ by Gail Omvedt. rev ed. 2006. xi,108p. 22cm.
Rs.130.00. Pbk. EN65118.
* Engaging with the world:critical reflections on India's foreign
policy/ edited by Rajen Harshe, K M Seethi. 2005. ix,492p.
22cm. Rs.750.00. Hb. EN65113.
* Krishna/ by Shanta Rameshwar Rao; paintings by Bulbul Sharma. 2005.
159p. 27.5cm. Rs.750.00. Hb. EN65116.
* The Mystic drum:an anthology of poems in english/ edited by Vilas
Salunke. 2003(rpr). 179p. 21cm. Rs. 53.00. pbk. EN65112.
* Orient Longman ICSE:History and civics, class X/ by Neena Kaushal.
2005. 328p. 24cm. Rs.120.00. Pbk. EN65119.
* Orient Longman ICSE science:chemistry 9(based on 2008 syllabus)/ by
Chitra Jayaraman. 2006. 314p. 24cm. Rs.140.00. Pbk. EN65120.
14
* Orient Longman ICSE science:chemistry 10 (also incorporates 2007
syllabus)/ by Chitra Jayaraman. 2006. 372p. 24cm. Rs.155.00. Pbk.
EN65121.
* Orient Longman ICSE science:chemistry workbook 9(based on 2008
syllabus)/ by Chitra Jayaraman. 2006. 127p. 24cm. Rs.60.00.
Pbk. EN65122.
* Orient Longman ICSE science:chemistry workbook 10(based on 2008
syllabus)/ by Chitra Jayaraman. 2006. 105p. 24cm. Rs.60.00.
Pbk. EN65123.
* Trafficking in women and children in India2005xxxciii,748p28cm
Rs.1200.00HbEN65117
1/24, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110002.
* Beyond methods:macrostrategies for language teaching/ by B
Kumaravadivelu. 2006. ix,339p. 22cm. Rs.475.00. Pbk. EN65114.
* Clinical obsterics/ by A L Mudaliar, M K Krishna Menon; edited by
Sarala Gopalan and Vanita Jain. 10th ed. 2005. 416p. 28cm.
Rs.400.00. Pbk. EN65115.
* Dalit visions:the anti-caste movemennt and the construction of an
Indian indentity/ by Gail Omvedt. rev ed. 2006. xi,108p. 22cm.
Rs.130.00. Pbk. EN65118.
* Engaging with the world:critical reflections on India's foreign
policy/ edited by Rajen Harshe, K M Seethi. 2005. ix,492p.
22cm. Rs.750.00. Hb. EN65113.
* Krishna/ by Shanta Rameshwar Rao; paintings by Bulbul Sharma. 2005.
159p. 27.5cm. Rs.750.00. Hb. EN65116.
* The Mystic drum:an anthology of poems in english/ edited by Vilas
Salunke. 2003(rpr). 179p. 21cm. Rs. 53.00. pbk. EN65112.
* Orient Longman ICSE:History and civics, class X/ by Neena Kaushal.
2005. 328p. 24cm. Rs.120.00. Pbk. EN65119.
* Orient Longman ICSE science:chemistry 9(based on 2008 syllabus)/ by
Chitra Jayaraman. 2006. 314p. 24cm. Rs.140.00. Pbk. EN65120.
14
* Orient Longman ICSE science:chemistry 10 (also incorporates 2007
syllabus)/ by Chitra Jayaraman. 2006. 372p. 24cm. Rs.155.00. Pbk.
EN65121.
* Orient Longman ICSE science:chemistry workbook 9(based on 2008
syllabus)/ by Chitra Jayaraman. 2006. 127p. 24cm. Rs.60.00.
Pbk. EN65122.
* Orient Longman ICSE science:chemistry workbook 10(based on 2008
syllabus)/ by Chitra Jayaraman. 2006. 105p. 24cm. Rs.60.00.
Pbk. EN65123.
* Trafficking in women and children in India2005xxxciii,748p28cm
Rs.1200.00HbEN65117
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