The lectures presented in this volume were given during the summer of 1970 under the sponsorship of the CIC Summer Program on South Asia and the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies of the University of Michigan. It should be recognized that these essays appear in revised lecture form, and not as fully polished scholarly papers. They carry nevertheless the authority—and no little verve—of experienced scholars concerned with both the traditions and the changes so characteristic of modern India. [v]

Stressing the variations in meaning of modernity and tradition, this work shows how in India traditional structures and norms have been adapted or transformed to serve the needs of a modernizing society. The persistence of traditional features within modernity, it suggests, answers a need of the human condition. Three areas of Indian life are analyzed: social stratification, charismatic leadership, and law. The authors question whether objective historical conditions, such as advanced industrialization, urbanization, or literacy, are requisites for political modernization.

Ethnological study of Anjan, a village in Ranchi District, Bihar.

Within the last two decades, India has not only enacted specific legislation on environmental protection but has also virtually created a new fundamental right to a clean environment in the Constitution. The models and methods adopted in the Indian context appear, at first sight, similar to those in other common law systems. Yet there are many subtle differences which have changed the structure and content of legal development in India. Indian environmental jurisprudence brings out the unique characteristics of a new legal order which has gradually been established in India. The distinguishing nature of this jurisprudence, as this book shows in detail, has three interconnected elements. First, the nature of the new Indian constitutional law regime accords greater importance to public concerns than protecting private interests. Secondly, this jurisprudential development reflects certain aspects of Indian legal culture, through implicit and explicit reliance on autochthonous values and concepts of law, encapsulated in the Indian juristic postulate of dharma. Thirdly, the emerging Indian environmental jurisprudence bears testimony to the activist role of the Indian judiciary which has also had a significant impact in many areas other than environmental law. In short, the development of environmental jurisprudence in India manifests neo-dharmic jurisprudence in postmodern public law. It accommodates ideas currently voiced by experts around the world for protecting the environment in forms modified by the Indian legal culture.

First published in 1965, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline is a strikingly original work, the first real cultural history of India. The main features of the Indian character are traced back into remote antiquity as the natural outgrowth of historical process. Did the change from food gathering and the pastoral life to agriculture make new religions necessary? Why did the Indian cities vanish with hardly a trace and leave no memory? Who were the Aryans – if any? Why should Buddhism, Jainism, and so many other sects of the same type come into being at one time and in the same region? How could Buddhism spread over so large a part of Asia while dying out completely in the land of its origin? What caused the rise and collapse of the Magadhan empire; was the Gupta empire fundamentally different from its great predecessor, or just one more ‘oriental despotism’? These are some of the many questions handled with great insight, yet in the simplest terms, in this stimulating work. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, South Asian studies and ethnic studies.

This book systematically introduces the practice of restorative justice in India, as a resource for comparative criminal justice research. “Restorative justice” focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims, and with the community at large. It has gained momentum as a justice reform movement in Western countries within the past three decades, and it is estimated that up to one hundred countries worldwide utilize restorative justice practices. Within Western countries, it is seen largely a response or alternative to the perceived deficiencies of the existing criminal justice system. India has a rich tradition of restorative justice, and this work introduces both the traditional basis and contemporary practices of this justice system in India, in a comprehensive and systematic way. The contributions to this work cover three main areas: I. The Tradition of Restorative Justice in India II. The Development of Restorative Justice in India III. Restorative Justice Practices in India The third part – “Practices” covers special topics: including Restorative Justice and the Court, Restorative Justice and Incarceration, Restorative Justice and Juveniles, and Restorative Justice and Woman. The book covers the full range of the issues of restorative justice in India and will be a highly valuable resource book for researchers and upper level graduate students interested in alternative justice models in general, comparative criminology, and criminal justice in India specifically. “A landmark volume in the history of restorative justice and criminology in India. Many outstanding scholars in this collection outline the Indian experience of restorative justice from which the world has much to learn.” John Braithwaite Australian National University

The Indian Council of Social Science Research, the premier organization for social science research in India, conducts periodic surveys in the major disciplines of the social sciences to assess disciplinary developments as well as to identify gaps in research in these disciplines.

This book looks at how religious studies is framed and taught in India. It addresses the contradiction between the country’s vibrant religious life and the dearth of comparative and social scientific religious studies programs across Indian universities. The volume: • Studies the efforts by Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan and Mohan Malaviya in Varanasi, to introduce and institutionalize religious studies in India; • Discusses the notions of religion and spirituality and situates the failure of the ‘secularization thesis’ in the context of modern India; • Provides concrete suggestions on how to develop religious studies in relation to global citizenship and Indian cultural heritage with the hope of initiating a larger discussion. A unique contribution to the study of religion in society and education, the book will be indispensable to students and researchers of theology, history, philosophy, sociology, secularization, globalization, religious studies, education studies, and South Asian studies.

In part one of this volume, the political world of the peasants of Punjab is reconstructed, capturing their struggles at a national level, as well as at an individual one. Part Two makes important interventions in the theoretical debates regarding the role of peasants in revolutionary transformation in the modern world. The author argues that the association of revolution with large-scale violence has resulted in the refusal to recognize the non-violent, yet revolutionary political practice of peasants in the Indian National Movement.

As author of the hugely influential The Economic History of India 1857-1947, Tirthankar Roy has established himself as the leading contemporary economic historian of India. Here, Roy turns his attention to labour and livelihood and the nature of economic change in the Subcontinent. This book covers: economic history of modern India rural labour labour-intensive industrialization women and industrialization. Challenging the prevailing wisdom on Indian economic growth - that it is bound up with Marxian, postcolonial class analysis - Roy formulates a new view. Commercialization, surplus labour and uncertainty are seen as equally important and the end result reconciles the increasingly opposed view of economists and historians.