Is your dog an old soul who came back to guide you? A wise Hindu woman, Nanibala, believed that a pet who comes to you in an unusual way is an ancestor. Her son, from India, and daughter-in-law, from Indiana, observed the humanlike virtues displayed in their beloved dog. They wondered if their pets soul once belonged to a forbearer, and if so, did he or she come from India or Indiana? Weaving together fact, supposition, and imagination, Nanibalas Belief explores the virtues of nineteen fascinating men and women from opposite sides of the world. Defining moments in seven generations of parallel lives are revealed through linked short stories. If you like cross-cultural and inter-generational works of historical or visionary fiction, you will enjoy Nanibalas Belief.

This is the story of the women from the Indian Subcontinent who fought against British imperial power from the 1600s until the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. It begins by looking at the Partition of India, and the unique impact this had on women who – in addition to the displacement and violence which affected millions of South Asians, suffered uniquely through a campaign of rape, abduction, and forced suicides which left a lasting impact on the souls of women from every community. It then seeks to shine a light on the often-forgotten story of these women – who were not just passive victims of British, and later, communal violence, but who fought alongside (or sometimes at the head of) their male counterparts to secure the fall of the British Raj and the independence of their own nation. The stories of up to forty women, are examined, from various religious and racial communities across South Asia who advocated for Indian Independence and should be remembered and celebrated as influential freedom fighters in the same way that their male contemporaries have been. The book concludes by briefly examining the role of women in Indian nationalist movements today, and how this can be traced to the precedent set by their ancestors during the colonial era.

Rabindranath Tagore is widely regarded as a poet-philosopher and educationist, but his novels remain a relatively underexplored aspect of his oeuvre. Focusing on gender and modernity as key features of his fiction, this book charts Tagore's evolution as a novelist from self-conscious psychologizing in Chokher Bali to an engagement with nationalism in Gora and Ghare Baire (The Home and the World); a portrayal of asceticism and desire in Chaturanga (Quartet); an analysis of marriage, sexuality and change in Bengali society in Yogayog (Relationships); an effervescent fusion of social satire and literary experimentation in Shesher Kabita (Farewell Song); and an intense, dramatic study of love, politics and terrorism in Char Adhyay (Four Chapters). This study demonstrates that Tagore’s writings cannot be readily assimilated within current theoretical frameworks, and urges us to rethink the conventional oppositions between tradition and modernity, masculinity and femininity, East and West, and local and global. Addressing a major gap in the field, the book reconstructs Tagore as a novelist of eminent stature, demonstrates the range and complexity of his creative genius, his contribution to literary history and the relevance of his reflections to our times. Enriched by insights into the biographical and socio-historical contexts of his novels, this book will be of special interest to researchers, teachers and students of comparative and world literature, history, postcolonial studies and gender studies, as also to Tagore enthusiasts.

This book chronicles travel writings of Bengali women in colonial India and explores the intersections of power, indigeneity, and the representations of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ in these writings. It documents the transgressive histories of these women who stepped out to create emancipatory identities for themselves. The book brings together a selection of travelogues from various Bengali women and their journeys to the West, the Aryavarta, and Japan. These writings challenge stereotypes of the 'circumscribed native woman’ and explore the complex personal and socio-political histories of women in colonial India. Reading these from a feminist, postcolonial perspective, the volume highlights how these women from different castes, class and ages confront the changing realities of their lives in colonial India in the backdrop of the independence movement and the second world war. The author draws attention to the personal histories of these women, which informed their views on education, womanhood, marriage, female autonomy, family, and politics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Engaging and insightful, this volume will be of interest to students and researchers of literature and history, gender and culture studies, and for general readers interested in women and travel writing.

Christs instruction to his disciples was to witness to others about his plan of salvation. This may be relatively easy when it involves our contemporaries and peers. But when we are working with people from a different cultural background or belief system, it can be difficult or seemingly impossible. In Worldviews and Christian Education, editors W. A. Shipton, E. Coetzee, and R. Takeuchi have brought together works by experts in cross-cultural religious education. The authors and editors have a wealth of personal experience in presenting the gospel to individuals with various worldviews that differ greatly from those held by Christians who take the Bible as authoritative. They focus on the beliefs and issues associated with witnessing to seekers for truth coming from backgrounds as diverse as animism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Marxism, Taoism, and postmodernism. The emphasis is on educational settings, but the sensitivities highlighted and lessons learned are applicable to situations outside this area. Leaders, pastors, teachers, and laypersons will find valuable conceptual models, practical ideas, and bibliographic references presented here. Worldviews and Christian Education challenges all readers to be faithful to the biblical worldview and to approach everyone with sensitivity, so that, like the apostle Paul, they may reach some.

An intervention in the field of dissenting writings by women political detainees in India in the 1970s, and it straddles three interlinked areas: politics, prison and writing. It focuses on writings arising out of Bengal's Naxalite movement (1967–1975) and from the pan-Indian period of Emergency (1975–1977).

Last Weapons explains how the use of hunger strikes and fasts in political protest became a global phenomenon. Exploring the proliferation of hunger as a form of protest between the late-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, Kevin Grant traces this radical tactic as it spread through trans-imperial networks among revolutionaries and civil-rights activists from Russia to Britain to Ireland to India and beyond. He shows how the significance of hunger strikes and fasts refracted across political and cultural boundaries, and how prisoners experienced and understood their own starvation, which was then poorly explained by medical research. Prison staff and political officials struggled to manage this challenge not only to their authority, but to society’s faith in the justice of liberal governance. Whether starving for the vote or national liberation, prisoners embodied proof of their own assertions that the rule of law enforced injustices that required redress and reform. Drawing upon deep archival research, the author offers a highly original examination of the role of hunger in contesting an imperial world, a tactic that still resonates today.