I suppose the impulse to write this book dates back to my shame and anger in India when men and women of my own race extolled suttee, and the amazement with which I first saw the memorials of Hindu kings, with the sati’s couching forms. But the impulse was slight, and would have slept but for a publisher’s interest. Messrs. Allen & Unwin passed on to me questions asked about suttee by their reader when reporting on my share in Three Eastern Plays. Receiving my reply, they suggested that I should right on this subject.

First published in 1988, this encyclopedia serves as an overview and point of entry to the complex interdisciplinary field of Victorian studies. The signed articles, which cover persons, events, institutions, topics, groups and artefacts in Great Britain between 1837 and 1901, have been written by authorities in the field and contain bibliographies to provide guidelines for further research. The work is intended for undergraduates and the general reader, and also as a starting point for graduates who wish to explore new fields.

Social Theory and Education Research is an advanced and accessible text that illustrates the diverse ways in which social theories can be applied to educational research methodologies. It provides in-depth overviews of the various theories by well-known and much-debated thinkers – Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu and Jacques Derrida – and their applications in educational research. Updated throughout and with new extended introductions to each theorist and a new chapter on the application of socio-theoretical concepts in education research methodologies and the how-to of research practice, this second edition assists education practitioners and researchers in their acquisition and application of social theory. This book contextualizes the various theories within the broader context of social philosophy and the historical development of different forms of thought. Social Theory and Education Research will be incredibly useful to postgraduate students and early career researchers who wish to develop their capacity to engage with these debates at an advanced level. It will also prove of great interest to anyone involved in education policy and theory.

The newly issued Indian Census Report for 1931 contains many disquieting revelations, but none more so than the huge increase in child marriage and the continuing enormous mortality of women due to premature maternity, bad midwifery, purdah and kindred social evils. The first part of this book exposes the futility of the steps hitherto taken to cope with child marriage. The second part discusses remedies. Wider voting rights and a larger share in administration are claimed for women, and women themselves are urged to take up the Government’s challenge, "Educate public opinion," by organising an extensive campaign of propaganda and resistance to those who break the law prohibiting child marriage. The book has a direct bearing on the problem of India’s future Constitution and contains new material concerning other problems besides that of child marriage.

First published in 1981, this reissue examines mankind’s preoccupation with death and mortality by isolating various societies in different periods of time. The authors examine not only the formal rituals associated with the last rite of passage, but also the social attitudes to death and dying which these rituals evidence. The essays establish that different periods do seem to be characterized by different images of death and attitudes to it, but the authors wisely avoid trying to impose strict chronological pattern. A pioneering work in the historical study of attitudes to death, this reissue should reignite discussion on the significance of death in human history. Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood examines attitudes to death as reflected in myth and religious thought in Ancient Greece and relates them to social and economic change. R. C. Finucane analysis the social significance of the ‘exemplary’ deaths of kings, criminals, traitors and saints in medieval Europe. Paul Fritz’s essay illustrates the importance of royal burials in early modern Britian; while Joachim Whaley examines the social and political significance of funerals in Hamburg between 1500 and 1800. John McManners discusses the work of Phililppe Aries and other prominent French scholars on the history of attitudes to death. David Irwin examines the images of death portrayed in European tombs around 1800. C.A Bayly analyzes the relationship between death ritual and society in Hindu Northern India, while David Cannadine discusses the impact of war on attitudes to death in modern Britain.

The status and position of Indian women have undergone many changes since the high status they enjoyed in the Vedic era yielded to forced suicide during the dark ages, female infanticide, purdah, child marriages and the denial of property and political rights. This book, first published in 1985, provides a comprehensive annotated bibliography to hose years, and the years that followed of the relentless liberation struggle by women on the socio-political and legal fronts.

This book comprises the collected essays of Sharmila Rege (1964 – 2013), which span a range of themes, including critical perspectives on women’s movements, Dalit standpoint feminism, and the relationship between Women’s Studies and other disciplines. Written over two decades and more (from the 1990s to 2010), these pioneering essays draw from the struggles and writings of Dalit women, the long history of anticaste thought in Maharashtra and global feminist debates. Equally, they address enduring concerns to do with caste and gender, and call attention to the inseparability of struggles against caste and patriarchy. Framed and annotated by an introduction that places Sharmila's work in the intellectual and historical contexts that shaped it, the volume also features short prefatory notes by her colleagues on the various themes taken up for discussion. Addressing, as it does, the researcher, the activist and the teacher, the book is indispensable for students and researchers of women’s studies, feminism, gender studies, Dalit studies, minority studies, Sociology, as well as studies in language and rhetoric.

Less than two years before his murder, Cicero created a catalogue of his philosophical writings that included dialogues he had written years before, numerous recently completed works, and even one he had not yet begun to write, all arranged in the order he intended them to be read, beginning with the introductory Hortensius, rather than in accordance with order of composition. Following the order of the De divinatione catalogue, William H. F. Altman considers each of Cicero’s late works as part of a coherent philosophical project determined throughout by its author’s Platonism. Locating the parallel between Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Cicero’s “Dream of Scipio” at the center of Cicero’s life and thought as both philosopher and orator, Altman argues that Cicero is not only “Plato’s rival” (it was Quintilian who called him Platonis aemulus) but also a peerless guide to what it means to be a Platonist, especially since Plato’s legacy was as hotly debated in his own time as it still is in ours. Distinctive of Cicero’s late dialogues is the invention of a character named “Cicero,” an amiable if incompetent adherent of the New Academy whose primary concern is only with what is truth-like (veri simile); following Augustine’s lead, Altman shows the deliberate inadequacy of this pose, and that Cicero himself, the writer of dialogues who used “Cicero” as one of many philosophical personae, must always be sought elsewhere: in direct dialogue with the dialogues of Plato, the teacher he revered and whose Platonism he revived.

This book, first published in 1926, provides a comprehensive description and analysis of every constitutional aspect of British rule in India from 1600 to 1936. Beginning with a description of the East India Company before Plassey, its constitution, administration of settlements, and relation to the Indian states, the book closes with an account of the reforms of the 1930s, the events leading up to the White Paper and an analysis and elucidation of the Government of India Act 1935.