How can the complexities of ancient India be comprehended? This book draws on a vast array of texts, inscriptions, archaeology, archival sources and art to delve into themes such as the history of regions and religions, archaeologists and the modern histories of ancient sites, the interface between political ideas and practice, violence and resistance, and the interactions between the Indian subcontinent and the wider world. It highlights recent approaches and challenges in reconstructing South Asia's early history, and in doing so, brings out the exciting complexities of ancient India. Authoritative and incisive, this revised Penguin edition-with two new chapters-is essential reading for students and scholars of ancient Indian history and for all those interested in India's past.

The most comprehensive overview of Indian politics to date, the companion incorporates the best social science knowledge available on the developments in Indian politics and provides an analytical perspective of how such issues are best understood.

Politics and political behaviour have undergone radical changes. We have developed a kind of psyche which is alien. We seem to have lost our moorings. Attempt here has been made to examine some of the basic issues on the subject under study. Object is to place before our readers selected essays which will enable them to formulate viable political philosophy for a happy, healthy and vibrant India of twentieth first century. No claim, therefore, is made to give a connected and complete account on the subject of the volume. Our main effort is at understanding the subject in appropriate perspectives for a future policy for a brighter India. Contents: Introduction, Rajadharma, Thoughts on Polity, Kautilya, The Kural Polity in the Modern Context, The Political Allegory in Kalidasa s Kumarasambhava, Polity and Governance, The Administration of Departments, The State, Swami Dayanand s Concept of the Indian Swaraj, The Striving for Swaraj, Politics of Indian Revolutionaries 1905-1910, Democracy and Political Change in India.

In a civilized world human being created some rules and regulations for a peaceful, happy and prosperous living. In order to understand the above topic in proper historical perspectives an attempt has been made to collect important works on the subject of the study. Today the legal system is at cross roads. How can this study stimulate original Indian thought process on the subject is the aim of this exercise. Contents: Introduction, Judicial System in Ancient India, Nature and Perspective of Law in Ancient India, Judicial System in Medieval India, Social Justice in Medieval India, Culture and Law, Growth of the Judiciary, India and International Law, Law, Lawyers and Judges, Inter-State Relations, Independence of Judiciary and Access to Justice.

This lively collection of essays by Ashutosh Varshney analyses the deepening of Indian democracy since 1947 and the challenges this has created. It examines concerns ranging from federalism and Hindu nationalism to caste conflict and civil society, the north–south economic divide, and politics of economic reforms. Accompanied by a substantial overview tracing the forging and consolidation of India’s improbable democracy, the book, full of original insights, portrays the successes and failures of our experience in a new comparative perspective, enriching our understanding of the idea of democracy.

The “courageous and clarion” Booker Prize–winner “continues her analysis and documentation of the disastrous consequences of unchecked global capitalism” (Booklist). From the poisoned rivers, barren wells, and clear-cut forests, to the hundreds of thousands of farmers who have committed suicide to escape punishing debt, to the hundreds of millions of people who live on less than two dollars a day, there are ghosts nearly everywhere you look in India. India is a nation of 1.2 billion, but the country’s one hundred richest people own assets equivalent to one-fourth of India’s gross domestic product. Capitalism: A Ghost Story examines the dark side of democracy in contemporary India and shows how the demands of globalized capitalism have subjugated billions of people to the highest and most intense forms of racism and exploitation. “A highly readable and characteristically trenchant mapping of early-twenty-first-century India’s impassioned love affair with money, technology, weaponry and the ‘privatization of everything,’ and—because these must not be impeded no matter what—generous doses of state violence.” —The Nation “A vehement broadside against capitalism in general and American cultural imperialism in particular . . . an impassioned manifesto.” —Kirkus Reviews “Roy’s central concern is the effect on her own country, and she shows how Indian politics have taken on the same model, leading to the ghosts of her book’s title: 250,000 farmers have committed suicide, 800 million impoverished and dispossessed Indians, environmental destruction, colonial-like rule in Kashmir, and brutal treatment of activists and journalists. In this dark tale, Roy gives rays of hope that illuminate cracks in the nightmare she evokes.” —Publishers Weekly