Hira Mandi

Hira Mandi PDF

Author: Claudine Le Tourneur d'Ison

Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited

Published: 2012-10-18

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 8174368892

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Very few French writers have ventured to write on the social, religious, political and cultural issues of Pakistani society, but Claudine is an exception. She is one of those writers who not only made frequent visits to Pakistan but also watched some very sensitive prevailing issues from a close angle. Her fine sensibilities and eye for detail is a hallmark of her writing skills which also makes her an accomplished writer. In Hira Mandi her strong pen has beautifully succeeded in capturing the true identity of the society. Hira Mandi is a remarkable piece where Claudine has rolled out a tale that would make the readers spellbound. Hira Mandi sounds a forbidden subject for many who are familiar with the name as it is an area located in the walled city of Lahore which in its hey days was notoriously known as pleasure seekers' paradise but Claudine's expressions, portrayal of feelings and glaring social dichotomies are unparallel. Jaffer Bilgrami Television Journalist, Islamabad (Pakistan)

Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan

Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan PDF

Author: Ruby Lal

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2018-07-03

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0393635406

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A Finalist for the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History Four centuries ago, a Muslim woman ruled an empire. When it came to hunting, she was a master shot. As a dress designer, few could compare. An ingenious architect, she innovated the use of marble in her parents’ mausoleum on the banks of the Yamuna River that inspired her stepson’s Taj Mahal. And she was both celebrated and reviled for her political acumen and diplomatic skill, which rivaled those of her female counterparts in Europe and beyond. In 1611, thirty-four-year-old Nur Jahan, daughter of a Persian noble and widow of a subversive official, became the twentieth and most cherished wife of the Emperor Jahangir. While other wives were secluded behind walls, Nur ruled the vast Mughal Empire alongside her husband, and governed in his stead as his health failed and his attentions wandered from matters of state. An astute politician and devoted partner, Nur led troops into battle to free Jahangir when he was imprisoned by one of his own officers. She signed and issued imperial orders, and coins of the realm bore her name. Acclaimed historian Ruby Lal uncovers the rich life and world of Nur Jahan, rescuing this dazzling figure from patriarchal and Orientalist clichés of romance and intrigue, and giving new insight into the lives of women and girls in the Mughal Empire, even where scholars claim there are no sources. Nur’s confident assertion of authority and talent is revelatory. In Empress, she finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history.

Delhi Is Not Far

Delhi Is Not Far PDF

Author: Ruskin Bond

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 8184750897

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The residents of Pipalnagar, a dull and dusty small town, hope to one day leave behind their humdrum lives for the thrills of Delhi. Deep Chand, the barber, dreams of giving the prime minister a haircut; Pitamber wishes to ride an autorickshaw instead of pulling a cycle-rickshaw; and Aziz will be happy with a junk shop in Chandni Chowk. Sharing their dreams of escape is the narrator Arun, a struggling detective-fiction writer. As he waits for inspiration to write a blockbuster, he seeks and discovers love in unusual places—with the young prostitute Kamla, wise beyond her years, and the orphan and epileptic Suraj, surprisingly optimistic despite his difficult circumstances. In Delhi Is Not Far, one of his most enduring novels, Ruskin Bond sketches a moving portrait of small- town India with characteristic sympathy and quiet wisdom.

Gender in Modern India

Gender in Modern India PDF

Author: Lata Singh

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-02-29

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0198900805

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Gender in Modern India brings together pioneering research on a range of themes including social reforms, caste, and contestations; Adivasis, patriarchy, and colonialism; capitalism, political economy, and labour; masculinity and sexuality; health, medical care, and institution building; culture and identity; and migration and its new dynamics. Commissioned in remembrance of the prolific social historian Biswamoy Pati, this volume examines the gender question through a multilayered and multi-dimensional frame in which interdisciplinarity and intersectionality play an important role. Using case studies on gender from diverse geographies?east, west, north, south, and northeast; community locations?Hindu, Muslim, and Christian; and marginalized socio-economic or ethnic habitations such as those of Dalits and Adivasis, the contributors highlight the complexities and diversities of women's negotiations of patriarchies in varied social, ethnic, and community contexts. Collectively, the chapters in this volume focus on three related and overlapping settings?colonial, colonial and postcolonial continuum, and postcolonial. They delineate the multiple lives of gender by focusing on its intersections with other markers of difference including race, class, caste, sexuality, culture, ethnicity, region, and occupation, thereby questioning stereotypes, challenging dated notions and interpretations of gender, and demonstrating the ubiquity of patriarchy.

India Retold

India Retold PDF

Author: Rajesh James

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2021-07-01

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1501352695

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India Retold: Dialogues with Independent Documentary Filmmakers in India is an attempt to situate and historicize the engagement of independent documentary filmmakers with the postcolonial India and its discourses with a focus on their independent documentary practices. Structured as an interview collection, the book examines how these documentary filmmakers, though not a homogeneous category, practice their independence through their ideology, their filmmaking praxis, their engagement with the everyday and their formal experiments. As a sparsely studied filmmakers, the book through meticulously tracing a wide ranging historical transitions (often marked by communal conflicts and the forces of globalization) not only details the ways in which independent filmmakers in India address the questions of postcolonial nation and its modernist projects but also explores their idiosyncratic views of these filmmakers which are characterized by a definitive departure from the logic of commercial films or state-sponsored documentary films. More important in many ways, these documentary filmmakers expose incongruences in national institutions and programs, embrace the voice of the underrepresented, and thus, imagine an alternative vision of the nation. During the last three years of the execution of the project, thirty Indian documentary filmmakers are interviewed in this book. Given the dearth of quality interviews and little theoretical engagement with documentary as a genre, this book would not only fill in the gap in scholarship but also would serve as an authentic guide for interested readers and for documentary filmmakers alike.

Banaras

Banaras PDF

Author: Vertul Singh

Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited

Published: 2024-05-30

Total Pages: 415

ISBN-13: 9357088709

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Banaras has been home to sages, artists, poets, musicians and seekers from all parts of India. The ancient canon of texts passed down orally by the sages was written and transcribed in the lanes and by-lanes of this city. Over the centuries, the art of grafting and subsuming the religious and cultural ethos became the hallmark of Banaras. In this book, Vertul Singh presents a kaleidoscopic view of Banaras that charts a narrative spanning from the present-day city and its origins as Kashi to the fin de siècle of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which witnessed the city’s inclusionary development as a cultural and pilgrimage centre, an opulent trading hub and a basilica of political power. Weaving facts, interesting anecdotes and untold stories to make a rich tapestry, this book is an insider’s account and an unparalleled portrait of the city.

Ways of Voice

Ways of Voice PDF

Author: Matthew Rahaim

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press

Published: 2022-05-15

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0819579408

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Ways of Voice explores techniques of voice production in North India, from Bollywood to raga music to ghazal to devotional hymns and Sufi song. The voices in play here are not merely given, but achieved. Singers consciously train themselves to cultivate characteristic vocal gaits, sonorities, and poetic attunements; they adopt postures of the vocal apparatus; they build habits of listening, temporality, and social relations. The action in Ways of Voice revolves around several dozen North Indian popular, devotional, classical, and folk singers engaged in projects of vocal striving. Like most singers, they are strategically working on changing, refining, and making their own voices. The book thus highlights the ways in which singers not only "have" voice, but actively acquire, cultivate and contest particular vocal dispositions for particular kinds of listeners. In framing a "Hindustani vocal ecumene" that encompasses a diverse range of classical, popular, and spiritual-devotional musical styles and practices, it offers an expansive look at ways of voice that extend far beyond commonsense boundaries of genre and place. A rich archive of audio and video examples are provided on the online companion site, which can be found at https://www.weslpress.org/readers-companions/.

Muslim Women and Misogyny

Muslim Women and Misogyny PDF

Author: Samia Rahman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-06-27

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1911723014

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Debunking lazy stereotypes, a courageous exploration of Islamophobia, patriarchy and identity. What is it really like to be a Muslim woman in today's Britain?

Making the 'Woman'

Making the 'Woman' PDF

Author: Sutapa Dutta

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-13

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 1003817173

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The book examines the representation of women, their agency and subjectivity and gender relations in 18th- and 19th-century India. The chapters in the volume interrogate notions and discourses of ‘women’ and ‘gender’ during the period, historically shaped by multiple and even competing actors, practices and institutions. They highlight the ‘making of the woman’ across a wide spectrum of subject areas, regions and roles and attempt to understand the contradictions and differences in social experiences and identity formations of women. The volume also deals with prevalent notions of masculinity and femininity, normative and non-conformist expressions of gender and sexual identity and epistemological concerns of gender, especially in its intersectional interplay with other axes of caste, class, race, region and empire. Presenting unique understandings of our gendered pasts, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, gender studies and South Asian studies.

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