original writing of Lokmanya Tilak THE ORION THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS VEDIC CHRONOLOGY & OTHER ESSAYS

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a frontline fighter, intimately involved with the Indian national movement. This book explores Tilak's engagements, not just with the Indian national movement, but also the nuanced diversities associated with a context that preceded the mass movements. Based on a variety of sources, the contributors attempt to historicize a nationalist icon. In the process, the reader is presented with a holistic picture of a leading nationalist personality, including his contradictions and ambiguities. In this sense, the different contributions in this book question the 'received wisdom' associated with Tilak. Bal Gangadhar Tilak: Popular Readings would be of use to those interested in the Indian national movement and the manner in which it intersected with a range of social, cultural and political issues. The 'non-specialist' reader, too, will be interested in the way in which the book makes both Tilak and his context accessible.

This book offers one of the first critical evaluations and in-depth analysis of the intellectual movement in Maharashtra in the 19th century. Arguing against the prevalent view that Indian rationality was imported from Europe through the colonial agency, it traces the rational roots of the movement to indigenous intellectual traditions and history. It also questions the centrality assigned to the ‘Bengal Renaissance’ as being the representative of the contemporary intellectual movement in the country. Strongly grounded in primary research, this volume brings forth many new facts and facets into the scholarly discourse on topics such as the idea of ‘Drain’ and the rise of Indian nationalism, so far seen as a predominantly political process divorced from its cultural dimensions. It re-examines the view that cultural consciousness that preceded political agitation was a separate sphere of activity and suggests that both were integral stages of anti-colonialism in the country. The author maintains that rationalism and nationalism were closely connected as a means-and-end continuum. He also provides a new and substantially different understanding of the 19th-century intellectuals Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Pandita Ramabai among others. Lucid, accessible and thought provoking, this book will interest scholars and researchers of modern Indian history, Indian political thought, sociology, philosophy and Marathi literature.

This edited collection investigates the relationship between gender and authority across geographical contexts, periods and fields. Who is recognized as a legitimate voice in debate and decision-making, and how is that legitimization produced? Through a variety of methodological approaches, the chapters address some of the most pressing and controversial themes under scrutiny in current feminist scholarship and activism, such as pornography, political representation, LGBTI struggles, female genital mutilation, the #MeToo movement, abortion, divorce and consent. Organized into three sections, “Politics,” “Law and Religion,” and “Imaginaries,” the contributors highlight formal and informal aspects of authority, its gendered and racialized configurations, and practices of solidarity, resistance and subversion by traditionally disempowered subjects. In dialogue with feminist scholarship on power and agency, the notion of authority as elaborated here offers a distinctive lens to critique political and epistemic foundations of inequality and oppression, and will be of use to scholars and students across gender studies, sociology, politics, linguistics, theology, history, law, film, and literature.