Philosophy as Samvada and Svaraj discusses Daya Krishna and Ramchandra Gandhi's respective intellectual contributions and speculates how one might take forward the work of the two persons who were among the most brilliant minds of our times. Both Daya Krishna and Ramchandra Gandhi emphasized freedom and autonomy of thought and upheld the importance of samvada, somewhat inadequate in its English translation as dialogue. And both of them were philosophers concerned with how philosophy might seek its svaraj, free from the orientalist hold of the religious, the colonial crippling of indigenous languages and institutions and the structures and categories of un-freedom that continue to haunt inhabitants of West and non-West. Philosophy must involve samvada--an open dialogue and intimate encounter between self and other. Both philosophers experimented with these concepts and were enormously creative. This book is a testament not only to the core values of philosophy, but also to how these values can be carried forward by new weaves of tradition and modernity.

What is a Global City? Who authorizes the World Class City? This edited volume interrogates the "global cities" literature, which views the city as a shimmering, financial "global network." Through a historical-ethnographic exploration of inter-ethnic relations in the "other global" cities of Cairo, Beirut, Istanbul, Bukhara, Lhasa, Delhi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo, the well-known contributors highlight cartographies of the Other Global City. The volume contends that thinking about the city in the longue duree and as part of a topography of interconnected regions contests both imperial and nationalist ways of reading cities that have occasioned the many and particularly violent territorial partitions in Asia and the world.

What is a Global City? Who authorizes the World Class City? This edited volume interrogates the "global cities" literature, which views the city as a shimmering, financial "global network." Through a historical-ethnographic exploration of inter-ethnic relations in the "other global" cities of Cairo, Beirut, Istanbul, Bukhara, Lhasa, Delhi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo, the well-known contributors highlight cartographies of the Other Global City. The volume contends that thinking about the city in the longue duree and as part of a topography of interconnected regions contests both imperial and nationalist ways of reading cities that have occasioned the many and particularly violent territorial partitions in Asia and the world.

Reassessing conventional South Asian historiography from a subaltern perspective, "Against History, Against State" examines how conceptions of history and memory clash. For nearly a millennium, the Meos of northwest India -- one of the largest Muslim populations in South Asia -- endured a succession of brutally oppressive regimes, from the Arab conquest in the eighth century through the establishment of the Turkish Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, the regional Rajput kingdoms, and the era of British imperialism. Unwilling to abandon their ethnic and religious identity, the Meos developed an independent oral tradition that enabled them to challenge state formation for centuries. By creating an alternate record of their past through songs and stories, the Meos were able to successfully retain a degree of cultural sovereignty. But their quest for autonomy was stigmatized, even criminalized, while histories -- written by the literate, ruling elite -- transformed ethnic prejudice into historical fact. This pioneering study, based on a decade of intensive research, explores the Meo community through their oral tradition, revealing sophisticated modes of collective memory and self-governance. "Against History, Against State" reveals the remarkable complexity and resilience of a transgressive culture that has survived on the margins of Hinduism and Islam.

Reassessing conventional South Asian historiography from a subaltern perspective, "Against History, Against State" examines how conceptions of history and memory clash. For nearly a millennium, the Meos of northwest India -- one of the largest Muslim populations in South Asia -- endured a succession of brutally oppressive regimes, from the Arab conquest in the eighth century through the establishment of the Turkish Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, the regional Rajput kingdoms, and the era of British imperialism. Unwilling to abandon their ethnic and religious identity, the Meos developed an independent oral tradition that enabled them to challenge state formation for centuries. By creating an alternate record of their past through songs and stories, the Meos were able to successfully retain a degree of cultural sovereignty. But their quest for autonomy was stigmatized, even criminalized, while histories -- written by the literate, ruling elite -- transformed ethnic prejudice into historical fact. This pioneering study, based on a decade of intensive research, explores the Meo community through their oral tradition, revealing sophisticated modes of collective memory and self-governance. "Against History, Against State" reveals the remarkable complexity and resilience of a transgressive culture that has survived on the margins of Hinduism and Islam.

The destruction of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in December 1992 was a watershed in the politics of independent India. It was also an apocalyptic turning-point for community life at Ayodhya, and for the highly interdependent cultural lives of Hindus and Muslims living there. This book narrates how Ayodhya's inhabitants experienced the events that led up to and followed the destruction of the mosque.

Using historical and ethnographic methods, this book explores transitions in popular Indian nationalism. It highlights the shifts and transitions from the Pax Britannica to the Pax Americana over the last two centuries, and examines new sources of the self as the local intersects, collides and interpenetrates with the global and national, suggesting new nationalist imperatives in the age of imperial terror. The book engages with several significant debates such as whether colonialism constituted a violent rupture, and it suggests ways in which the pre-colonial was appropriated by colonial projects, and how colonial texts were transmuted into nationalist projects. The book goes on to review orientalism from discourse analysis of languages other than Sanskrit or English, and uses the figure of James Tod to explore vernacular orientalism and the interface between the literary, the historical and the political. Bringing together the understanding of an ideology with that of a community, and linking the local and the global, this book will be of interest to those studying Indian Politics, Nationalism and South Asian History.