SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Federalism Without a Centre. The Impact of Political and Economic Reform on India's Federal System

The book takes its name from a little-known episode in the history of Indian federalism. A statement of defiance, "Federalism Without a Centre", was issued by a group of Chief Ministers and regional leaders who met in Hyderabad in 1996. The slogan indicates the paradigm shift in federal relations in India. The book explores the new challenges posed by India's federal system with the advent of economic liberalization.

One of the outgrowths of the transformation of the party system has been the drive to re-examine federal relations. The book states, however, that it is economic liberalization that has permanently altered the federal calculus in India. It shows that states do not necessarily need to rely exclusively on the central government to control their individual economic policy. The book is the very first attempt of its kind to analyze the effect of economic liberalization on India's federal system and it provides up-to-date data on foreign direct investment and portfolio equity investment. In conclusion, it provides a unique comparison with China in showing that while India had great difficulties in implementing first generation economic reforms, it may have the upper hand in the implementation of second generation reforms, particularly privatization.

Re-Imagining Rwanda. Conflict, Survival and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century

‘… an important and courageous book, and well informed … this analysis is essential reading for people interested in the area and in the role of the press in general’. Journal of African History

‘In this courageous and important book, Pottier succeeds admirably in reaffirming the necessity of scholarly analysis, as enshrined in the academic monograph, to provide the basis for well-balanced and historically informed analyses of major events … Pottier provides us with an insightful description of the build-up and aftermath of Rwanda‘s tragic genocide and ensuing war … chapter 5 … is a brilliant example of how the detailed anthropological understandings of a culture as lived by ordinary people can provide the best basis for understanding and interpreting larger and more complex events and (mis)representations at regional, national, and international levels. This important book should be required reading for anyone - from foreign diplomats and politicians, journalists, aid and development workers to academics - committed to building a better Rwanda, and for anyone whose task requires an engagement with the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa.‘ Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

'This is an important book on the political construction of knowledge … it is essential reading for anyone interested in the conflicts of Central Africa, or complex humanitarian emergencies more generally.' African Affairs

Product Description
The tragic conflict in Rwanda and the Great Lakes in 1994–1996 attracted the horrified attention of the world’s media. Journalists, diplomats and aid workers struggled to find a way to make sense of the bloodshed. Johan Pottier’s troubling study shows that the post-genocide regime in Rwanda was able to impose a simple yet persuasive account of Central Africa’s crises upon international commentators new to the region, and he explains the ideological underpinnings of this official narrative. He also provides a sobering analysis of the way in which this simple, persuasive, but fatally misleading analysis of the situation on the ground led to policy errors that exacerbated the original crisis. Professor Pottier has extensive field experience in the region, from before and after the genocide, and he has also worked among refugees in eastern Zaire.

Book Description
Pottier shows how the post-genocide regime in Rwanda imposed their account of Central Africa’s crises upon international commentators, and explains the ideological underpinnings of this official narrative. He examines how persuasive, but fatally misleading analysis of the situation on the ground led to policy errors that exacerbated the original crisis.

About the Author
Johan Pottier is Professor of Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

The Value of Marx

Karl Marx's writings provide a uniquely insightful explanation of the inner workings of capitalism, which other schools of thought generally have difficulty explaining. From this vantage point, Marx's works can help to explain important features and economic problems of our age, and the limits of their possible solutions. For example, the necessity and origin of money, the growth of the wage-earning class, uneven development, cycles and crises, and the relevant impoverishment of the workers, leading to debt and overwork.
The Value of Marx demonstrates that:
*capitalist production necessarily involves conflicts in production and in distribution
*competition is an essential feature of capitalism, but it often generates instability, crises and unemployment, showing that capitalism is not only the most productive but also the most systematically destructive mode of production in history
*capitalist economies are unstable because of the conflicting forces of extraction, realisation and the accumulation of surplus value under competitive conditions. The instability is structural, and even the best economic policies cannot avoid it completely.
The author critically reviews the methodological principles of Marx's value analysis and the best known interpretation of his value theory. He develops an interpretation of Marx focusing primarily upon the processes and relations that regulate social and economic reproduction under capitalism. When analysed from this angle, value theory is a theory of class and exploitation. The concept of value is useful because, among other reasons, it explains capitalist exploitation in spite of the predominance of voluntary market exchanges. The most important controversies in Marxian political economy are reviewed exhaustively, and new light is thrown on the meaning and significance of Marx's analysis and its relevance for contemporary capitalism.

The World of Consumption. The Material and Cultural Revisited

This completely updated and revised new edition presents an analysis of the cluttered landscape of studies of consumption examining themes such as the world of commodities, economic imperialism and globalization and the consumer society.

From the Back Cover
Consumption has become one of the leading topics across the social sciences and vocational disciplines such as marketing and business studies. As a result of this, a number of overlapping analytical problems have arisen: how to integrate contributions from the different disciplines; how to address the relationship between society and the individual in a postmodernist world; and how to bring material and cultural factors together. This book provides an answer.
In this comprehensively updated and revised new edition, traditional approaches as well as the most recent literature are fully addressed and incorporated, with wide reference to theoretical and empirical work. Fine's refreshing and authoritative text includes a critical examination of such themes as:
*economics imperialism and globalization
*the world of commodities
*systems of provision and culture
*the consumer society
*public consumption.

The book presents an updated analysis of the cluttered landscape of studies of consumption that will make it required reading for students from a wide range of backgrounds including political economy, history and social science courses generally.

Judaising Movements. Studies in the Margins of Judaism

The history of Judaising movements has been largely ignored by historians of religion. This volume analyzes the interplay between colonialism, a Judaism not traditionally viewed as proselytising but which at certain points was struggling to heed the Prophets and become a light unto the Gentiles' and the attraction for many different peoples of the rooted historicity of Judaism and by the symbolic appropriation of Jewish suffering.

This book will look at the role of colonialism in the development of Judaising movements throughout the world, including New Zealand, Japan, India, Burma and Africa. Particular attention will be paid to the Lemba tribe of Southern Africa. A remarkable parallel movement in 1930s Southern Italy will also be dealt with. The history of the converts of San Nicandro is seen in the context of currents of Jewish universalism, messianism and Zionism. Gender issues are also discussed here as the converted women assumed powers they had not hitherto enjoyed.

The Kingdom of Lo (Mustang). A Historical Study

The kingdom of Lo (Mustang) : a historical study
Author: Ramesh Dhungel
Publisher: Kathmandu : Tashi Gephel Foundation, 2002.
Edition/Format: Book : English : 1st edView all editions and formats

Summary: Study based on Nepali and Tibetan sources.

Yash Chopra

Yash Chopra is one of the most charismatic and powerful directors in the Indian film industry, his name synonymous with the glamour of the romantic film and a certain style within Indian culture. Spanning four decades his directed features include some of the classic films of Indian film history such as Deewaar and Kabhi kabhie.

His directorial career began in 1959 with Dhool ka phool and he has been a major producer since 1973, consolidating his success in the 1990s with a series of huge box-office hits including Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge. He has also worked in other Hindi movie genres, directing action movies such as Mashaal and a thriller, Darr. This book discusses in depth his work with the Hindu megastar Amitabh Bachchan in films such as Deewaar, Trishul, Kala Patthar and Silsila and how in his transformation of the ' look' of mainstream cinema in Dil to pagal hai and other films Yash Chopra has proved to be a tireless innovator within a mainstream tradition.

The author integrates this analysis with information about the man and his work, based on interviews with Yash Chopra, his family, his colleagues, his stars, his contemporaries and major critics including Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Shashi Kapoor and Sri Devi.

A unique study of a top contemporary Indian film director, Rachel Dwyer's book also examines the influence on Chopra of predecessors such as Raj Kapoor and how his own legacy can be seen in such films as Kuch kuch hota hai and younger directors such as Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra.

The Hindi Public Sphere 1920-1940. Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism

Price: £27.00 (Hardback)
ISBN: 978-0-19-565084-6
Publication date: 10 January 2002
OUP India
498 pages, 1 map, 216x140 mm

Description
Orsini's book documents the creation and development of a public sphere that shaped literature, language and religious nationalism during the nationalist movement in India.

Readership: Scholars of language, literature, history, politics; Indian nationalism area specialists

Authors, editors, and contributors

Francesca Orsini, Lecturer, University of Cambridge

Surat keterangan Syeikh Jalaluddin karangan Fakih Saghir

This critical edition of an early 19th century Malay text consists of five parts: an introduction into the manuscripts and text, a comparison of the two extant manuscripts, a discussion of the language used with particular emphasis on the influence of the Minangkabau dialect, the critical text edition, a concordance correlating manuscript pages with the pages of a printed Malay edition in Jawi, the modified Arabic script used in the Malay World, the facsimile of the main manuscript, a glossary, a bibliography and an index. The text recounts the origins and course of the Padri War in Minangkabau (1825-31) when fanatical converts to Wahabbism tried to force other Muslims to follow their lead. The war only came to an end when the more moderate Wahabbis among the Minangkabau asked for Dutch military assistance against the fundamentalists. The moderates won the war but they had opened the door for colonial rule. This autobiographical account narrates the course of the war through the eyes of its author Syeikh Jalaluddin, the little fakir, who played a full role in the war. It pays particular attention to the efforts of one of the most prominent leaders of the moderate wing, his father. Overall, it is an apologia for the decision to call in the Dutch and, in fact, may have been written with the Dutch in mind.

Cinema India. The Visual Culture of Hindi Film

Now nearly 100 years old, Indian cinema is one of India's most vibrant cultural products as well as being the world's most prolific, at its peak producing an estimated 800 films a year. "Cinema India" concentrates on the visual culture of Indian film. Drawing on a wide range of resources, this text traces the roots of Indian cinema in early photography, theatre and chromo-lithography, examines its unique styles, modes, genres and themes, and describes its development into the dominant visual form within Indian popular culture. The text considers mise-en-scene, looking at sets, locations and costumes, which are key to understanding ideas of fashion, lifestyle and consumption in the world of Hindi movies; examines the use of clothing, hairstyles and make-up to discuss changing ideas of beauty, sexuality and consumerism; and looks at the "dare to bare" debate surrounding the swimsuit and the wet sari. Another important strand considered is film advertising: by considering all forms of publicity material the authors reveal the interactions between star's image, artist and film-producer, which may not only affect the design of the material but also have a direct influence on the content of the film. Other crucial elements in Indian cinema that are discussed are ethnicity and Westernization, which highlight issues of class, caste, region and religion in this most complex, intriguing and little-known visual forms. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author
Rachel Dwyer is senior lecturer in Indian Studies, SOAS, University of London, and the author, among other books, of Yash Chopra (2002). Divia Patel is an Assistant Curator in the Asian Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Diccionario Swahili-Español

The Diccionario Swahili-Español is a learning tool for Spanish speaking Swahili students and linguists, created with the collaboration of linguists and lexicographers of the prestigious Latin American university that published it (el Colegio de Mexico). It contains a sketch of Swahili grammar, and more than 10,000 carefully selected entries and sub-entries. In addition to describing the language, this dictionary is a cultural text of modern Swahili. It also contains many examples of usage, and notes on dialect variations and special uses of certain words that are culturally or semantically specific to the Swahili language. It also includes neologisms and coinages that are not present in older dictionaries. The selection of entries was based on a lexicostatistical study of the language conducted by the author. The book was described by the African Academy of Sciences as “an important advance in the internationalization of Swahili.” It is the first ever-published dictionary of these two major world languages.

At the Syntax-Pragmatics Interface. Verbal Underspecification and Concept Formation in Dynamic Syntax

A cutting-edge synthesis of results from formal syntax and Relevance theory
A new and systematic approach to the problem of verb phrase adjunction
A contribution to the emerging framework of Dynamic Syntax
Includes a new analysis of Swahili applicatives on pragmatic lines

This book explores the interaction of grammar and context in human communication. Lutz Marten focuses on verbs and verb phrases: he examines the relationship between language rules and linguistic behaviour, seeking to distinguish between language-specific syntactic knowledge and the general reasoning people need to understand and to make themselves understood. He considers how the component elements of linguistic theory explain what appear to be simple utterances but whose structure is hard to analyse - how, for example, 'Fran is baking Mary a cake in the oven' is different from 'Fran is baking Mary a cake in the kitchen'.

The author's account of the interactions of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics is based on extensive observation among contrasting cultures and a variety of languages. He makes important contributions to understanding in all three areas. His book will appeal to linguistic theoreticians of all persuasions.

Readership: Theoretical linguists

Contents
1. Introduction
2. A Formal Model of Utterance Interpretation
3. Arguments and Adjuncts
4. Verbal Underspecification
5. The Interpretation of Underspecified Verbs
6. Applied Verbs in Swahili
7. Conclusion

Authors, editors, and contributors

Lutz Marten, Millennium Research Fellow, SOAS, University of London

The Phonetics of Wa. Experimental Phonetics, Phonology, Orthography and Sociolinguistics

The phonetics of Wa: Experimental phonetics, phonology, orthography and sociolinguistics

Watkins, Justin

Pl 531

This is a linguistic phonetic study of the Northern Mon-Khmer language Wa, spoken by about one million people in an area on the border between China's Yúnán Province and Burma's (Myanmar's) Shan State. The aim of this book is to describe the phonetic facts of the sounds of Wa in terms of the simplest segment types without compromising detail, and to illustrate the types of contrasts which distinguish them from one another, so that they may be viewed in a wider, phonetic linguistic, context. It is hoped that sufficient material is presented here to inform a comparison of dialectal variants of Wa and that the instrumental data may be of value in comparing a sound in Wa with similar sounds in other languages. This study aims to be accessible to all those who are interested by the relevance of phonetics to linguistics. It is hoped that certain sections, in particular the background information and the discussion of topics relating to the historical phonology of Wa may be of interest to a wider readership, namely Mon-Khmerists, those working on other minority languages of South East Asia or elsewhere, or those with a general interest in Wa language, culture or society.

2002

ISBN 0 85883 486 3

xxvii + 226 pp

Prices: Australia A$47.85 (inc. GST), Overseas A$43.50

The Rishi of Bangladesh. A History of Christian Dialogues

This book is a study of the changing relationship over time (1856-1994) between the Rishi, an ex-Untouchable jati of Bengal/South-West Bangladesh, and various groups of Catholic missionaries. The book's originality and importance lies in its multi-disciplinary approach which combines anthropological fieldwork, historical research, philosophical enquiry and contemporary missiological debates. Moreover, it addresses issues of great current relevance in its discussions of Orientalism, Neo-colonialism and Otherness.

Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda. Economy, Society and Warfare in the Nineteenth Century

Buganda was one of the most favoured of East Africa's inter-lacustrine kingdoms. Blessed with fertile and well-watered soil, capable of supporting a relatively dense population, it became a major regional power by the mid-19th century.

Review:
'Reid's new book on the material and military bases of political power in nineteenth century Buganda - especially post-1850 - is a welcome, ambitious and innovative break from this norm. ...This is an impressive study. Reid marshals a wealth of evidence and original argument on material conditions in late nineteenth-century Buganda, and the ways that those conditions shaped the nature and workings of the Ganda state. Even when he is not persuasive...Reid asks important questions and provides bold answers. His book breaks new ground that advances not only the study of precolonial Buganda, but also of precolonial Ugandan and East African History more generally.' - Ronald R. Atkinson in Journal of African History 'This is an impressive study, asking important questions and marshalling a wealth of evidence and original argument to provide bold (and mostly convincing) answers.' - R.R. Atkinson in Choice 'Richard Reid's well-researched study places nineteenth-century Buganda in its economic and material contexts...Reid's study broadens our picture of precolonial Buganda beyond court politics and political structures and is thus a very welcome addition to the historiography. It is also valuable for the clan history he adds and for the analysis of Bugandan slavery and slave trade in the context of recent slave trade historiography.' Glenn H. McKnight in African Studies Review 'In writing an economic history of pre-colonial Buganda, Richard Reid has taken a simple idea, and in a field with relatively limited archival and historical resources, pursued it adeptly...this unfashionably detailed economic history provides an important sand accessible synthesis of existing scholarship, together with new insights into the converging currents of political and economic history in the Lake Victoria region.' - Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 'What Reid does best is to provide careful empirical data on the productive economy, trade, and warfare by combing through the existing traveller's, missionary, and colonial accounts, the early histories of the kingdom written by educated Ganda, clan histories, and other archaeological or archival sources.' Jan Bender Shetler in H-Africa 'Richard Reid's Political Power in Pre-colonial Buganda seeks to both balance and build upon politically orientated analyses of precolonial Ganda history by "examin[ing] the material basis of Ganda political power". ...herein lies Reid's central contribution to the history of Ganda state formation. His survey of the Ganda economy gives weight to one of the book's principal arguments: the pursuit of resources, combined with the promotion and protection of the trade networks along which manufactured products circulated, prompted the kingdom's expansion and steered Ganda diplomatic, military and technological developments from the seventeenth century to the onset of colonial rule. Commercial and military objectives reinforced one another, as military expansion yielded commercial opportunities and attempts to control trade often led to conflict. According to Reid, this continual quest to reinforce the material basis of political power, fostered through warfare and commercial activity, served as the "sin qua non of the [Ganda] state"' - Neil Kodesh in International Journal of African Historical Studies '...a lively discussion of aspects of public life in the Buganda kingdom immediately before the imposition of British protectorate authority upon it in the 1890s' - Michael Twaddle in African Affairs 'his book will be useful if not indispensable to other researchers' - Henri Medard in Cahiers d'Etudes africaines

Contents:

Part 1 Land and livelihood
- a survey of Ganda economy I - land and cultivation
- a survey of Ganda economy II - herdsmen and hunters
- a survey of Ganda economy III - crafts and craftsmen.

Part 2 Labour and liberty
- the state and its human resources I -labour and taxation
- the state and its human resources II -slavery.

Part 3 Buyers and sellers
- developments in commerce I -domestic and regional trade
- developments in commerce II - the growth of long-distance trade.

Part 4 War and peace
- war and peace I - the rise and decline of Ganda military power
- war and peace II - developments in organization, tactics and weaponry
- Lake Victoria - the final frontier.

Crime, Punishment and the Prison in Modern China

Based on extensive research and many newly discovered sources, Crime, Punishment and the Prison in Modern China examines the radical changes in Chinese society during the first half of the twentieth century through the lens of the Chinese prison system. More than a simple history of prison rules or penal administration, this book explores the profound effects and lasting repercussions of the superimposition of Western-derived models of repentance and rehabilitation on traditional Chinese categories of crime and punishment. A society's prisons reflect much about its notions not only of law and order and the rights of the individual but of human nature itself, its tractability and capacity to change. In China during the tumultuous years from 1895 to 1949, these notions were transformed in dramatic ways.

Frank Dikotter identifies penal reform as radical modern tool to achieve an indigenous Chinese vision of social cohesion and the rule of virtue. Modernizing elites in China viewed the reformation o f criminals as a constitutive part of a project of a national regeneration in which good order, economic development, and state power could only be obtained by shaping obedient subjects. This groundbreaking account of the evolution of Chinese penal theory is combined with a richly textured portrait of daily life behind bars. Petty villains, abusive guards, ambitious wardens, and idealist reformers people its pages and live out China's complicated movement from empire to republic to communist state.

'Modernity and tradition, political order and chaos, violence and hope - all the themes of China's reform impulse found expression in the rapidly changing prison system of the first half of the twentieth century. Dikotter's thoughtful and deeply informed study opens up this neglected subject with fascinating results." - Andrew J. Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

"Dikotter adds a whole new dimension to the history of the prison. He alerts us to the extended reach of American and European ideas on prison reform and how they fit ever so neatly with indigenous Chinese theories. This is a fascinating study in the transfer of ideas and practices." - David J Rothman, Columbia University

Imperial Classroom. Islam, Education and the State in Late Ottoman Empire

'... its comparative and theoretical focus will certainly help to make the region more accessible to students and scholars interested in the history of education and modernity, while widening the horizons of area specialists.' - Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies
'This is an important book which reconciles the various tensions between 'traditional' and 'modern', and 'Islamic' and 'secular' from within ... Fortna's eloquent style is enriched by the multiple narratives of pupils, teachers, officials and statesmen whose individual voices intersected the educational landscape of the Empire.' - Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies
'Imperial Classroom shows theoretical and conceptual sophistication, a clear methodological framework and relies on extensive research in the Ottoman archives. ' - Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies
'... a multi-layered, perceptive and carefully crafted study.' - Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies
'... meticulous and well-documented ... the author exhibits a talent for combining clear argumentation with an elegant writing style. This book, with its multiplicity of methodological agendas, should be of interest to a large cross-section of scholarship, including historians of the late Ottoman empire and those interested in the relationship between the state and education in an historical setting.' - Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
'Imperial Classroom deserves our attention on several counts, the most important being its innovatory approach, systematic presentation and the large variety of sources consulted to good effect ... well-documented and very readable ... this scholarly book should be read not only by those studying late Ottoman education, but by all those interested in the period of Abdülhamid II. ' - Middle Eastern Studies

Description
In the Ottoman Empire, as in many countries around the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, education was critical to the state's efforts to redefine its relationship with its subjects. This book presents a many-sided view of education under the Ottoman Empire in this period. Drawing on a wide array of primary material, ranging from archival reports to textbooks and classroom maps, Benjamin C. Fortna provides a detailed scholarly analysis of the Ottoman educational endeavour, revealing its fascinating mix of Western and indigenous influences. Focusing on such key areas as curricular change, daily life, geography, and Islamic morality, Fortna presents new evidence about schooling in the late Ottoman Empire and offers a new interpretation of its place in the history of the modern Middle East.

Readership: Scholars and students of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Middle Eastern history; historians of education and religion.

Contents
1. Education and Agency
2. Hope against Fear
3. Fighting Back
4. Buildings and Discipline
5. Maps
6. Morals
Bibliography
Index

Authors, editors, and contributors

Benjamin C. Fortna, Lecturer in the Modern History of the Middle East, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London