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Firdaus Kanga's novel, Trying to Grow, tells the story of Brit Kotwal, a young Parsi boy with osteogenesis imperfecta, negotiating his life in the Bombay of the 1970s. From the beginning, this semi-autobiographical work draws our attention to the common religious and medical perceptions of disability in Indian society. This paper proposes to study how the novel focuses on several aspects of the lived reality of a person with "brittle bones" who does not grow more than four feet tall. The paper also explores how the novel focuses on and confounds the commonly perceived notion of the asexuality of disabled individuals. Brit's voice is extremely aware and articulates positions of difference within disability and sexuality discourses. He is able to occupy what can be called a truly modern disability subjectivity. But, this paper shall show that Brit presents the reader with this modern, emancipatory rhetoric of disability because of the privileges of his gender and class status in the Indian context. Within the same text, Brit's disabled female cousin is literally and figuratively mute and meets with a very different fate. The paper shall thus investigate and try to complicate the representation of disability, sexuality and the "modern" disability subjectivity in Kanga's novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the book "Collected Essays," by M. N. Srinivas.

Reviews the book "Geographical Aspects of Health and Disease in India," edited by Rais Akhtar and A.T.A. Learmonth.

The article reviews the book "On Civil Society: Issues and Perspectives," edited by N. Jayaram.

The article reviews the book "South Indian Paintings: A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection," by A. L. Dallapiccola.

The historiography of Britain's colonial past has always been problematic, shaped by conflicting mythologies about Britain's role as benefactor or exploiter. In the wake of Indian independence in 1947 it was in the interests of India's national identity to present what had gone before as a period of unmitigated oppression challenged by a united people. The consequence was widespread ignorance about the realities of British rule and of the Indian economy prior to and after British rule, exemplified by a current best-seller written by a well-known Indian political figure, Dr Shashi Tharoor, whose main arguments are examined; in particular, his central claim that India was a wealthy nation prior to Britain's colonial intervention reduced to poverty by Britain's ‘depredations’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book under review is a collection of thirteen articles that analyze the institutional and political economic dimensions of India's neoliberal reforms undertaken in 1991. Several articles focus on the theme of urbanization and the consequences of neoliberalism for the urban poor. Overall, the volume is an excellent addition to the critical literature on neoliberalism in India and will be of service to both researchers and teachers of development and political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reviews three recent books on the comparative political economy of China and India. Each book addresses the ability of both countries to sustain rapid economic development. Specific issues include the comparison between software and hardware production, the relationship between import substitution and ‘openness’, the emergence of innovation-oriented policies and the role of research in the development process. The article finds that both countries – but India in particular – face obstacles in upgrading to an ‘nnovation-intensive’ model. This concern, however, has to compete for attention with uncompromising arguments against India's labour market regulations and a one-sided approach to trade and investment openness in both countries. The article also reflects upon the basis for comparative studies of China and India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reviews the book "Visible Histories, Disappearing Women: Producing Muslim Womanhood in Late Colonial Bengal," by Mahua Sarkar.

The article reviews two novels "Sunlight on a Broken Column," by Attia Hosain and "Salt and Saffron," by Kamila Shamsie.

This article reviews several books including "India's Nuclear Bomb and National Security," by Karsten Frey; "Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny," by Amartya Sen; and "India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy," by Ramchandra Guha.

The article reviews the book "The Domestic Abroad: Diasporas in International Relations" by Latha Varadarajan.

Reviews the book "Understanding Peasant Agriculture: An Integrated Land-Use Model for the Punjab," by Joseph H. Astroth, Jr.

In this article, I examine the popular Victorian poem The Light of Asia (1879) and its reception and adaptation in late nineteenth and early twentieth century colonial India. Authored by the popular writer, Sir Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia is typically regarded as one of the foundational texts of modern Buddhism in the western world. Yet significantly less has been said about its influence in Asia and especially in India, where it has as an equally rich and varied history. While most scholarship has focused on its connections to the Sinhalese Buddhist leader Anagarika Dharmapala and his popular campaigns to 'liberate' the MahaBodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, the singular focus on Dharmapala has obscured the poem's much more expansive and enduring impact on a wide array of colonial Indian publics, regardless of caste, region, religion, ethnicity or language. The article explores the early history of its numerous adaptations, dramatizations, and translations in various regional languages. In providing an analysis of the poem's Indian publics, the article shows how regional, political, and cultural idioms formed in multilingual contexts enable different readings and how literary and performative cultures interacted with colonial conceptions of religion, nation, and caste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, part of a book review forum included in the issue, reviews the books "Love in the Time of AIDS: Inequality, Gender and Rights in South Africa," by Mark Hunter, and "The Cultural Politics of Markets" Economic Liberalization and Social Change in Nepal," by Katharine N. Rankin.

The article presents a review of the book "Fatal Misconceptions: The Struggle to Control World Population," by Matthew Connelly.

The article reviews the book "Powers of the secular modern: Talal Asad and his interlocutors," edited and introduced by David Scott and Charles Hirschkind.

The article reviews the book "Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Historical Perspectives, Poets, Teachers and Saints, Relation to Other Religions and Traditions, Hinduism and Contemporary Issues," Volume IV, edited by Knut A. Jacobson.

The article presents a review of the book "Capital, Interrupted: Agrarian Development and the Politics of Work in India," by Vinay Gidwani.