Permanent Black

REPRODUCTIVE RESTRAINTS: BIRTH CONTROL IN INDIA , 1877-1947 by Sanjam Ahluwalia Reproductive Restraints traces the history of contraception use and population management in colonial India, while illuminating its connection to contemporary debates in India and birth control movements in Great Britain and the United States. Sanjam Ahluwalia draws attention to the interactive and relational history of Indian birth control by including Western activists such as Margaret Sanger and Marie Stopes alongside important Indian campaigners. In revealing the elitist politics of middle-class feminists, Indian nationalists, Western activists, colonial authorities, and the medical establishment Ahluwalia finds that they all sought to rationalize procreation and regulate women while invoking competing notions of freedom, femininity, and family. Ahluwalia’s remarkable interviews with practising midwives in rural northern India fill a gaping void in the documentary history of birth control and show

MERCHANTS, TRADERS, ENTREPRENEURS: INDIAN BUSINESS IN THE COLONIAL ERA by Claude Markovits The merchant world represents a relatively neglected area in South Asian history. Merchants were important actors in the economic, political, social, and cultural life of India, and deserve more attention than they have been given. This book bridges that gap by bringing together a number of issues which deal with the Indian mercantile world in colonial India, and its relationship with politics and society. Written by one of the major contributors to the socio-economic history of modern India, this book will interest all South Asianists, students of colonialism, and historians of Indian economy and society over the past two centuries. 300 pp / Rs 695 / Hardback / ISBN 81-7824-188-9 / For sale in South Asia only / Copublished by Palgrave Macmillan, London / Published in April 2008.

INDIAN SECULARISM: A SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL HISTORY 1890-1950 by Shabnum Tejani Secularism has been the subject of much debate. Scholars have argued that recent Hindu nationalism is the symptom of a crisis of Indian secularism and have blamed this on a resurgence of religion or communalism. Shabnum Tejani argues here for a more complex and historically informed understanding. Her book is a history of how the idea of secularism emerged in India. This book will interest all students of Indian democracy, politics, and history, as well as of political philosophy and the sociology of caste. 320 pp / Rs 695 / Hardback / ISBN 81-7824-212-5/ For sale in South Asia only / Copublished by Indiana University Press / Published in Summer 2008.