Lost In Translation
₨ 995
New Paradigms by the Arab Spring
Abdelilah Bouasria
Rs.995.00
DESCRIPTION
Following the much-publicized self-immolation of Muhammad Bouazizi on December 18, 2010, a tempestuous succession of demonstrations, revolutions and civil wars swept the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. These events, collectively referred to as the “Arab Spring” spread contagiously throughout the Middle East and the Maghreb. However, for autocratic states, instead of ushering in tidy transitions of power, the revolutions and uprising descended into chaos, greatly complicating the task of analysts and historians attempting to make sense of the events. Has the Arab Spring brought much-needed change to the Arab people or will instability and turmoil preserve a perpetual state of “Arab Winter”.
Publisher: Folio Books
Binding: Paperback
Publishing date: July 2018
Pages: 272
Availability: Pre-order
Folio Suggests
Azadi’s Daughter
₨ 895Being a Secular Muslim in India
Rs.895.00
DESCRIPTION
“But strangely enough, I find all my identities under threat today. As a woman, as a journalist, as a Muslim, as a secularist, as a liberal and even as an Indian because the Idea of India as envisaged by those who led the struggle for Independence, and enshrined in the Constitution with all its guarantees and its protection, is under threat.”
A fascinating account of an audacious woman’s journey and a rapidly vanishing way of life, Azadi’s Daughter is both a personal memoir and a political commentary. Journalist Seema Mustafa writes evocatively of the secular, pluralist India of the 1960s and ’70s, chronicling her life as a Muslim woman born into the nationalist, progressive Kidwai family in Lucknow. As a child, her life was untouched by communalism, and even as she realizes that this was not the case for many, her book is a testament to the syncretic nature of secularism, in which a staunchly Muslim household was not limited to conservative interpretations of Islam.
Seema Mustafa incisively charts the events which have slowly begun to erode this tolerant, diverse ethos—the government’s handling of the Shah Bano case in the 1980s, the demolition of the Babri Masjid in the 1990s, the mass arrests and torture of Indian Muslim youth in the aftermath of the 9/11 bombings, and the Gujarat riots of the 2000s. She also examines the current state of secularism where people face marginalization and the threat of violence merely for exercising their right to religion, to livelihood and even to what they eat.
This book should set to rest lazy assumptions about Indian Muslims, and women in particular. Even as it highlights the dominant concerns of Indian Muslims—security, employment, education, housing—it also underlines their abiding faith in Indian democracy and its pluralistic ethos. A memoir that defies old assumptions and prejudices, Azadi’s Daughter is an important account of Indian Muslims in the modern world.
Publisher: Folio Books
Binding: Paperback
Publishing date: July 2018
Pages: 208
Pakistan’s Political Parties
₨ 1,495Surviving between Dictatorship and Democracy
Edited by Mariam Mufti, Sahar Shafqat, and Niloufer Siddiqui
Rs. 1495
DESCRIPTION
Pakistan’s 2018 general elections marked the second successful transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another—a remarkable achievement considering the country’s history of dictatorial rule. Pakistan’s Political Parties examines how the civilian side of the state’s current regime has survived the transition to democracy, providing critical insight into the evolution of political parties in Pakistan and their role in developing democracies in general.Pakistan’s numerous political parties span the ideological spectrum, as well as represent diverse regional, ethnic, and religious constituencies. The essays in this volume explore the way in which these parties both contend and work with Pakistan’s military-bureaucratic establishment to assert and expand their power. Researchers use interviews, surveys, data, and ethnography to illuminate the internal dynamics and motivations of these groups and the mechanisms through which they create policy and influence state and society.
Pakistan’s Political Parties is a one-of-a-kind resource for diplomats, policymakers, journalists, and scholars searching for a comprehensive overview of Pakistan’s party system and its unlikely survival against an interventionist military, with insights that extend far beyond the region.
REVIEWS
“This is truly an important contribution to the literature on political parties and electoral considerations in Pakistan. There is nothing like it that currently exists.”
—Charles H. Kennedy, professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations and Director, Middle East and South Asia Program, Wake Forest University
“This is a long overdue, but essential, contribution to our understanding of Pakistan. With an impressive author list, this will become the go-to book on understanding political parties in Pakistan’s hybrid regime.”
—Katharine Adeney, Director of the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute
“Pakistan’s Political Parties is a timely and vital contribution to the social science literature on political parties in south Asia . . . . It presents an exceptionally lucid and well-crafted analysis of major political parties in Pakistan, their role and functions in a nascent democracy, and the relationship of political parties to other institutions.”
—Kavita Khory, Professor of Politics, Mount Holyoke College
“This wonderful book is absolutely indispensable for understanding Pakistan’s democracy, and all of the main actors and interests involved. The various authors manage very effectively to combine deep knowledge of Pakistan’s political parties, social groups, and interests, with the comparative breadth to put everything into broader theoretical perspective.”
—Steven Wilkinson, Henry R. Luce Director, The Whitney & Betty MacMillan Center for International & Area Studies; Nilekani Professor of India & South Asian Studies; and professor of political science & international affairs, Yale University
Rights: Pakistan
Rethinking Pakistan
A 21st Century Perspective
by Bilal Zahoor and Raza Rumi
Rs. 1495 Rs. 1270
DESCRIPTION
This book brings together the leading contemporary currents of thought from a galaxy of established scholars and intellectuals of Pakistan. It is a monumental contribution to the national debate on a series of crises and lingering issues that need attention of the stakeholders all around.
The book covers three major areas of investigation into public life in the country. One, it delves into the historical, sociological and cultural causes of various political conflicts, ranging from the negative role of the educational curricula for national harmony to cultural violence and persistent militarism to the curse of enforced disappearances. There are highly analytical contributions that define the conflict-resolution nexus. Two, the book is a source of inspiration on the liberal agenda of creating a scientific frame of mind, setting the feminist debate in a global context, challenging the shrinking space for media and focusing on the largely forgotten area of industrial relations. Readers will find ample issue orientation in the analysis and policy orientation in the deliberations. Three, the book enters a domain of hope, planning for a bright future and focusing on some longer-term issues couched in comprehensive new approaches to development, environment, energy, foreign policy and feminism.
The scope of the book is amazingly wide, the analysis is rich with conceptual references and empirical finding, and the scholarly idiom is comprehensible for both the articulate section of the population and the scholarly community.
REVIEW
“Rethinking Pakistan brings together some of the best minds of the country and invites them to reflect upon the most pressing issues that it is facing in all spheres – including politics, external relations, environment, human rights, gender relations, religious fundamentalism, education, freedom of expression … It is a most valuable collection that is highly accessible to everyone.”
– Christophe Jaffrelot, Professor, Sciences Po; Author, The Pakistan Paradox
“This book brings together the leading contemporary currents of thought from a galaxy of established scholars and intellectuals of Pakistan. It is a monumental contribution to the national debate on a series of crises and lingering issues that need attention of the stakeholders all around. The book covers three major areas of investigation into public life of the country. One, it delves into the historical, sociological and cultural causes of various political conflicts, ranging from the negative role of the educational curricula for national harmony to cultural violence and persistent militarism to the curse of enforced disappearances. There are highly analytical contributions that define the conflict-resolution nexus. Two, the book is a source of inspiration on the liberal agenda of creating a scientific frame of mind, setting the feminist debate in a global context, challenging the shrinking space for media and focusing on the largely forgotten area of industrial relations. One finds ample issue-orientation in the analysis and policy-orientation in the deliberations. Three, we enter a domain of hope, planning for a bright future and focusing on some longer-term issues couched in comprehensive new approaches to development, environment, energy, foreign policy and feminism. The scope of the book is amazingly wide, the analysis is rich with conceptual references and empirical findings, and the scholarly idiom is comprehensible for both the articulate section of the population and the scholarly community per se.”
– Mohammad Waseem, Professor, LUMS; Author, Politics and the State in Pakistan
“Each of the essays depicts Pakistan’s current social, political and economic challenges with analysis that makes this publication one of the few credible works on Pakistan available in recent times. The contributors are some of the most respected experts in the field on which they have expounded their thoughts, laying bare the malaise that have stunted social progress, democratic development and economic stability in the country. The essays also show a way forward making this a must-read for all generations of Pakistanis who wish to understand and contribute to the elimination of existing threats to peace, security and respect for human rights.”
– Hina Jilani, Advocate, Supreme Court of Pakistan; Co-founder, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
“Rethinking Pakistan is a wide-ranging analytical dissection of the Pakistani polity and offers a well-meaning, progressive prescription for present-day Pakistan, stitched together by an eclectic list of experts spanning diverse backgrounds and subjects. From energy self-sufficiency and scientific development to freedom of the press and the essential question of the dominance of the military over civilian affairs, this compendium offers a suitable guide for anyone who seeks to understand the striking mix of contemporary and historic challenges faced by Pakistan in the twenty-first century. A must-read on Pakistan’s contemporary realities and future prospects.”
– Shashi Tharoor, Ex-Foreign Minister, India; Author, An Era of Darkness
“The book sets up an unfamiliar but authentic diagnostic mosaic of Pakistan that the state prefers ignoring. It collects and presents the genius that Pakistan sets aside, stretched out on its ideological bed of repeated blunders. What emerges is an intensely original view from the marginalised intellect the world recognises as Pakistan’s survival kit.”
– Khaled Ahmed, Consulting Editor, Newsweek Pakistan; Author, Pakistan: The State in Crisis
Publisher: Folio Books
Division: Folio Course Books
Binding: Paperback
Publishing date: February 2019
Rights: Pakistan
Pages: 266
Availability: In Stock
Oh, Let Me Return!
₨ 750Nature’s Poets
Chinese Poetry of Two Millenia
Rs.750.00
DESCRIPTION
This Collection of nature poems of China includes nearly 250 poems by thirty-three poets over two millennia. Part One provides selections from the two oldest anthologies: the Shi Jing (“Classic of Songs”) and the Chu Ci (“Songs of the South”). Included in this part are folk songs of Ancient China as well as two long poems by Qu Yuan (340? – 278? BCE), the first known poet of China. Part Two begins with Tao Yuanming of the Easter Jin (317 – 420) and includes not only the well-known poets of Tang (618-906) and Song (960-1279) periods, such as Wang Wei, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Su Shi and Lu You, but also twenty lesser known poets.
ISBN: 978-1-84519-888-6
Publisher: Folio Books
Binding: Paperback
Publishing date: June 2018
Pages: 222
Availability: Pre-order