Rishton Ka Roop Badalta Hai Bunyadi Khatam Nahi Hoti

Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window

CHITTACOBRA

DeScriPtion 'As far as writing about sexuality is concerned, as long as [women] write like men, everything is fine. There is a protocol about writing about sex. As long as you follow that protocol, you're fine. In Chittacobra, the problem that people had with the supposedly offensive pages is that this woman treats her husband as a body and reduces him to a commodity... This was very hurtful to male egos. Women are forever reduced to bodies and commodities but women aren't allowed to do that to men, to their husbands. I think this is the reason everyone got so angry.'-Mridula Garg on the charges of obscenity brought against her when Chittacobra was first published. In 1979, Mridula Garg released her third Hindi novel, Chittacobra, the story of an intense love affair between a young Indian woman-disconnected from her home, social milieu, marriage and husband-and a gypsy missionary from Scotland. There was an uproar-the novel was branded obscene and the police came to arrest her. But the controversy also took this remarkably frank and sensitive exploration of love and desire to many thousands of readers. It became, and remains to this day, one of the most celebrated works of contemporary Hindi literature. Mridula Garg's brilliant new translation brings this extraordinary book-as bold and distinctive in literary style as in its theme-to a new generation of readers.

Jaati ke Viruddh Gandhi ka Sangharsh

In 1909, while still in South Africa, Gandhi publicly decried the caste system for its inequalities. Shortly after his return to India though, he spoke of the generally beneficial aspects of caste. Gandhi's writings on caste reflect contradictory views and his critics accuse him of neglecting the unequal socio-economic structure that relegated Dalits to the bottom of the caste hierarchy. So, did Gandhi endorse the fourfold division of the Indian society or was he truly against caste? In this book, Nishikant Kolge investigates the entire range of what Gandhi said or wrote about caste divisions over a period of more than three decades: from his return to India in 1915 to his death in 1948. Interestingly, Kolge also maps Gandhi's own statements that undermined his stance against the caste system. These writings uncover the 'strategist Gandhi' who understood that social transformation had to be a slow process for the conservative but powerful section of Hindus who were not yet ready for radical reforms. Seven decades after it attained freedom from colonial powers, caste continues to influence the socio-political dynamics of India, and Gandhi against caste—the battle is not over yet.