-
-
A PERSON OF PAKISTANI ORIGINS
₨ 1,295What does it mean to be a Pakistani? Can it mean more than one thing? And what do others think it means?
Ziauddin Sardar explores what makes a Pakistani, and whether it’s something one wants or ought to be. Reflecting on his culture and heritage through tales of the Pakistanis in his life, A Person of Pakistani Origins is a whirlwind tour of duelling poets, Bollywood films, a bookish auntie who harbours feminist urges, and a vanishing uncle who reappears miles away.
Thoughtful and generously laced with humour, this book delves deep into Pakistan’s eclectic culture, and the humble insanity of everyday life for a person of Pakistani origins. Sardar richly celebrates the importance of where we come from, and of who we become.
ISBN: 9781849049870
Publisher: LONDON -
A POPULAR DICTIONARY OF BUDDHISM
₨ 995This book, a dictionary as well as a glossary, attempts to cover the entire field of Buddhism. Its terms, chosen from seven languages spoken in ten countries in at least ten major schools of Buddhism, are those that readers are most likely to find in books on Buddhism. Also included are brief biographies of eminent Buddhists and scholars from both East and West, which will provide a ready reference to authorities normally cited. A Popular Dictionary of Buddhism is a useful compilation and a key religious, ethical, and philosophical reference work in an area of study that commands increasing attention in Western society.
ISBN: 0700710507 – Paperback
Publisher: CURZON PRESS, LONDON
ISBN: 0700710507
Publisher: CURZON PRESS -
A POPULAR DICTIONARY OF HINDUISM
₨ 995This dictionary is a glossary of terms and a reference work whose entries cover the whole complex phenomenon of Hinduism. It is intended for readers who are interested in Indian religious thought and practices, including yoga; for students of religions, social workers, and administrators who come into contact with Hindu immigrant communities; and for Hindus themselves, particularly those who have been born and educated in the West or received a Western-type education in India. It will also provide useful overall orientation for the still-growing number of followers of Hindu teachings and movements in Western countries.
ISBN: 0700710493
Publisher: CURZON PRESS -
-
A SYSTEM OF LIFE
₨ 22,219While much current research on political Islam revolves around militant Islamism, the genesis of this ideology remains little understood. A System of Life is a pioneering examination of the earliest attempt at a systematic outline of Islamist ideology, namely that proposed in the 1930s and early 1940s by the renowned Indo-Muslim intellectual Sayyid Abu’l-A’la Mawdudi. Hartung reconstructs his thought in the light of the competing ideologies at play at the time, taking seriously his claim to recast Islam as an all-comprehensive, self-contained and inner-worldly system ‘of life.’ This analysis is embedded in an understanding of the history of ideas that has assumed an increasingly global dimension in the colonial encounter: by showing how Mawdudi has attempted to align elements of Western philosophical thought with selected traditional Islamic ideas and concepts, he is depicted as a major protagonist of this development, while ‘Islamism’ is established as an Islamic contribution to a universalistic notion of modernity. Besides offering a detailed portrayal of Mawdudi’s system of thought, Hartung also discusses the reception and modification of his ideas in the Middle East, predominantly among intellectuals of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and among their imitators in postcolonial South Asia
ISBN: 9781849042482
Publisher: LONDON -
-
AFTER ATHEISM
₨ 12,340What happens when an atheist sees an angel? Or dreams about something which then happens in reality? Many people brought up as ‘atheists’ in the former USSR and Mongolia report such experiences but do not know how to interpret them. Now they are also asking questions of a ‘spiritual’ nature about the meaning of life and whether or not there is a life after death. Based on interviews with people throughout Siberia, Central Asia and European Russia about their spiritual experiences, this book brings together insights into the ‘religious’ worldview. More than 200 illustrations help to portray the lives and cultures of these people.
ISBN: 0700711643
Publisher: CURZON PRESS -
AFTER THE SHEIKHS
₨ 12,116The Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia and its five smaller neighbours : the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain) have long been governed by highly autocratic and seemingly anachronistic regimes. Yet despite bloody conflicts on their doorsteps, fast-growing populations, and powerful modernising and globalising forces impacting on their largely conservative societies, they have demonstrated remarkable resilience. Obituaries for these traditional monarchies have frequently been penned, but even now these absolutist, almost medieval, entities still appear to pose the same conundrum as before: in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring and the fall of incumbent presidents in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, the apparently steadfast Gulf monarchies have, at first glance, re-affirmed their status as the Middle East s only real bastions of stability.
In this book, however, noted Gulf expert Christopher Davidson contends that the collapse of these kings, emirs, and sultans is going to happen, and was always going to. While the revolutionary movements in North Africa, Syria, and Yemen will undeniably serve as important, if indirect, catalysts for the coming upheaval, many of the same socio-economic pressures that were building up in the Arab republics are now also very much present in the Gulf monarchies. It is now no longer a matter of if but when the West s steadfast allies fall. This is a bold claim to make but Davidson, who accurately forecast the economic turmoil that afflicted Dubai in 2009, has an enviable record in diagnosing social and political changes afoot in the region.
ISBN: 9781849041898
Publisher: LONDON -
-
-
ALLAH TRANSCENDENT
₨ 4,626This work examines the role of God in medieval Islamic philosophy and theology in a new and exciting way. Renouncing the traditional chronological method of considering Islamic philosophy, Netton uses modern literary modes of criticism derived from structuralism, post-structuralism and semiotics. The author focuses on major Islamic and Arab thinkers of the Middle Ages, from Al-Kindi to Ibn al-Arabi, to study the nature, function, role, and development of their God, and relates the views of each to the textual and intellectual history of which he is a product. In the process, the author traces the development of the Neoplatonic God out of the Qur’anic God.
ISBN: 0700702873
Publisher: CURZON PRESS -
ANGLO NOSTALGIA
₨ 10,101Nostalgia has become a major force in global politics. While Donald Trump hopes to ‘make America great again’, Xi Jinping calls for a ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese people’, and a majority of Russians still mourn the Soviet Union. But it is Brexit, with its idealisation of a bygone era of full sovereignty, that epitomises nostalgic nationalism in its purest form.
Despite its romantic flavour, nostalgia is a malaise-a combination of paranoia and melancholy that idealises the past, while denigrating the present. This epidemic of mythicising national history is shaping politics in risky ways, fuelled by ageing populations, shifts in the global order, and technological disruption. When deployed in the political debate, collective nostalgia is used as an emotional weapon, capable of mobilising a nation towards illusory goals.
Drawing on psychology, political science, history and popular culture, Anglo Nostalgia analyses the rapid spread of this global phenomenon, before focusing on Brexit as a case study. With the detachment of informed outsiders, Campanella and Dassu expose nostalgia’s great danger: the oversimplification of reality, leading to unprecedented political miscalculations and rising geopolitical tensions.
ISBN: 9781787381414
Publisher: LONDON -
ANIMOSITY AT BAY
₨ 16,160In this groundbreaking book, Raghavan uses previously untapped archival sources to weave together new stories about the experiences of post-partition state-making in South Asia. Through meticulous research, it challenges the existing wisdom about the preponderance of animosity and the rhetoric of war.
The book shows how amity and a spirit of cordiality governed relations between the states of India and Pakistan in the first five years after partition. Arguing that a hitherto overlooked set of considerations have to be integrated more closely into the analysis of bilateral dialogue, this book analyses the developments leading to the No War correspondence between Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan, the signing of a ‘Minorities’ Pact between the two prime ministers, and the early stages of the Indus Waters negotiations, as well as exploring the calculations of Indian and Pakistani delegates at a series of interdominion conferences held in the years after partition.
This book will be of interest to specialists in histories of diplomatic practice as well as a general audience in search of narratives of peace in the South Asia region.
ISBN: 9781787382145
Publisher: LONDON -
-
-
-
CENTRAL ASIANS UNDER RUSSIAN RULE
₨ 2,784This is a landmark study of cultural change in Soviet Central Asia after a century of intensive modernisation. Bacon expertly weaves the historical, linguistic, geographical, political, economic, and cultural threads of the region into a fascinating narrative with well-selected photographs and extensive bibliography. It is highly recommended to specialist or generalist alike.
ISBN: 0801492114
Publisher: LONDON -
-
-
CRITICAL MUSLIM 33: RELICS
₨ 6,056The sacred and the revered, the divine and the musealised, relics have long been integral to Islamic practice. Wahhabisation has cast a modernist spectre over celebrated traditions such as the visiting of shrines and pilgrimages to the birthplaces of beloved religious figures, yet these rituals continue to thrive. In this issue of Critical Muslim, we look at footprints ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad, to Adam and to Jesus. We pay our respects to Sufi saints, who may or may not be Islamicised versions of the Buddha, and we ask whether tradition is nothing more than a relic of times gone by.
About Critical Muslim: A quarterly publication of ideas and issues showcasing groundbreaking thinking on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in a rapidly changing, interconnected world. Each edition centers on a discrete theme, and contributions include reportage, academic analysis, cultural commentary, photography, poetry, and book reviews.
ISBN: 9781787383326
Publisher: LONDON -
-
FAITH, UNITY, DISCIPLINE
₨ 4,595Established in the wake of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-8 by the Australian army officer Major-General Walter Cawthorne, then Deputy Chief of Staff in the Pakistan Army, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for years remained an under-developed and obscure agency. In 1979, the organisation’s growing importance was felt during the Soviet war in Afghanistan , as it worked hand in glove with the CIA to support the mujahideen resistance, but its activities received little coverage in news media.Since that time, the ISI has projected its influence across the region – in 1988 its involvement in Indian Kashmir came under increasing scrutiny, and by 1995 its mentoring of what became the Afghan Taliban was well attested. But it was the organisation’s alleged links with Al Qaeda and the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, at the heart of Pakistan’s military zone, that really threw it under the spotlight. These controversies and many more have dogged the ISI, including its role in Pakistan’s testing of a nuclear weapon in 1998 and its links with A.Q. Khan.Offering fresh insights into the ISI as a domestic and international actor based on intimate knowledge of its inner workings and key individuals, this startlingly original book uncovers the hitherto shady world of Pakistan’s secret service.
-
-
-
-
HEART TANTRUMS AND BRAIN TUMOURS
₨ 4,495When Aisha Sarwari moved to America as a young woman, she set out to create her own identity and story. Born in Uganda, she had never lived in South Asia, yet struggled to reconcile the cultural expectation to be a ‘good Muslim girl’ with her desire for equality and acceptance.
After she met Yasser, a Pakistani law student, they returned to their ancestral country and married. Little did they know that a brain tumour would become a near-lethal third wheel in their relationship. The cancer gnawed at Yasser’s personality, provoking aggressive outbursts. Was the illness still the explanation for his violence, or had it become an excuse? Aisha began to see their marriage within a bigger picture of an oppressive society, and of the tug between feminist principles and personal happiness.
Between Africa, America and Pakistan, Heart Tantrums and Brain Tumours is a unique story of identity and belonging, misogyny and motherhood, patriarchy and partnership. Its searing honesty and political passion reveal one woman?s battle to redefine the rules by fighting for, and sometimes with, the man she loves.
-
HISTORY HAS BEGUN
₨ 6,865Popular consensus says that the US rose over two centuries to Cold War victory and world domination, and is now in slow decline. But is this right? History’s great civilisations have always lasted much longer, and for all its colossal power, the US was overshadowed by Europe until recently. What if this isn’t the end?
Bruno Macaes offers a compelling vision of America’s future, both fascinating and unnerving. From the early American Republic, Macaes takes us to the turbulent present, when, he argues, America is finally forging its own path. We can see the birth pangs of this new civilisation in today’s debates on guns, religion, foreign policy and the significance of Trump. What will its values be, and what will this new America look like?
ISBN: 9781787383012
Publisher: LONDON -
-
-
-
-
IN THE SHADOW OF ‘JUST WARS’
₨ 996During the planning stages of military intervention in Iraq, humanitarian organizations were offered U.S. government funds to join the Coalition and operate under the umbrella of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Nongovernmental organizations had previously been asked to join in “just wars” in Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan, wars initiated by Western powers against oppressive regimes or armed groups. Many aid organizations cooperated eagerly.
Few Afghans regret the eclipse of the Taliban, or Sierra Leoneans the stabilization of their country after British military intervention in 2000. However, the incidental victims of these triumphs, those on the “wrong” side, are soon forgotten. Humanitarian organizations are duty-bound to save these people, although in so doing they must remain independent of the warring parties and not support the “struggle against evil” or any other political agenda.
Then there are places where the pretense of providing assistance allows donor governments to disguise their support for local political powers. Millions in North Korea, Angola, and Sudan have starved to death because of the diversion and unequal distribution of huge quantities of food aid. There are also those whose sacrifice is politically irrelevant in the wider picture of international relations—the victims of brutal wars in Algeria, Chechnya, and Liberia, for instance, where what little international aid is available is subsumed by the adversaries’ desire to wage total war, to exterminate entire populations.
In this book, international experts and members of Médecins Sans Frontières analyze the way these issues have crystallized over the five years spanning the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. They make the case for a renewed commitment to an old ideal: a humanitarianism that defies a politics of expendable lives.
ISBN: 1850657378
Publisher: LONDON₨ 5,092 -
INVENTING IRAQ
₨ 7,714Between 1920 and 1932, Great Britain endeavored unsuccessfully to create a modern democratic state in the region that became known as Iraq. The unwieldy patchwork state it fashioned embodied the imperatives of Whitehall while running roughshod over the political sensibilities of the region’s inhabitants. When Britain grew weary of holding together its fractious creation, it hastened Iraq toward independence. Democracy was quickly dispensed with by a series of coups, culminating in 1968 with the Ba’ath Party’s siezure of power. Britain’s failure, Dodge contends, forms the crucial historical backdrop against which the Bush administration’s removal of Saddam Hussein and its aftermath must be understood.
ISBN: 1850657289
Publisher: LONDON -
ISLAM AND THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
₨ 16,160In this important book, Clarence-Smith provides the first general survey of the Islamic debate on slavery. Sweeping away entrenched myths, he hopes to stimulate more research on the neglected topic. He draws on examples from the ‘abode of Islam’, from the Philippines to Senegal and from the Caucasus to South Africa, paying particular attention for the period from the late eighteenth century to the present. Once slavery had disappeared, it was the Sufi mystics who did most to integrate former slaves socially and religiously, avoiding the deep social divisions that have plagued Western society in the aftermath of abolition.
ISBN: 9781787383388
Publisher: LONDON -
ISLAM IN THE DIGITAL AGE
₨ 795The Internet is an increasingly important source of information for many people in the Muslim world. Many Muslims in majority and minority contexts rely on the Internet — including websites and e-mail — as a primary source of news, information and communication about Islam. As a result, a new media culture is emerging which is having a significant impact on areas of global Muslim consciousness. Post-September 11th, this phenomenon has grown more rapidly than ever. Gary R. Bunt provides a fascinating account of the issues at stake, identifying two radical new concepts: firstly, the emergence of e-jihad (‘Electronic Jihad’) originating from diverse Muslim perspectives — this is described in its many forms relating to the different definitions of ‘jihad’, including on-line activism (ranging from promoting militaristic activities to hacking to co-ordinating peaceful protests) and Muslim expression post 9/11; secondly, he discusses religious authority on the Internet — including the concept of on-line fatwas and their influence in diverse settings, and the complexities of conflicting notions of religious authority. Highlighting contradictory and diverse concepts of ‘Islamic’ authority in this way, Islam in the Digital Age offers a unique insight into contemporary Muslim cultures in a post-9/11 context.
ISBN: 0745320988
Publisher: LONDON -
JIHAD AND DAWAH
₨ 14,139This book provides a detailed account of the emergence and metamorphoses of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its political arm, Jamat ud Dawah, since the early 1990s. Linking the group’s narratives to the process of Islamisation in Pakistan and divergent views on the country’s Islamic identity, it is the first systematic analysis of how the organisation, globally reviled as the perpetrator of the 2008 Mumbai Bombings, has developed its conception of da’wah (proselytising) and jihad in response to regional and global developments. Samina Yasmeen makes extensive use of Urdu materials (pamphlets, books, ephemera) by Markaz Da’wah wal Irshad, the parent organisation of LeT, to examine the ‘insider’s vision’ of the dominant threats to Pakistan and the Muslim ummah, as well as strategies for countering these threats. She argues that while adopting an oppositional narrative vis-a-vis India and the West, LeT has increasingly turned its attention to da’wah narratives within Pakistan engaging with broader spectrums of society. Women have increasingly been assigned significant agency in this narrative, and JuD’s activism in education and social welfare has helped it acquire social capital. This, in turn, prompts a re-imagining of the movement’s relationship with the Pakistani military.
ISBN: 9781849047104
Publisher: LONDON -
JIHAD AND DEATH
₨ 6,461Islamic State has replaced Al Qaeda as the great global threat of the twenty-first century, the bogeyman we have all come to fear. But Daesh started as a local movement, rooted in the resentment of the Sunni Arabs of Iraq and Syria. It is they who have lost most in the geo-strategic shift in the balance of power in the region over the last thirty years, as Iranian-backed Shias have mobilised politically and advanced on the social and economic fronts. How has Islamic State been able to muster support far beyond its initial constituency in the Arab world and to attract tens of thousands of foreign volunteers, including converts to Islam, and seemingly countless supporters online? In this compelling intervention into the debate about Islamic State’s origins and future prospects, the renowned French sociologist of religion, Olivier Roy, argues that the group mobilised a highly sophisticated narrative, reviving the myth of the Caliphate and recasting it into a modern story of heroism, death and nihilism, using a very contemporary aesthetic of violence, well entrenched amid a youth culture that has turned global and violent.
ISBN: 9781849046985
Publisher: LONDON -
-
KINSHIP, HONOUR AND MONEY IN RURAL PAKISTAN
₨ 12,340A combination of rural poverty and labor-market policies in Pakistan forces many Punjabi men to seek work abroad. Remittances home have gone into conspicuous consumption rather than real economic development. Thus this volume questions the usefulness of migration as a strategy for development.
ISBN: 0700709843
Publisher: CURZON PRESS
