Social Sciences, Colonial Studies, History:

Contemporary scientific thought for the enlightened layman and the social history of science in India.

 
Caught Between Two Cultures: Science in Nineteenth Century Bengal
Ashish Lahiri
Thema Books - Caught Between Two Cultures: Science in Nineteenth Century Bengal
Pb. 14 x 21.5 cm. viii + 152 pp. Rs. 200 ISBN 978-93-81703-21-2

Exploring J D Bernal’s contention that science in colonial India lacked a ‘comprehensive critical tradition’ and an ‘internal security’, the author follows the punctuated evolution of a scientific spirit that sought to bridge ‘the two cultures’ in nineteenth century Bengal, documenting how Radhanath Sikdar, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Akshay Kumar Dutta, Bhudev Muhopadhyay, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Ray and Rabindranath Tagore contributed to the project, and how organized religion intervened to drive ‘the two cultures’ apart.

Thema Books - Shatabarshiyan Jyotirindra Moitra Shatabarshiyan Jyotirindra Moitra
Edited by Samik Bandyopadhyay and Sibaditya Dasgupta
Hb. 14 x 22 cm. x + 414 pp. 28 b/w Photographs. Rs. 500 ISBN 978-93-81703-30-4
Special Centenary Tribute. A collection of critical and memoiral essays on poet, lyricist and composer Jyotirindra Moitra (1911-77); two selections of his poems, compiled and introduced by Alokeranjan Dasgupta and Samik Bandyopadhyay; 20 plates of rare photographs; facsimiles from notebooks; the most exhaustive compilation of 127 letters by Jyotirindra Moitra written to some of the greatest minds of our time, with detailed editorial annotations on personalities, events, happenings and places, weaving together a fascinating socio-political and cultural history of the times. A genealogical table and a unusual chronology that interlaces events in the life of Moitra with texts on those events from his own reminiscences, or by his friends, peers and contemporaries will be a special treat for readers.
Sripanthadarpan
Edited by Samik Bandyopadhyay, Subir Dutta and Ratan Khasnobis
Thema Books - Sripanthadarpan
Pb. 14 x 21.5 cm. viii + 168 pp. Rs. 275 ISBN 978-93-81703-32-8

A collection of essays in memory of journalist, scholar and social historian Nikhil Sarkar (1932-2004), who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Sripantha.’ This book also includes a selection of letters written to Sripantha by some of the most creative and talented minds of our time; facsimiles from his notebooks and sketches; and 16 plates of rare black and white photographs—all recreating and celebrating Nikhil Sarkar’s commitment to meticulous detail in everything that he did.

Thema Books -Sachetana Ekhono Sachetana Ekhono
Edited by Jasodhara Bagchi and Sarmistha Dutta Gupta
Pb. 14 x 21.5 cm. viii + 250 pp. Rs. 325 ISBN 978-93-81703-33-5
A volume to commemorate, celebrate and introspect 50 years of Sachetana, one of the first women’s organizations in India; selected essays, articles, reminiscences from Sachetana broadsheets and periodicals; new articles, interviews and transcripts of discussions on women’s movement.
Karkatsahabas
[Living with the Crab] Ajoy Gupta
Thema Books - Karkatsahabas
Pb. 14 x 21.5 cm. xii+136 pp. Rs. 130 ISBN 978-93-81703-08-3

An unusual autobiographical piece, written by Ajoy Gupta, novelist, artist and book designer, recording his painful experiences being treated for cancer in a hospital caring for the poor; reaching and upholding the point that it is poverty that kills more cancer patients than the disease itself—not ‘the emperor of maladies,’ but a ‘cowardly sneak of a killer!’

Thema Books - Discovering the Other America Discovering the Other America:
Radical Voices from the 1980s in conversation with Kabir Suman
Hb. 22 x 14 cm. vi+226 pp. Rs. 350 ISBN: 978-93-81703-10-6.
 
Hindi Theatre in Kolkata: Shyamanand Jalan and His Times. Edited by Pratibha Agarwal and Samik Bandyopadhyay. [In the series Natya Shodh Sansthan Interviews]
Thema Books - Hindi Theatre in Kolkata - Edited by Pratibha Agarwal and Samik Bandyopadhyay
Pb. 14 x 21.5 cm. xii+123 pp. Rs. 200 ISBN 978-81-86017-80-7

Interviews with Shyamanand Jalan (1934 – 2010), distinguished theatre director, actor and film maker, and his colleague, Pratibha Agarwal, and excerpts from his working diaries provide an account of Hindi theatre interacting with the Bengali theatre in Calcutta.

Thema Books - Dynamics of Urban Growth in Eastern India - Sunil Munsi Dynamics of Urban Growth in Eastern India
Sunil Munsi
Hb. 14.5 x 22.5 cm. x+204 pp. Rs. 350
ISBN 978-81-86017-76-0
One of India’s major urban geographers studies the urbanization of Calcutta and its bearings on the peripheries and the smaller towns and the frontiers alike, particularly in terms of land development, cross migration, environmental issues, growth dynamics, and internal socio-economic configurations; going to the roots of stagnation and regional disparities; offering a model for the study of Indian urbanization and development as a whole.
Thikana Kolkata [Address : Kolkata – in Bengali]
Sunil Munsi
Thema Books - Thikana Kolkata - Sunil Munsi
Hb. 13 x 18.5 cm. 184 pp. 25 b/w photographs. Rs. 150
ISBN 978-81-86017-75-3

An unusual history of Calcutta’s political and Social movements reconstructed through an account of its old houses sites, with photographs and sketches by the author, an eminent geographer in his own right and political activist.

Thema Books - Janajagaraney Narijagaraney - Manikuntala Sen Manikuntala Sen Janajagaraney Narijagaraney [Manikuntala Sen Awakening People, Awaking Women – in Bengali]
Hb. 14.5 x 22.5 cm. viii+374 pp. 18 b/w photographs. Rs. 350 ISBN 978-81-86017-78-4
A centennial publication, commemorating the centenary of Manikuntala Sen (1910-87), legendary Communist leader and legislator, and pioneering figure in the women’s movement in India, containing her autobiography, selected speeches in the State Assembly, reminiscences by colleagues, documents from secret police records.
Presidency College-er Itibritta [A short History of Presidency College – in Bengali]
Biswanath Das
Thema Books - Presidency College-er Itibritta - Biswanath Das
Hb. 14.5 x 22.5 cm. viii+292 pp. 16 b/w photographs. Rs. 300. ISBN 978-81-86017-79-1

A history of one of the oldest college of Calcutta (founded 1817), tracing the evolution of the colonial education system in the country, and its aftermath, with a collection of almost inaccessible archival documents, including Macaulay’s Minute and Wood’s Despatch.

Thema Books - Galpo O Tar Goru - Arun Nag Galpo O Tar Goru
Arun Nag
Pb. 14 x 21.5 cm. x + 138pp. Rare photographs. Rs 100
ISBN 81-86017-56-9
Essays on nonsense, fantasy, photography, archaeology, history and related topics by a brilliant scholar of the history of knowledge.
Talking the Political Culturally and Other Essays
G P Deshpande
Thema Books - Talking the Political Culturally and Other Essays - G P Deshpande
Pb. 14 x 21.5 cm. xii +127 pp. Rs 150.
ISBN 978-81-86017-68-5

A study of the politics of culture, read through Chinese literature, the Buddhist and Bhakti traditions, philosophical discourse in modern Marathi, a recent visit to Pakistan, and the progressive cultural movement in India.

Thema Books - Marginal Europeans in Colonial India: 1860-1920 - Sarmistha De Marginal Europeans in Colonial India: 1860-1920
Sarmistha De
Hb. 14.5 x 22 cm. x +306 pp. Rare documents and illustrations. Rs 450. ISBN 978-81-86017-58-6
A close study of the European underworld and marginal classes comprising destitutes, vagrants, convicts, lunatics and prostitutes in the two Presidencies of colonial India, Calcutta and Bombay.
Prisons in Colonial Bengal: 1838-1919
Madhurima Sen
Thema Books - Prisons in Colonial Bengal: 1838-1919 - Madhurima Sen
Hb. 14.5 x 22 cm. x +189 pp. Rs 350.
ISBN 978-81-86017-67-4

Ferreting through a large body of archival material, documents, reports, reminiscences, the author reconstructs prison life in Bengal and the Cellular Jail in Port Blair in great detail. A study of how criminals were treated in British prisons in colonial Bengal.

Thema Books - A Common Concern: Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva-Bharati - Edited by Tan Lee A Common Concern: Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva-Bharati
Edited by Tan Lee
Hb. 18.5 x 24.5 cm. xviii + 280 pp. Hb. Rare photographs and drawings. Rs 300
A bilingual collection of reminiscences by alumni of Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, and essays by scholars who have made a serious study of the educational ideals and practices nurtured in Santiniketan by Tagore, addresses the larger issue of the relevance today of Visva-Bharati. Contributors include
Annada Sankar Roy, Satyajit Ray, A Ramachandran, Uma Das Gupta, Amartya Sen, Anandarup Ray, Supriya Tagore and Tan Lee.
Purbasmriti
Shanta Devi
Thema Books - Purbasmriti - Shanta Devi
Pb. 14 x 21.5 cm. viii + 178 pp. Rare b/w photographs. Rs 140. Bengali. ISBN 81-86017-61-5

This revised Thema edition brings together a rare selection of correspondence between Shanta Devi and Kalidas Nag from 1922-25, along with the author’s memoirs.

Thema Books - Torur Shwasurbadi - Jyotsna Devi Torur Shwasurbadi
Jyotsna Devi
Hb. 13 x 18.5 cm. 144 pp. Rs 150
ISBN 978-81-86017-69-2
A semi–autobiographical novelette with an accounts book from 1948-49 and a couple of stories from the same time. Rare family photographs by Parimal Goswami. A collector’s item.
The Global Warming Scenario
Satyesh C Chakraborty
Thema Books - The Global Warming Scenario - Satyesh C Chakraborty
Second Revised Edition.
Pb. 14 x 21.5cm. XVIII + 299 pp. Rs 175. ISBN 978-81-86017-65-4

In a series of essays, Satyesh C Chakraborty, former Professor at Presidency College, Calcutta, Burdwan University, and Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, offers an updated overview of the science and politics of global warming, raising a wide range of issues, and comes up with a rich stock of information in the process of documenting the latest findings; with

important policy suggestions that come out of his long involvement in planning.
Thema Books - The Scientist in Society - Introduced by Sushil Kumar Mukherjee The Scientist in Society
Introduced by Sushil Kumar Mukherjee
21.5 x 14 cm. 248 pp. 2010. Pb. English.
ISBN: 978-81-86017-77-7. Rs 160.
A collection of essays and addresses (some translated for the first time into English) by the first generation of modern Indian scientists centring on the place and role of science in a changing India with contributions by P C Ray, C V Raman, P C Mahalanobis, M N Saha, S N Bose, H J Bhabha, with commentaries by Debiprasad Chattopadhyay, Santimay Chatterjee, B P Adhikari, Virendra Singh and Partha Ghose.
Bishwaprakriti O Manush:
Adhunik Bijnan-er Ruparekha

Partha Ghose
Thema Books - Bishwaprakriti O Manush: Adhunik Bijnan-er Ruparekha - Partha Ghose
21.5 x 14 cm. 128 pp. 1992. Pb. Bengali.
ISBN -81-86017-03-8. Rs 50.

An account of the new science with its philosophy for the intelligent layman by a physicist who has been widely seen as anchorperson in one of India's most popular TV science shows and is the author of the scholarlyTesting Quantum Mechanics on New Ground (CUP 1999).

Thema Books - Cosmic Quest - Partha Ghose Cosmic Quest
Partha Ghose
21.5 x 14.5. 104 pp. 2000. Pb. English.
ISBN 81-86017-28-3. Rs90
The author answers with rare clarity questions like: Has the universe always been there? Was it created some time? What was there before creation? How and why did the solar system form? Is the solar system going to last forever? What isgoing to happen to the universe in future? How does science go about finding answers to such questions?
M. N. Saha in Historical Perspective
Edited by Jyotirmay Gupta
Thema Books - M. N. Saha in Historical Perspective -
22.5 x 14. 8 cm. 246 pp. 1994. Hb. English
ISBN 81-86017-06-2. Rs 200.

A collection of readings on the life and work of Meghnad Saha (1893-1956), the outstanding Indian astrophysicist, with contributions by James Jeans, Eddington, Henry Norris Russell, Harlow Shapley, George Gamow, S A Mitchell, C K Majumdar, U R Rao, David H Devorkin and Ralph Kenat.

 
 
     
 
 

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