Volume I Edited by Pradip Kumar Bose and Samir Kumar Das

Volume II Edited by Ashok Agrwaal and Bharat Bhushan

Volume III Edited by Paula Banerjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi

Volume IV Edited by Sanam Roohi and Ranabir Samaddar

CONTENTS
VOLUME I: Series Introduction by RANABIR SAMADDAR / Introduction by PRADIP KUMAR BOSE and SAMIR KUMAR DAS / Land Acquisition Act and Social Justice: A Study on Development and Displacement RATAN KHASNABIS / Two Leaves and a Bud: Tea and Social Justice in Darjeeling ROSHAN RAI and SUBHAS RANJAN CHAKRABORTY / Deprivation and Social Injustice in a Rural Context: An Ethnographic Account KUMAR RANA with AMRIT PAIRA and ILA PAIRA / On the Wrong Side of the Fence: Embankment, People and Social Justice in the Sundarbans AMITES MUKHOPADHYAY / Prescribed, Tolerated, and Forbidden Forms of Claim Making RANABIR SAMADDAR / Consolidated Bibliography / Index
VOLUME II: Series Introduction by RANABIR SAMADDAR / Introduction by ASHOK AGRWAAL and BHARAT BHUSHAN / Justice in the Time of Transition: Select Indian Experiences SABYASACHI BASU RAY CHAUDHURY / The Founding Moment: Social Justice in the Constitutional Mirror SAMIR KUMAR DAS / Indexing Social Justice in India : A Story of Commissions, Reports and Popular Responses BHARAT BHUSHAN / Trivialising Justice: Reservation under Rule of Law ASHOK AGRWAAL / The Fallacy of Equality: ‘Anti-Citizens’, Sexual Justice and the Law in India OISHIK SIRCAR / Consolidated Bibliography / Index
VOLUME III: Series Introduction by RANABIR SAMADDAR / Introduction by PAULA BANERJEE and SANJAY CHATURVEDI / Gulamiya Ab Hum Nahi Bajeibo: Peoples’ Expressions for Justice in Jehanabad MANISH K JHA / Ethnography of Social Justice in Dalit Pattis (Hamlets) of Rural UP BADRI NARAYAN TIWARI / Rights and Social Justice for Tribal Population in India AMIT PRAKASH / AIDS, Marginality and Women PAULA BANERJEE / Towards Environmental Justice Movement in India? Spatiality, Hierarchies and Inequalities SANJAY CHATURVEDI / Consolidated Bibliography / Index
VOLUME IV: Series Introduction by RANABIR SAMADDAR / Section I: Development and Discontent: The Question of Injustice: Introduction / Ethnic Politics and Land Use: Genesis of Conflicts in India’s North-East SANJAY BARBORA / Contexts and Constructions of Water Scarcity LYLA MEHTA / Karnataka: Kudremukh: Of Mining and Environment MUZAFFAR ASSADI / Report of Investigation into Nandigram Mass Killing: A Report by Sanhati / Eroded Lives: Riverbank Erosion and Displacement of Women in West Bengal KRISHNA BANDYOPADHYAY, SOMA GHOSH and NILANJAN DUTTA / Section II: Social Justice: The State and its Perceptions: Introduction / The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005 / The National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 / The Right to Information Act, 2005 / The National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007 / The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 / Section III. Justice: Law and Beyond: Introduction / Illegality and Exclusion: Law in the Lives of Slum Dwellers USHA RAMANATHAN / Illegal Coal Mining in Eastern India: Rethinking Legitimacy and Limits of Justice KUNTALA LAHIRI-DUTT / Verdict on an HIV Case, Supreme Court of India LAYA MEDHINI, DIPIKA JAIN and COLIN GONZALVES / An Indian Charter for Minority Rights SABYASACHI BASU RAY CHAUDHURY / Section IV: Women and Marginality: An Issue of Gender Justice: Introduction / Gender: Women and HIV LAYA MEDHINI, DIPIKA JAIN and COLIN GONZALVES / National Policy for the Empowerment of Women (2001) / Women, Trafficking and Statelessness in South Asia PAULA BANERJEE / Section V: Justice: Marginal Positions and Alternative Notions: Introduction / Voices from Folk School of Dalit Bahujan and Marginalised to Policy Makers PEOPLE'S VIGILANCE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS / Social Assessment of HIV/AIDS among Tribal People in India NACP III PLANNING TEAM / Caste is Dead: Long Live Caste G P DESHPANDE / Tehelka Debate: Beyond Caste PUROSHOTTAM AGARWAL / Report from the Flaming Fields of Bihar: A CPI (ML) Document / Section VI: Freedom and Equality, Rights and Social Security: Building Blocks of Justice: Introduction / Jungle Book: Tribal Forest Rights Recognised For First Time NANDINI SUNDAR / Informal Sector in India: Approaches for Social Security / Arguments, Protests, Strikes and Free Speech: The Career and Prospects of the Right to Strike in India RAJEEV DHAVAN / Democracy and Right to Food JEAN DREZE / Index

• Reports

• Research Papers

Gandhi’s Dilemma in War and Independence
In the socio-political milieu of the forties in India, the most contentious decade of the last century, ravaged with war, the Quit India movement, famine, partition and the civil war, the author draws our attention to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the father of the Indian Independence Movement, who, as he puts it, “symbolised the conflicts and paradoxes of that time of transition”.

As one critically examines Gandhi’s views during the period of India’s passage to political independence on issues such as war, decolonisation, nationalist challenge, state sovereignty, problems of governance and so on, a pertinent question surfaces: was Gandhi as confident in his political agenda and methods as history has asserted to the present day?

Gandhi, again a satyagrahi, an ardent propagator of nonviolent resistance to injustice throughout his life, appears in the eyes of the Englishmen, as an extremist and saboteur of the Allied democratic cause in the World War II.

Using his scholarly acumen, the author unveils a new dimension to Gandhi’s towering personality with the suggestion that time was closing down on him. It was a situation of classic aporia, when exit from the problem that Gandhi struggled to escape from became impossible in its own terms.

To procure the book, please contact FrontPage Publication which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar 

Human Rights and Peace: Ideas, Laws, Institutions and Movements
Human Rights and Peace: Ideas, Laws, Institutions and Movements redefines the ambit of peace, presenting a radically different per­spective of looking at its relationship with human rights. It deals with the transformation of both the definition and practice of peace, showing how it has now taken the domain of human rights into its fold.

Through experiential articles on the themes of ideas, laws, institutions, and movements, this collection reveals how people's struggles against specific forms of institutionalised violence take the form of calls for 'peace'. It brings together hitherto unpublished writings on peace and human rights. It also includes some rare articles extracted from landmark published pieces.

This book is an insightful resource for students and researchers of Peace Studies, Human Rights, Politics and International Relations. It is also an invaluable idea bank for activists, think tanks and policy makers who seek to understand the evolving paradigm of peace and human rights.

To procure the book, please contact Sage Publication which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Ujjwal Kumar Singh 

Fleeing People of South Asia: Selections from Refugee Watch 
This book is a collection of essays from 30 volumes of Refugee Watch published by Calcutta Research Group over the last ten years. The book bears reflections of the Refugee Watch series throughout and captures the agony, tension and struggle of the refugees and internally displaced in South Asia in its different dimensions. The book tries to catch the multidimensionality of the journal as much as possible. 

Essays have been divided, not chronologically, but on lines of broad based themes like ethical issues, laws, South Asia, India, gender, interview/correspondence and representations. Each section has been given a separate introduction, orienting the reader to the core-thought behind the classificatory scheme. Such categorization helps the reader in finding particular essays relevant to interests and makes the experience different from sifting through pages of the journal; thus justifying the conglomeration in the form of a book. 

It carries essays and articles by the CRG umbrella of scholars like Ranabir Samaddar, Paula Banerjee, Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury and Samir Kumar Das. Others include Meghna Guhathakurta, Jagat Acharya, Ammu Joseph, Tapan Kumar Bose, Flavia Agnes, Patrick Hoenig, Subir Bhaumik, Monirul Hussain, Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Rajesh Kharat to name a few.  

Particularly interesting is the section on interview/correspondence. There are letters from Palestinian Refugee Camp. There are several interviews with representative personnel like Ratan Gazmere from Bhutan, Dr Nawal El Saadawi from Aram Women’s Solidarity Association and Lev Grinberg from Israel. This section makes the book a winner because it straightaway passes over the microphone to the field people and makes their voice audible.

To procure the book, please contact Anthem Press Publication which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Sibaji Pratim Basu

Justice and Equality: A Political Dilemma? Pascal, Plato, Marx 
Prof. Etienne Balibar delivered the first lecture of the Distinguished Lecture Series on ‘ Justice and Equality: A Political Dilemma? Pascal, Plato, Marx’ on 21 September 2007 . Etienne Balibar in this lecture does not defend the idea that we should chose between the values designated by the names “justice” and “equality” which to him are inseparable. But he wants draw attention to the fact that their articulation remains theoretically and practically problematic, and the tighter the relationship we establish among them, which results in a definition of each term through the mediation of the other, the more complicated becomes the case. He also wants to suggest that inherent in this conceptual riddle is a methodological question which is not deprived of contemporary relevance, even if it may appear rather academic in its formulation, namely which point of view should have primacy: moral philosophy (to which the idea of justice remains traditionally and dominantly attached) or political philosophy (whose modern language has been crucially framed around the claim of equality among citizens, albeit in a typical association with the claim of liberty, as we will have to remember). This is where the form of a dilemma could possibly emerge. The dilemma can also appear around the issue of social equality - equality among groups in the broad sense and not only individuals - the typical conflicts between opposite conceptions of justice become inescapable, which means that justice appears now as a fully political and not only a moral issue. The idea of the political thus becomes at the same time intensified and complicated, even destabilized, by any deep investigation of the tensions, choices, and antinomies involved in the association of justice with equality. It has to take into account its internal other, of which perhaps the “moral” issues are only a symptom and an index, which together with several contemporary philosophers Balibar wishes to call the “impolitical” (rather than unpolitical) side of politics. This lecture carries philosophical investigations in this perspective.

To procure the book, please contact Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (MCRG) / Authored by Etienne Balibar

Women in Peace Politics 
Women in Peace Politics explore the role of women as agents and visionaries of peace in South Asia. Peace is redefined to include in its fold the attempt by women to be a part of the peace making process, reworking the structural inequalities faced by them and their struggle against all forms of oppression.

This volume, the third in the series of the South Asia Peace Studies, deals with the myriad dimensions of peace as practiced by South Asian women over a period of time. It chronicles the live of  “ordinary “ women- their transformative role in peace and an attempt to create a space of their own. Their peace activism is examined in the historical context of their participation in national liberation movements since the early 20^th century. The articles in the collection adopt a new approach to understanding peace- as a desire to end repression that cuts across caste, class, race and gender and an effort on the part of women to transform their position in society.

This complication would interest a wide readership, beside s students and scholars of human rights, peace and security studies, politics and international relations.

To procure the book, please contact Sage Publication which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Paula Banerjee 

Autonomy: Beyond Kant and Hermeneutics
In the first decade of the twenty-first century autonomy has become one of the major concerns of our social and political existence. The right to autonomous life is now a political, cultural and social call of both individual and the groups—a rare conformity that points to the critical importance of the problematic of autonomy on the agenda of critical thinking. 

Though the notion of autonomy in the modern era began to be applied primarily in a political context, the term was then taken up again in the context of individual rational persons, their individual rights and existences. In the wake of anticolonial movements the term gained new perspectives and meanings, which would now imply not only new rights, but also new responsibilities. It became the emblem of group rights, in particular minority rights. In time the idea of autonomy became not only the standard of rights or responsibilities, but also an issue of governmentality. 

The present volume is a critical attempt to understand autonomy from both historical and analytical perspectives. An international group of scholars seek the answers that go beyond the thinking of Immanuel Kant and only a hermeneutic reading of the principle of autonomy. Autonomy in this collective reading emerges as deeply rooted in social practices and contentious politics. 

To procure the book, please contact Anthem Press which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Paula Banerjee and Samir Kumar Das

The Materiality of Politics
The Materiality of Politics uses a series of historical illustrations to reveal the physicality and underlying ‘materiality’ of political processes. The political subject of the study is the collective political actor poised against governmental rules for stabilizing order. Samaddar’s tour de force propels readers through an account of blood, violence, bodies, controls, laws and conflicts. Politics is examined not as an abstraction, but as a ‘real’ field of dynamic factors rooted in everyday life.  
Volume 1, subtitled The Technologies of Rule discusses the techniques of modern rule which form the basis of the post-colonial Indian state. Beginning with the rule of law, the volume analyses the nature and manifestations of constitutional rule, the relation between law and terror and the construction of ‘extraordinary’ sovereign power. The author also investigates the methods of care, protection, segregation and stabilization by which rule proceeds. In the process, the material core of the ‘cultural’ and the ‘aesthetic’ is exposed.  

Volume 2, subtitled Subject Positions in Politics focuses on the political subject emerging from post-colonial politics. The 1940s are closely examined in order to trace the genesis of the modern Indian political subject, his/her dreams of liberty and recognition of freedom’s qualifications. Contentious politics illuminates the dual tendency of the political subject to demand justice in court, and engage in rebellious street politics, clamouring for justice and equality. As the author demonstrates, the subject’s desire for the autonomy of politics manifests itself in various ways. 

To procure the book, please contact Anthem Press which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar

The Politics of Autonomy: Indian Experiences
At a time when movements by women, indigenous people, dalits, various minority groups, and other sections are rising to prominence, what will the future of politics be like? How will autonomy-the efforts of various sections of society to resist the power of the state-change the way we understand democracy?

As this volume tells us, a critical inquiry into the idea of autonomy suggests that the politics of the future will be the politics of autonomies: an engagement that combines notions like self-government, women's autonomy, devolution of power, the rights of minorities, greater popular access to resources, and legal pluralism, and where different autonomies must learn to negotiate and co-exist. Viewing democratic theory through the lens of autonomy, the contributors:

• argue that autonomy has to be an essential ingredient in the building of post­colonial democracies, not merely a residual measure to keep some constituencies happy;

• draw attention to the contending principles of autonomy, the consequent politics of autonomies, the inescapable co-existence of autonomies, and the need for dialogue; and

• analyze the instructive Indian politico-historical experience because of its diversity and range, the extent of colonial institutionalization, multiple forms of autonomy, the complex path of constitutionalism, a wide variety of accords, and the unyielding state that is determined to keep the nation intact.

In the process, the contributors traverse a wide range of issues relating to women's autonomy, peace accords, the nature of federalism in the Indian Constitution, autonomy in international law, and fiscal decentralization. These debates are then supported by case studies on the autonomy experiments in Kashmir, Darjeeling, and the entire Northeast, and on fiscal devolution.

Rich with empirical findings and combining research with dialogue, The Politics of Autonomy represents cutting-edge research on democracy. It will be widely welcomed by scholars of nationalism, democratic theory, federalism, law, women's rights, and multiculturalism.

To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar

Peace Processes and Peace Accords

The first volume in the South Asian Peace Studies (SAPS) series had advanced a general understanding of the nature of peace as a political problematic. This volume, the second, continues with the inquiry, looking at the political question of peace from three perspectives: the process of peace; the contentious issues involved in the peace process; and the ideologies that come in conflict in this process.

Arguing that peace is not a one-time event to be achieved and rejoiced over but a matter to be sustained against various odds, the contributors show that the sustainability of peace depends on a foundation of rights, justice, and democracy. Peace accords, they maintain, are only a moment in the process-the very act of signing an accord could mark either a continuation of the same conflict, or simply its metamorphosis. Therefore, as this volume shows, "negotiation" should be redefined as "joint problem-solving" on a long-term sustained basis, rather than "one-off hard bargaining."

While positing peace as a universal value, this book locates it in the specifics of both the internal and international contexts of South Asia, and provides a useful morphology of violence and conflicts. It also raises the question: How gender equitable is the peace we seek to achieve? Critiquing the dominant principles and protocols of peace accords and peace processes of the region, this volume also reinforces the importance of dialogue in the democratic theory of peace. It will attract the attention of students and scholars of political science, international relations, conflict resolution and defence studies, anthropology, and political philosophy. It will also be of interest to human rights lawyers, activists, and NGOs.

To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Samir Kumar Das

Indian Autonomies – Key Words and Key Texts
This compendium of keywords and key texts addresses predominantly – though not exclusively - the varied experiences with autonomy in India. Growing out of a two-year research work by a collective, it reflects the rainbow nature of the enterprise and findings. The keywords in particular reflect on the philosophical, social, legal and political dimensions of the notion and experiences of autonomy. The compendium will be a valuable sourcebook for students, researchers, activists in the autonomy movements and lay readers. The keywords selected here cut across the immediate experiential horizons and utmost care has been taken to tease out their deeper philosophical and praxiological implications in a direct and simple way that does not unduly repel the interested yet untrained readers. While documents issued by governmental sources have their own ways of publicising themselves, those relating to popular mobilisations and popular politics find it difficult – if not impossible - to reach wider readership. Most of the documents have been included here keeping this in view and they represent a wide variety of experiences from Kashmir to Kohima and from Lund Conference to Ladakh.

To procure the book, please contact SAMPARK, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury, Samir Kumar Das and Ranabir Samaddar 

Internal Displacement in South Asia 

This book deals with the situation of internally displaced people - those who have been forcibly displaced by natural disasters or development projects.

Each chapter is a case study authored by specialists from seven countries - India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mayanmar and Afghanistan. The latter two countries have been included for their shared ethnic continuities with people of the neighbouring countries. The authors provide recommendations on how to minimize the insecurity of the displaced, as well as suggesting early warning systems as preventive measures to forestall displacement at the outset.

To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Paula Banerjee, Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury, Samir Kumar Das 

South Asian Peace Studies 1 

The first volume of the South Asian Peace Studies (2004) introduces the concept, scope and themes of peace studies. The second volume deals with peace accords in this region. The third volume narrates the experiences of women in conflict and peace. The fourth volume deals with human rights institutions in this region. The series is different from the usual conflict and conflict resolution studies, which revolve around interest-based approaches and game theories, and are based on the premise that  “peace with justice” is an impossible agenda. The South Asian Peace Studies series has been planned as an exercise against that politics of excluding justice and democracy from conflict resolution and peace processes. The aim of the series is to bring into light practices of human rights, justice, dignity, reconciliation, and democracy, and lodge them at the heart of peace studies. 

To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar

Refugees and the State – Asylum and Protection Policy of India, 1947-2000 

This is a collection of essays (2003) on the practices of asylum and refugee protection in India over the last fifty years. Written by specialists in the field of Political Science, History, Administration, Law and Gender Studies, this volume is a political, legal, institutional and ethical history concerning hospitality, care and protection. The book highlights the contradictions between these virtues and the manner in which state power organises care and protection of the vulnerable groups and communities, such as the asylum seekers. It is an extra-ordinary study on the interface between care and power.  

To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar

Refugees in West Bengal – Institutional Practices and Contested Identities

This book (2000) is a significant addition to the existing discussion on how refugees are treated and managed worldwide under two different circumstances - with and without international support. This collection of essays by political scientists, sociologists, historians and human rights activists narrates the activities of the refugee protection institutions in West Bengal in the wake of the massive influx of refugees from East Pakistan after the Partition of 1947. The book highlights how the society of West Bengal absorbed this huge influx in the post-partition era in a quiet and effective manner despite a serious lack of necessary institutions of relief and care. At the same time, as the volume shows, the response and self-activism of the refugee community was a great factor in enabling the refugees to negotiate with an alien world and often a hostile political environment. 

The result was not only some relief, rehabilitation, and re-settlement, but a contest of identities too. To procure this book, please contact CRG. / Edited by Pradip Kumar Bose

Living on the Edge – Essays on the Chittagong Hill Tracts  

This collection of essays on the Chittagong Hill Tracts published (1997) immediately after the CHT Accord is based on three sets of writings - by human rights activists and researchers of Bangladesh who deal with several dimensions of the conflict as they impact on Bangladesh society, by Indian   human rights activists and researchers who look into the impact on India including the refugee crisis, and the third, which is the heart of the volume, writings that carry the rebels' voices. Widely acclaimed as one of the most authoritative accounts on the CHT conflict and struggle, the volume is a product of CRG's long campaign for peace in the CHT, and collaboration between Bangladeshi and Indian peace activists. 

For a copy of the volume please contact Manohar Publishers, Delhi. / Edited by Subir Bhaumik, Meghna Guhathakurta, and Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury

Reflections on Partition in the East    

This is a collection of essays (1997) written by eminent historians, sociologists, and political scientists on the Partition of 1947 as it happened in the East. This volume takes a critical look at some of the existing accounts of the Partition in the east, and shows how the history that a partition creates becomes as significant for a political understanding of the event of partition as the history that produced partition in the first place. If an example of such history of partition is the continuing trans-border population movement across the borders, other instances are the continuing labour of memory, the emergence of new geo-political regions that make nation a problematic concept in South Asia. 

For a copy of the book, please contact Vikas Publishers, who have published the volume on CRG's behalf. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar

Anyo Pakistan 

A pioneering work in Bengali on Pakistani writings, this is a Bengali collection (1996) of essays, poems and short stories that reflect the other voices in Pakistan. The contributors to this volume are engaged in struggles for peace and democracy in Pakistan. The original compilation was done by the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy. 

For copies contact Punascha, Kolkata. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar

Parbottyo Chattogram – Simanter Rajniti 

This is a chronicle (1995) in Bengali of the struggle for self-determination, autonomy and peace by the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. The monograph traces the origin of the CHT movement, and examines the politics of demographic change and environment in a strategically located region at the junction of South and Southeast Asia. /  Debjani Datta and Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury

 

Abiram Raktopat - Tripuranarir Sangram