HT picks; new reads

The Lambadas under the Rule of the Nizams

Subjugated Nomads traces the historical transition of the Lambadas from a nomadic community to peasant subjects in Hyderabad State under the Nizams during colonial rule. The study spans nearly two centuries, from the early eighteenth to about the middle of the twentieth century.

The market economy and growth of transport hampered the Lambadas’ caravan trade. The state discouraged their nomadic ways, inducing them to become peasants, reclaiming wastelands and forest tracts. Since the zamindars claimed rights over wastelands, they extracted taxes. Exploitation by various agencies, such as moneylenders, and forest and revenue officials, reduced the Lambadas to working as bonded labourers on farms. During famines and the lull between farming seasons, some even resorted to dacoity, leading the state to brand them as a criminal community and relocate them as “criminal tribes” under surveillance. Protracted suffering and victimisation compelled the Lambadas to revolt, an uprising that transformed into the Telangana armed struggle at the end of the Nizams’ rule.

The Lambadas had tried to respond to challenges through a programme of self-reform. From the 1820s, leaders emerged from within the community who rearticulated Lambada history, spiritual beliefs and culture. These found expression in their oral tradition, which was crucial in shaping their community identity, now a significant element in democratic politics.

This book will interest historians, anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists, policy makers, and social activists working on advocacy and identity politics.*

Tales of the Supernatural

You know Delhi for its rich cultural tapestry, history and monuments. You love it for its food – kebabs, chole-kulche, golgappe and chaat.

But do you know about the dark shadows that lurk in its all-too-familiar haunts – the arcades of Connaught Place, the gullies of Mehrauli, the lawns of Lutyens’ Delhi, or the pillars and arches of the tombs in Hauz Khas?

The stories in The Haunting of Delhi City are set in a Delhi we think we know well, but don’t. This is a Delhi that reveals the presence of the supernatural at every corner - ghosts as real to us in stories as they are in our imagination. Exquisitely chilling, each of these tales holds a piece of the city and its people - especially the ghosts.

Oh, these are just stories, you say. But are they? Come, have a read … if you dare.*

A Hill Station Mystery

Lionel Carmichael, a retired police deputy inspector general, is looking forward to living a quiet, solitary life in the hill station of Debrakot, with an assortment of eccentric neighbours for occasional company. His plans are upended when he is asked by a former colleague, SHO Thapliyal, to help out in a double murder case. The scene of the crime is the ghostly Shambala Villa, or “Shambles”, as it is known to the residents of the town, named thus due to its decrepit appearance. The victims of the brutal crimes are Reuben Sabharwal, a self-styled god-man who dabbles in the mysterious and occult, and an unknown woman, dressed in a pale green sari, found hanging by a noose near Reuben’s body.

Trudging through the monsoon rains of Debrakot, Lionel embarks on his journey towards the truth, only to become more and more entangled in a web of deceit and lies. Even as a myriad powerful forces attempt to stop him, Lionel continues to push for the truth — until the sleepy little hill station finally gives up its grim secrets.*

*All copy from book flap.