If you are not interested in exploring the details of the music biz in India, turn off this site right now; this book is not connected to the Western pop scene. CASSETTE CULTURE is a study of the impact of cassette technology on popular music in North India. It explores the nature of the changes the arrival of widely-available cassettes has made on the structure of the Indian music industry and on popular music itself. I found it a well-written book with an absolute minimum of scholarly jargon, though it is an academic book. The author does not presume knowledge on the part of the reader and gives careful explanations of Indian musical styles, regional cultures, and music industry details. I found the balance between theory and description excellent. There is an interesting discussion of the popular music recording scene in other parts of the world, as well as a thorough historical look at that topic in India itself. The problem of piracy is dealt with in depth. There are three basic issues that underlie Manuel's study. First, the nature of control of the mass media in India. Second, the content of the mass media and how it is presented. And third, the effect of the content on the audience and how they use that content. With these guidelines, he shows how the arrival of cassette technology and cheap cassette players in the 1970s created a revolution in Indian popular music. By the 1980s, a transformation was underway, with the rise of hundreds of small regional producers, as well as a few giants. Escape from corporate control might lead us to think that the cassette "revolution" was a liberating force, but Manuel points out that this is not entirely so. The new technology has also been used to spread traditional, unprogressive, and even reactionary, bigoted messages through India. Cassettes have fuelled many a regionalist or separatist movement as well as the strivings of many an opportunistic politician.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the combination of music, popular media, technology and culture in India, one of the great civilizations of mankind, which seldom appears in Western media except for disasters, murders, or horror stories . Manuel has written a classic. Buy it.

I could not put this book down! If your intersts is in sociology and social class problems...pick this book up! AMAZING! The stories and the first hand experiences are truly a treat!

The claim to racial and cultural superiority of the Aryans over the native dravidians is today found to be all a myth.Today we know that in social DNA the brains is from the south and the brawns is from the north.Modern day India is a tower of babel.There is no glory.A melting pot of confusion.The glory of India is in its ancient dravidian past.The glory of modern India today -- you find them all in silicon valley .U.S.A.The vast majority of software engineers today are all from the south not from the north .That speaks volumes.Even the atomic scientist ,physicists and nobel laurattes are all from the south.Comparatively the north indian aryans can,t brag none of these.Jacob pandians book is an eye opener.Ethnically the north indians are of distinct separate social DNA. The north indians are not indians .They are of non-dravidian extract and are of foreign origin.As Jacob Pandian has so clearly said that the north indian aryans and brahmins are dravidianised indians.A cross breed,of mixed descent.A most enlightening book.Its most unfortunate that the Hindi Raj subjugation of the south still continues today.Due recognition has not been given.As it has been since time immemorial the Hindi Raj has continued in its systemetic and scheming subjugation and manipulation of the south.The north indians don,t have the heartbeat of the south.The north indians neither mix nor blend with the south.It is still an Empire state as Jacob Pandian says.

I never liked India. Too much confusion, too much humanity. I read this book and now I have an unending desire to visit India; top to bottom. Not during Monsoon, not during the dry season, but sometime in between. Mr. Frater delivers an unblinking look at the beauty and inspiration which lies beneath the clutter and dreck. Damn the weather, look at what's there. I envy you the experience of the first read.

Wingate here provides the results of years of detailed resarch about conversions in South India. He examines people's given reasons for their or their parents' conversion and looks at secondary sources on the subject while also taking into account the expressed views of those not directly concerned and the current social status of the people involved. Wingate walks the happy middle line in that he neither says that no one would convert to Christianity or Islam out of religious conviction (as the saffron historians would have us believe) nor does he say that socio-economic considerations had no part in most conversions. He provides an excellent analysis of the much-neglected area of reversion/reconversion and raises not a few ethical and logical questions. In all, a very good and remarkably nonbiased book.

This children's version of a classic Indian story contains plenty of action and interesting characters to keep younger children interested. They will particularly like the lovely, colourful illustrations thoughout the book.

Well researched and written. I came across this gem of a book in India and I have read it couple times. I found to my surprise that not even the locals of Hyderabad know as much as what this book tells. This book tells history behind the popular commercial spots in Hyderabad like 'King Koti', 'Abids' which none of the locals are aware of. Unfortunately many of the historical tombs and buildings of immense architectural beauty mentioned in this book are in ruin and some lost. If you are from Hyderabad (which I am not) and feel passionate about your city (which I do) this is your book. The most interesting part of the book is at the end when the police action was in progress. The chief of the much hated Razakars was running after his get-away plane in which he has stashed his fortunes with the Indian police hot in pursuit (sounds like Hollywood movie ending). Read the book to know what happens to him.

India has among its more than 1200 species some of the most beautiful birds in the world, and they have long attracted artists in the portrayal of their "splendid plumage." For the Mughal court, Indian painters provided brilliant natural history drawings and miniatures, and in the late 18th and early 19th century, British officials, as they extended their presence in India, recruited Indian artists in scientific investigation and depiction of Indian fauna--and none more richly than birds. Many of the British civil servants were themselves amateur artists of considerable ability and a good number were passionate ornithologists. The result was a phenomenal collection of paintings and drawings of Indian birds and a large number of often sumptuous volumes of prints portraying the birds of India and the subcontinent. Jagmohan Mahajan opens Splendid Plumage: Indian Birds by British Artists with an illuminating essay on the history of British ornithology in India and on the collections of paintings and prints that came out of the British encounter with avian life in India. The greater portion of the book is devoted to 60 full-page color plates reproducing watercolors and prints from some of the finest of these collections. These include previously unpublished watercolors by Christopher Webb Smith, c. 1830, and representative prints from James Forbes's Oriental Memoirs (1813), John Edward Gray's Illustrations of Indian Zoology (1830-35), John Gould's A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830-33), and Allan Octavian Hume and C. H. T. Marshall's The Game Birds of India, Burmah, and Ceylon (1879-81), among others. Splendid Plumage is handsomely produced and will be richly rewarding to anyone interested in the birds of India and, more generally, in artists' portrayal of birds.

Dilip Chakrabarti is one of India's pre-eminent archaeologists. Currently a professor at Cambridge University, he has tirelessly exposed the colonial and racist prejudices that plague Indian historiopraphy. This book presents a masterly overview of the politics of India's past and how it has been held hostage by Marxists in India and colonialist/racist scholars outside India.

Excellent book that showcases postcolonial India. Great for Reference about such issues.