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"In its most brutal form, the prison in British India was an instrument of the colonial state for instilling fear and dealing with resistance. Exploring the lived experience of select political prisoners, this volume presents their struggles and situates them against the backdrop of the freedom movement. From Mohamed Ali, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Nehru family, and Gandhi, to communists like M.N. Roy, we get a vivid glimpse of their lives within the confines of the prison in a narrative that is at times deeply personal and yet political. The struggles of some remarkable women of the time are also brought to the fore, be it the feisty doctor Rashid Jahan, Aruna Ali, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, or Sarojini Naidu. Extensively researched, the volume draws upon the records at the National Archives of India, private papers, creative writings of the prisoners, newspapers, memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies. The volume also brings to light the differences between Indian and European prisons during the colonial period and the conception of criminal classes in the colony. Capturing the sharp pangs of loneliness, the poetry born out of solitude, and the burning desire for independence, Roads to Freedom breathes new life into accounts and tales long forgotten."

"This book is an attempt to understand a city through its roads. It explores the origins and development of three important roads of Calcutta (now renamed as Kolkata) from the pre-British colonial era to the postcolonial period. Spanning a period of four centuries, these three roads, Bagbazar Street in the north, Theatre Road in the centre, and Rashbehari Avenue in the south, register the contours of urbanization and the changes in the socio-cultural profile of the residents. The author locates this history within a broader theoretical framework with the help of which one can analyse the role of roads in urbanization, which are determined and influenced by the various political, economic, and socio-cultural impulses. The narrative traces the rise of Calcutta from a fledgling town to a giant metropolis through the history of these roads, and approaches the present era, when these roads have reached a cul-de-sac where their further expansion is restricted by territorial limits and environmental constraints. But the roads are still needed to meet the gargantuan appetite of urbanization, which is leading to the expansion of present-day Kolkata beyond its north-eastern borders. Here, the development of commercial-cum-residential complexes in the area known as the New Town, is Kolkatas first step in its ambition to graduate from a metropolis to a megalopolis. The book ends with a discussion on the changing character of roads in this New Town in the era of globalization."

"Although the filmmaker Satyajit Ray is well known across the world, few outside Bengal know much about the diverse contributions of his forebears to printing technology, nationalism, childrens literature, feminism, advertising, entrepreneurialism, and religious reform. Indeed, even within Bengal, the earlier Rays are often very inadequately known and associated exclusively with childrens literature. The first study in English of the multifarious interests and accomplishments of the Ray family and its collateral branches, The Rays before Satyajit reconstructs the multidimensional Ray saga and interweaves it with the larger history of Indian modernity. While eager to learn from the West and rarely drawn to simple-minded nationalism, the Rays, at their best, shunned mere imitation and sought to create forms of the modern that were thoroughly Indian and enthusiastically cosmopolitan. Some of the outcomes of this quest, such as Upendrakishore Rays innovations in half-tone photography and block-making, were admired in the West, though the metropolitan careers of colonial innovators, the book shows, were inevitably constrained by forces beyond their control. Within India and Bengal, however, many of the Rays innovations were of enduring significance, and when situated in their contexts, they help us understand the tensions and contradictions of the pursuit of modernity in an economy that was neither capitalistic nor politically autonomous. Ranging across the history of religion, literature, science, technology, and entrepreneurial culture, The Rays before Satyajit is not only the first collective biography of an extraordinary family but also a book that illuminates the history of Indian modernity from a new perspective."

"On 14 July 2013, India closed down its telegraph service, drawing the curtain over an important chapter in its history of telecommunications. Introduced during the British colonial period, the telegraph was opened for public use on 1 February 1855. The beginning of the service, much like its end, was marked by strikingly similar scenes of people rushing to the telegraph office in order to send messages. The similarity with the contemporary scenario does not end here. Like the internet today, the electric telegraph came to play an important role in the conduct of journalism in nineteenth-century India. This book is an attempt to reconstruct this interconnected history of telegraphy and journalism and the first systematic account of the development of English-language news reporting in nineteenth-century India. Drawing on a wide range of historical material and an in-depth analysis of the newspaper press, it questions grand narratives of media revolutions, arguing instead that the use of telegraphy in journalism was gradual and piecemeal. News itself emerged as the site of many contestations, as imperial politics, capitalist enterprise, and individual agency shaped not only access to technologies of communication, but also the content and form of reporting."

"This book analyses the interface between medicine and colonial society through the lens of gender. Based on hitherto unused primary sources the work traces how since almost the beginning of the nineteenth century the growth of hospital medicine in Bengal created a space, albeit small, for providing Western health care to female patients. It observes that, unlike in the colonial setup, before the advent of hospital medicine women were treated mostly by female practitioners of indigenous therapies who had commendable skill as practitioners. The book also explores the linkages of growth of medical education for women and the role of the Indian reformers as well as British administrators in this process. The manuscript tackles several crucial questions including those of racial discrimination, reproductive health practices, sexual health, famines and mortality, and the role of womens agencies and other organizations in popularizing Western medicine and health care. Thus this work, explores the different processes which contributed towards the shaping of the discursive domain of medicine with a bearing on womens health as well as highlights different dimensions of empirical developments. In the process it enriches our understanding of colonialism, gender, and politics of medicine in the nineteenth and twentieth century in a novel way."

"In 1908, a Welsh Doctor named Peter Fraser turned down a lucrative job with the Kings Government in London and instead wore the robes of a Christian missionary to travel to the remote Lushai Hills of north-east India-the habitat of a reportedly wild, headhunting tribal people. Fraser not only found acceptance among the tribals, but also came in conflict with the colonial state over the tribal practice of bawi, a practice he found akin to slavery. This clash was symptomatic of a larger issue that marked colonialism in south Asia: the tussle between the colonial administration and the missionary institutions. Challenging the notion of a monolithic colonial experience, The Uprising chronicles this struggle which witnessed Fraser, after being expelled by his own mission, petitioning and lobbying for the issue in the British Parliament through the Anti-Slavery Society and even taking the issue to the League of Nations to make an intervention which had lasting impact on the lives and history of the Lushai people (Mizo tribe). Writing in a narrative form, the book brings out the immense historical significance of the contradictions between the colonial state and the missionary institutions, and argues that neither institution, contrary to popular perception, was a liberating agency."