Other India Bookstore

'Since the ascent to power of modern science and capitalism,' writes Sunil Sahasrabudhey, 'the world has been divided between those who work on the machine and those who don't, or between those who gain by the existence of the machine, and those who stand to lose everything because of it.' The book argues that lokavidya must be the starting point of all movements against the machine and its manifestations. Gandhian philosophy can be a good guide to action in this regard.

Panchakavya, made from five products of the cow -- its dung, urine, milk, ghee and curd. It has a miraculous effect on crops and has proved its efficacy in organic farming. It is also useful as medicine for animals and humans. New revised and updated edition.

These real life stories written by Rahul Alvares – one of Goa’s youngest authors and snake protectors – celebrates little known contributions of these reptiles to human welfare and ecology. They also reveal considerable insight into the hysteria, fears and myths that drive people to kill snakes wantonly. After you have read The Call of the Snake, you will see snakes differently forever: as friends and not as mortal enemies.

Most of the economic development that has occurred in Asia is toxic in nature, writes Tomas MacSheoin in this remarkable documentation of the slow transfer of polluting and hazardous industries from the so-called developed world to the Asian region.

Published for the first time in India. Cecil Rajendra's new volume of poems on children is an eye-opener on how we violate them, how we break them, how we impose on them our failed dreams and fantasies.

A fascinating memoire which sets out to describe the impact of Mahatma Gandhi's personality on two people from very different backgrounds.

It is time for the countries of Asia, Africa and South America to pause, take stock and critically appraise the process of globalisation, which is currently stacked against them. In his new book, Martin Khor introduces the manifold policy implications related to liberalisation of trade, finance and investment and suggests ways for them to protect their interests.

A major human rights contribution, comprising dozens of frank and daring essays that document the tragic impact of Western global dominance on human rights (and human minds).

A sympathetic outsider, Hoerig attempts a detailed inside view of the country's environment agitations and uncovers their active Gandhian roots. Basing himself on extensive travels and interviews with activists like Vandana Shiva, Baba Amte, Anil Agarwal and others, he provides engaging insights into the functioning of India's alternative politics, into what it has been able to achieve and where it has failed.

Lawyer, tailor, cobbler, cook-and dozens of other jobs as well-Mahatma Gandhi did them all. No work was too low, no occupation too disdainful. Even the simplest of labours was carried out with humour, passion, care and zest.
And to perfection. Other India Press is delighted to reprint this ancient classic on Gandhiji who always promoted the view that learning involves not just the head, but the heart and the hand as well. What better role model for this than the most influential individual of the twentieth century?

Lifts the lid off India's plastics industry, trashing the assumptions in Government and industry reports. Presents a comprehensive analysis of the effect of plastics on human health, the environment and the social fabric of India. Discusses alternatives

A revealing history of the corporate and medical movement to destabilise breastfeeding and of the worldwide counter-movement to restore it to its rightful place in human nutrition.

In a series of essays, written over a period of three decades, an American anthropologist looks at Goan culture and society from a variety of unconventional standpoints. Shamans, mystics, gangsterish politicians, goddesses, postage stamps and other unexpected things come together in this collection which celebrates Goa's syncretic, harmonious religious traditions, wherein people of different faiths live together in complete amity.

Begins with a general critique of the new agricultural biotechnologies and then examines in detail their environmental, social, political and ethical impacts. Concludes with proposals to control the biotechnology revolution and alternatives that need not depend on genetic engineering.

A reprint of a classic Goan story told of a time prior to the Liberation of Goa. The protagonist, Tobias, is far ahead of his peers in seeing the end of Portuguese colonialism but must face a turbulent and tragic existence before that happens.

The authors draw out a firm thread connecting Columbus' attitude to the 'natives' he discovered with the attitudes of 'developers' today who continue to believe that ordinary people and villagers are inferior, ignorant, inefficient, undeveloped and superstitious

How do we understand Mahatma Gandhi? A shrewd Bania or a hard-working and ingenious Shudra and Antyajya? Or because of his great public roles, a Kshatriya and a Brahmana? On the other hand, was he not a great general - like Sri Krishna of the Mahabharata?
In these extremely profound and thoughtful essays, Dharampal - one of India's most distinguished historians and writers - offers us his own distilled view of the passions that drove Gandhiji - one of the most awesome individuals of our times.

Justice Rangarajan became famous during the Emergency when he ordered the release of journalist Kuldip Nayar from detention. This book shows he other had great contributions to make as well.

Rachel Carsons landmark classic painstakingly showed that the use of toxic chemicals was disturbing nature and its complex processes in ways little understood by humankind. Despite the passage of the years, the book has lost none of its topicality.

Selected essays focusing on Goa and the Goan identity.

The Bhopal Gas Disaster has become a macabre symbol of corporate irresponsibility and technological abandon, continuing to torture innocent people without remission for more than twenty years, without hope of permanent relief. The Bhopal Reader records this all. It reconstructs the tragedy of this mass disaster from the date of its occurrence in 1984 and subsequent events for the full twenty year period till December 2004. This it does through a careful selection of original testimonies, reportages and opinion that appeared in various newspapers, court proceedings, commentaries, magazines and books all over the planet, all dealing one way or another with the event and its senseless aftermath. Irreplaceable.

In The Book of Trees, Risto Isomäki (Finland) and Maneka Gandhi (India) recount for us fantastic stories about trees, collected from across the planet. They discuss the significance of trees for alleviating hunger and for cooling the earth. They document the most important tree species of our planet and include a practical chapter on the raising and breeding of trees.

People is about human life forced to survive at the margins. It dwells patiently on the lives of immigrants running away from scarcity; construction workers; adivasis; coolies carrying cement or lime in railway yards; workers processing chillies; women manufacturing beedis. This is life in the raw, in the sewer, in the gutter, shrouded in clouds of pollution and despair. But People is also a book of great dignity. In their bare, unembellished narration, these pictures of human adversity grudgingly demand respect. And a recognition that things must change.

This first rate book on earthworms tells you everything you need to know about them, from one of India’s foremost experts on the subject. The book first deals with the science, particularly the biology of earthworms, then examines their life cycles.Being a practical minded scientist, Ismail concentrates on the culture of indigenous earthworms, how to bring them out of the ground and utilise them for various purposes including composting and garbage reprocessing. He has a separate chapter on the use of earthworms in organic agriculture.

Jackson argues that individual organic farms here and there may not provide any genuine and permanent relief to the destruction of our soils by chemicals and pesticides. According to him, it is necessary to consider the whole village as an organic unit (as this was done in the past), if we wish the organic farming movement to succeed. Jackson covers major ground in this remarkable book: slash-and-burn agriculture, organic farming, education for organic farming. Jackson’s testament on the organic village is drawn from his long association with first green revolution and then with organic farming. He therefore knows the profound inadequacies of chemical-based farming from within.

Taleemnet, a branch of Multiversity, introduces twelve educational pioneers in India, who have been working in education in their own mothertongue, using their own (often meagre) resources and endowments. Their insights into education have largely remained unavailable to the world at large, simply because of the restrictions of language. This book will be useful to all those interested in alternative education.

When Rahul finished school, he turned to new learning places for an alternative education: these included the Pune Snake Park and Rom Whitaker s Croc Bank. Second edition! Parents who are fed up with school simply love it!

One of John Holts classics, this book exposes like no other the inhumanity of schooling as it is organised today. Locating part of the problem within the artificial distinction between learning and doing (when both are essentially one single act), the book is replete with practical suggestions for improving childrens learning and freeing them from the tyranny of the school.

Twentieth OIP reprint! The classic account of the principles and practice of natural farming by one of the greatest exponents of the art, this book retains all its vibrancy and immediacy. The demand for the book appears insatiable-a testimony to its enduring relevance. Also available in Marathi (Rs.60)

This is the first training manual on waste minimisation available in the country. And it has appeared just at the right time. Everywhere people are objecting to the siting of hazardous waste disposal facilities in their neighbourhoods. Industry managers and government authorities are at the wits end. Waste minimization is a source book of rich and practical ideas on how to go about minimising wastes in different industries. It is bound to be of immense use to captains of industry, managers of industrial plants, pollution control officials, academics and environmentalists at large.

In this new and revolutionary book, Claude Bourguignon explains the natural basis of organic agriculture. Following in the footsteps of Albert Howard who wrote similarly more than sixty years ago, Bourguignon begins with the forest and how it practices the most efficient form of organic farming known ever. He then describes his experiments in following the forest model of using the soil – and the organisms in the soil for – for producing food. Bourguignon shows how 97% of the nutrition of the plants comes from the atmosphere. However, because we do not cultivate the microorganisms of the soil, we forfeit their capacity to transform natural nutritional sources in a form readily available to plants.

This remarkable book, fully illustrated in cartoon format, is a long-standing classic that mocks the ever-present institution of schooling – darling of modern states, corporates and varied political interests who wish to harvest from it armies of obedient slaves. Adapted to Indian realities and context as well.

A young girl from Andhra decides to opt out of the ‘rat race of learning’: the endless tests and scores; the straitjacket imposed by college disciplines which actually narrow down the world of learning to mugging badly written texts of history; political science, economics, psychology and yes, sociology; the endless chase after MBA degrees. Instead Samyuktha creates her own ‘higher education’ curriculum, one that suits both her heart and mind. The result is a marvelous book on learning ‘as if the heart mattered’.

The historical work of Dharampal -- stretching over the past four decades – has stimulated a radically fresh perspective on the nature, design, organization and technological contributions of Indian society. It has decidedly upset major impressions about Indian society that have been in circulation for several decades and reinforced in Indian schools and colleges. It has undermined the credibility of several conventional theories about Indian society in fields as diverse as irrigation, astronomy, agricultural technology, medicine and the manufacture of metals. Dharampal’s first book was Panchayati Raj as the basis of Indian Polity (1962). This was followed in 1971 by Civil Disobedience and Indian Tradition. In the same year came his most influential work, Indian Science and Tradition in the Eighteenth Century, and later, The Madras Panchayat System. The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century was published in 1983. A collection of the most outstanding of Dharampal’s lectures over the years comprises the fifth volume, Essays on Tradition, Recovery and Freedom.

Goa: Sweet Land of Mine is a severe critique in colour of the deadly damage being caused by iron ore mining companies to Goa's forests, wildlife, biodiversity and the ecologically sensitive region of the Western Ghats - one of the plant's twelve most important ecological hotspots. The occasion for the book is the recent spate of 'environment clearances' granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for such mining leases in Goa. More than 70 such clearances have been issued to more than 70 mining leases without site inspections or listening to villagers affected by mining operations. Iron ore mining is a major threat to Goa's very existence. Get the book and see how you can help if you are one of those who love Goa and do not want it to die.

In this revised and updated edition of his pioneering book (earlier titled, Grasp the Nettle), Peter Proctor succinctly outlines the application of biodynamic methods to a wide range of farming and gardening operations. Proctor provides practical observation and biodynamic techniques, tips on how to recognise healthy soil and pasture, and how to make biodynamic preparations. This edition includes new ideas on applying the preparations; appendices on understanding the planting calendar and the influence of the planets; and covers recent advances in biodynamic practice and techniques in New Zealand, Australia and India.

For those people who have always felt that the available information on the health impact of genetically engineered food was inadequate to make a decision, here is the book that will now make the crucial difference. What Jeffrey Smith has done is commendable and explosive. He has surveyed all the scientific information available from various sources and put it all in one place. Point by point, the book provides more than adequate data to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that GM organisms can get into animal and human systems and that they can impinge on our health in hitherto unknown ways. The book is written for lay persons and scientists alike. First Indian edition.

The Fourth Edition of the Organic Farming Sourcebook is a fully revised, updated work coming after a gap of nearly 10 years. The Sourcebook is the most comprehensive bank of information on every aspect of organic farming in India and includes a directory (and detailed stories) of the country's organic farmers and green stores. The new edition has separate chapters on organic seeds, indigenous cattle and genetic engineering. Indispensable for those keenly interested in all aspects of organic farming.

One of the most noted texts available on organic farming by one of its founders. Howard introduces the idea that the forest farms more efficiently and effectively than human beings. The most suffessful organic farmer will imitate the forest to the best of his ability