Primus Books

29/09/2025

Primus Books is glad to announce its new title, 'Tradition and Truth Writings in Indian and Western Philosophy' by S P Banerjee and Edited by Ish*ta Banerjee.

The nineteen essays that constitute Tradition and Truth reflect the philosophical and life sojourn of Professor Sankari Prasad Banerjee, an acclaimed philosopher and teacher, who held the Acharya Brojendranath Seal Chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy at the University of Calcutta. The incisive essays explore critical themes ranging from the phenomenology of human relations, higher positivism, and the meanings of metaphysics to democracy, tolerance, and secularism; from freedom and self-expression, alienation, and one-dimensionality to Advaita Vedanta and Neo-Vedanta, the meaning of life and the ‘surplus-in-man’, as well as ageing, death and religion. Together, they reveal the profound humanity of a deeply compassionate intellectual.

The essays reflect his sustained efforts to bring philosophy, and the work of philosophers, closer to social life, social relations, and lived conditions. This conviction and passion led Banerjee to draw upon and move beyond Marx, to critique both Advaita and positivism, and to emphasize the viability of alternative philosophical standpoints. In doing so, he perhaps unconsciously constructed a form of philosophical anthropology grounded in an empathetic understanding of human existence. Together, these essays constitute the record of a kind and perceptive individual’s response to life and society, one that opens pathways for further reflection and research.

The editor, Ish*ta Banerjee is a historian by training, is a Distinguished Professor-Researcher at the Centre for Gender Studies, El Colegio de Mèxico, Mexico City.

To procure a copy, please click on:
https://primusbooks.com/tradition-and-truth-writings-in-indian-and-western-philosophy-by-ish*ta-banerjee/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

Happy Reading!!

29/09/2025

Primus Books is glad to announce its new title, 'On Mullingar Hill: Memory, Movement and Belonging in a Himalayan Hill Station' by Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger.

On Mullinger Hill recounts oral histories and personal narratives of shopkeepers in Landour Bazaar, Mussoorie, whose families have helped create the culture and heritage of the Himalayan hill station. The book expands who ‘counts’, beyond colonial actors, in the making of histories of India’s hill stations. While many shopkeepers or their ancestors—some of whose fathers the author knew growing up in Landour—have migrated from across northern South Asia, others continue to move to the bazaar from Garhwali mountain villages for economic opportunities. At the same time, many shopkeepers’ descendants are now moving off the mountain for similar reasons; as a popular proverb observes, ‘Pahar ka pani pahar ki javani—the waters of the mountain, the youth of the mountains’, both go downhill. The continual movement in and out of the bazaar has created a unique local cosmopolitanism. Each shopkeeper’s narrative offers perspectives on agency, identity, home, and belonging—issues relevant beyond the hill station. On Mullingar Hill suggests that ‘belonging’ is continually re-created through rituals and everyday interactions; ‘home’ is multiple, gendered, and context-specific; and movement itself is part of Mussoorie’s heritage.

The author, Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger is Professor Emerita at Emory University. She received her PhD in South Asian Language and Literature from the University of Wisconsin and has carried out extensive ethnographic fieldwork in India, including in Chhattisgarh, Hyderabad, Tirupati, and Mussoorie. She is the recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Institute of Indian Studies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Fulbright-Hayes. Her publications include Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds; Everyday Hinduism; When the World Becomes Female: Possibilities of a South Indian Goddess; In Amma’s Healing Room: Gender & Vernacular Islam in South India; and Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India.

To procure a copy please click on:
https://primusbooks.com/sociology/on-mullingar-hill-memory-movement-and-belonging-in-a-himalayan-hill-station-by-joyce-burkhalter-flueckiger/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

Happy Reading!!

25/09/2025

Primus Books is glad to announce its new title, 'Slices of Indian History: The Story of India’s Transformation' by Salil Misra.

The essays in Slices of Indian History touch upon diverse facets of modern Indian history, including the major episodes, processes, institutions and personalities. Put together, they tell the story of Indian’s transformation in modern times and in the direction of modernity. The chapters underscore that the traditional social structure, comprehensive domination by British imperialism, and a powerful nationalist mass struggle against it, played a critical part in this process. India’s journey towards modernization carries the stamp of all three building blocks. Most of the essays in the book focus on India’s encounters with modernity and some major milestones in this encounter. It portrays a picture of India as a large civilizational society with its own distinctive features. In its transition towards acquiring a modern structure, it confronted many dilemmas and challenges, and the crucial choices made by the national leaders. This book is essentially the story of the making of modern India, told from different perspectives. The different slices constitute pieces in a big jigsaw puzzle, and this overview contributes to an ongoing effort to ‘discover’ the ‘wonder’ that India has been and continues to be.

The author, Salil Misra is Visiting Professor at BML Munjal University. He has taught history at major universities including, Jamia Millia Islamia, Indira Gandhi National Open University and Ambedkar University, Delhi. He has been general president of U.P. History Congress, Punjab History Congress and Andhra Pradesh History Congress. He has been a visiting researcher at the Centre for History of Emotions, Max-Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. Among his publications are, A Narrative of Communal Politics: Uttar Pradesh, 1937–39, and a booklet in Hindi on Swaraj Party National Book Trust. Along with Bipan Chandra and Vishalakshi Menon, he was also involved in the research and documentation of the national movement in 1942 for the Towards Freedom project. Misra has written extensively in important journals and Indian newspapers including, Deccan Herald, Economic and Political Weekly, The Tribune, National Herald and The Wire on themes related to communal politics, Indian nationalism, language questions, Hindi and Urdu, partition of India, social science teaching and identity politics.

To procure a copy, please click on the link below:

https://primusbooks.com/modern-history/slices-of-indian-history-the-story-of-indias-transformation-by-salil-misra/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

Happy Reading!!

25/09/2025

The University of Delhi in association with Primus Books organized the launch of its new title ‘The University of Delhi: A Comprehensive Account of its Resilience, Knowledge, Leadership and Growth’ by Manisha Choudhary. The launch took place on 19 September 2025 at the Convention Hall, Vice-Regal Lodge, on the grounds of the University of Delhi.

The event was presided over by Professor Yogesh Singh, Honourable Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi. Professor Yogesh Singh, Professor Ashok Jain, Dr Namita Gokhale and Professor Manisha Choudhary released the book and took part in the discussion that followed the book launch.

The entire session was recorded and the recording is now live on our Youtube page. The link is mentioned below:

Date: 19 September 2025Venue: Convention Hall, Vice Regal Lodge, University of DelhiPanel: Professor Yogesh Singh, Professor Namita Gokhale, Professor Ashok ...

24/09/2025

The University of Delhi in association with Primus Books organized the launch of its new title ‘The University of Delhi: A Comprehensive Account of its Resilience, Knowledge, Leadership and Growth’ by Manisha Choudhary. The launch took place on 19 September 2025 at the Convention Hall, Vice-Regal Lodge, on the grounds of the University of Delhi.

The event was presided over by Professor Yogesh Singh, Honourable Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi. Professor Yogesh Singh, Professor Ashok Jain, Dr Namita Gokhale and Professor Manisha Choudhary released the book and took part in the discussion that followed the book launch.

The event witnessed the presence of many dignitaries from the academic world. Over 250 people attended the launch to celebrate the book, which commemorates an institution that has proved to be one of the most important academic centres in the country, growing alongside its students and alongside India across its century-long existence.

Major newspapers carried out briefings about the event. Please have a look.

23/09/2025

Primus Books is glad to announce its new title under the series 'New Ecology of Expressive Modes in Early-Modern South India'. The book is titled, 'House, Stage and Temple: Ritual Spaces for Tevaram in Kerala' and authored by Elena Mucciarelli.

House Stage and Temple examines the social history of ritual and space in premodern Kerala. It engages with what Roland Barthes called the subtlety of life and focuses on a form of domestic ritual—tēvāram—and its ‘translation’ into the space of theatre. Tēvāram is articulated through different types of places; the intimate space of the house, in dialectic tension with the space of the temple and the public space of the theatre stage, allow us to investigate the question ‘what is the space we live in?’—a question of wide impact that still needs singular answers.

The author, Elena Mucciarelli is Gonda Lecturer and Assistant Professor of Hinduism in the Sanskrit Tradition at the University of Groningen. In pursuing her research on the intellectual, artistic and religious history of south India she adopts a multidisciplinary methodology combining philology, anthropology, textual analysis and media studies. Her recent project studies the relationship between literary and oral song cultures.

To procure a copy please click on the link below:
https://primusbooks.com/cultural-studies/house-stage-and-temple-ritual-spaces-for-tevaram-in-kerala-by-elena-mucciarelli/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

Happy Reading!!

23/09/2025

Primus Books is glad to announce its new title, 'Aspects of Early History of India: A Tribute to Indologists' by Vidula Jayaswal.

Aspects of Early History of India: A Tribute to Indologists covers lesser-known but significant aspects of Indian prehistory and the early historical period, specifically the art and archaeology of the middle Ganga plain. Incorporating new findings, the book discusses the early stages of architecture in the subcontinent, now dated to the Early Stone Age (at Paisra, Bihar); the antiquity and nature of the Varanasi, the longest surviving city in India; and the beginnings of sculptural art and their artisans.

The volume pays tribute to nine stalwarts (Navaratana) of Indic studies, through ten themed chapters. Each chapter is preceded by a shabdanjali that describes the author’s personal experiences with these scholars. Organized in chronological order, the first three chapters, themed around the Stone Age, discuss the origin, growth and continuity of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic technologies. The diverse aspects of the history of Varanasi are covered in the following three chapters; while the remaining chapters focus on hitherto less-studied facets of the architecture and sculpturing crafts of north India. The themes covered here, and their presentation in this book, make this a unique addition to the world of ancient Indian history.

The author, Vidula Jayaswal taught at Banaras Hindu University for four decades. She also served as Superintending Archaeologist at the Archaeological Survey of India, and has been a National Fellow at the University of Berkeley. Across her decades-long career, she has conducted many researches and field studies in ethnography and archaeology from the Stone Age to the early historic period, and has published her findings in numerous books and research articles. In recognition of her contribution to Indian Archaeology, she was awarded the Shri P.C. Chanda Medal by the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, and the Dr Vishnu Shridhar Wakankar Award by the Madhya Pradesh government. Some of her important publications are Paisra: The Stone Age Settlement of Bihar; Royal Temples of Gupta Period: Excavations at Bhitari; From Stone Quarry to Sculpturing Workshop: A Report on the Archaeological Investigations around Chunar, Varanasi and Sarnath; and Ancient Varanasi: An Archaeological Perspective: Excavations at Aktha.

To procure a copy please click on: https://primusbooks.com/ancient/aspects-of-early-history-of-india-a-tribute-to-indologists-by-vidula-jayaswal/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

Happy Reading!!

22/09/2025

The University of Delhi in association with Primus Books organized the launch of its new title ‘The University of Delhi: A Comprehensive Account of its Resilience, Knowledge, Leadership and Growth’ by Manisha Choudhary. The launch took place on 19 September 2025 at the Convention Hall, Vice-Regal Lodge, on the grounds of the University of Delhi.

The event was presided over by Professor Yogesh Singh, Honourable Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi. Professor Yogesh Singh, Professor Ashok Jain, Dr Namita Gokhale and Professor Manisha Choudhary released the book and took part in the discussion that followed the book launch.

The event witnessed the presence of many dignitaries from the academic world. Over 250 people attended the launch to celebrate the book, which commemorates an institution that has proved to be one of the most important academic centres in the country, growing alongside its students and alongside India across its century-long existence.

19/09/2025

Please join us 🙏🏼

Primus Books is delighted to invite you to the book launch of The University of Delhi: A Comprehensive Account of Its Resilience, Knowledge, Leadership and Growth by Manisha Choudhary.

This book presents and commemorates the long journey of the University of Delhi. Based on hitherto-unused archival material, it covers the early days of the university’s conception to its growth over the decades, revealing different and complex facets of a century-old institution. The book launch will be followed by a discussion with the Vice-Chancellor Professor Yogesh Singh, Professor Ashok Jain, Dr Namita Gokhale and Professor Manisha Choudhary.

Please join us on Friday, 19 September 2025 at 3.00 p.m. (IST) at the Convention Hall, Vice Regal Lodge, New Delhi 110007.

We greatly look forward to having you with us on this occasion.