{"title":"Samrat Choudhury","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"northeast-india-book-samrat-choudhury-9781787389526","title":"Northeast India","description":"As India and the world are roiled by questions of nationalism and identity, this book journeys into the history of one of the world’s newest and most fascinating regions: Northeast India. Having appeared with the stroke of a pen in 1947, as the British Raj was torn asunder and partitioned into India and Pakistan, this is a region of hills inhabited by myriad tribes. Until colonial rule, they had lived in their ancient ways largely unmolested by their neighbours, who were rather keen to avoid their traditions of head-hunting.  Samrat Choudhury chronicles the processes by which these remote hill-tribes, and the diverse other peoples inhabiting the valley of the vast Brahmaputra River below, became parts of the ‘imagined nation’ that is India. Through the invention of the Northeast, he explores two other ideas of India that remain in daily competition: Bharat, the Hindu nationalist conception of the country, and Hindustan, the Persian-origin name by which India is still known as far west as Turkey. Taking a long view, this absorbing political history chronicles the separate pathways by which imperialism, Christianity and the British love of tea brought each of the contemporary region’s constituent states, kicking and screaming, into modern India.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49744547086609,"sku":"NGR9781787389526","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51166648860945,"sku":"GOR014190847","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1787389529.jpg?v=1772273471"},{"product_id":"braided-river-book-samrat-choudhury-9789390327584","title":"The Braided River","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Brahmaputra is by some margin the largest river in India. After its confluence with the Ganga in Bangladesh, it becomes the largest in Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Braided River\u003c\/i\u003e, journalist Samrat Choudhury sets out to follow its braided course from the edge of Tibet where it enters India down to where it meets the Ganga at a spot marked by the biggest red light district in Bangladesh. Along the way, he meets suspicious Indian spies, gets packed off on the back of a cement truck by soldiers, visit a shelter home for baby rhino and elephant orphans in Kaziranga, and hops from river island to riverside town meeting the locals.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe tales of these encounters spice up a story that weaves in the history of the emergence of the border between India and China in Arunachal Pradesh, the formation of the Assamese identity -- a matter of great contemporary relevance owing to the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act -- and the ecological challenges posed by proposed dams.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is a genre-bending book that touches upon several hot-button issues -- environmental, military and political -- as it blends travel, memoir and history with the present.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50051527541009,"sku":"GOR013846526","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51378155782417,"sku":"NIN9789390327584","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52138888823057,"sku":"NLS9789390327584","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/939032758X.jpg?v=1755684690"},{"product_id":"but-i-am-one-of-you-book-samrat-choudhury-9789362138576","title":"But I Am One of You","description":"The ideas of who belongs and who does not, who is an insider and who is an outsider have sparked severe friction in Northeast India for decades now. From the frequent characterization of Bengal-origin Muslims in Assam as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to the ethnic battles between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zo tribals of Manipur, from the Naga and Mizo separatist insurgencies to the prejudice the tribal minorities face in the mainland--negotiating identity has always been a complex issue. In recent years the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act have added to that complexity.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50426588397841,"sku":"NGR9789362138576","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53615354577169,"sku":"GOR014982249","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9362138573.jpg?v=1750872509"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-samrat-choudhury.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}