Gyan Pandey's latest book is a compelling examination of the violence that marked the partition of India in 1947, and how the preceding events have been documented. In the process, the author provides a critique of history-writing and nationalist myth-making. He also investigates how local forms of community are established by the way in which violent events are remembered and written about. The book will be of interest to historians of South Asia, to sociologists and to anyone concerned with the Indian subaltern story.

In a penetrating anthropological study of the working poor in India, Jan Breman examines the lives of those who, pushed out of the agrarian labor market, depend on casual work. By considering two villages in south Gujarat, the author discusses the mobilization of casual labor, demonstrating that this is characteristic of an employment pattern that dominates the rural and urban economy of large parts of South Asia. Elaborating on the social profile of the work migrants, the author shows that little has been done to improve their quality of life, which is defined by caste and class relations.