July nonfiction: Six new books address problems of the present and reveal mysteries of the past

All information sourced from publishers’s blurbs.

Mangifera indica: A Biography of the Mango, Sopan Joshi

The mango, the king of fruits, is also the fruit of desire and the fruit of love. Every aspect of the tree is profoundly intertwined with Indian civilisation. The leaves, flowers, and fruits of the mango are depicted in paintings and sculptures, and references to it are found in Indian literature through the ages and in several languages. It has played, and continues to play, an important role in religion, cuisine, and a variety of cultural forms. But do we really know all there is to know about this delectable fruit?

From the orchards where they grow to the vibrant markets redolent with their aroma, and ultimately to our tables, Mangifera indica describes every aspect of India’s favourite fruit. Book One begins with the history, origin, and relevance of the mango in contemporary culture, including its place in religious rituals and festivals, literature, and diplomatic relations. Book Two takes us far back in time, 4,500 million years ago, to chart the coevolution of the ancestors of the mango and humans. In Book Three, we traverse the length and breadth of India, encountering a kaleidoscope of mango varieties – the fragrant Alphonso, sweet Kesar, succulent Dashehri, and dozens of others – as well as never-before-heard stories of growers, traders, distributors, and consumers.

The Semiotics of Rape: Sexual Subjectivity and Violation in Rural India, Rupal Oza

In Semiotics of Rape, Rupal Oza follows the social life of rape in rural northwest India to reveal how rape is not only a violation of the body but a language through which a range of issues – including caste and gender hierarchies, control over land and labour, and the shape of justice – are contested. Rather than focus on the laws governing rape, Oza closely examines rape charges to show how the victims and survivors of rape reclaim their autonomy by refusing to see themselves as defined entirely by the act of violation. Oza also shows how rape cases become arenas where bureaucrats, village council members, caste communities, and the police debate women’s sexual subjectivities and how those varied understandings impact the status and reputations of individuals and groups.

Backstage Climate: The Science and Politics Behind Climate Change, Rajan Mehta

No issue today is more important – or more talked about – than climate change.

Scientists, journalists and activists have been warning the world about it for the last couple of decades, and in increasingly dire words. Yet, climate action has hardly moved. Too little change has been made, and a little too late.

Is it that we – as citizens of our countries, as policy influencers – do not know enough to care? What is climate change really? What are greenhouse gases and what exactly do they do? What policy-level action has been taken to address this issue? Why is climate action so half-hearted? What can we do to help?

Beyond The Higgs Boson: The W Boson and Dr Ashutosh Kotwal’s Quest for the Unknown, Manik Kotwal, translated from the Marathi by Jerry Pinto

The morning of 4 July 2012 was one of excitement. It was the day when the discovery of “Higgs Boson”, the god particle, was announced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). For forty years, three generations of scientists and researchers had been trying to prove the existence of this particle and finally, they were successful. A key figure in this discovery was Dr Ashutosh Kotwal, a co-recipient of the 2013 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize from the European Physical Society, who conducted world-leading research into the W boson, which helped predict the mass of the Higgs boson. Dr Kotwal’s measurement provided one of the most powerful tests of the Higgs boson theory. And, more recently in 2022, he led a team of 400 scientists to publish the world’s best measurement of the W boson mass, which became the year's most-cited research paper in physics and astronomy worldwide.

Written by his mother Manik Kotwal and translated by Jerry Pinto, Beyond the Higgs Boson – first published in Marathi as Putra Vhava Aisa – details Ashutosh’s life from childhood to the present day and describes in exciting detail the search for the Higgs boson and beyond.

The Lion and the Lily: The Rise and Fall of Awadh, Ira Mukhoty

Using Persian, English, and hitherto untranslated French sources as well as recent work by art historians, Ira Mukhoty brings to focus the life and times of Awadh in the 18th century as well as some of the most important figures of the period – the nawabs, EIC officials such as Robert Clive, Warren Hastings, Richard Wellesley, as also the powerful begums, elite eunuchs, soldiers and adventurers, such as René Madec, Jean Baptiste Gentil, Claude Martin, Antoine Polier, artists both Indian and European, and others.

The Lion and the Lily is a nuanced, detailed, and richly told account of the rise and fall of Awadh in the 18th century against the background of the international struggle between Britain and France.

How Long Can the Moon Be Caged?: Voices of Indian Political Prisoners, Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia

Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia look at present-day India through the lived experiences of political prisoners. Combining political and legal analysis with firsthand testimonies, the authors explore the small gestures that constitute resistance inside and outside the jail for the prisoners and their families, telling a story of the destruction of institutions and the erosion of rights.

How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? includes visual testimonies and prison writings from those falsely accused of inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence, student leaders opposing the new discriminatory citizenship law passed in 2020 and activists from the Pinjra Tod’s movement. In bringing together these voices, the book celebrates the courage, humanity and moral integrity of those jailed for standing in solidarity with marginalised and oppressed communities.