book on Hindu Widow Marriage (B. Hatcher, 2012)

[Tim Cahill]

Colleagues,

     For those interested in Hindu widow marriage or the Bengal 
Renaissance we have a new book by Brian Hatcher.  It is available from 
Amazon or directly from Columbia University Press. See details below.

best,
Tim Cahill
Loyola University New Orleans


_Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar, Hindu Widow Marriage: An Epochal Work on

Social Reform from Colonial India. A complete translation, with an
introduction and critical notes_, by Brian A. Hatcher.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.
ISBN: 978-0-231-15633-2 (cloth)
978-0-231-52660-9 (e-books)

In Hindu Widow Marriage Brian A. Hatcher provides the first complete
translation of one of the most important treatises on social reform
from nineteenth-century India. Originally composed in Bengali by the
colonial Sanskrit scholar Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar, the work helped
pave the way for passage of Act XV of 1856, granting Hindu widows the
right to marry. While the importance of the work has long been noted,
it has hitherto been little studied and never before translated in
its entirety. In Hindu Widow Marriage readers will discover a
virtuosic display of Hindu legal erudition, scriptural exegesis, and
humanitarian rhetoric on behalf of the Hindu widow. Hindu Widow
Marriage features a substantial introduction that provides background
on the career of Vidyasagar, offers an overview of the history of the
widow marriage movement, and advances an interpretation of the work's
significance in relation to indigenous intellectual practice.
Brian A. Hatcher is the author of three important monographs on
colonial Bengal, including: (on Vidyasagar) Idioms of Improvement:
Vidyasagar and Cultural Encounter in Bengal (Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1996) and the Tattvabodhini Sabha (Bourgeois Hinduism, or
Faith of the Modern Vedantists: Rare Discourses from Early Colonial
Bengal (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), as well as
Eclecticism and Modern Hindu Discourse (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999). He has edited (with Michael Dodson Trans-colonial
Modernities in South Asia to be published in 2012 by Routledge.


Table of Contents

Preface
A Word About the Translation
Hindu Categories for First-Time Readers
Chronology
Events Pertaining to the Widow Marriage Movement in Bengal
Introduction
A Short Life of Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar
Widow Marriage in Bengal
Hindu Widow Marriage as Modern-Day Commentary
The Real Significance of Hindu Widow Marriage
Hindu Widow Marriage: The Complete English Translation
Book One
Book Two
Glossary
Bibliography
Index of Sanskrit Passages
Index of Names and Terms

For further information please visit:
http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15633-2/hindu-widow-marriage