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Tulika Books

Overview

Tulika Books is an Indian independent publishing house based in New Delhi. It is known for publishing scholarly works in the social sciences and humanities, with a particular focus on history, politics, economics, and critical theory in the context of South Asia. Tulika Books operates separately from Tulika Publishers, a Chennai-based children's book imprint, although the two share a common origin.

Key facts

Name Tulika Books
Type Independent publishing house
Industry Book publishing
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Focus Social sciences, humanities, history, politics
Country India

Background

Tulika began as a small publishing initiative in the 1990s, with an editorial outlook oriented towards left-of-centre scholarship and critical writing on Indian society. Over time, it developed a list focused on academic monographs, edited volumes, and translations addressing themes such as caste, class, gender, communalism, agrarian change, labour, and the political economy of India.

The children's books arm, which began under the same banner, later took shape as a separate imprint, Tulika Publishers, headquartered in Chennai. Tulika Books in Delhi continued as the academic and trade non-fiction publisher.

Publishing programme

Tulika Books has published works by a number of well-known Indian academics and public intellectuals, with titles spanning:

  • Indian and South Asian history
  • Political economy and development studies
  • Sociology and anthropology
  • Studies on caste, gender, and minorities
  • Marxist and critical theory
  • Cultural studies, literature, and the arts

Its catalogue includes original scholarship as well as translations of regional-language works into English, contributing to the circulation of South Asian academic writing both within India and internationally.

Significance

As an independent publisher, Tulika Books occupies a notable position in the Indian academic publishing landscape, alongside houses such as Permanent Black, Orient BlackSwan, and LeftWord Books. It is often cited for sustaining serious scholarly publishing outside the dominant multinational academic presses, and for foregrounding works that engage critically with Indian political, social, and economic questions.

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