As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...
Not again. I learned years ago that many Indian publishers -- including
some highly respected ones -- put whatever the year is that they are
PRINTING a book on what I would call their copyright page, even if it
were really PUBLISHED a century or more earlier. Occasionally they'll
just reprint the original, sometimes they'll slap in a new introduction.
I always try to figure out the real date before buying a book, because
in some areas scholarship really has progressed. Well, I just learned
that a so-called 2004 book purporting to be from Oxford India was
written in 1920! 1920! I know, it's just different front-copy norms, but
when it specifically says "First published 2004" as well as "Copyright
2004" on the copyright page, I expect the book to be 2004-ish, not
something I could quite frankly get free on the internet, and which much
worse is far behind in its scholarship. The introduction was done in
2004, but even the introduction's author's contribution to the work was
written in 1991 and published elsewhere. That's a long while ago in this
particular field, unless all one is interested in is the history of
history. Please, Messrs. Publishers, consider saying things like "an
historical collection" or "an historical work on x" and mentioning dates
on earlier works in your front matter, like the permissions you would
surely need for some of your reprints -- hey, I've never seen
permissions in these books either....I never ran across this in America.
Could it possibly be connected to some very different idea in India,
which has had such terrible problems with international piracy stuff?
The no-permission-mentioned is highly suspicious to me.
Sorry I'm sounding like such a dreadful curmudgeon these days! So many
secondary sources do this to me! But others make me very happy...
PS -- I asked a friend of mine who worked for Oxford University Press in
New York, and he pointed out a VERY important point -- how do I know
Oxford India books I'm getting aren't pirated? I don't even look at
obviously pirated books being sold on city streets, but still....That
would explain a lot of the breathtaking typographical problems too. Some
Oxford India books I've bought -- AT A DIFFERENT STORE than these with
problems (Landmark is the good store) -- are fabulous, such as the very
talented Patrick and Suman Olivelle's translations of Manu and of major
Dharmasutras. Though I do notice they typeset their own books!!
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India
