Be careful with Indian-published books

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