Three Essays Collective focuses on works of scholarship, which touch upon issues of contemporary concern. They address a wide range of themes in history, politics, culture, education and media. South Asian themes predominate, but do not exhaust the scope of these publications. The endeavor is to familiarize readers with the current debates in their respective fields, while enlarging the field of enquiry.
Many of our books have interrogated sectarian conflict, religious fundamentalism and imperialism. While history remains an important theme, livelihood issues, especially those related to agricultural policies, have also found a place among our titles. We look forward to broadening our focus to include books on urban history and culture in the forthcoming years.
History
Three Essays Collective is an independent publishing house, which emerged from a desire to disseminate good and engaged scholarship in reader-friendly prices and formats to a readership beyond the circles of scholars. The first set of books were published in 2002 when we felt the need for such a project was immediate and we embarked on the venture even if we may not have been ‘fully prepared’.
For this reason, we are indebted to the authors of our first set of books: Sunil Kumar and Meera Nanda for trusting us with their first books; Radhika Desai and Vijay Prashad for responding to our proposal to create their set of three essays for us; KN Panikkar and Aijaz Ahmad for publishing with us simply to help us get started.
The warm response we received to this initiative helped us continue to bring out books, which have contributed to the current debates with regard to South Asia and beyond. The relevance of the scholarly work of our authors has made it imperative to keep almost every title in print today.
Since 2010, Three Essays Collective has also published in Hindi under an associate imprint, Nibandh, and has been very well received. Nibandh publishes an annual literary anthology, Jalsa, comprising of original works and translations in Hindi from English and other languages.
Our team
We are a small, dedicated team of voluntary members, and prefer to do most work in-house, both to maintain certain standards and give personal attention to every title and author. The copy-editing, formatting and cover design are done by the in-house team.
Asad Zaidi is the only full-time member of the team, for now. He takes care of planning, acquiring manuscripts, formatting, cover designs and also supervises the production.
Nalini Taneja and Saib Bilaval are Associate Editors.
Eric Williams, Namit Arora and Tarun Bhartiya are Advisory Editors.
Bijay is part of the office management, and Dharmender provides office support.
Eric also looks after the design and maintenance of the website
Who we publish
We look to publish well known social scientists who are passionate about bringing their work, especially related to issues of contemporary concern, to a larger readership, with the aim of bridging the gap between the worlds of academics and that of social activists and concerned citizens.
We are equally open to publishing new and first time authors who share our concerns.
Call for authors
We are looking for manuscripts focusing on culture and urban history, particularly those within the larger context of colonialism and the current phases of globalization.
Please contact us for more information.
