Publications

The Foundation has published and supported several publications. These include:

• » J.M.W. TURNER: A MARINE MASTER IN A MODERNISING WORLD

  The 19th Vasant J. Sheth Memorial Lecture was delivered by David Blayney Brown, Manton Curator of British Art, Tate Britain. He received his B.A. and PhD. from Leicester University, and began his career at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University. e as written and lectured widely on British art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and curated or co-curated many exhibitions, most recently Late Turner: Painting Set Free shown in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto, and Artist nd mpire: Facing Britain's Global Past shownN in London and Singapore. A specialist in the art of Turner and the Romantic period in Britain and Europe, he is editor and lead contributor to Tate's online catalogue Sketchbooks Drawings and Watercolours of .M.W. Turner and co-founded and convened Tate's research centre for British Romantic Art. He is currently preparing an exhibition on Turner and the Modern World. His books include Romanticism in the Phaidon Art & Ideas series.

  

• » INDIA’S SACRED RIVERS: LIFELINES OF CULTURES

  The 18th Vasant J. Sheth Memorial Lecture was delivered by Diana L. Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University. She received her B.A. from Smith College, her M.A. from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University. Her books on India include Banaras, City of Light; Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India; and India: A Sacred Geography. As founder and director of The Pluralism Project, she turned her attention closer to home to produce On Common Ground: World Religions in America, an extensive web-based resource on Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities in America. She is also the author of A New Religious America: How A ‘Christian’ Country Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation. In 1998, she received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton for her work on religious pluralism in America.

  

• » TREADING WATER: REFLECTIONS ON AN INTEMPERATE MEDIUM

  The 16th Vasant J. Sheth Memorial Lecture was delivered by Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center, and Senior Advisor to the President and Provost at Harvard University. He is a leading cultural and literary theorist and the author of numerous works exploring postcolonial theory, cultural change and power, cosmopolitanism, human rights and various other themes. His forthcoming books will include a collection of essays on contemporary diasporic artists and another on culture, security and globalization.
  Bhabha serves on the Advisory Boards of the International Research Center ‘Interweaving Performance Cultures’ and the Graduate School of North American Studies at the Free University Berlin. He is a Trustee of the UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity and has served as Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Human Rights. He hold honorary degrees from Université Paris 8. University College London and Free University Berlin. In 2012 he was conferred the Government of India’s Padma Bhushan Presidential Award in the field of literature and education.

  

• » COLOURFUL COSMOPOLITANISMS: BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND THE INDIAN OCEAN

  The 15th Vasant J. Sheth memorial lecture was delivered by Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of World Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University. Sugata Bose has served as Director of Graduate Studies in History at Harvard and as the Founding Director of Harvard’s South Asia Initiative. He is the grand nephew of Subhas Chandra Bose and he is the son of the freedom fighter and great nationalist Sarat Chandra Bose. Bose was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, and the University of Cambridge where he obtained his Ph.D. His scholarship has contributed to a deeper understanding of colonial and post-colonial political economy, the relation between rural and urban domains, inter-regional arenas of travel, trade and imagination across the Indian Ocean, and Indian ethical discourses, political philosophy and economic thought.

  

• » VOYAGE FOR CLEANER ENERGY: INDIA

  The 14th Vasant J Sheth memorial lecture was delivered Sir Robert Swan, polar explorer and environmental leader. Sir Robert is the first person ever to have walked to the North and South poles. In 1992, on completion of the walks to both poles, Robert Swan was charged by world leaders at the first 'World Summit for Sustainable Development', held in Rio de Janeiro, to undertake a ten year global and local environmental mission involving industry, business and young people. In 2002, he committed to a further ten-year mission to inspire youth to become sustainable leaders and promote the use of renewable energy for a sustainable future. Towards this end, he helped to design and build the world’s first education station (The E-Base) in Antarctica and the second E-Base at Pench in Madhya Pradesh.

  

• » GREED, HUBRIS, ENVY AND FEAR THE HISTORY OF FINANCIAL BUBBLES AND CRISES

  The 13th Vasant J Sheth Memorial Lecture was delivered Liaquat Ahamed who has been awarded the 2010 History Pulitzer Prize for his first book, “Lords of Finance: The Bankers who broke the world” (Penguin Press, 2009). Mr. Ahamed who has degrees from Cambridge (UK) and Harvard in economics, has been a professional investment manager for 25 years. He has worked at the World Bank and at the NY-based partnership of Fischer Francis Trees and Watts as chief executive. The book covers the vital history of the economic collapse of the 1920s and draws unforgettable portraits of the four bankers whose personal and professional actions changed the course of the20th century.

  

• » FULL FATHOM FIVE: SHAKESPEARE'S OLD SEAS AND NEW OCEANS

  Sir / Mr. Paul Smith delivered the 12th Vasant J Sheth Memorial Lecture, on William Shakespeare’s emphatic use of the seas and oceans as motifs and metaphors in his plays. In this publication Mr. Smith formalises his lecture, using Shakespearean stanzas and dialogue along with his own impressive knowledge of the famed playwright to construct a theory about Shakespeare’s life and times. Copies of the lecture are available at the Foundation’s office for reference.

  

• » SAMUDRAMANTHAN, 2009

  Published an interactive teacher-student manual on the environment developed by Srushtidnyan. It examines conservation issues in the marine and coastal ecosystems of Mumbai. The back section has an appendix for BMC corporators, MLA's, MP's, environmental groups and NGO's to spread awareness amongst different target groups

  

• » INDIA'S RISE AND THE GLOBAL POLITICS OF ENERGY SUPPLY: CHALLENGES FOR THE NEXT DECADE, 2008

  Dr. Ricardo Soares de Oliveira - Department of Politics and International Relations, St. Peter's College, Oxford University and leading authority on the political economy of oil and gas - reviews policy options open to India. In this publication he examines India's energy sector reforms, relations with other energy producing countries and the choices India has before her.

  

• » BOMBAY BOSTON: COMMERCIAL AND CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS IN THE AGE OF SAIL, 2007

  Dr Susan Bean, curator, Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts, and a specialist in visual cultures of modern South Asia, traced the trade and cultural exchanges between the United States of America and India in the 19th century.

  In this publication, Dr. Bean explores how Bombay - its people, happenings, and sites - so distant in space and cultural practice, served as a foil for Americans to consider their own moral and intellectual character, the rise and fall of civilizations, and the place of their new republican nation in the world.

  

• » CULTURAL PRACTICES OF INDIAN SIDIS THROUGH THE PRISM OF INDIAN OCEAN MARITIME CONNECTIONS, 2006

  Eminent German anthropologist, Dr Helene Basu, traces the route of Indian Sidis to Zanzibar, bringing out similarities between them. She talks of Sufi saints venerated by all communities and known to have powers that can cure illness. The monograph is well illustrated with photographs.

  

• » THE CRISIS OF INDIA'S WILDERNESS, 2005

  Tiger conservationist, Valmik Thapar focuses on India's ecosystems and traces the natural history of tigers, highlighting the crisis faced by India's wildlife and suggests policy changes.

  

• » INSA - A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE, 2005

  A chronicle of the events that lead to the formation of Indian National Steam Shipowners' Association (INSOA) in 1929. Mr Vasant J Sheth served as it's President in 1956-57 as well as 1969-70. The book recounts the history of Indian shipping and maritime trade in the early years and traces the impact of the Industrial Revolution.

  

• » THE RELATIVE MARITIME TECHNOLOGIES AT THE TIME OF THE EUROPEAN ENCOUNTER: THE CAUSES FOR THE CONQUEST OF INDIA, 2004

  Naval historian Rear Admiral K Raja Menon (Retd) examines and compares maritime technologies employed by European and Indian seamen. The monograph includes brilliant illustrations.

  

• » SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA - THE MOUNT EVEREST OF SWIMS, 2003

  In her own words, the incredible achievements of Lynne Cox, the world's best long-distance cold water swimmer, the only human to have swum the first Antarctic mile in freezing waters wearing just a swimsuit, cap and goggles.

  

• » ETHICAL OBLIGATION OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISES, 2002

  Eminent lawyer Soli Sorabjee reviews the duties and rights of the business community in a democratic country like India. Mr Sorabjee emphatically expresses his views on corruption, human rights, economic cooperation and development and asserts the real meaning of democracy and its interpretation by modern society.

  

• » GREAT EASTERN TRADE: OTHER TIMES, OTHER PLACES (MARITIME TRADE IN THE FIRST MILLENIUM AD), 2001

  Noted historian Dr Romila Thapar's 2002 memorial lecture traces the trade of gold, wine, pepper and horses in the first millennium A.D

  

• » MARITIME LAW OF INDIA, 1998

  This book examines aspects of maritime law in trade and business.

  

• » SEA & HILL FORTS OF WESTERN INDIA: AERIAL VIEWS & HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE, 1998

  Published by the Foundation jointly with the Pirojshah Godrej Foundation, the book by Dr M S Naravane contains photographs and historical information on the coastal forts built in the medieval period.

  

• » SHIPPING MANAGEMENT: CASES AND CONCEPTS, 1997

  A collection of case studies on functional and strategic perspectives of the international shipping industry, the book aims to develop functional skills and decision-making capacity through structured thinking, decision-oriented topics and case studies.

  

• » OCEANS OMNIBUS, 1996

  Conceived by the Foundation, this book was designed and published by the Centre for Environmental Education, Ahmedabad. A voyage of discovery through the oceans of India, written especially for students and amateur naturalists, the book includes a set of posters on marine habitat and flora-fauna.

  

• » TRAMPING TO SUCCESS, 1994

  Written by Dr S N Sanklecha, the book traces the history of The Great Eastern Shipping Company Limited and its remarkable transformation into India's largest private sector shipping company.

  

• » IN HIS OWN WORDS, 1992

  A collection of Vasant J Sheth's speeches and letters to relatives and business associates. The book reveals his remarkable vision and foresight and foreshadows the success of The Great Eastern Shipping Company Limited.