Your kind invitation to deliver this Michael Sprinker Memorial Lecture is a great honour for me. Michael was one of my three closest friends outside the subcontinent. So, I do this not with pleasure but in sorrow, and yet with…
Satyabrata Rai Chowdhury, Leftism in India: 1917-1947, Macmillan, New Delhi, 2007, pp.254; Rs. 375. Priyam Goswami, The History of Assam : From Yandabo to Partition, 1826-1947, Orient Blackswan, New Delhi, 2012, pp. 300; Rs. 195.
The very first issue of Social Scientist had appeared in August 1972. The journal therefore is about to complete forty years of existence. This is no mean achievement, especially in our country where institutions typically have a short span of…
Regions such as Orissa, like other cultural regions, were constituted by the conjunction of a multiplicity of historical forces over time. The gradual coming together of localities and sub-regions at different stages of cultural attainment, the consequent overlaps and intersections,…
Some of India’s most significant early reflections on the minority predicament within a democracy came from B.R. Ambedkar, leader of what were called the ‘untouchable’ castes within Hinduism. Ambedkar faced a situation in which the ritually ostracised communities outside the…
The life and works of Ramkinker Baij narrate another dimension of the story of the history of modernism in India. It is due to the fact that his works have pursued a deliberate revolt against the antinomies of mainstream/national modernism.…
In the analysis of Indian culture pativrata dharma has occupied pride of place. The greatness of Indian culture has often been measured on the touch-stone of its virtuous women. Interestingly, it \ was the early European Indolo-gists who started this…
Pranab Bardhan, Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2010, pp. 172, $25.95 / £17.95 Hardwari Lal, Understanding Politics and Society: 1910–1997, edited by Prem Chowdhary, Manak Publications, New Delhi,…
This issue of Social Scientist focuses on and draws upon the world of histori- cal research. As has been our constant endeavour, we seek to assemble a range of articles authored by some of India’s leading historians, along with those…
The celebrated American novelist, Mark Twain, had recounted an incident he had witnessed during his tour of Europe in 1892. He was invited to a banquet at the University of Berlin. When everyone was seated Mark Twain saw ‘the end…