In the early twentieth century, history became a matter of public passion in Bengal. Placed in the well-developed public sphere of Bengal that became the locus of all political and intellectual activities, history transformed into a ‘major site through which,…
The ‘medical needs’ of India were championed by the Association of Medical Women in India (AMWI) at the beginning of the twentieth century, twenty years after the establishment of the Dufferin Fund. This Association, representing the professional interests of British…
Anand Zachariah, R. Srivatsan and Susie Tharu, eds, Towards a Critical Medical Practice: Reflections on the Dilemmas of Medical Culture Today, Orient BlackSwan, Hyderabad, 2010, 392 pages, Rs 525. Charles K. Ebinger, Energy and Security in South Asia, South Asia…
This issue of Social Scientist focuses on the diversities associated with historical research. Urmita Ray’s ‘Subsistence Crises in Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Bihar’ explores the subsistence crisis that affected the agrarian economy of eastern India during this transitional…
Subsistence crises in the late eighteenth-century agrarian economy of eastern India have commonly been interpreted in terms of a breakdown of the traditional system of subsistence security. The argument put forward by Paul Greenough, for example, regards famine as a…
When Indian nationalism gathered momentum during the early half of the twentieth century, some of her finest historians who often played pioneering roles in their respective fields responded by launching their quest for the great Indian heritage. Political history played…
Pawan Varma in his work on the Indian middle class, while citing Nehru’s famous ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech in English, claims that the creation of a native elite in its own image was the most spectacular and enduring achievement of…
From the mid-1930s the question of ‘realism’ in art and literature was a serious issue in India. Change in the patron–client relations, especially in the field of visual art, and change in the social position of the creators of art…
A new policy for the organisation of investments in science, technology and innovation (STI) activities was announced by the Prime Minister of India at the Indian Science Congress held in Kolkata during 3–7 January 2013. Under the new policy (hereinafter…
With the passing away of Comrade P. Govinda Pillai (1926–2013), we have lost one of the leading Marxist intellectuals of India, who made his mark in a wide variety of intellectual fields and disciplines from Marxist aesthetics to the history…