Obituary: Ranajit Guha (1923–2023)
The closest I came to meeting Ranajit Guha was when I was ICCR Guest Professor at the University of Vienna in 2014–15. A French student in my class informed me that Guha was settled in Vienna but, to my great…
Obituary: Vooix Endeuillé – Hommage Franson Manjali (1955–2023)
It is to the great loss for the intellectual community of the world that Professor Franson Manjali (born 10 November 1955) – whom many of us lovingly call simply by his first name ‘Franson’ as he himself loved to\ be…
Obituary: Imtiaz Ahmad (1940–2023) – Life and Contributions
Professor Imitiaz Ahmad passed away on 19 June 2023 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, where he was admitted for quite some time owing to age-related illness. The news of Imtiaz Sahib’s passing away was…
Book Reviews
Sukumar Muralidharan, The Nation and Its Citizens: Tales of Bondage and Belonging, New Delhi: Rupa, 2022, 280 pages, Rs 395. The intellectual task that Sukumar Muralidharan in The Nation and its Citizens takes upon himself is a challenging, ambitious and…
Editorial Note, Mar-Apr, 2023
More than a year since the start of war in Ukraine, and with that war still ongoing, the lead article in this issue of Social Scientist by Anuradha Chenoy takes a step back to assess what triggered and sustains this…
The Politics of Global Hegemony and the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
The politics of global hegemony are being challenged for the first time after five centuries. The assertion and preservation of a unipolar world that mark the politics of dominance backed by the collective West are on the decline. The challenge…
Book Review
Mumtaz Alam, Health, Medicine and the Encounter of Cultures in India, New Delhi: Primus Books, 2022, xiv+246 pages, Rs 1050. In the last few decades there has been a plethora of work exploring the history of medicine in India. However,…
Obituary : Suneet Chopra (24 December 1941–4 April 2023) – Intellectual, Writer, Art Critic and Communist Activist
Suneet Chopra, intellectual, writer, art critic and communist activist, who passed away on 4 April 2023, was a rare human being who possessed several outstanding qualities. One was his complete and unflagging dedication to the revolutionary cause. There are usually…
Gendering Praise and Censure of Authority in Pre-modern Indic Tradition
In this essay I have set out to examine one of the most enduring themes of literature, which is praise and censure of the ruling authority. In a way, this ability of humans to judge their superiors pre-dates literature. As…
Community Engagement in Covid Response: Poverty of a Health System Laid Bare
It is more than three years since India began its Covid saga. As we breathe lighter after at least three waves that punched heavily on our people and fumes are periodically visible not very far away, we are in a…