Book Reviews
Monika Saxena, Women and the Puranic Tradition in India, Routledge, Delhi, 2019, 306 pages, Rs 1495 Shalin Jain, Identity, Community and State: The Jains under the Mughals, Primus, Delhi, 2017, pages 402 pages, Rs 1095.
Editorial Note, Sep-Oct, 2020
As lead article in this issue we publish the text of Irfan Habib’s illuminating lecture to the India Diaspora Washington D.C. Metro on ‘Interpreting Indian History’. Habib starts by clarifying that the historical method requires the historian to begin with…
Interpreting Indian History
I am very grateful to Raziuddin Sahib who has given me the opportunity to speak on ‘Interpreting Indian History’, and to all those colleagues and friends who have decided to spare their precious time in order to listen to what…
Socialist Perspectives on Economic Change in Colonial India: M.N. Roy and Rajni Palme Dutt
Global expansion of western countries can be divided into pre-capitalist and capitalist epochs. The former marked the import of goods and export of bullion in order to purchase goods for the growing demand in the home market, whereas the latter…
Economic Liberalisation and Fertiliser Policies in India
Use of chemical fertilisers has been key to agricultural growth in India since the 1970s. Widespread adoption of chemical fertilisers along with other modern inputs became possible because of specific policies that were introduced in the wake of the Green…
Presence of the Absent: The Case of Punjab Tribes
When we came amongst them (the Andamanese) and admitted the air of the outside world, with consequent changes, to suit our necessities, not theirs, they lost their vitality, which was wholly dependent on being untouched . . . the end…
India’s Triple Crises: Is There a Way Out?
India is in a state of deep turmoil. There was an economic slowdown even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country. To deal with the pandemic, the Modi government decided to lock down the economy for close to three months,…
Public R&D and the Patent System
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 states: ‘for accelerated agricultural development in the country, it is necessary to protect plant breeders’ rights to stimulate investment for research and development, both in the public and private sector,…
Book Review : A Masterpiece for This Fractious Day
Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, Representing the Other? Sanskrit Sources and theMuslims, Eighth to Fourteenth Century, Delhi: Primus Books, 2017. A brilliant essay in historiography, Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya’s Representing the Other? Sanskrit Sources and the Muslims, Eighth to Fourteenth Century is a bitter pill…
Editorial Note, Jul-Aug, 2020
We had meant to bring out this special number on Kashmir earlier, but Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdown delayed its appearance to coincide with the first anniversary of the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, and…