A Journey from Popular Front to 'New Labour' Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) was a renowned historian of his age. He was born in the year of the Russian Revolution, witnessed Hitler’s rise to power and the spread of fascism across Europe,…
Christina Folke Ax, Neils Brimnes, Niklas Thode Jensen and Karen Oslund (Eds.), Cultivating the Colonies: Colonial States and Their Environmental Legacies, Ohio University Press, Athens, 2011, p. 337, price not mentioned. The book under review is a fresh new attempt…
The five papers – two key note presentations and three discussants’ responses – and a dedicatory poem comprising this edition of Social Scientist are drawn from a colloquium on the theme ‘The relevance of Gandhism and Marxism to our times’…
When Sashi Kumar asked me to speak along with Prabhat Patnaik on ‘Gandhi and Marx’ in a colloquium in memory of Chinta Ravindran, the prospect seemed very appealing for many reasons. I had met Ravindran many years ago in Bombay,…
It is a privilege for me to have been asked to participate in this colloquium in memory of Comrade Chintha Ravindran. He was without doubt a pioneer- ing thinker: he combined an absolute commitment to the cause of the working…
A discussant is expected to comment upon the keynote addresses and thereby extend the discussion further. I am unable to do so in the present context for more than one reason. 1 Instead, let me take a detour and present…
Many have compared and contrasted Marx and Gandhi, in terms of their ideas and worldviews about the ways and means of overcoming the present made disenchanting by capitalism, colonialism and imperialism, as well as the future made bleamy by the…
I live outside Kerala and I maintain my connection with the home state through a couple of trips every year. While in Kerala, the most pleasant expe- rience I used to look forward to was to meet Ravindran. For the…
This is a poem dedicated to Ravindran, Chinta Ravi to those who knew him, first read on the occasion of his first death anniversary at Kozhikode, Kerala. Ravi was broadly Leftist in his political views, but also had a great…
Sunil Janah was a man who was always more than his profession, while showing great commitment to his role within it. Having lived through some tumultuous times in the development of India’s polity and the state of its fledgling nationhood,…