The country has lost two outstanding historians in the past few weeks. The first to go was Mushirul Hasan, a scholar par excellence of modern India, a fearless author and a great institution-builder who as the Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia…
There is a great and natural tendency to think that Hind Swaraj represents the reactionary Gandhi who opposed modernity, a position from which he slowly back-pedaled over the next few decades, as he allowed the experience of the long anti-colonial…
Ritual remembrance has its uses. It is, therefore, not inconsequnetial that Gandhi should at least continue to be routinely remebered on the day he was born and the day he was killed. Besides, our avidness for celebrations and his exceptionally…
I should clarify at the outset that I am neither a Gandhi scholar nor a Gandhian. I am in no position to say anything on how Gandhi’s thinking on unemployment evolved, or its complexities. My reason for talking at all…
On 23 November 1925, after two days of agony M. K. Gandhi decided to go on a fast for seven days. There was a ‘moral lapse’ among the young boys and some girls at the Satyagraha Ashram at Sabarmati. This…
History and Class Consciousness – Lukacs’ interpretation of Marx, together with the reification chapter of the book – still commands a certain authority. But the book’s political texts, which Lukács thought originated from the same source as the book’s philosophical…
I must have been no more than four years old. A hired Omni Van used to ferry all the neighbourhood kids to our preparatory school. One day, the driver of the Van relayed to my mother - either bemused or…
Samir Amin who passed away recently was an outstanding Marxist thinker of our time. An economist by training, he did not confine himself to armchair theorising; he was deeply and passionately engaged till his last breath in praxis for changing…
It is a good way to start with Samir Amin’s family background to understand his development as a fiercely committed Marxist who all his life tried to change the world. All the disappointments and defeats of the cause he espoused…
Masculinity seems to be a fairly recent historical product. It is no longer a silent turf in gender studies but because of its late appearance in the world of social sciences, especially within Indian context, the discipline has still to…