Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

Dowry and its implications on women have perhaps been most discussed and debated when it comes to womens issues in India, so much so that the word dowry itself is almost synonymous with womens oppression.

Theology as a systematic study of religion is an old enterprise. It originated in the West to study the Bible in a rational and methodical way of interpreting the sacred text(s).

Globalization and its effects are current pervasive themes. In many ways India is very much in the grip of the globalization trend which has undoubtedly impacted certain segments of the political, cultural, economic, and religious life of India.

This is Vikram Chand;s second edited ;;book on the theme. In 2006, he;;;brought out Reinventing Public Service Delivery in India: Selected Case Studies (Sage) which this observer had the occasion to review then. As Senior Public Sector Management Specialist at the World Bank New Delhi office, Chand has had the opportunity to continu-ously and systematically observe and analyse government initiatives in various parts of the country.

Gujarat has been at the centre of media attention since March 2002 when a communal frenzy of the worst nature affected the state creating raw tensions between various groups. But Gujarat happens to be one of the fastest growing states of the Indian Union and is characterized by a long-term process of capitalist development, both in agriculture and industry.

A strong connection between famine and ethnic politics has been brought out by a number of scholars in the context of North East India. The economic backwardness of the region has been widely discussed in the light of contemporary ethnic political process.

This book is an ambitious attempt to analyse the agricultural growth miracle of Gujarat. The editors point out in the preface that this is really no miracle but .

A collection of studies and perspectives, this report is an attempt to identify the generic processes and locate the developmental philosophy that is causing increasing marginalization of various sections of the population in India.

The essays in the volume written over a period of about two decades reflect Basus rare gift for identifying interesting problems at the borders of economics, politics, sociology and philosophy, setting them up within parsimonious frameworks and then drawing sharp and incisive observations,

Andre Bteille is a prolific writer who has addressed questions of inequality, power, social class, the family, the disciplines of sociology and social anthro-pology, and a whole range of issues, too vast to enumerate here.