In his preface K.S. Duggal feels that the short story is a product of the twentieth century. It was born during the first World War, and ‘the subsequent period of distrust and dislocation of accepted norms of daily life fostered it.’ Rather a negative way of looking at it—surely there were other…
1978
To the tell-me-a-story request from her grandchild, grandmother Rama Rau responded with tales of her own childhood and little Asha listened with wonder—’… from her expression I might have been describing a totally foreign land in a remote period of history’. From the girl’s insistence that her…
This is a source-book for those who wish to obtain specialized information regarding the material culture of Akbar’s times. It is not a book that one expects to complete at one reading, but is more in the nature of a reference book, aiding such of us as would wish to verify whether, for example, a kettle-drum of a particular type was known in Akbar’s days or if flutes of a specific variety were then in vogue…
Till the late sixties students of Indian elections and party system used to complain of the dearth of relevant and reliable data needed for undertaking systematic empirical studies in these two areas. The position has changed since then substantially, thanks largely to the efforts of some scholars to develop…
With the increasing realization of the role of Multinational corporation as the coupling mechanism in the structural linkage between the ‘centre’ of the Imperialist system with its ‘periphery’ the literature on the working of Multinationals in the Developing world continues to grow. By now, in purely quantitative terms…
In 1921 when Professor Vakil headed the Bombay School of Economics and Sociology most of the present generation of Indian economists (even senior ones) were unborn. Like John Matthai he was one of the earliest Indian products of the London School of Economics in its formative years…
Most seminars based on a broad theme shed some light and create some obscurity. This one is no exception. Planned as an open-ended discussion, it studies movements of protest and reform in India over the centuries, directed against things as disparate as ‘slavery, untouchability and colonialism’ (in the words of a participant)…
When a few months ago I had the chance to come across the poetry of Margaret Chatterjee (The Sandalwood Tree) I was so deeply impressed, not only by her talent and skill as a poetess but also by her grasp of the various contemporary social and ageless philosophical problems reflected in her verses, that I made a point to meet her in person and find out more about her…
This extremely well-produced book is one of the most thorough and comprehensive studies yet published on the politics of the Indian Ocean, both in terms of littoral issues and the use of the sea itself.Although one may disagree with some of Dr. Singh’s arguments about the various powers as they jostle for influence in the area (if one can yet call the Indian Ocean an ‘area’) his book is a valuable aid to further analysis…
Monika Verma is at least prolific, if these two books, published within a year of each other and averaging over twenty-five poems are any indication. Some of the other poets considered here are even more so. That this is of no great importance should be evident…
The reviewer doubly regrets his inordinate delay in preparing this note. For one thing, both books are to be welcomed as examples of an increasing flow of responsible, illuminating, especially region-specific studies coming now from a broadening array of India’s applied social science institutions. This fanning out of good work among…
It is sad but true that three-quarters into the twentieth century and over fifty years after the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, we still have no term but ‘modern’ to describe the kind of literature associated, above all, with these two writers…
Clearly, abstract research must continue irrespective of how little of it is applied in practice. The Muslim way of life, not necessarily Islamic as at least two of the above publications amply prove, has also been subjected to considerable theological interpretation and sociological research, but the findings have probably been…
Is it possible for a scholar to specialize in two countries as dissimilar as India and Israel? Perhaps a journalist might achieve fame by writing on many separate countries but it is rare for area specialists to stray from their own country or region. The authors of 0 Jerusalem and Freedom at Midnight exemplify journalists whose popular political histories…
If nothing satisfies a man so much as the esteem of one’s friends and colleagues, then Gorwala must indeed be a very happy person; the articles brought together in this volume felicitating him on his 75th birthday eloquently express…
Since the early 50s, coinciding with the setting up of the ‘national’ governments in many of the Third World countries, and perhaps consequent to it, several thousand intensive surveys have been made of single villages in those countries. This concern of academics in the ‘developing’ nations with rural realities…
The advent of the Janata Party was not foreseen when Bepin Behari published his book, but the Party’s emphasis since it came to power on what can be identified as a Gandhian approach to the problem of rural poverty in India makes the book topical. He quotes Gandhi: ‘I would favour the use…
Excesses of the Emergency is a much¬ battered cliche, but a post-Emergency excess—in both senses of the word—for which no Shah Commission is possible is the flood of books on it. These have come in all shapes and sizes and they do not please, as Keats said poetry should, ‘by a fine excess’…
Oscar Wilde said of Hall Caine that the latter always wrote at the top of his voice. This is a charge which can never be made against K.P.S. Menon. He does not create any problems of decibel tolerance to his readers. His own style of writing is perfectly modulated, controlled and decorous…
No city in India commands a greater mystique than Calcutta. No city except Varanasi has so doggedly clung to its ‘character’ as has the city of Calcutta. It fascinates as well as horrifies visitors from abroad; it inspires hatred as well as love. Till today it is man’s most unplanned metropolis; it has more people…