Volume V No. 6 – MAY/JUNE 1981

Surat was perhaps ~he most active and prosperous port in seventeenth­ century India…

Village studies as they have been traditionally understood…

‘Recosts et Contes Popularies dli Berry’ is a charming collection of popular folk tales, legends, patriotic and sentimental songs and even local dances. Genevieve Debais and Michel Valiere have put on record some of the traditions and cus­toms of a region which is in the heart of central France.

All translations cut both ways. While, on the one hand, they rarely cap­ture the nuances or flavour inherent in the original or even measure up to the fervour enshrined in it, they do serve in reaching out to a wider audience. This, latter aspect is especially and signifi­cantly heightened when the original in question is starkly socio-political in its content and has, as one of its primary aims, the creation of a widespread awareness of an unjust socio-economic and political system and its destruction.

In September 1968, the need for an Introduction to his collection of essays and reviews persuaded David McCut­chion to examine the state of the critic­ism of Indian writing in English. His assessment was characteristically res­trained but exacting: ‘the critical tradi­tion in India is weak,’, ‘Lack of critical, especially self-critical discrimination is certainly a feature of this situation’, ‘on the one hand it (takes) the form of dis­missive contempt.

Autobiographical notes written by powerful men are usually interesting and thought provoking. One looked forward to this book by yet another not­able in the circle, Prakash Tandon. How­ever, one nibble at the book produces the feel of a well designed soap, launched into the market with the correct adver­tising line at just the right pitch.

The synaesthetic response to language in Ulysses is unparalleled. Generally meaning is created through language, but in Joyce language is the meaning. It is entirely for this reason that those unfamiliar with the processes whereby language is turned upside down to create meaning find it difficult to read Ulysses, The processes by which language itself becomes meaning must be explored.

What are the long-term implications of protectionism, as practised today in the developed market economies? Many economists argue that tariff and non­tariff barriers to trade are harmful not only for the countries which face these barriers but also for the countries which impose them.

It is always interesting to meet a travel­ler returned from a remote and exotic land; it is especially so when he is a well-­informed historian. But when that historian happens to be one of the most brilliant of his profession

The increasing interest of historians in re-defining the nature and aspects of early British commercial interaction with the Indian sub-continent has found expression in a number of important publications. Among these the works of Holden Furber

Morton Klass’s book is perhaps the most important analysis of the Indian caste system to come out of western scholarship in the last thirty years. It comes at an opportune time – when the economic and social crisis of Indian society has reached the point where caste divisions among the labouring masses have become a major weapon of the ruling classes and ‘atrocities against Harijans’ have leaped into the front pages of all daily papers.

The RSS was a natural child of the twenties. Like any organization, it reflec­ted the ambitions and aspirations of a section of Hindu society of that time and was set up to meet a specific historical need. Since then it has grown and the growth has brought many alterations in its original character.