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.
Confronted with a host of· books on Afghanistan the overwhelmed reader needs to have good reason not to consign to unread oblivion yet another work on the subject. What distinguishes this selection of essays is their analytical presentation of an Indian perspective on the Afghan crisis and its implications for the region and the international system.
Writer Anita Desai in her foreword to India: A Traveller’s Literary Companion declares the short-story collection to be ‘curious’, ‘original’ and, ‘audacious’. In the initial impression the book does seem curious. And, in a cynical moment, the collection even appears contrived. Something that may compel the reader…
Poems Come Home is an uncommon piece of collaborative labour. Subtle in its nuances, sensitive in its portrayal, rhythmic in its power and stark in its simplicity, this bilingual book has poems originally written in English by the poet-critic Sukrita Paul Kumar, who uses the pen name ‘Sukrita’. These have been translated into Hindustani by the famous lyricist Gulzar…
The industrial structure of cities, immigration and capital investments are most likely to be highly correlated. But, establishing a cause and effect relationship between variables like in-migration and employment would be as difficult as proving whether the egg comes first or the hen.
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.