Oishik Sircar and Dipika Jain

This edited anthology is a timely intervention that aims to contribute to the body of scholarship on formations of desire and intimacy framed by the asymmetries of global contact and interpenetration. In order to establish the continuing potential of queer theory as a transformative body of knowledge this anthology brings together an impressive range of scholars from differing locations who analyse the links between law, culture and queer politics.


Reviewed by: Navaneetha Mokkil
Hiren Mukerjee

Hiren Mukerjee is a queer bird. I am tempted to use the phrase, with its P.G. Wodehouse flavour, because he might well have used it to describe himself. It suits his evocative, metaphorical, often devastatingly penetrating, if some­what dated, literary style. It also fits a personality who for 25 years…


Reviewed by: Ajit Bhattacharjea
B.N. Pandey

This fat book is really a rag-bag. It consists of the papers presented to a series of seminars held over two years, from 1972 to 1974, by the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. The theme was leadership, but the word was interpreted so widely as to mean almost anything…


Reviewed by: S. Gopal
Irving Louis Horowitz

Ideology and Utopia in the United States in 1956-1976 represents the writ­ings of Irving Louis Horowitz over a period of twenty years. Consequently, topics discussed in the book range from the Politics of Assassination to the Revo­lution of Falling Expectations. It is true that the author has tried to give a sem­blance of organization…


Reviewed by: Ramashray Roy
Sylvia Vatuk

Indian judges continue to believe that normative changes in law on their own can bring about social reform. In an unprecedented move a two judge bench of Justice Dave and Justice Goel in Prakash v. Phulwati (2015) suo moto ordered registration of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to examine the constitutionality of discriminatory provisions of Muslim Personal Law (MPL).


Reviewed by: Faizan Mustafa
K.V. Sundaram

This is a book by a professional as opposed to an armchair planner. The title of the book is suggestive, as is the beginning. ‘Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less travelled by’, (Frost), raising expectations that fresh insights would be provided regarding the future course of regional as also urban planning in India…


Reviewed by: T.C.A. Ranganathan