Redeeming Higher Education is a collection of 15 essays written during the period 1972 to 1985. Four essays were published in the ‘seventies and the rest were written in the eighties. These are grouped into four sections: 1. The Baby-sitting Syndrome; 2. Towards Restructuring; 3.On Teachers and Teaching; and 4. In conclusion. In his introduction Amrik Singh provides a connecting link between the various readings.
This comprehensive and eru¬dite study on peace, stressing the imperative need for pre-serving it in a turbulent world, is of great relevance today in the context of the menacing nuclear arms race, the immi¬nent possibility of extending nuclear weapons deployment to space and the increasing number, frequency and inten¬sity of ‘local wars’.
Observing the failure of anti-participatory development strategies of the last three decades and realizing the increasing trend of worldwide poverty, the author of the book suggests and creates arguments for the adoption of people-based participatory development in the Third World. He fervently believes that the construction of a just world is possible if people are empowered.
Bonded labour is one of the forms of urs freed labour exist¬ing predominantly in rural India. It is one of the most inhuman forms of social stig¬mas rooted in the socio-economic structure of our country. Poverty and unemp¬loyment are the chief driving forces behind bondage. In addition to this, the Hindu caste hierarchy plays an important role in preserving this evil as low-paid and menial jobs cannot be done by higher castes. Hence, it is pre¬valent since many centuries.
This book is important—not as a study of the American police—as for projecting the bias inherent in police-acade¬mic collaboration. Public criticism of police harassment of minorities and dissidents, the failure to con¬trol rising crime, in countered by a better appreciation of police work through research programmes into police performance.
The book under review forms the substance of a seminar held in 1979. It was jointly organized by National Insti¬tute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi and International Insti¬tute of Educational Planning, Paris. The two papers, ‘Edu¬cational Disparities, World Politics and the New Inter¬national Economic Order’ by Johann Galtung and ‘Inequal¬ities in Education and In¬equalities in Employment’ by Louis Emmerij were among the background papers circu¬lated at the seminar. The seminar focussed on three main themes: Role of edu¬cation in: a) Reduction of in-equalities in income and wealth; b) Increase in emp¬loyment; and c) Development of rural area.