It is sixteen years ago that I’ had the opportunity to be introduced to George Sioris’ interest in the comparative study of Japanese and Greek Mythology, when he presented his paper, ‘Two Char¬acteristic Similarities in Japanese and Greek Mythology, Amaterasu and the Cave, Persepone and the Underworld—Demeter’ at the International Conference on Japanese Studies held in Kyoto, Japan in November 1972.
Of late, studies on socio-economic history of the peninsular India, especially of the regions that were under the Colas and later under the Vijayanagara rulers have received a great fillip with the adoption of new conceptual frameworks that were not employed by scholars till recently. Attempts made by K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, Appadorai, B.A. Saletore, T.V. Mahalingam, Kenneth R. Hall and a few others to throw light on the socio-economic aspects of peninsular India during the medieval period have been re-examined by foreign scholars like Burton Stein and Naboru Karashima.
The November 1987 Kathmandu Summit ‘ of the leaders of the SAARC countries seems to have accepted the principle that efforts of these countries to operationalize ‘regional cooperation can only be helped – by including the economic dimensions of regional cooperation at some future date in the official SAARC action plan.
Many serious writings in Chinese journals during the last two years have started characterizing the emerging poli¬tical economy in China as ‘Market Socialism’. This new formulation refers to a system where there is planned econo¬mic development but it is at the same time responsive to the market; the princi¬ple of distribution is ‘each according to his work’, but interpreted as adequately giving material incentives for higher labour productivity; and while public ownership remains predominant, diverse forms including cooperative, individual and joint forms of ownership would be promoted.
Earlier, texts were illustrated by pictures; today photographs are more often supple-mented by texts. This book is a collection of very beautiful photographs of the better-known monuments of Delhi, by a well-known photographer. It is not a guide-book, for it lacks the professional¬ism of one—no map, no index, no chronological chart (which is necessary in a book written entirely in terms of the various rules of Delhi), no bibliography.
The importance of the education of the handicapped is now universally recognized. All over the world special education is increasingly demanding and getting attention. In the developed countries interest in special education is certainly not new, issues involved in special education have been discussed, debated and acted upon since the last century.