By Geeta Menon, Namita Ranganathan and Sanjeev Rai

The book has been written taking this as the backdrop. The authors pose some questions in light of the need for understanding the initiatives taken and the strategies used in a nuanced and detailed manner. Some of these questions pertain to: what were the principles and assumptions that guided them? How was social change mediated? What contextual strategies were devised for the continuity and safety of girls’ education? And how was gender identity reconstructed?


Reviewed by: Alka Behari
By Geeta Kapur

Kapur might carp at my introduction for, as she tells Saloni Mathur, ‘I describe myself quite simply as critic and curator. “Art historian” is not a correct academic description for me, and I am not comfortable with the self-attribution of a theorist. Although the term “critic” seems now reduced to the blogger or the newspaper columnist, in the early 1960s, when I was a graduate student in New York, it was starkly different.


Reviewed by: Kishore Singh
By Rachna Singh

Photography happened rather late in Rai’s life. He had started as a qualified engineer and had dabbled in a couple of government jobs, but his restless mind was in search of something else. He constantly recalls his mother’s saying in Punjabi which means, ‘If we do not work dedicatedly, we will not achieve the heights of heaven.’ Encouragement by his elder brother S Paul who was an established photojournalist and the urge to do something different brought about the change Raghu Rai was looking for.


Reviewed by: Sohail Akbar
Edited by Kanika Singh

Documenting their experiences of running the Academic Bridge Programme at Ashoka University, Neerav Dwivedi and Jyotirmoy Talukdar deliberate upon creating a democratic space in a multilingual classroom. They dwell on everyday pedagogic processes and convert them to potential practices to challenge hierarchies. A simple act of asking a question in class is often marked with a strain of apology.


Reviewed by: Toolika Wadhwa
By Gijubhai Badheka.

A few key observations of the methods that stood out for me are the unconventional ways to engage students in the classroom. Laxmirambhai starts with a story instead of teaching straight from the syllabus. Games can break the monotony of a classroom, making everyone participate. With some rules, playing games using some concepts can lead to real education. ‘Games are a form of true education,’ says Gijubhai.


Reviewed by: Ambika Aiyadurai Translated from the original Gujarati by Mamata Pandya