Book Review

Book
Book Review

The Empathetic Artist who asked us to Reflect and Question

‘Safdar Hashmi, the theatre personality who was murdered in January 1989, was not just interested in making politically important art. He was as interested in professionalising theatre and making it…
▶21-Oct-2024
T.M. Krishna
Book
Book Review

Case for a More Inclusive Social System

In his new book, Joseph Stiglitz argues that neoliberalism has focused too much on limiting government restrictions (negative freedoms) while neglecting government support (positive freedoms). This…
▶04-Oct-2024
Arjun Jayadev
Book
Book Review

Climate Crisis: Nuclear Power Is Not the Way Out

That nuclear power is a good solution to combating climate change is a claim that is being increasingly sold across the world. This does not bear scrutiny. The expansion of nuclear power is neither…
▶27-Sep-2024
Nagraj Adve
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Book Review

Fabricating Homeland Security in India

In the wake of 26/11, Indian officials were broadly convinced that the security failure required resort to Israel’s special expertise. A new book evaluates the attempted partnership between the two…
▶23-Sep-2024
Achin Vanaik

Fluidity and Flow of Water

‘If water is ‘unruly’, to what extent does it need to be ruled, if at all? What are the ecological and human costs of taming it to an extent that we either scuffle it, or reserve the advantages of…
▶17-Aug-2024
Sreedeep Bhattacharya
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Book Review

Governance without Democracy? ‘Techno-populism’ and Modi’s India

Policy consultants have become a critical component of a strategy of governance in India, which is democratic in form but not in content.
▶05-Aug-2024
Subrata K. Mitra
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Book Review

More Practical than Principled

This comprehensive road-map for better governance focuses more on practical solutions than on the underlying principles that guide government actions and citizen relationships. But can solutions be “…
▶31-Jul-2024
Andaleeb Rahman
Book
Book Review

Inhabiting Drawings, Drawing Inhabitations

‘Gandhi’s Places’ introduces us to the places Gandhi is associated with, the built environments he inhabited & engendered. This review looks at the manner of this introduction, the choices made…
▶22-Jul-2024
Shubhra Raje
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Book Review

The Revival of Buddhism

Reports of the death of Buddhism in precolonial India were greatly exaggerated. The many Buddhisms promoted by ideologies across the spectrum in modern times came to distinctively shape South Asia.
▶18-Jul-2024
Chandrabhan P. Yadav
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Book Review

Floating in an Ocean of Laws

Indians displaced across South and Southeast Asia between the 1940s and the 1960s used the law to make claims of the new states emerging from the end of colonialism.
▶17-Jun-2024
Tarangini Sriraman