2014

TRIBUTES Two of his students offer their tributes to the distinguished historian, Tapan Raychaudhuri.
by Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Tapan Raychaudhuri died peacefully in Oxford on the night of Wednesday, November 26. He was born in 1926 in Barisal in what is now Bangladesh. He will be mourned across the globe by his many students, his admirers and by all those who enjoyed his and his wife Hashi’s outstanding hospitality and affection. The word ’affection’ is used advisedly, since the (…)

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, has condoled the passing away of leading historian, Prof Tapan Raychaudhuri. In a condolence message to his wife, Pratima Raychaudhuri, he said:
“I am extremely saddened to learn about the passing away of Prof Tapan Raychaudhuri.
“Prof Raychaudhuri was one of India’s foremost economic and social historians, well known for his penetrating mind and deep insight into British Indian history, India’s economic history and the history of Bengal. For (…)

by Shahid Amin
Born into a landed family in present-day Bangladesh, Tapan Raychauduri, one of the top historians of modern South Asia, succumbed to a second cerebral stroke in Oxford, the English University town where he was a Professor of Indian History and Civilisation and Emeritus Fellow, St. Antony’s College.
Trained under Sir Jadunath Sarkar, the founder of modern historiography in India, Raychaudhuri earned his laurels early. At 25 he had already pocketed a D.Phil degree from (…)

by Shruti Sharma
The recent controversy of Shankracharya versus Shirdi Sai Baba has led to various actions and reactions. The controversy has been that the Dwarka Shankaracharya, Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, claimed that Sai Baba of Shirdi is not a Hindu God. He is not mentioned in the shastras and Vedas and Hindus must not worship him. He described the Sai Baba as a Muslim ascetic. This led to protests by the Sai Baba believers. There has been the burning of the effigy of (…)

TRIBUTE
Arun Roy Choudhury, veteran journalist and social activist, who passed away at 87 in Mumbai on November 24 after prolonged illness, would be remembered by friends and well-wishers for the good that he thought of and the good turns he did for them. That is saying a lot about a man in present times.
Younger people, among them journalists N. R. Mohanty, Kay Benedict, Ravi Dayal and this writer, who addressed him as Arunda, or just Dada, have numerous stories to relate about his (…)

BOOK REVIEW
The Search for Netaji: New Findings by Purabi Roy; Purple Peacock Books and Arts Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata; Rs 430.00.
One enquiry committee and two commissions have so far probed the reported death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at the Taihoku airport in Formosa (Taipei) on August 18, 1945, appointed at different times by three Indian governments. Their reports were placed in Parliament in 1956, 1974 and 2006, and yet nobody seems to be sure of how the intrepid Indian actually died. (…)

EDITORIAL
The 18th SAARC Summit concluded in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, on a positive note today. Its most significant outcome was that of the three agreements on rail, motor vehicles and power grid connectivity which Pakistan was blocking till date, the last one—that is, the energy pact—has been cleared: finally Islamabad has relented and allowed it to materialise.
This concrete achievement apart, the 18th SAARC Summit was marked by some other positive features. Mention must (…)

by Dev Pathak
Beneath the shadow of the grand announcement of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, there is a hotbed of questions. They deserve due deliberation in public forums, political as well as apolitical. For, the Abhiyan’s connection with Gandhi shakes awake some of the old debates and some new ones. The questions seeking for public deliberation are three-fold and interspersed with critical observations.
Firstly, what is the (…)

by Ranbir Singh
The 2014 Assembly elections in Haryana have brought about a paradigm shift in the politics of the State. The BJP, which had won only four seats in a House of 90 in the 2005 elections, has been able to enhance its strength to 47 on the basis of a 24.16 per cent increase in its vote-share.
This unprecedented success of the party has to be ascribed to the following factors. Firstly, the formation of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre was bound to impact Haryana which (…)

There was great expectation that the majestuc Coburg Palace Hotel in Vienna would witness the signing of an epoch-making agreement heralding dramatic changes in international relations, especially in West Asia. But unfortu-nately that did not happen.
The negotiations between P5+1—the USA, UK, Russia, China, France, Germany—on one side and Iran on the other on Iran’s nuclear programme did not collapse, but failed to make a comprehensive agreement at Vienna by November 24, the deadline set (…)