2024

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
Review by Lukas Ley
__0__ The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java by Adam Bobbette
Duke University Press 2023. 248 pp. (e-book), ISBN 978-1-4780-2708-9 Paper ISBN: 978-1-4780-2505-4 Cloth ISBN: 978-1-4780-2007-3
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Dandy Volcanoes
The Pulse of the Earth by Adam Bobette invites readers to get up close to the formation of the earth. This book is about active volcanoes in Indonesia, whose craters animate both geological (…)

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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What is Sexual Capital?
by Dana Kaplan and Eva Illouz
Polity Press, Cambridge 2022. 140 pp., pb ISBN 9781509552320
Reviewed by Emily Laurent-Monaghan
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Beginning with a note of irony, What is Sexual Capital? poses a seemingly straightforward question: ’what is sexual capital?’ The authors Dana Kaplan and Eva Illouz begin by taking stock of recent sociological efforts to pursue the task of doing sociology more joyfully, to (…)

* The Economic Case for Same-Sex Marriage Recognition in India | Disha
* Reading the Biography of an Underworld Don | Arup Kumar Sen
* Growth, Employment & Youth: Policy Implications | S N Tripathy
* Equality of What? | Amartya Sen

Letter to the readers, Mainstream, April 6, 2024
Not long ago Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a public event that there is much too much insistence on rights and not on duties which has weakened India The message reflected the ideological make-up of the man for whom fundamental rights and democratic liberties can be held back in larger interest. As the 2024 elections are in the air, people must rethink their unflinching admiration for their Prime Minister. Mr Modi was a full time (…)

So far the most mischievous attempt that has been made in the ongoing campaign for the 2024 General Elections by the Dirty Tricks Department (DTD), of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is to go back into history almost to the beginning of the Independence of our country and dig up an issue settled between India and Sri Lanka amicably more than 60 years ago through an International Maritime Treaty. The 1.9 sq kms of the uninhabited island of Kachatheevu which lies between India Sri Lanka (…)

Punjab and Haryana States with broadly a similar social and economic background are generally compared by people and academics in terms performance of economy, governance and management of finance. Financial situation and the priorities in allocation of expenditure usually affect the other financia,social and economic parameters too. At present, the states are governed by two different political parties’ vij., Aaam Aadmi Party in Punjab for two years and Bhartiya Janata Party in Haryana for (…)

In my younger days as a journalist I was blessed to have the friendship of several dedicated young doctors who after passing out in distinguished ways from some of the top medical colleges had decided to devote themselves to serving the poor in remote villages or working class colonies. Another category of medical friends whose friendship I cherished were those who were devoted to exposing the various malpractices of a medical system which was increasingly going towards getting dominated by (…)

a paradigm shift in the prestigious Sainik School education system, allowing “ideologically slanted” organisations to take on the baton of nurturing cadets – who in future will contribute to India’s defence forces.

Unlike Kerala which uses education as tool for the goal of population control and remains sensitive to the reproductive rights of citizens, the two-child norm against Panchayat members of Haryana and now for job seekers in Rajasthan is reminiscent of notorious sterilization laws and judgements of the U.S. which restricted to blacks and racial minorities. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s judgement in 2003. a The Two Child Norm Bill, 2005 was introduced as a private bill in the Rajya (…)

When Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, was arrested in the middle of the election, many advocates, including this writer (Mainstream, 23rd March), political scientists and other intellectuals wrote their columns expressing their concerns over legality, desirability and propriety of the arrest of the opposition leaders in the thick of the election. These were the opinions articulated by these writers. It was perfectly open to the supporters of the BJP to indulge in cerebral (…)