2025

Abstract This article examines the paradox of India

Electricity arrived in colonial Bengal in the late nineteenth century, initially serving elite institutions and commercial centers in Calcutta. Its gradual adoption in middle-class homes signaled more than infrastructural change. It transformed the social and emotional rhythms of domestic life. For bhadramahila (middle-class women) committed to ideals of respectability and reform, the illuminated home introduced new regimes of visibility, comfort, hygiene and discipline. This paper focuses (…)

The recent announcement of GST reforms by the finance minister, which was covered widely across multiple media outlets, has sparked different debates across the country. Much of this discussions and debate focus on what the informal sector perceives these changes to be, directly linking the potential benefits or disadvantages to be obtained by the subalterns. The article draws its conceptual framework from the subaltern propagated early on by Antonio Gramsci. He identifies this community (…)

Communal harmony and brotherhood between Hindus, Muslims, and other religious communities define the synchronised secular culture of Cuttack as a city in Odisha. From Dargah Bazar and Pir Hat to Idgah Maidan, people have been witnesses to the making of the history of independent Odisha and India. People from all religious walks of life participated in shaping the secular culture during and before the anti-colonial struggles in the city. These places define secularism and communal harmony in (…)

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Narendra Modi

Social harmony was woven into the social fabric of the city of Cuttack. The best example is Kadam Rasul where twenty Brahmin families live with the majority of Muslims and they share their marriage and birth day functions of their children. They have built a Masjid side by side of the Durga temple located in the same spot. This city space shows the integration of these two social groups into a complex whole of the city. This is where the city is popularly known in a social proverb given (…)

There are men who write history,and there are those who quietly correct it. T.J.S. George belonged to the second kind

The problem is whether political opinion should be defined at all. It is vital to keep in mind what lies behind the debate about the value of definition. It is settled that the protection based on political opinion is not limited to people who are members of a political party or who are engaged in electoral politics or who embraces in some way a particular political ideology. It is vital to keep in mind what lies behind the debate about the value of definition. Public opinion is what people (…)

A young soldier walked,
trudging up a hill;
his heart filled with joy
at the sight of a light
emanating from his family

Early Life and Education
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia can be described as a Gandhian socialist and a visionary who worked for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden of the country. Born in a Marwari Vaishya community to Heera Lal and Kumari Chanda on March 23, 1910, Lohia received his early education in his village and later matriculated in 1925 under the Bombay Board. Thereafter, he pursued higher education at Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar College in Kolkata, where he completed his B.A. degree. (…)