August 4, 2007

[(On Hindustani Classical Music The Outlook magazine recently carried the following article. Lalit Uniyal wrote a rejoinder which the publication did not publish. We are reproducing Arindam Mukherjee’s article and Lalit Uniyal’s rejoinder for the benefit of our readers. —-Editor )]
As our musical legends dwell in their twilight years, there seem to be few worthy of inheriting their mantle. Is the future bleak for the Hindustani classical tradition?
When renowned shehnai masestro (…)

A Response to Arindam Mukherjee’s Article in Outlook Magazine
Before we can comprehend the so-called crisis of classical music we must first appreciate the deep presence of music in our culture.
The film ‘Gandhi’, produced by a foreigner, was technically outstanding and won international acclaim, and several awards too. Yet, though the film was about a revered personality, it did not prove a big success in India. Most Indians found it dry, that is, lacking in rasa. The reason is that (…)

[(BOOK REVIEW )]
Genesis of Conflict and Peace—Understanding North- East India: Views and Reviews (two volumes) edited by Anuradha Dutta and Ratna Bhuyan; Peace Studies, OKDISCD and Akansha Publishing House, New Delhi; 2007; pp. 657; Rs 2000 (hard bound).
The book under review, entitled Genesis of Conflict and Peace—Understanding North-East India: Views and Reviews, is a compilation of numerous scholarly articles by renowned academicians and scholars across North-East India. The book (…)

Certainly, it is the basic nature of the system that it creates a strong chain of thoughts in favour of its upcoming courses. In the era of globalisation—‘the terrible concept for the developing countries’—the system is mainly controlled by the market. Undoubtedly the market has enormous potential but the recent emerging trend must be seen as a threat to the whole market system. It is a matter of common knowledge that the commodities reach the consumer via a proper channel. The channel (…)

Abdul Rashid Ghazi—killed in the precincts of Lal Masjid in Pakistan—went through a process of (un)becoming. When he graduated with a master’s degree in International Relations from Pakistan’s apex Quaid-e-Azam University, he was a defiant for his father, for he did not like to be yet another devout Muslim consecrating his life to Islam. He worked in the Ministry of Education before assuming the role of the religious preacher. By the time ‘Operation Silence’ took place, he was a stark binary (…)

The challenge before the newly elected Chief Ministers of UP, Uttarakhand and Punjab is to create employment despite the anti-people policies of the Centre. The Centre, for example, wants to impose a single rate of tax on all commodities irrespective of whether it is produced by labour-or capital-intensive technologies. Handloom and mill-made cloth are proposed to be taxed at a single rate. This provides encouragement to capital-intensive production. This point was very ably made by Mayawati (…)

The odyssey began on July 16, 2007 when the University of Delhi geared up for the new academic year. This time I altered from the role of a student to that of a teacher and found that the difference between the two is quite thin. This made me pen down my reflections.
My foundations have been built on Social Sciences. In the present competitive times, academics is looked down upon as “non-lucrative”. Family, friends, peers desisted my venture into humanities at the college level. Yet the (…)