Articles by M V Nadkarni

The crisis in Indian agriculture, which has been building up for decades, is not one of declining profitability but of non-viability of the bulk of landholdings. The number of these holdings is fast increasing, and even the extent of non-viable land in the total cultivable area is expanding. Merely boosting the productivity of smallholdings is not sufficient, and their non-viability hinders capital formation in agriculture. The main reason behind the crisis is that employment opportunities in non-agricultural sectors are not growing fast enough.

I fully support Anand Teltumbde (June 23) in his call to revert to the original vision of reservations.

Though secular institutions and the state have emerged as major agents of social concern and development, it is still useful to highlight the humanist role of religion in these areas. By stressing humanism and social concern as the core of religion, parochial tendencies that could lead to violence may be checked. How far does Hinduism have social concerns? This issue is examined in this article both at the level of theory or doctrine and actual practice.

some other religions, because of its diversity, but it was certainly recognised as Caste Myths in Hinduism either Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma. In M V NADKARNI Iam grateful to Gail Omvedt for her prompt response (EPW, November 22, 2003) to my article in EPW issue of November 8, 2003. The kind of doubts expressed by her may arise in the mind of some others too, and her response has given me an opportunity to clarify my position.

This paper, citing evidence from the ancient scriptures, attempts to establish that Hinduism - its vedic and classic variants - did not support the caste system; it rigorously opposed it in practice and principle. Even after the emergence of the caste system, Hindu society still saw considerable occupational and social mobility. Moreover, Hinduism created legends to impress on the popular mind the invalidity of the caste system - a fact further reinforced by the constant efflorescence of reform movements throughout history. The caste system survived in spite of this because of factors that ranged from the socio-economic to the ecological, which helped sustain and preserve balance among communities in a non-modern world.