ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Rajan GurukkalSubscribe to Rajan Gurukkal

A Text Self-Consciously Realist and Never Utopian

Vol. 47, Issue No. 12, 24 Mar, 2012
Book Reviews
Rajan Gurukkal
Lineages of Political Society by Partha Chatterjee (Ranikhet: Permanent Black), 2011; pp xiv + 278, Rs 750.

Political Economy of the Temple Treasure Trove

Vol. 46, Issue No. 47, 19 Nov, 2011
From the States
Rajan Gurukkal
The Supreme Court's order to assess and document the artefacts of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram is a move towards democratisation of knowledge of the treasure. Equally significant is the Court's appointment of an expert committee headed by the director-general of the National Museum for evolving measures to preserve them - a step suggestive of the tacit recognition of the people's right to see the treasure. With no choice left, the Government of India has to come to terms with its constitutional responsibility of preserving the treasure in a museum under the temple with the highest safety measures.

Foreign Educational Institutions Bill: The Rhetoric and the Real

Vol. 46, Issue No. 28, 09 Jul, 2011
Perspectives
Rajan Gurukkal
The Foreign Educational Institutions Bill 2010 is only a legislative extension of economic liberalisation to the educational sector. The ostensible reasons for the bill, viz, to address the low gross enrolment rate, and the poor quality and shortage of educational institutions in the country constitute the justificatory rhetoric that hides the agenda of opening the national higher education sector to world trade.

The kosambi effect: a hermeneutic turn that shook indian historiography

Vol. 43, Issue No. 30, 26 Jul, 2008
D D Kosambi: The Man and His Work
Rajan Gurukkal
Kosambi was a scientist who talked about the past with the politics of intimacy with the present. This paper identifies the "Kosambi effect" and its various constituents. The most crucial constituent is the awareness that historical knowledge cannot be based on empirical givens and that a methodology guaranteeing a systematic, deductively formulated, and empirically verified concept of reality about the past is indispensable. The adaptation of historical materialism to serve the purpose, and accordingly writing a history worth designating a genre by itself in form, content and hermeneutics is another crucial constituent.

Pages

Back to Top

EPW

Term & Policy

Circulation

Advertisement

Connect with us