CONTENTS

December 13,1997 Privatisation; Evidence and Implications As the debate on the future of public enterprises rages in India, it is worthwhile to ask what we might learn from the worldwide experience with privatisation. Under what conditions docs it work and when does it fail to deliver the goods? How can the competing interest groups be simultaneously satisfied? The evidence from around the globe. 3199 Religion Armed From Marx to Freud and Parsons, industrial society has been assumed to be the graveyard of religious faith. The rise of militant religious and ethnic movements in the post cold war era is a challenge to these secular perspectives. Analysis of four different types of movements and strategies conservative, separatist, reformist and revolutionary - and their impact on education and the media. 3213 Joint Forest Management The central idea behind joint forest management is to transform the age-old authoritative and policing role of the state forest department into that of a facilitator vis-a-vis the local communities. Yet state governments and their forest departments still refrain from conceding legal status to forest protection committees, retain their right to dissolve them and appropriate a large share of forest produce. A case study of south-west Bengal also reveals uneven results in terms of maintaining inter-village equity in the apportionment of forest land, meeting the forest needs of adjacent non-forest protection committee villagers and exploration of the commercial potential of non-timber forest produce. 3225 Muslim Women Two major decisions of the Bangladesh High Court, on the maintenance of divorced Muslim women and on the validity of polygamous marriages, augur well for the position of women in Muslim countries and societies. 3189 Rural Primary Education An important feature of the new framework being proposed for rural primary education is the village-level education committee. While such measures seeking to involve local structures, organisations and people in the education process are welcome, there is a need to better understand the ground realities which profoundly influence the viability of these initiatives. 3181 Not Enough The recent policy measures announced by the Reserve Bank, suggesting a reversal of the liberalisation path, are a welcome attempt to curb speculation in the domestic foreign exchange market. But they fail to address the fundamental distortions that have been created in the financial system. 3174 Question of the State The World Bank's World Development Report 1997 on The State in a Changing World' shows little understanding of real government, historical or contemporary, and beneath the surface technical clarity is a moral vacuum inhabited by propositions about society and government which no half-serious study could tolerate. 3191 Suppressing Universities The draft Karnataka Universities Bill 1997 selectively incorporates the recommendations of the Navaneeth Rao committee on higher education to tighten the government's crip on universities. 3185 Survival Strategy With the erosion of traditional livelihood and few local options available, Santhals have been forced to enter the labour market as migrants. Faced with a negative impact on schooling and health care, poor living and working conditions and constant fear of sexual abuse, the entry into the labour market of Santhal women in particular is nothing more than a survival strategy since staying at home could mean starvation. 3187 Health for Some 3167 Jehanabad Demonstrative Violence Politics: