A growing collection of Ambedkar’s works are available online at Ambedkar.org Ambedkar is easily one of the finest Indian thinkers ever. Academically, he has a degree in law, a Masters in economics (from London School of Economics), and a doctorate in social sciences (from Columbia University). At Columbia he majored in sociology and economics for his M.A. with a smattering of anthropology, politics and philosophy as other subjects. He also had a stint at University of Bonn. His experience ranges from being a untouchable boy to the principal architect of India’s Constitution. He started and ran a political party and […]
Vivek Srinivasan
1 The questions of an 8 year old reveals the gendered nature of rules that govern our lives
Mernissi’s Dreams of a trespass: Best feminist work I have ...
6 Creating neat bibliographies can be a pain, Word 2007 makes it easy Note: There is an easier way to cite in MS Word and it’s free. Check out my note on Zotero citation tool. There are hundreds of formats for citations like Chicago, APA, etc. The only thing in common between them is that each of them is a nightmare! I cannot imagine how people did extensive citations before the coming of automated help. I am a big fan of refworks, endnote and other bibliography managers. Unfortunately, these are costly and cannot be afforded by everyone. For those who did […]
Citations using Word 2007: Bibliographies made easy
O India produz mais filmes que todos outros país do mundo… …Muito mais. Tal vez tu sei que há muitas linguas na India. Muitos disso tem um grande indústria do cinema. O muito famoso é o indústria do Bombay chamo “Bollywood”. Muitos estrangeiros pensem que só Bollywood produz filmes na India; mas ha muitos outros centros do produção. O grande centro é Madras no sul do India. Também há Hyderabad, Calcutta, Kerala e outros centros. Tal vez, o filmes do Bengal são o mais famoso depois que o Bollywood. Begal é famoso para produzir os filmes artísticas e seu director […]
Introdução aos cinema Indiano
3 A Panchayat president I interviewed recently told me sweetly that people listen to her because she’s plump. Two years and twenty additional kilos earlier, I would have missed the import of the statement, but now I don’t. Let me give you a quick background before I start. I was very thin and was often called a skeleton, stick of a coconut leaf and other colourful adjectives. I left to the US in 2005 and after two years of Americanisation I got on the weighing machine. I pushed the scales to a familiar position and it remained upright. I nudged it […]
The importance of a pot belly
Thanks to a Historian, I now see the sublime where I merely saw superstitions The district gazetteers provide a good background to the important events of a district in a historical perspective. They were originally written by British civil servants and was then taken over by people appointed for the task with India’s independence. The British “manuals” (as they are often called) offer colourful details about the wars, positions taken by various parties, etc. The post independence gazettes (at least in the Madras Province) have a greater slant towards understanding development in a historical perspective. I was going through some […]
A Brahmin historian at work
1 For an introduction to Refworks click here. If you have used it earlier, read on… A few months ago when Refworks announced that they are going offline, I was excited. I am doing my field work in rural India and had decided not to take full time internet access. I started regretting not having Endnote; I need not do that anymore. Refworks’ new Write-N- Cite III makes available most of the important features offline. The new Write-N-Cite III has an offline database that downloads all references from our online database to an offline location. This enables us to search and […]
Refworks goes offline: Exciting new features
A search engine to search India’s Union budgets and State budgets (available) in one click A wealth of materials is available online today about budgets in India. Unfortunately they are dispersed across dozens of websites that take time to find. This search engine will enable to to search official budget websites of Government of India and most state governments in one click. It is periodically updated. The results are not perfect, but it is the best that I was able to produce given the clutter and the constant changes in the budget websites of various states. Loading
India: Union & State budgets search engine
Search websites of Indian Parliament and most legislative assemblies in one go [inline] [script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.google.com/coop/cse/brand?form=cse-search-box&lang=en”][/script] [/inline] About the search engine This is a special search engine that searches websites of Indian Parliament, most state assemblies and other government sites that offer content on debates and other proceedings in legislative bodies. It also includes a few non-governmental sites. It enables us to check if something is going on relating to a specific issue (e.g. VAT) in various assemblies in one click. Google is not very useful in doing this since it would cover all websites that include “VAT” in its […]
India: Parliament & Legislative Assemblies search engine
“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” – John Maynard Keynes A unconventional list for the beginner that starts with economic issues than theories I live in a part of the world where economics is considered ‘dry’ and boring. I blame it on the textbooks that are routinely prescribed in initiating beginners into the […]
Economics for beginners: An unconventional list of books, audio, video
School violence is just a petty issue in India so far…we should ensure that it should continue so Two children have been shot dead in schools by their peers within one month. Brutal school violence of this kind is new in India; it scares me. Until I went to the US, I did not imagine that schools could be such ghastly places. I had my first shock came when I learned of metal detectors at a school entrance. A police officer was stationed in front throughout the school day. I could not believe it at first. Children routinely get into […]
Will school shootings guntinue in India: Should media care?
2007, like never before, has been a year with friends It started with Lindsey who decided to fly in on a New Year day to get a discount. I spent two wonderful weeks in company of this charmingly vivacious girl. There have been trips to Delhi to catch up with many a friend and colleague. The cream of it has been my time with friends at Syracuse and at Madras. The partner of a friend’s “driving teacher” at Syracuse (of all places in the world) turned out to be a guy who had worked with Colin Gonsalves in India (I […]
2007: An year with friends
This public intellectual makes his integrity history Just before the first phase of elections in Gujarat the current Chief Minister made a controversial remark referring to the “fake encounter” of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. His own government has gone on record stating that it’s a fake encounter – but Modi has justified it stating that Sohrabuddin has been involved in extortions and other criminal activities. The Supreme Court of India is examining this extra-judicial murder currently. With just days to go before the election he decided to invoke Sohrabuddin’s murder. In a rhetorical fashion he asked the crowd what could be done […]
Cho Ramaswamy’s disappointing editorial
As big budget movies with huge marketing costs become popular and movie halls change, will the big drive out the small? Diwali is a time for new movies in India. Two big budget movies this time decided to go for huge spending on marketing. OSO and Sawariya together spent over Rs. 10 crores on marketing, swamping the media. Money was clearly spent on public relations rather than overt advertisements. “King Khan” was all over the place: watching cricket, dancing with cricket stars, doing shows, and being in any place that attracts public attention. Even if OSO were not mentioned overtly […]
Developments in Hindi cinema: Will the big kill the good?
The disastrous ‘India Shining’ campaign of the NDA government now has a sequel in ‘India Building’ campaign planned by the UPA government It looks like the UPA government is planning an ad blitz in a campaign named “India Building” with a budget of 100 crores. The lack of imagination in the campaign is stunning – specially after the disaster that its predecessor turned out to be. A grotesque amount was spent by the previous NDA government on an ad campaign named “India Shining” in early 2004. Like any advertisement campaign is supposed to, India Shining campaign caught people’s attention. Everywhere […]
‘India Building’ advertisement campaign: 100 crore rupees for nothing?
Stark naked, next to a pool of urine, in the background of Chennai’s smelliest river, on the pedestrian walk in a noisy smoke-filled road was this child of three. He was completely engaged, almost oblivious to the world around. He held in his hand a slate and was practicing the letter “aa” in Tamil. Someone, possibly his mother, must have made neat squares in the slate for the child to practice writing. The family was homeless or were living by the shores of the unbearably smelly covam river. Amidst this harsh life she was teaching the child to learn. Since […]
The will to learn
Frustration is all about small things Frustration 4444i4s a4l444l44 4a4bou4t 44small thin4gs444 44 444444444444444444 444444444444444444444444444444444444444444. For example your key board going bonkers and typing 4 as and when it pleases. Perhaps from a stress of travel, my 4 wireless keyboard started automatically inserting number 4 now and then driving me absolutely nuts. I got mad in a way that 4i normally do not, even 44444in44 fa4i4rl4y 4adverse4 circumstances such as loosing my passport. 44it’s then I landed on the brilli4a4n4t 44p44lan 444444444o4f 44w4ri4ti4ng 4th44i4s bl44og4 4p44o4st444444444444444444444 just to share with you what it’s like writing with the keyboard going totally […]
Frust444rat4ion
Brutal and grotesque punishments deter crime better than an inefficient and corrupt legal system argue many Brutal punishments are back into public debate in India with the airing of the video below. A boy who had snatched a chain from a woman was caught and brutally punished by a mob – relentlessly. A Policeman joined in meting out this “justice” by finishing the act by tying the boy to his bike and dragging him in the road. Even before this furore has died from public debate there has been another mob action today emulating the infamous Bhagalpur blindings epitomised by […]
Bhagalpur blindings, Gangajal & brutality in Bihar today
A little note on how Hariprasad Chaurasia’s concert left me between agony and ecstasy Hariprasad Chaurasia is a man who never disappoints. I have been mesmerised for a while in every performance of his and always. Typically I walk out in a semi-trance with a feeling of ecstasy that only a great live music performance can give. I was thrilled to bits when I heard that Chaurasia is coming to Madras for a concert – and that too free. I took a seat by the aisle that was furthest away from humanity in that auditorium. He started with a slow […]
Dis-concert in Madras
7 History, humour and typical Tamil drama in one of the best Tamil movies ever.