What eSS would like to do is promote rigorous research in the social sciences and humanities in India and South Asia, being inclusive (rather than exclusive) in terms of perspectives and topics. The core of the portal is the peer reviewed “eSS the Journal” which features research papers, reviews, and other sections. eSS also carries working papers as well as commentaries.
Its a great way for scholars to keep up to date with whats happening in this neck of the woods…
K N Panikkar, erstwhile professor of History at JNU, is among the foremost historians of modern India. Currently engaged in writing the intellectual history of colonial India, he has authored a number of very important books. Two of which we highlight here.
Before the Night falls is a set of essays that urge turning preaching into practice. As Romila Thapar notes, “… a more creative secular response to the contemporary condition – needs to be put into practice. ….there has to be an ethically determined society from the one that is being sought to be imposed on us today. The essays in this collection reflect these concerns and will doubtless contribute to the creation of such a social ethos.” From Books for Change, Rs 150.
In An Agenda for Cultural Action and Other Essays, he draws attention, among other things, to a matter that concerns us deeply: the destruction of the educational system through privatization and rabid communalization. From Three Essays Collective, Rs 200.
Among the other books for which he is well known are ‘Against Lord and State: Religion and Peasant Uprisings in Malabar’; ‘Culture and Consciousness in Modern India’; ‘Culture, Ideology and Hegemony – Intellectuals and Social Consciousness in Colonial India’. Write in to check on availability….
As a spokeswoman for her age, for Dalits, and for women, Bama has emerged as a mind that should be listened to. Read an interview with her in The Hindu. Its a bit dated, but still worth a read.
