Re-imagining India and Other Essays

Contents: Preface. 1. Beyond Liberalisation: Social Opportunity and Human Capability/Amartya Sen. 2. Human Development Paradigm for South Asia/Mahbub ul Haq. 3. Towards Creating a Poverty-Free World/Muhammad Yunus. 4. Post-Apartheid South Africa: Truth, Reconciliation and Justice/Albie Sachs. 5. Peering into the Abyss of the Future/Noam Chomsky. 6. Re-imagining India/Bhikhu Parekh. 7. The Future of the Indian Past/Romila Thapar. 8. The Idea of India as an Ideal: Can Our Dreams Come True?/I. G. Patel. 9. The Nation-State in the Global Age/Anthony Giddens. 10. Crises Today and the Future of Capitalism/Joseph Stiglitz.

Re-imagining India and Other Essays brings together a collection of writings that originated from annual lectures, organised at the Institute of Social Sciences, by leading economists, political and legal thinkers, sociologists, linguists and historians. Addressing a diverse array of themes, the essays are bound by a common thread--concern for humanity.

This volume explores a wide range of issues as varied as--need for basic education, poverty, human development index, self-employment over wage employment, the apartheid regime in South Africa, the role of democracy in counter-striking terrorism, the function of multiculturalism in preserving solidarity of a nation, the rise of Hindutva and its ideological implications, and the relevance of Gandhian and Nehruvian ideals in shaping of modern India.

Commemorating well-known economist Professor D. T. Lakdawala’s contributions in the contemporary context, the scholars emphasise on the need to replace profit maximization by profit-making and social returns. As the global economy struggles with an unprecedented recession--which has led to millions becoming unemployed and small investors and pensioners losing their life-long savings--the contributors underline the importance of revisiting the social-political-ideological structure, which largely shapes our policy making. (Jacket)