Economic & Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Misreading Charlie Hebdo

Where Critics Went Wrong with the ‘Muslim’ Question

Vol - L No. 2, January 10, 2015 | Kaushik Dasgupta 

• Web Exclusives

Charlie Hebdo’s critics have got one thing wrong – the real target of such terrorist attacks  is not the “Islamophobic” Western establishment, it is the Muslim heretic who wants to defy the cleric and redefine her/his identity. 

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The Antinomies behind the Peshawar Killings

Vol - L No. 2, January 10, 2015 | Aasim Sajjad Akhtar 

• Commentary

The ruthless attack on schoolchildren in Peshawar has precipitated a clamour for stronger military action against the "terrorists", and the Pakistani army and government have responded by stepping up the Zarb-e-Azb operation and hanging a handful of incarcerated convicts. This article uncovers the tangled yet well-known roots of violence in Pakistan today to illustrate how the military-dominated State's designated ideology and political machinations have brought the country to this pass. The strengthening of democracy is the only way to prevent such incidents from recurring, but the Peshawar attacks have been used precisely to weaken democratic institutions vis-á-vis the military establishment.

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Web Exclusives Planning by the People The Colombian Urban Experience Aravind Unni Colombia’s social urbanism and inclusive transportation projects have left a lasting impression on urban planning in the global south. The author explains how urban planning got democratised in Colombia and why India is still far behind. Read more	Editorials Land, Livelihoods and Company Sarkaar The ordinance amending the new Land Acquisition Act validates Modi sarkaar as Company sarkaar. Read more
Web Exclusives Will the Neoliberal Economy Change? Verdict of the Sri Lanka Elections The Collective for Economic Democratisation While the election victory for President Maithripala Sirisena was due to a unique political moment that united minorities and many in the Sinhala electorate to vote out an authoritarian regime, expectations of major change in economic policy need... Read more	Reports From the States / Web Exclusives Sleepy Backwaters to Real Estate Haven Andhra Pradesh New Capital Development S Ananth A series of photo essays will document the change in the peripheries of Vijayawada, slowly transforming into the Andhra Pradesh state capital. This is the first one in the series.  Read more
Editorials Still Searching for the GST Introduction of the GST Bill in Parliament does not mean all the contentious issues have been sorted out. Read more	Editorials Paving the Way for Privatisation? The Coal India workers' demands merit more than bland assurances. Read more
Commentary Discrepancies in Sanitation Statistics of Rural India Arjun Kumar The inadequate availability of drinking water and proper sanitation, especially in rural India, leads to innumerable deadly diseases, harms the environment, and also affects vulnerable populations, such as persons with disabilities and women,... Read more	Commentary Right to Abort in Surrogacy Contracts An Enquiry Shamba Dey This article makes an enquiry into the right to abort in surrogacy contracts as visualised by the bill on Assisted Reproductive Technology drafted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and introduced in Parliament in 2010. It argues that the... Read more
Commentary Tobacco Taxation Pritam Datta, Chetana Chaudhuri The tax hikes on smoking tobacco in 2014 appear large in the aggregate, but have little effect on the price of single cigarette sticks, a popular mode of retail in India. Analysing the seemingly large tax hikes on smoking tobacco, it is argued... Read more	Commentary Health and Economic Impact of Unsafe Drinking Water A Study of Ludhiana Jasdeep Kaur Bedi, R S Ghuman, A S Bhullar The article is based on a study of the problem of contaminated water supply in Ludhiana. It finds that the incidence of water-related diseases and their economic impact on households is reasonably high. The quality of water was identified as a... Read more
Book Reviews A Handbook of State Politics Niraja Gopal Jayal Handbook of Politics in Indian States: Regions, Parties and Economic Reforms edited by Sudha Pai (Delhi: Oxford University Press), 2013; pp 443, Rs 1,495. Read more	Book Reviews Nursing Labour Markets Sujata Gothoskar Rethinking Unequal Exchange: The Global Integration of Nursing Labour Markets by Valiani Salimah (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 2012; pp 197 +xviii, $27.95. Read more
Perspectives Kerala and the Rest of India What We Can Learn from Each Other’s Development Experience Pulapre Balakrishnan Kerala has shown that it is possible to improve the quality of life of a people even at low levels of per capita income through efficient provisioning of public services in health and education. At the national level there has been a dramatic... Read more	Special Articles Has Globalisation Flattened the Phillips Curve? Rohit Azad, Anupam Das This paper seeks, theoretically as well as empirically, to argue that one of the most important effects of globalisation has been on the working class of the advanced capitalist countries. While the workers in the South have always had a... Read more
Special Articles Returning to the Histories of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century Immigration Ranabir Samaddar The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a period of globalisation when migration controls were put in place. As at present, then too, control of migrant labour was not the concern of governments alone. Employers, recruitment agents, labour... Read more	Special Articles Growth, Structural Change and Wage Rates in Rural India A Amarender REddy Examining the structural transformation in India and its developed states to know whether they have passed the Lewis turning point, this paper finds that there was slow structural change in labour markets at the national level. But states such as... Read more
Notes Lake Fisheries in Kashmir A Case More Undone Than Done Neha W Qureshi, M Krishnan The Dal and Wular lakes produce 70% of the total fish production in Jammu and Kashmir. In addition to introduction of carps, negative externalities of tourism, excessive fertilisation of vegetable crops on floating gardens leading to algal blooms... Read more	Discussion Counting the Poor Measurement and Other Issues C Rangarajan, S Mahendra Dev Since the submission of the report of the 2012 expert group on poverty measurement, there have been a few comments on it. The purpose of this note is to clarify some of the issues raised by researchers and others on this report. The clarifi... Read more
Postscript The Sweet Swan of Avon Vithal Rajan As the 450th birth anniversary of William Shakespeare passes into history, doubts linger about the motives and authenticity of the world’s best-known playwright. Read more	Postscript Decay and Darkness in Bihar Shobhit Mahajan Once praised for its exemplary governance, Bihar is today in an advanced state of decline and poor development, despite the presence of unbelievably fecund land. Read more
Postscript The Best News Shyam G Menon As the frontier of exploration, space technology stands on the shoulders of more mundane developments to reach the vast expanse above us. Read more	Reports From the States / Web Exclusives Fair Price Medicine Shops in West Bengal An Interesting Price Discovery Mechanism Sugata Marjit The 24x7 Fair Price Medicine Shops in the public hospitals of West Bengal have visibly reduced the average price of critical medicine and appliances. Their services should now be extended beyond hospitals so that they reach out to a larger share... Read more
Reports From the States / Web Exclusives Leopard Landscapes Coexisting with carnivores in countryside and city T R Shankar Raman The Wildlife Institute of India survey to estimate the number of leopards in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, on the peripheries of Mumbai, will add a critical piece of information to assist and better prepare people to live in a landscape with... Read more