Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Reversing Reservation

Vol - L No. 37, September 12, 2015 

• Editorials

Are the upper castes now striking back against the inequities of market-led development?

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Time to Repeal 124A

Vol - L No. 37, September 12, 2015 

• Editorials

Maharashtra reminds us why a law on sedition has no place in a democracy.

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Editorials A Chill Wind The brazen killing of rationalists is a result of the nurturing of intolerance. Read more	H T Parekh Finance Column Can Indradhanush Help Revive Public Sector Banks? T T Ram Mohan Indradhanush, the government's new plan for public sector bank reform in India, may not be the "big bang" reforms that many have been clamouring for. But the government has decided to recapitalise PSBs--a sensible change of mind.... Read more
Commentary What Ails the Implementation of the Goods and Services Tax? V Bhaskar, P S S Kailash Nath Since the Goods and Services Tax cannot be implemented by 1 April 2016, there is a strong case to implement a central GST from that date by merging the excise and service tax regimes. Such an integrated framework will not require any major... Read more	Commentary Caste, Religious Institutions and Domination Sanjana Krishnan, Rahul Jambhulkar The Tuljabhavani and Matangi temples in Osmanabad District in Maharashtra display the relation between religion, caste and power structure in society. The history of these two temples and a study of the priestly hierarchy and practice of rituals... Read more
Commentary Subverting the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 Santosh Verma After coming to power in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance government took several measures to dilute the pro-poor provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. Though it has backed down, several questions remain over the way the Modi... Read more	Commentary New Health Policy and Chronic Disease Analysis of Data and Evidence Subrata Mukherjee, Anoshua Chaudhuri, Anamitra Barik The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has made public the National Health Policy 2015 Draft for discussion. The draft is more exhaustive and better organised in its coverage compared to the National Health Policy of 2002. It touches upon... Read more
Commentary New Voices in Songs Do Women in Hindi Films Have Greater Agency? Ashwini Deshpande Thin voices in Hindi film music are seen to be associated with "good girls" who are obedient, innocent, and pure. Lata Mangeshkar's thin voice is assumed to have suited a particular vision of femininity promoted by Hindi films at... Read more	Book Reviews GDP's Hold over the World Rama Gopal The Little Big Number: How GDP Came to Rule the World and What to Do About It by Dirk Philipsen,Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2015; pp viii+398, £19.95. Read more
Book Reviews 'Understandings of Violence' Rudolf C Heredia The Weight of Violence: Religion, Language, Politicsedited by Saitya Brata Das and Soumyabrata Choudhury,New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2015; pp xxi + 271, Rs 895. Read more	Perspectives The Agrarian Question in the 21st Century Sam Moyo, Praveen Jha, Paris Yeros Drawing from the late Archie Mafeje's work and revolutionary spirit, this article revisits the "classical" agrarian question and responds to scholars who argue that the "agrarian question is dead"--indeed, those who feel... Read more
Special Articles Science and Theories of Caste Origins From Colonial Anthropometry to Contemporary Genetics Thomas Sebastian This article delineates three phases of scientific enquiry into caste origins and identifies a set of social and political agendas which were, and continue to be, affected by the results of those enquiries. It examines debates between colonial... Read more	Special Articles Mergers and Acquisitions of Banks in Post-Reform India T R Bishnoi, Sofia Devi A major perspective of the Reserve Bank of India's banking policy is to encourage competition, consolidate and restructure the system for financial stability. Mergers and acquisitions have emerged as one of the common methods of consolidation... Read more
Special Articles Non-linear Relationship between Inflation and Growth in Developing Countries Anupam Das, John Loxley While the orthodox consensus is that there is no trade-off between inflation and output in the long run, there is no unanimity on the short-run effect of inflation on economic growth. We attempt to estimate the non-linear relationship between... Read more	Notes Caste among the Indian Diaspora in Africa Suraj Milind Yengde Caste consciousness is common among the Indian diaspora worldwide, so is the practice of the caste system. This article looks at the Indian diaspora in Africa and tries to understand how Indians of various castes responded to life there. It... Read more
Discussion T S R Subramanian Report K Vishnu Mohan Rao This article takes forward Manju Menon and Kanchi Kohli's criticism of the TSR Committee Report, "Executive's Environmental Dilemmas: Unpacking a Committee's Report" (EPW, 13 December 2014). This piece focuses on the... Read more	Postscript A Proud Tribe Poovi Poovilangothai pKocharethi, the award-winning work by Narayan, Kerala’s first tribal novelist, portrays the lives, triumphs and tribulations of the Malayarayar tribal community of Kerala in the 20th century. Read more
Postscript Slick Illusions Khaliq Parkar Despite lustrous technique and cinematography, the recent Hindi film Masaan is burdened with specious premises of caste, gender and geography. Read more	Postscript The Devi’s Departure Kannan Kasturi An elaborate ritual on Deepavali day in the Jagatipatt temple at Naggar in Himachal Pradesh unveils energy, religious fervour and good-fellowship. Read more
Postscript The Winter of the Patriarch Pushpendra Johar Commandeering, often abusive, sometimes loquacious, the drunken patriarch was never apologetic about his station in life as a low-caste sweeper. Read more	Postscript The View from Above Toothcomber The Economics of Land Acquisition