INDIA 1996. **Seminar 449: January 1997 the year that was 24 INDIA: A NICE PLACE TO GET OUT OF Swapan Dasgupta, Deputy Editor, 'The Indian Express' 26 BASTA! Omkar Goswami, Professor of Economics, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi 30 JUDGES IN A DEMOCRACY Salman Khurshid, Advocate; former Minister of State for External Affairs 33 THE NEW INTOLERANCE Vir Sanghvi, Consulting Editor, Ananda Bazar Group of Publications 38 DISORDERLY POLITICS OF A NEW ORDER Harish Khare, Deputy Editor, 'The Hindu' 41 THE POLITICS OF TRANSITION Mahesh Rangarajan, Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi 45 THREE MASTER NARRATIVES OF INDIAN POLITICS Ashutosh Varshney, Associate Professor of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 48 HONOUR AMONG THIEVES Arvind N. Das, historian and journalist with APCA, Delhi 50 WATERSHED ELECTIONS P. Sainath, journalist, Mumbai 53 COOKING OUR GOOSE Bharat Karnad, Research Professor in National Security Studies, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi 57 THE YEAR OF THE BEAR T.N. Ninan, Editor, 'Business Standard' and 'Business World' 61 INDIAN ENTERPRISE Sanjaya Baru, Editorial Page Editor, 'The Times of India' 65 INDIA'S EXTERNAL SECTOR Bibek Debroy, economist, Delhi 72 MAY DAY, MAY DAY Shiv Visvanathan, Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi 77 DOMESTICATING VIOLENCE Anjum Katyal, Editor, Seagull Books and 'Seagull Theatre Quarterly', Calcutta 82 DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shanker Singh, activists with the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (MKSS), Rajasthan 88 EMPOWERING WOMEN Srilatha Badliwala, Fellow, Women's Policy Research and Advocacy Unit, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore 92 LIFE IN THE DEATH OF OUR CITIES Cyrus Guzder, Chairman of Airfreight Limited and a Trustee of the Bombay Environmental Action Group 96 LOCAL GEOGRAPHY Kai Friese. Deputy Editor, 'The India Magazine'. Delhi 99 KALIYUG Gautam Bhatia, architect and writer, Delhi 104 INDEX COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of DCA THE STATE OF BIHAR **Seminar 450: February 1997 a symposium on the legacy of a troubled state 12 THE PROBLEM Posed by Pankaj Mishra, writer and publisher, Delhi 14 WHO IS A BIHARI? Meenakshi Mukherjee, Professor of English, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi 17 SHADOWS OF THE POLTERGEISTS Arun Sinha, Editor, 'The Navhind Times', Panjim, Goa 20 PARA-BANKING AND PARA-POLITICS Arvind N. Das, historian and journalist with APCA, Delhi 23 THE ENIGMA THAT IS BIHAR ECONOMY Shaibal Gupta, A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies. Patna 28 BIHAR REVISITED Nikesh Sinha, Management Consultant, Delhi 31 THE CHANGING VILLAGE Sachchidananda, Director, Sulabh Institute of Development Studies, Patna 34 BIHAR: OLD AND NEW A.K. Lai, Reader in Political Science, AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna 37 A LAND CALLED MITHILA Hetukar Jha, Professor of Sociology, Patna University 42 ARE BIHARIS UNEDUCATED? Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, Asian Development Research Institute, Ranchi 45 INTERVIEW With Chaturanan Mishra, Union Minister of Agriculture. by Ashok K. Singh, News Editor, TVI, Delhi 47 CHANGING IMAGES OF CASTE AND POLITICS Walter Hauser, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA 53 ANATOMY OF A MASSACRE Bela Bhatia, activist and research scholar, University of Cambridge, UK 61 BOOKS Reviewed by Swapan Dasgupta, Ashok K. Singh, Savyasaachi, Harsh Sethi, Sangeeta Dasgupta and Padmanabh Samarendra 67 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography compiled by Sunita Gulati, IIPA COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates DEMOCRACY & DEVELOPMENT **Seminar 451: March 1997 a symposium on the social impact of our development choices 12 THE PROBLEM Posed by Niraja Gopal Jayal, Department of Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi 15 THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE Sir Isaiah Berlin, Philosopher, U. K. in conversation with Jyotirmaya Sharma who teaches philosophy at St. Stephen's College, Delhi 19 A COMMUNITARIAN RESPONSE S. Anitha, research student, politics, School of Oriental and African Studies, London 23 DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS Sumanta Banerjee, journalist, Delhi 27 STRENGTHENING THE FOUNDATIONS L.C. Jain, Consultant, Delhi 30 A NEW PARADIGM Sailendra Nath Ghosh, environmentalist; writer on economic and political affairs, Delhi 37 GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY Rajesh Tandon, Executive Director, Society for Participatory Research in Asia, Delhi 40 POLITICS OF VOLUNTARY ACTION Ajay S. Mehta, Chief Executive, Seva Mandir, Udaipur 44 THE NEO-MISSIONARIES Srilata Swaminadhan, political activist working among tribals and peasants in Rajasthan 47 A MEMORY FOR DEMOCRACY Krishna Kumar, writer and Professor of Education, University of Delhi 52 LESSONS FROM BHOPAL Sanjoy Hazarika, journalist, Delhi 55 IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST Sriram Panchu, lawyer, Madras 59 WHO SPEAKS FOR THE VICTIMS? Amita Baviskar, Department of Sociology, University of Delhi 62 BOOKS Niraja Gopal Jayal, Dileep Padgaonkar, S.L. Rao, Savyasaachi. Kanchan Chopra, Dunn Roy, Harsh Sethi, Rajul Mathur and Ravi Srivastava 76 COMMUNICATION Received front Ratnakar Tripathy, Delhi 78 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography compiled by Sunita Gulati, IIPA, Delhi COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates WORKERS AND UNIONS **Seminar 452: April 1997 a symposium on the challenges facing labour organisations 12 THE PROBLEM Posed by Aditya Nigam, Research Associate, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi 15 LIBERALISING LABOUR Dunu Roy, chemical engineer, advises communities; on environmental issues, Delhi 20 A DIVIDED CITY Indrani Mazumdar and Subodh Varma, activists in the trade union movement, Delhi , 25 WAGES FOR UNORGANISED LABOUR Renana Jhabvala, Coordinator and member, executive committee of Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and Secretary, National Centre for Labour, Delhi 29 ONTOLOGY OF WAGE LABOUR Rustam Singh, Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla 31 MY STORY Sushila, garment worker, Delhi 34 AN END AND A BEGINNING Mukul Sharma, 'Navbharat Times', Delhi 38 DEMOCRATISATION AT AN IMPASSE Vishwas Satgar, policy analyst ind advisor to COSATU, Johannesburg, South Africa 41 A BUMPY ROAD AHEAD A. Thothathri Raman, Special Correspondent, 'Business India', Delhi 45 ON WORKER TAKEOVERS Sharit K Bhowmik, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Bombay 51 COMMENT A.B. Bardhan, General Secretary, Communist Party of India 53 BOOKS Reviewed by Prabhu Mahapatra, Harsh Sethi, Rakesh Kapoor, Parashuram Ray, Saugata Mukherji, N. Chandra Mohan, Kalpana Sharma, Saral Vidrohi and Aditya Nigam 69 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography compiled by Aditya Nigam 71 CONTROVERSY On conservation by Himraj Dang and Bittu Sehgal COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates SYMBOLIC SPACE **Seminar 453: May 1997 a symposium on media, text and design 12 THE PROBLEM A short statement of the issue involved 14 TWO HEROES OF OUR TIMES V. Geetha, freelance writer involved with children's publishing, Chennai 16 LOOKING AT MISS WORLD Melissa Butcher, International Communications Programme, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 21 TOURISM AND THE IMPERIAL GAZE Rose DeNeve, Department of Anthropology, Syracuse University, USA 25 MARKET LIFE OF AMAR CHITRA KATHA Nandini Chandra, doctoral student, Department of Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi 30 POPULAR ROMANCES Urmi A. Goswami, research scholar and member editorial team, 'The Eye', Delhi 33 COOL, COOL BEVERAGE Kristy Bright, Ph.D. candidate in Cultural Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA 38 GANDHI GOES TO NID Shiv Visvanathan, Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi 41 TECHNOFUTURES Ravi Sundaram, Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi 47 BOOKS Reviewed by Primila Lewis, Anita Roy, Romi Khosla, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan and Ravi Sundaram 53 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography 57 COMMUNICATIONS Received from R.L. Kumar, Bangalore and A. Varshney, Cambridge, USA COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates POLITICAL EXHAUSTION **Seminar 454: June 1997 a symposium on some issues facing our polity 12 THE PROBLEM a short statement on the issues involved 14 UNHOLY ALLIANCES Chandan Mitra, Editor, 'The Pioneer', Delhi 17 IN SEARCH OF POLITICAL STABILITY Bhaskar Dutta, Professor, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi 21 A DEFINING MOMENT Malini Parthasarathy, Executive Editor, 'The Hindu', Chennai 24 WHY WE MUST RETAIN THE MAJORITY-MINORITY FRAMEWORK Rajeev Bhargava, teaches at the Centre for Political Studies. Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi 28 NATION AND THE REGIONS Javeed Alam, Visiting Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. Delhi 31 LIMITS OF REGIONAL SECTARIANISM Udayon Misra, Professor of English. Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 34 BEYOND COALITION POLITICS Amaresh Misra, writer and columnist, Allahabad 39 A THIRD FRONT Kumaresh Chakravarty, columnist; teaches at Zakir Hussain College, Delhi 43 LEFT POLITICS Manini Chatterjee, journalist and CPI(M) worker, Delhi 47 FEDERAL ANARCHY Kanchan Gupta, Director, S.P. Mukherjee Research Foundation, Delhi 50 THE CAMERA HAS TWO FACES Barkha Dutt, Correspondent, New Delhi Television, Delhi 52 POLITICAL CONTINUITY Jaipal Reddy, Minister for Information and Broadcasting, speaks to Ashok Singh, Chief of Bureau, TVI, Delhi 57 WHAT AILS THE CONGRESS V.N. Gadgil, spokesperson of the Congress party, Speaks to Rajdeep Sardesai, Political Editor, New Delhi Television, Delhi 59 BOOKS Reviewed by Bharat Karnad, Shashi Joshi, Achin Vanaik, B.M. Kaushik and Harsh Sethi 67 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography Compiled by Sunita Gulati, IIPA, Delhi 73 COMMENT An extract from a report on the killings in Siwan, Bihar COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates ALTERNATIVES IN COMMUNICATION **Seminar 455: July 1997 a symposium on mediums, innovations and practices 12 THE PROBLEM Posed by Vibodh Parthasarathi, communication theorist, Delhi 16 AN OVERVIEW N.V.K. Murthy, former Director, Film and Television Institute of India, Pone 19 MOVEMENTS, MEDIA AND MEDIATIONS Sanjay Sangvai, activist with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Vadodara 23 OF CONSUMERS AND KINGS Sudbanva Deshpande, theatre activist, Delhi 27 THE KALAKAR AS PUPPET Interview with Hamid and Bodhuram, artists with Urmul Trust, Lunkaransar, Bikaner by V.P. 31 SILENCE Vidya Rao, singer and musicologist, Delhi 34 FEMINIST VOICES Supriya Akerkar, worked with Warli tribals in Thane district, Maharashtra 38 WRITING FOR CHILDREN Anupa Lai, writes books for children, Delhi 41 USING THE VIDEO Satyajit Sarkar and Sharad Agarwal, work independently in development communication and documentary video, Delhi 45 BEYOND COMMERCIAL LOGIC A document prepared by Forum for Independent Film and Video, Delhi 50 WRITER IN THE FIELD An interview with Bharat Dogra, 'News from Field and Slums', Delhi by Deepti P. Mehrotra 53 IN PRAISE OF RUMOUR Ira Pande, Associate Editor, 'Biblio', Delhi 55 BOOKS Reviewed by Vibodh Parthasarathi, Dipankar Sinha, Sevanti Ninan and Ratnakar Tripathy 61 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography compiled by Vibodh Parthasarathi COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates RETHINKING INSTITUTIONS **Seminar 456: August 1997 a symposium on state, civil society and mediating structures 12 THE PROBLEM Bishnu N. Mohapatra, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi 17 CIVIL SOCIETY AND LIBERAL NORMS Ashok Acharya, doctoral candidate, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Canada 21 CASTE AND DEMOCRACY Hans Blomkvist, Associate Professor, Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden 26 POLITICAL PARTIES AND SOCIETAL VALUES Satish Saberwal, Sociologist; till recently with the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi 32 GADDAR: EMBODYING MANY INSTITUTIONS Kancha Ilaiah, Department of Political Science, Central University of Hyderabad 36 UNIVERSITY UNDER SIEGE Kuldeep Mathur, Director, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Delhi 39 ENSURING SUSTAINABILITY Amulya Kumar N. Reddy, Director, International Energy Initiative, Bangalore 42 CLEANING UP Seminarist, artist and commentator on cultural affairs 45 PUBLIC HOSPITALS Sunil K. Pandya, Professor, K.E.M. Hospital, Mumbai 52 THE UDUPI MADHVA MATHA M.A. Vasudeva Rao, doctoral fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Delhi 56 BUILDING INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS Daya Krishna, Philosopher, in an interview with Shail Mayaram, Fellow, Institute for Development Studies, Jaipur 62 BOOKS Reviewed by Satish Saberwal, Sudha Pai, Rakesh Hooja, Bishnu N. Mohapatra and Omkar Goswami 72 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates EMPOWERING WOMEN **Seminar 457: September 1997 a symposium on political reservations for women 12 THE PROBLEM a short statement of the issues involved 14 HISTORICAL SOUNDINGS Vina Mazumdar, Chairperson, Centre For Women's Development Studies, Delhi 20 RESERVATIONS ABOUT FURTHER RESERVATION Vasudha Dhagamwar, Executive Director, MARG (Multiple Action Research Group), Delhi 23 DEMOCRACY AND RESERVATION Malini Bhattacharya, Professor, Jadavpur University, Calcutta; former CPI(M) Member of Parliament 25 THE WOMEN'S RESERVATION BILL Abhishek M. Singhvi, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court; Additional Solicitor General, India 31 INTERROGATING WRB 1996 Usha Ramanathan, Indian Law Institute, Delhi 35 WHITHER INDIAN WOMEN? Margaret Alva, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and former Union Minister of State 38 RESERVATIONS AND REPRESENTATION Nivedita Menon, Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi 42 AN IMPORTANT SPRINGBOARD Janaki Nair, Fellow, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai 46 COMMENT Received from Jumana AI-Tamimi, journalist, Jordan 50 FACTFILE 1952-1997 Chandrika Parmar with CSDS Data Unit, Delhi 53 DOCUMENTS Extracts from Towards Equality, Report of the Committee on Status of Women in India (1974); National Pespective Plan for Women (I 988); The Constitution (81st Amendment) Bill (1996); Report of the, Joint Committee on the Constitution (81st Amendment) Bill (1996) 59 BOOKS Reviewed by Meena Dhanda, Susan Visvanathan. Ena Singh, Ruchi Chaturvedi, Shubhada S. Bhave, Usha Ramanathan, Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, Dipavali Debroy, and Sumanta Banerjee 72 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography compiled by Anju Vyas, Librarian, CWDS, Delhi 79 IN MEMORIUM Sanjoy Ghosh, social activist COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates MEDIA TRENDS **Seminar 458: October 1997 a symposium on the press and TV in our times 12 THE PROBLEM Posed by Ajit Bhattacharjea, Director, The Press Institute of India, Delhi 14 DOWN MEMORY LANE H.Y. Sharada Prasad, columnist and former Information Advisor to the prime minister, Delhi 18 THE DISPENSABLE EDITOR Vir Sanghvi, Consulting Editor, Ananda Bazar Group 24 INDIAN-LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS Robin Jeffrey, Professor of Politics, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia 29 ACTIVIST JOURNALS Harsh Sethi, Consulting Editor, 'Seminar', Delhi 34 TV TALES Malvika Singh, Executive Chairperson TVI; and Publisher, 'Seminar', Delhi 39 CODES OF CONDUCT Alexander Nicoll, journalist with 'The Financial Times'(UK): Former Consulting Editor, 'Business Standard', Delhi 43 MEDIA AS COMMERCE Tony Jesudasan, Publisher, the Observer Group, Delhi 46 BUSINESS JOURNALISM Arun Varma, News Coordinator (financial services), Press Trust of India, Delhi 49 THE FREE MARKET JOURNALIST Sagarika Ghose, Special Correspondent, 'Outlook', Delhi 52 THE FAULT, DEAR BRUTUS Raj Kamal Jha, Deputy Editor (editorial operations), 'The Indian Express', Delhi 56 INDEX ON MEDIA Anoop Babani, Assistant Editor, 'Business India', Mumbai 58 AMNESIA P. Sainath, journalist. Mumbai 63 BOOKS Reviewed by Dilip M. Menon. Harsh Sethi, Suhail A. Nathani, Anoop Babani and Bernard lmhasly 73 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography 77 BACKPAGE COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates UNITY OR INCOHERENCE **Seminar 459: November 1997 a symposium on emerging issues in center-state relations 12 THE PROBLEM Posed by Francine R. Frankel, Director. Center for the Advanced Study of India. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA 16 COMPARATIVE DEMOCRATIC FEDERALISM Alfred Stepan. Gladstone Professor, All Soul's College, Oxford University, UK 27 CUTTING STATES TO SIZE Sanjib Baruah, Professor of Political Studies, Bard College, New York, USA 31 A MORE FEDERAL INDIA? Douglas V. Verney, Adjunct Professor and Fellow, CASI, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA 36 THE FEDERAL COALITION Ashis Banerjee, Secretary, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). Delhi 39 INSTRUMENTS OF FEDERALISM Beryl A. Radin, Professor Of Public Administration and Policy, Rockefeller College, State University of' New York at Albany, USA 48 EMERGING FISCAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES D.K. Srivastava, Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Delhi 54 ON FEDERALISM AND REFORM IN INDIA Nirvikar Singh, Department of Economics. University of California, Santa Cruz, USA 63 BOOKS Reviewed by Basudev Chatterji, Vidhu Verma, Denis Vidal, B.K. Joshi, Seminarist, Chandrika Parmar. Sanjaya Baru, Bharat Karnad, Sukumar Muralidharan and Harsh Sethi 80 FURTHER , READING A select and relevant bibliography compiled by Sunita Gulati, IIPA. Delhi 86 BACKPAGE COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates FUTURES **Seminar 460: December 1997 a symposium on critiques of dominant futures studies 12 THE PROBLEM Posed by Ziauddin Sardar, Professor of S&T Policy, Middlesex University; Consulting Editor, 'Futures', UK 19 A SURPRISE FREE FUTURE? Graham H. May, Principal Lecturer in Futures Research, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK 25 THE FUTURE OF KNOWLEDGE Vinay Lai, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA 31 EVADING THE FUTURE EATERS Sohail Inayatullah, Senior Research Fellow, Communications Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia 37 THE ART OF THE FUTURE Scan Cubitt, Reader in Video and Media Studies, John Moores University, Liverpool, UK 42 THE FUTURE OF DISSENT Ashis Nandy, Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi 46 GLOBAL FUTURES Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Associate Professor, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands 56 BOOKS Reviewed by Anindita Mukhopadhyay, Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, Nasir Tyabji,, Raman Mahadevan, Akhilesh Mithal, Mohammad Talib, and D.R. Nagaraj 66 FURTHER READING A select and relevant bibliography compiled by Merryl Wyn Davies, anthropologist and television consultant, Malaysia 69 COMMENT Received from Swami Agnivesh, Delhi and Trevor Allis, Mumbai 77 BACKPAGE COVER Designed by Madhu Chowdhury of Dilip Chowdhury Associates Back to the top