Aakar Books
299 books
As the Anthropocene advances, people across the red-green political spectrum seek to understand and halt our deepening ecological crisis. Environmentalists, scientists, and ecosocialists share concerns about the misuse and overuse of natural resources, but often differ on explanations and solutions. Some blame environmental disasters on overpopulation. Others wonder if Darwin’s evolutionary theories disprove Marx’s revolutionary views, or if ...
Paul A. Baran and Paul M. Sweez were two of the leading Marxist economists of the twentieth century. Their seminal work, Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order, published in 1966, two years after Baran's death, was in many respects the culmination of fifteen years of correspondence between the two, from 1949 to 1964. During those years, Baran, a professor of econimics at Stanford, and Sweezy, a former professor of economics at ...
South Asian feminism is in crisis. Under constant attack from right-wing nationalism and religious fundamentalism and co-opted by 'NGO-ization' and neoliberal state agendas, once autonomous and radical forms of feminist mobilization have been ideologically fragmented and replaced. It is time to rethink the feminist political agenda for the predicaments of the present.
This timely volume provides an original and unprecedented exploration of the current state of ...
This book looks at the genealogy of the discourse of 'Indian theatre' where the category 'Indian' assumes national identity which it self-evident. It finds the roots of such grouping in colonial India. It focuses on the transformation of something like the 'grupuscule' or the smallest unit of the group to the 'nation'. In India by the late nineteenth century there was enough discussion in such grupscules often called samiti-s around certain concepts like desh, ...
Randhir Singh (1922-2016) was a great teacher in the classical tradition who theorised and struggled all through his working and academic life to create an egalitarian world. Totality in approach was his sine qua non for comprehending the interconnectivities among disparate elements and the mediations in the pursuit of establishing such equations. Along with the explanation of totality or by way of totality, politics becomes crucial to bring about the desired ...
This book brings together knowledge from V. Gordon Childe based upon his lectures on the principles of archaeological classification, the current terminology and the implicit interpretative concepts. It also examines meanings of technical terms and methodologies used in prehistoric archaeology and would be useful for the students of History, Archaeology and pracising archaeologists.
V Gordon Childe was a remarkable man who is considered the father of modern ...
According to renowned Marxist economist Samir Amin, the recent Arab Spring uprisings comprise an integral part of a massive “second awakening” of the Global South. From the self-immolation in December 2010 of a Tunisian street vendor, to the consequent outcries in Cairo’s Tahrir Square against poverty and corruption, to the ongoing upheavals across the Middle East and Northern Africa, the Arab world is shaping what may become of Western ...
Health is a socially produced phenomenon which expresses itself biologically. This notwithstanding, rather than emphasize provisioning of social conditions that lead to good health, the emphasis of policy makers is on provisioning of health care services as an expedient to ensuring people's health. As regards social determinants of health the underlying presumption seems to be that GDP growth will automatically take care of it in due course of time. However, it ...
This book Written with theoretical rigor, sociological sensibility and poetic beauty - reveals the intensity of classroom lectures and dialogues. In the age of 'virtual intimacy', the authror retains the courage to celebrate the spirit of direct, face-to face classroom interactions. As he delivers a series of lectures on education, pedagogy and cultural politics, and engages with his students at Jawaharlal Nehru University, the book begins to take its shape. It ...
Ever since the worldwide economic crisis in 2008 the world at large and India are mired in a deepening economic crisis threatening in its wake the economic and social security of not just the poor but also a section of the middle classes. Food security is an issue that has dovetailed these developments. It impinges on the very core of the lives of the poor.
Food security issues in India acquired prominence in public policy debate through the 2000s, resulting in ...
The Rashrtiya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliated groups - usually known as the "Sangh Parivar" - are the most powerful organisations in India today. But as what they stand for, and you will get two very different answers. Starting with the RSS’ own texts, and exploring its history and the relationship between its beliefs and Indian politics, the book tries to answer two key questions: what does RSS and its affiliated groups actually stand for, ...
This book is all about the nexus of “state, development intervention and the development community” where the main objective of the development intervention is to enhance the revenue of the State’s economy. The institutional parameters are instrumental in this success. However, these mechanisms are limited to few stages of development, giving very little space to the development communities.
This book is intended to present the contemporary ...
It is a year before Plebiscite and the two provinces of The Lambda - The City and The Frontier - separated from each other by a gate can talk of little else. Governed by the Fairlanders, The Lambda may soon be free. The City is home to the old elite. The Frontier is a land denuded of trees, the pit of factories. The old elite are cobbled into a party, the Dongs. The Partisans urge fellow workers among school teachers, field hands, newspapermen to join the strike ...
The papers included in the collection were presented in the three-day workshop on “Democracy and Democratic Institutions in Social Transformation: 21st Century Perspective”, held in New Delhi, on December 31, 2013 to January 2, 2014, at Jawaharlal Nehru University. It was organized at the initiative of the All India Progressive Forum (AIPF). In the workshop, there were participants from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, ...
The present collection contains papers of the first national workshop organised by the All India Progressive Forum (AIPF) on '21st Century Socialism' in Hyderabad. Socialism is a controversial issue, rendered more controversial by the great collapse of the Soviet Union and the East European socialist regimes. The collapse has reignited the controversies on the nature, path and viability of socialism in its many interpretations.
In the meantime the scientific and ...
This work attempts to engage in a critique of the theses and reports adopted in the sessions of the Congresses of Communist International (CI), popularly known as the Third International. The Four Congresses, 1919-1922 held in Moscow, Russia are considered as the formative years of CI.
Aside from the theoretical arguments over the theses, we examine the steps of socio-economic re-organisation that the Bolsheviks exercised in the name of dictatorship of the ...
During medieval period of Indian history the historical literature generally consisted of dynastic and regional histories, biographies and memoirs. But the failure to assess and study them with reference to their author's social, cultural and religious backgrounds, methods, forms of expression, concept of history and the like has resulted in an incomplete and distorted picture of the times. The writings of the period bear testimony to the fat that the medieval ...