India’s Perception, Society, and Development

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Quarrelling with Indian Perceptions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Quarrelling with Indian Perceptions

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 3-12

   3. Dear Departed Ones

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 13-14

   4. Dreaming Bengal

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 15-17

   5. Reforming Babu’s World View

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 19-21

   6. The National Library: A Reader’s Rendition

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 23-26

   7. An Anatomy of ‘Work Culture’

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 27-31

   8. Sketching Tagore as a Social Activist

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 33-41

   9. India’s Family Planning Programme: A Muddle Extraordinary

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 43-49

   10. In Resurrection of Gunnar Myrdal’s Asian Drama

       • Arup Maharatna

       Pages 51-54

3. Market, Media, and Development

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 55-55

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   2. On the Invasion of Neoliberalism into Development Thinking

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 57-64

   3. What Education?

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 65-70

   4. What is Meant by ‘Changing Times’ After All?

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 71-73

   5. Commodities, Comforts, and Chaos

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 75-78

   6. Market, Media, and Mediocrity

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 79-83

   7. Migration, Mediocrity, and Misery

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 85-92

   8. In the Name of ‘Accident’? India’s Road Traffic Deaths and Injuries

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 93-105

   9. The Demography of North-East India: Perilous Pluralism?

      • Arup Maharatna

      Pages 107-127

There has been, of late, a growing realisation that the pace and pattern of economic development of a country can hardly be understood and explained comprehensively in terms of the straitjacket of economics discipline alone. India is a prime example of the importance of the part played by a country's history, culture, sociology, and socio-cultural-religious norms, values, and institutions in its development process. This book, with its assorted essays of varying depths of scholarship and insightful reflections, attempts to drive home this point more forcefully than ever before. In its search for the non-economic roots of India’s overall sloth and murky progress in its broad-based economic and human development, the book illuminates major oddities deep inside a unique mental make-up full of perceptual and ideational dilemmas, many of which are arguably shaped by the long-lasting and dominant influence of what could be called the Brahminical lines of thinking and discourse. With India’s hazy and dodgy world of perceptions as a backdrop, the book also addresses – through its intelligent essays - the deep and sometimes dire ramifications of the historic advent and the dramatic advance of neoliberal market ideology today.

• Hindu Line of Thought
• Indian Perceptions
• Indian Tribes
• Neo-Liberalism and Development
• Socio-Cultural Features and Values

• , Population Research Centre, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Econom, Pune, India

  Arup Maharatna

Arup Maharatna has held the post of Professor at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics since 2001. Prior to his current appointment he was of Professor of Economics and before that Head of Department of Economics at the University of Burdwan. Arup Maharatna did his Masters and Ph.D. in Demography at the London School of Economics from 1988-1992. Futhermore, he did his Bell Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University from 1997-98. He has authored two books/monographs published by the Oxford University Press.

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