Boulding wondered if the flawless precision of mathematical economics would prove impotent

Messynomics and the Troubles with Money from Coordination Problem by Peter Boettke

Free market economists work in the world of cleanonomics --- a frictionless world where the decentralized decisions of agents are coordinated seemlessly through the price mechanism.  The interventionist economists, and more realistic economists, on the other hand, deals with the messiness of the real world, the frictions in the world, which demonstrate how the price system cannot do its magic perfectly.  Thus, government can in fact improve upon the failures in the market.

The Diamond model on labor search and the matching problem in markets of course fits neatly into this caricature of economic thinking.  But where would Klein place Alchian's work prior to Diamond's on labor search?  Alchian's work fully embraces the frictions that exist in the real world, and attempts to show how market forces work to adjust behavior and evolve practices which ameliorate the messiness and lead to the coordination of plans.  The price system is important precisely because we are not perfect actors, and the world we live in is not perfect either.  Hayek, Buchanan, Coase, North, V. Smith, and L. Ostrom all practice their economics in the messy world of frictions and imperfections.  Yet they all demonstrated how behavior guided by property, prices and profit/loss would adjust and cope with our imperfections.

I often use a 2 x 2 matrix to communicate to students the different schools of thought in economics.  The rows reflect the problem situation we are find ourselves in (simple or complex), the columns reflect the outcome of our interactions (order or disorder).  

• Neoclassical economics is found in the simple/order cell;
• Keynesian and market failure theory is found in the complex/disorder cell;
• Marxism and critics of economics are found in the simple/disorder cell.
• What does that leave?  The complex/order cell and that is the intellectual home of the Classical economists such as Smith-Say, the Austrian school from Menger to Mises to Kirzner, and the New Institutional school of Alchian, Buchanan, Coase, Demsetz, North, Olson, Ostrom, Smith, Tullock and Williamson, etc.

The Austrians occupy a central place in this cell because they emphasize not only the cognitive limitations of man, but also the complications of uncertainty, time, and I think importantly modifications to our core understanding of money and capital.  Money is non-neutral, and the capital structure in an economy consists of combination of heterogeneous capital goods that multiple-specific uses.  Once these propositions are included in the analysis, along with other messy aspects of the real world, our understanding of market theory and the price system shifts drastically.  Nothing can be treated as given.  Everything must fall out of the analysis of exchange and production.  Economic analysis is about economic forces at work, not the analysis of situations after those forces have done their job.

The traditional perfect market versus market failure debate is stale --- the perfect market folks don't tell us how the story of the market unfolds, and the imperfect market folks stop the story short right when it is getting interesting.  Journalist can understand this simple characterization of economic ideas, but economists should know better.  Back in the late 1940s, Kenneth Boulding (John Bates Clark Medal winner in 1949) actually raised this issue in his review of Samuelson's Foundations in the JPE.  Boulding wondered if the flawless precision of mathematical economics would prove impotent in terms of dealing with the real world in comparison with the literary vagueness of classical economics and economic sociology.  Not many listened to Boulding, and instead of doing messynomics in the sense of complex/order cell, we got a stale debate between simple/order and complex/disorder. And it still is going on today.

This is not just an esoteric debate in economic method and methodology, it is a widely practical debate about the way markets actually work and the institutional environment that is either conducive to economic progress or inhibits economics progress.  One of the key issues is in the analysis of the cost of inflation.  If money is neutral, then the cost of inflation on society are widely different than if we understand the non-neutral aspect of money.  There are reasons to be concerned with inflation if money is merely a veil, but not to be acutely concerned.  But if money is non-neutral, inflation is extremely damaging to the economy through the distortions in the pattern of resource use it engenders.  And if the structure of production in the economy consists of heterogenous capital goods, each of which have multiple-specific uses, then the distortions to the pattern of resource use result in errors that are very costly to the economic system.  See Steve Horwitz's new paper on "Why Inflation Matters."

You don't need to call this "Austrian" economics, though Mises and Hayek did more than any other economists to get us to think about the messy implications of the world and how the market system and relative price adjustments guides us in copying with the imperfections of man and the world.  But I do think you have to say that "good economics" deals with the imperfections of man and the world in which men find themselves having to deal with one another.  It is the higgling and bargaining of the market as Smith said that is the stuff of our discipline.  Good economics occupies the complex/order cell, because good economics is about explicating the economic forces at work in society to match the most willing supplies and the most willing demanders so that they realize the gains from mutual exchange.  This matching is not simple even for the most basic of product --- you must always remember the I, Pencil story.  The matching within the market coordinates the diverse and often divergent plans of a multitude of individuals, the vast majority of whom are strangers to one another and never will be more than strangers, and who live and work in distant lands, speak different languages, worship differently, and yet somehow through the incentives of property, the information of prices, and the feedback of profit/loss accounting adjust their behavior to coordinate their activities with others through time so that goods and services consumers want are produced at the most cost effective way and delivered to the market.  Good economics should not just tell the final chapter of the story of economic life, and it should never cut the story short before it has had the chance to develop.  No, good economics is to be found in the unfolding story of economic life --- in those economic forces at work, in a world full of imperfections, in how the dynamic adjustments made by men result in a variety of coping mechanism for our ignorance and for the complexity of the world within which we find ourselves interacting with one another.  It is the messynomics of real world that is best explained by those occupying the intellectual space of complex/order.  Time we focused more on that, then the simplistic dichotomization between perfect markets and market failure.

Lori Z has left a new comment on your post "Neat People vs. Sloppy People": 

We need sloppy people in this world to make it a better place. It’s not so bad to be a sloppy person after all. Posted by Lori Z to Evergreen Essays at 7:44 AM, October 14, 2010

intersectionality and animal studies from Critical Animal by Scu

Without a doubt one of the biggest moves in animal studies these days is to talk about intersectionality. There are basically two ways this gets talked about: One is a discussion of the fact that the vegan/animal rights movement tends to be predominately white (my brother pointed this usage out to me when I was talking about this with him earlier). But the other way is to discuss the methods by which speciesism intersects with other oppressions. The classical example (perhaps the first example) would be Carol Adams' The Sexual Politics of Meat, which deals with the intersection of sexism and speciesism. And while interlocking oppressions (or, oppressions that are enmeshed but still discrete and semi-autonomous) are certainly important, intersectionality has traditionally carried with it a level of subjectivity that seems to be missing in these discussions. To clarify, when Crenshaw first developed the term (and the way it has been updated by Collins), intersectionality referred to a way that interlocking oppressions produced/shaped a subjectivity that exceeded the sum of those oppressions. So, the experience of a black could not be reduced to either the experiences of a white woman or a black man, or even those experiences combined. And while the term has developed a level of plasticity in the last two decades of its existence, in all the work deploying the term I am aware of, intersectionality continues to have a level of subjectivity to it. However, when most animal scholars are using the term, they are not saying that, for example, female animals have a unique intersection of oppression that is different from male animals or female humans (though this might be an interesting topic). What animal scholars are usually saying is that racism, sexism, classism, etc are bound up with speciesism. Now, I think that intersectionality is perhaps a confusing term to be using in these contexts, maybe even a misleading term. Maybe we need a different term, or if animal scholars are going to insist on using the term, at least they need to address the changes the term is undergoing in their work.

Golconde, Puducherry, India

The architect as critic Sify Himanshu Burte 2010-10-02 

Charles Correa is widely acknowledged as one of the masters of contemporary architecture. This collection confirms that he is also a lucid writer who illuminates issues related to architecture and urban planning in important and interesting ways. It pulls together a number of his essays and lectures published or presented in scattered fora. Surprisingly, this mosaic holds together well. It is perhaps the closest we have got to a testament of the full range of his intellectual concerns about the built environment.

Correa comes across as a thinker-practitioner concerned as much with the small lives and spaces of the city as with the big architectural or urban gesture. We also realise how closely the critical faculty is tied to creativity. There is an astonishingly lucid critique of Le Corbusier’s Assembly building in Chandigarh (published in 1964, while the French master was still alive). Here, a lyrical description of the context and concept of the building (and complex) is matched by a devastatingly matter-of-fact record of the master’s design failure.

In essays that follow Correa is equally at ease telling the West where it has lost some of the plot in architecture. His diagnosis is no diatribe (his criticism of Indian failures is no less trenchant), and is convincing on its own terms. Doubtless, it is this willingness and capacity to take a position outside existing pieties that gives Correa’s architecture and planning work its special force.

Poetry in concrete

Golconde’ is a residential building built between 1936 and 1942 to house inmates of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry with support from the Nizam of Hyderabad. What makes it extraordinary is that it is a fully RCC building, and perhaps the earliest ‘exposed concrete’ building in India undertaken almost 20 years before Chandigarh was begun. And how well its concrete has withstood the harsh Indian climate!

But perhaps this elegant, and much needed monograph would not have been published hadn’t Golconde been an astonishingly elegant, and profound, creation. It has all that you would expect out of modern architecture in India: excellent orientation (the sun never enters any room directly) and detailing for interior comfort, simple materials, spectacular craftsmanship, and technological innovation in hard times.

The relatively modest project involved an unlikely international cast. The building was designed by Antonin Raymond, a renowned architect practising in Japan who had trained with Frank Lloyd Wright. His representative on site was George Nakashima who would go on to become an internationally-renowned furniture designer. The ultimate client was The Mother (a French citizen), the spiritual guide of the Aurobindo Ashram, and the project was managed by Udar Pinto.

But the truly astonishing thing is how high the odds were against the building getting built. There was no money and no precedent for its technology in India, so the relevant skills had to be created through training and quality control. Cement and steel were scarce resources. And the design was highly customised, down to the hardware even.

The book outlines this story through accounts and quotes from some of the people involved in the project. We get a good sense of the different facets of the story, though this is not a proper history of the project.

Some of the original drawings are reproduced along with archival photographs of the building and its surroundings, but these are often too small in size to be readable. Despite these shortcomings, this excellently produced book is a valuable addition to the slowly growing library of books on contemporary Indian architecture.

Gold rush 'furthered the cause of cultural diversity' > Gold News Tuesday, 29th January 2008

The American gold rush encouraged the continent's cultural and ethnic diversity, it has been observed. Matt and Betty Bailey, residents of Dutch Flat, told the Colfax Record that California's mining boom welcomed people from all over the world to the golden state.

"A lot of the Europeans immigrating to America were told to go west. The opportunity to homestead a plot of land was almost too good to be true. So they came - by boat, wagon and then later, by train," said Mr Bailey.

According to the resident, many people fail to realise that the gold rush took place relatively recently - he noted that his mother remembers watching teams of oxen and wagons trailing through Santa Cruz. The report maintained that while many people flocked to California to make a fortune in gold, even those who failed to strike it rich felt their journey was worthwhile.

Immigrants seeking treasures found "a new home, a new beginning and an opportunity for a new life", states the publication. The California gold rush began when the metal was first discovered in state in 1848.

Dalits are ever ready to demolish the Puranic Hinduism

Tamil says: September 2, 2010 at 12:22 PM

The actual problem is, the present day educated, urban innocent Hindus don’t know about their own religion. To them Hinduism is a Noble religion. This Noble impression they got because of Swami Vivekananda (SV) and Sri Aurobindo (SA). These 2 saints, very good at heart had actually what they propagated was Upanishad part of Hinduism, which was discarded by Brahmins Long ago. Carefully Notice all the saints who popularized Upanishadic philosophy are Non-Brahmin upper caste like SV. [...]

The principal problem of India is not education; it is the culture of Puranic Hindusim which is responsible for all the problems in India. Now, the question is the Enlightened, Learned, Good, and Secular Brahmins are they ready to demolish the Puranic Hindusim and Glorify the Upanishadic Hindusim? Are they ready to develop a common public psychology, culture and ethics around Upanishads? The future of India depends upon the answer-action to this question. Dalits are the only people in India, who are ever ready to demolish the Puranic Hinduism, are there any Good Brahmins left who want to join their camp? Do you have any answer?

Reticence in theorizing the nature of democracy vis-à-vis one-party rule

The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Opinion | Dial M for modernity - What is right with the CPI(M)? Prabhat Patnaik Front Page > Opinion Thursday , September 16 , 2010 [...] CPI(M) still continues to attract some of the finest young minds of the country? The answer is three-fold, and everything I say about the CPI(M) holds generally for the organized Left as a whole. 

• First, it is the only modern force in Indian politics; 
• second, it is the only consistently democratic force in Indian politics; and 
• third, it is the only consistently anti-imperialist force in Indian politics.

Of the two main non-Left political formations in the country, one appeals to Hindutva, and the other appeals to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Both thrive on the essentially feudal features of our society. The CPI(M), in contrast, does not owe its being to the identity of Prakash Karat’s grandfather, or of Sitaram Yechury’s father-in-law. It represents, in that sense, the only residual link to the modernity of the anti-colonial struggle. The Congress, which retained the leadership of the anti-colonial struggle throughout its decisive phase, was largely a modern force during that struggle and, for a while, even after Independence. The leaders were more or less equal, debate was free, and sycophancy, let alone dynastic politics, conspicuous by its absence. Dynastic politics entered the Congress at a later date.

The Hindutva group, in contrast, never had anything to do with the anti-colonial struggle; its political formation always was, and still remains, a front for an organization that is fundamentally pre-modern in its orientation and appeal. But while modernity was absent from the one and abandoned by the other, it still characterizes the CPI(M) as a political force.

Both the non-Left formations have also, at different times, sought to abrogate the democratic nature of our polity. The Congress imposed upon this country the infamous Emergency, which ended only because of a miscalculation on its part and not because of any change of heart — indeed, to this day, it has not expressed any contrition on this score. And the Hindutva formation toyed for long with the idea of altering the Constitution of the country and even set up a commission to suggest recommendations for doing so, until K.R. Narayanan, then the president, stepped in to end that effort. The CPI(M) was in the forefront of opposition on both these occasions. Although the CPI transgressed on the earlier occasion, for which it was later critical of itself.

The CPI(M)’s systematic defence of the democratic rights of the people has paradoxically been somewhat belied by its own reticence in theorizing the nature of democracy in societies like ours, and by the pervasive association — derived from historical experience but lacking any theoretical justification — of communism with one-party rule. But this defence has been as steadfast as it has been forceful. In contrast, on the issue of secularism, where the party, free of any historical baggage, has been more forthright in theorizing its praxis, its role in defending secularism has been more widely acknowledged.

Critics often point to this or that misdemeanour on the part of the CPI(M) cadre, this or that action on the part of the CPI(M) ‘hoodlums’ to contest the CPI(M)’s commitment to democracy. But even if each of the alleged misdemeanours happens to be true, it would be crass empiricism — or, what comes to the same thing, crass moralism — to deny the CPI(M)’s historical commitment to democracy from a set of individual incidents of the sort that all political formations at the ground level can be accused of.

But even more significant than the two features mentioned above is the CPI(M)’s consistent commitment to anti-imperialism, which indeed constitutes its real differentia specifica. […]

The central question of the last hundred years has been the nature of the modernity brought by imperialism to the periphery. The national movement was fought on this issue. The progressive elements of the national movement, who split off to form the Communist Party, believed that authentic modernity could come only by an alternative route, socialism. While the promise of socialism has been belied for the moment, and many (perhaps including even Amartya Sen) have seen in neo- liberalism the promise of a progressive modernity, the CPI(M) has never given up its perspective on imperialism. It has seen in neo- liberalism the form that imperialism takes in the current epoch, and has continued to hold up a vision of an alternative anti-imperialist modernity. (This, notwithstanding a passing phase of naïve ‘developmentalism’ in West Bengal, for which it has been self-critical.) Anti-imperialism, it believes, is not a ‘fundamentalist’ but a modernist position. And that, in my view, is what is right about the CPI(M). The author is professor, Centre for Economic Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Plight of Bengali Hindus

Internship & Voluntary

It is a great opportunity for people to work and stay as volunteers in Auroville and to get to know a very different way of sharing life with others. ...

Sri Aurobindo's advice and Bengali Hindus: Hindus still suffer the same as in 1935 - Organiser  September 26, 2010 By Anirban Ganguly

The reply Sri Aurobindo gave on September 16, 1935 - nearly 75 years ago to the date - was itself portentous, 'That (India's independence) is all settled. ...

Unless this cry for succour and vindication is answered today in a sustained and concerted manner the Bengali Hindu’s retreat, decay and extinction shall perhaps be a process - irreversible, inevitable, inescapable.

What colour your terror? | Deccan Chronicle | 2010-09-09 Tarun Vijay

Saffron is not just the first colour in our tricolour, it’s the colour of Mother India. Hindu nationalism was always identified with Bharat’s aspirations and her soul. Sri Aurobindo said that Sanatan Dharma, the eternal values denoted by Indian civilisation, is our nationalism.

BJP dyed saffron in Hindutva - D. Raja

We should remember that Swami Vivekananda wore saffron robes, but this did not make him give Hindutva speeches around the world or become a part of the Hindutva bandwagon. It is a fallacy and distortion to suggest that the Hindutva forces represent Hindus. If Hinduism was a way of life, then the Hindutva ideology proposes to be an extremist way of life.

The BJP is far from being representative of Hindu sentiments, leave alone its sole representative. When it makes semantic noises about colours, shades and their relation to culture and valour, it is only seeking to survive politically. — D. Raja, MP and national secretary, CPI

Anilbaran Roy was well known as a firebrand

Mother India: monthly review of culture: Volume 59 - Sri Aurobindo Ashram - 2006
Anilbaran Roy, who lived in the Ashram Main Building just above the present Reading Room, was well known as a firebrand ... Professor of English and Economics, Anilbaran Roy had joined the Revolutionary movement inspired by Deshbandhu ...

Mother India: monthly review of culture Sri Aurobindo Ashram - 2004
For Anilbaran Roy, there was no period of transition at all. After coming back from Bengal on 10 December 1926, he wrote in his diary, "Sri Aurobindo has retired and Mirra Devi has taken charge of creating a new world. ...

Contemporary Indian philosophy - Page 339 - Basant Kumar Lal - 2005 - 346 pages

Roy, Anil Baran, The World Crisis (Sri Aurobindo's vision of the future). George Allen and Unwin Ltd., London, 1947.

Sujata Nahar, Michel Danino, Shankar Bandyopadhyay – 2005

Anilbaran Roy (3 July 1890 - 3 November 1974), a professor of Philosophy. At the call of Deshbandhu CR Das he joined politics and became one of the leaders of the Freedom Struggle as waged by Mahatma Gandhi, and went to jail. ...

Clothing Gandhi's nation: homespun and modern India - Lisa Trivedi - 2007 - 205 pages 

Anil Baran Roy, who had already established himself as a scholar of Hinduism, raised his concerns about swadeshi in newspapers in the mid- 1920s and later published two booklets that challenged the dogma surrounding the spinning wheel....

Bengal's response to Gandhi - Chandi Charan Biswas - 2004 - 302 pages

members of the Bengal Legislative Council, Anil Baran Roy and Satyen Mitra, were included among those arrested. The arrests; made partly under Regulation 111 of 1 8 1 8 and partly under the Bengal Ordinance promulgated by the ...

Netaji Subhas confronted the Indian ethos, 1900-1921: Yogi Sri ... - Page 139 - Adwaita P. Ganguly - 2003 - 224 pages
Prophets of New India, English Translation by EF Malcolm-Smith (1930) Roy, Anilbaran. Sri Aurobindo and the New Age (1940) Roy, Dilip Kumar. Among the Great (1940) Sri Aurobindo Came to Me (Reminiscences), with a Foreword by KR...

Banglapedia: national encyclopedia of Bangladesh: Volume 2 - Sirajul Islam, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh - 2003 - 415 pages 

he remarked that Swaraj would not come without Hindu-Muslim unity. He was supported in his stance by a considerable number of Congressmen in Bengal. JM Sengupta, Subhas Chandra bose, Kiran Shankar Roy, Anil Baran Roy, Pratap Chandra Guha Roy ...

Proceedings of the Indian History Congress: Volume 62 - Indian History Congress - 2002
of the party like Subhas Bose, Chief Executive Officer of the Calcutta Corporation, Satyen Mitra, MLC and the Secretary of Bengal Swaraj Party, Anil Baran Roy, MLC and the Secretary of ...

Congress politics in Bengal, 1919-1939 - Srilata Chatterjee - 2002 - 253 pages

patronized by CR Das, PC Roy, Anil Baran Roy of the Bankura District Congress Committee, Bijoy Krishna Chatterjee, lawyer and member of the Swarajya Party, Ramananda Chatterjee and Swami ...

Subhas, a political biography - Sitanshu Das - 2001 - 634 pages - Snippet view
the secretary of state for India, were wholly groundless and trumped up to hold leaders like Subhas Bose, Anil Baran Roy, general secretary of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee, and Satyendranath Mitra, ...

Gleanings of the past and the science movement: in the diaries of ...  - Arun Kumar Biswas - 2000 - 441 pages
Dr. Meghnad Saha was engaged in a debate with Anil Baran Roy and Mohini Mohan Dutta on the nature of the ancient Indian civilization and the belief of the orthodox faithful that all the knowledge is to be found in the Vedas. ...

Vivekananda: his gospel of man-making with a garland of tributes ...  - Jyotirmayananda (Swami.) - 2000 - 960 pages
What spiritual import this going forth of Vivekananda had for Sri Aurobindo's personal yoga has been narrated by Sri Anil Baran Roy, a faithful disciple: "....I asked Sri Aurobindo wherefrom he got this idea. ...

Sri Aurobindo Ashram: its role, responsibility, and future ... - Jugal Kishore Mukherjee - 1997 - 91 pages
A French army engineer Phillipe Barbier Saint-Hillaire (Pavitra) came and settled down in. And the following year saw the arrival of Anil Baran Roy. ...

The twin in the twist: Bose and Gandhi - Ranjit Sen - 1997 - 196 pages 

members of the Bengal Legislative Council, Mr. Anil Baran Roy and Mr. SC Mitra were arrested under the Regulation III of 1818. One of the main purposes of the Government for arresting Subhas Chandra Bose was to paralyse the ...

Gandhi and the Congress - Page 184 - Shiri Ram Bakshi - 1996 - 349 pages
Anil Baran Roy, last year's and this year's General Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee. This action of Government was strongly condemned all over the country, it being stated that, under the pretext of crushing ...

Political thinkers of modern India: Chittaranjan Das - Verinder Grover - 1993 - 506 pages
Satyendra Chandra Mitra, Anil Baran Roy, Surendra Mohan Ghose, and many others, who by their dynamism and devoted work proved a tower of strength to Deshbandhu. On hearing the news, in spite of his extreme ill-health, ...

Political thinkers of modern India: Chittaranjan Das - Verinder Grover - 1993 - 506 pages
Mr. Anil Baran Roy has since retired from politics and joined the Ashrama of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh at Pondicherry . Mr. SC Mitra has since joined the Assembly and been a prominent member of the opposition between 1928 and 1934. ...

History of Bangladesh, 1704-1971 Sirajul Islam, Harun-or-Rashid, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh - 1992
Anil Baran Roy of Bankura who was imprisoned for his political activity in 1924, left politics after his release in 1926 and joined Aurobindo in Pondicherry for his 'spiritual uplift'. So among Das's recruits, the only leader left with ...

Gandhi: pan-Islamism, imperialism, and nationalism in India - Bal Ram Nanda - 1989 - 438 pages
It did not, however, go down very well with the Muslim community; it smacked of cowardice or unmanliness. Anil Baran Roy, a Bengali politician, recalled how, when a hartal was being organized in Calcutta on the occasion of the Prince of ...

antibritish Surendra Mohan (Madhu) Ghosh (1893 b): 

A prominent leader of Dhaka Anushilan party, Surendra also led the Mymensingh revolutionary group and later joined the Jugantar party with his group. Joining the Congress during the Non-cooperaion movement, Surendra became the president of Mymensingh District Congress in 1928 and that of Bengal Congress in 1938. Elected to the Indian Constituent Assembly in 1946 and to the Lok Sobha in 1962 to become the deputy leader of Bengal Congress parliamentary party.

Gandhi's Spinning Wheel & Barefoot Husain

Gandhi’s use of the spinning wheel was one of the most significant unifying elements of the nationalist movement in India. Spinning was seen as an economic and political activity that could bring together the diverse population of South Asia, and allow the formerly elite nationalist movement to connect to the broader Indian population.

This book looks at the politics of spinning both as a visual symbol and as a symbolic practice. It traces the genealogy of spinning from its early colonial manifestations in Company painting to its appropriation by the anti-colonial movement. This complex of visual imagery and performative ritual had the potential to overcome labour, gender, and religious divisions and thereby produce an accessible and effective symbol for the Gandhian anti-colonial movement. By thoroughly examining all aspects of this symbol’s deployment, this book unpacks the politics of the spinning wheel and provides a model for the analysis of political symbols elsewhere. It also probes the successes of India’s particular anti-colonial movement, making an invaluable contribution to studies in social and cultural history, as well as South Asian Studies. About the Author

Rebecca M. Brown is visiting Associate Professor in Political Science and the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University, US, researching colonial and post-independence in South Asia. Her publications include Art for a Modern India, 1947–1980 (2009) and Asian Art (co-edited with Deborah S. Hutton, 2006).

Religious Cultures in Early Modern India: New Perspectives (South Asian History and Culture) by Rosalind O'Hanlon and David Washbrook (Jun 26, 2011)

Gender and Neoliberalism in India: The All India Democratic Womens Association and Globalization Politics (Routledge Research in Gender and Society) by Elisabeth Armstrong (Mar 15, 2011)

The Postcolonial Secular Imagination (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures) by Manav Ratti (May 1, 2011)

A History of State and Religion in India (Routledge Studies in South Asian History)by Ian Copland, Ian Mabbett, Asim Roy, and Adam Bowles (May 2011)

Terrorism and Insurgency in Indian-english Literature: Writing Violence and Empire by Alex Tickell (May 2011)

Global Bollywood: Culture, Diaspora and Border Crossings in Popular Hindi Cinema (Global Institutions) by Rajinder Kumar Dudrah (Feb 1, 2011)

Democratic Culture: Historical and Philosophical Essays (Critical Interventions in Theory and Praxis) by Akeel Bilgrami (Jan 25, 2011)

Insurgent Sepoys: Europe Views the Revolt of 1857 by Shaswati Mazumdar (Jan 25, 2011)

Communalism and Globalization in South Asia and its Diaspora (Intersections: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories) by Deana Heath and Chandana Mathur (Jan 17, 2011)

Becoming a Borderland: Space and Identity in Colonial Northeastern India (Transition in Northeastern India) by Sanghamitra Misra (Jan 11, 2011)

Traversing Tradition: Celebrating Dance in India (Celebrating Dance in Asia and the Pacific) by Urmimala Sarkar Munsi and Stephanie Burridge (Jan 11, 2011)

Wronging Rights?: Philosophical Challenges for Human Rights (Ethics, Human Rights and Global Political Thought) by Aakash Singh Rathore and Alex Cistelecan (Jan 11, 2011)

Militant and Migrant: The Politics and Social History of Punjab by Radhika Chopra(Dec 26, 2010)

Western Sociologists on Indian Society: Marx, Spencer, Weber, Durkheim, Pareto (Routledge Revivals) by G. R. Madan (Dec 15, 2010)

Bengali Cinema: 'An Other Nation' (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series) bySharmistha Gooptu (Nov 27, 2010)

Modern South Asia: A Sourcebook and Reader - Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal (Nov 26, 2010)

History and the Making of a Modern Hindu Self by Aparna Devare (Nov 25, 2010)

The Indian Postcolonial: A Critical Reader by Elleke Boehmer and Rosinka Chaudhuri(Nov 22, 2010)

Gandhi's Spinning Wheel and the Making of India (Routledge Studies in South Asian History) by Rebecca M. Brown (Sep 22, 2010)

Barefoot across the Nation: M F Husain and the Idea of India (Visual and Media Histories) by Sumathi Ramaswamy (Oct 26, 2010)

This book is the first inter-disciplinary engagement with the work of Maqbool Fida Husain, arguably India’s most iconic contemporary artist today, whose life and work are intimately entangled with the career of independent India as a democratic, secular and multi-ethnic nation. For more than half a century, and across thousands of canvases, Husain has painted individuals and objects, events and incidents that offer an astonishing visual chronicle of India through the ages.

The 13 articles in this volume – written by distinguished artists, curators, anthropologists, historians, art historians and critics, sociologists and scholars of post-colonial literature and religion – critically examine the artistic statement that Husain has presented on the self, community and nation through his oeuvre. It engages with the controversies that have erupted around and about Husain’s work, and situates them in debates around the freedom of the artist versus the sentiments of the community, between ‘virtue’ and ‘obscenity’, between an ‘elite’ of intellectuals and the ‘common man’, and between a ‘work of art’ and a ‘religious icon’. Correspondingly it considers how India has responded to Husain: with affection, admiration and adulation on the one hand, and hostility and rejection on the other.

This book is more relevant than ever before in light of the debates that have arisen over Husain’s self-imposed exile for the last few years following a spate of violent attacks on his home and exhibitions in India, and his recent decision to forfeit his Indian citizenship.

It will be of interest to those studying art history, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and politics, as well as to a wide spectrum of readers interested in contemporary issues of identity and nationhood. About the Author: Sumathi Ramaswamy is Professor of History at Duke University. 

Religion, Community and Development: Changing Contours of Politics and Policy in India (Religion and Citizenship) Gurpreet Mahajan, ... (Jul 22, 2010)

Power and Influence in India: Bosses, Lords and Captains (Exploring the Political in South Asia) by Pamela Price and Arild Engelsen Ruud (Oct 26, 2010)

Gender and Radical Politics in India: Magic Moments of Naxalbari (1967-1975) (Routledge Studies in South Asian History) by Mallarika Sinha Roy (Oct 13, 2010)

Sovereignty and Social Reform in India: British Colonialism and the Campaign against Sati, 1830-1860 (Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series) byAndrea Major (Dec 13, 2010)

Civility and Empire: Literature and Culture in British India, 1821-1921 (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures) by Anindyo Roy (Dec 23, 2004)

Nation, Diaspora, Trans-nation: Reflections from India by R. K. Jain (Nov 25, 2010)

From Oppression to Assertion: Women and Panchayats in India by Nirmala Buch(Sep 25, 2010)

Passionate Modernity: Sexuality, Class, and Consumption in India by Sanjay Srivastava (Apr 17, 2007)

Gender and Sexuality in India: Selling Sex in Chennai (Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series) by Salla Sariola (Dec 15, 2009)

The History of Vegetarianism and Cow-Veneration in India (Routledge Advances in Jaina Studies) by Ludwig Alsdorf, Translated by Bal Patil, and Willem Bollee (Mar 22, 2010)

Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism (Routledge South Asian Religion Series) by Esther Bloch, Marianne Keppens, and Rajaram Hegde(Feb 8, 2010)

Churchill, Roosevelt and India: Propaganda During World War II (Routledge Studies in Modern History) by Auriol Weigold (Jun 18, 2008)

Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures) by Priyamvada Gopal (Jul 12, 2005)

Romantic Representations of British India (Routledge Studies in Romanticism) by Michael J. Franklin (Oct 31, 2006)

English Writing and India, 16001920: Colonizing Aesthetics (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures) by Pramod K. Nayar (Oct 30, 2007)

Women, Identity and India's Call Centre Industry (Routledge Research on Gender in Asia Series) by JK Tina Basi (Jun 18, 2009)

Historiography and Writing Postcolonial India (Routledge Studies in South Asian History) by Naheem Jabbar (Aug 10, 2009)

Globalization and Religious Nationalism in India: The Search for Ontological Security (Routledge Advances in International Relations and Global Politics) byCatarina Kinnvall (May 14, 2009)

The Construction of History and Nationalism in India: Textbooks, Controversies and Politics (Routledge Advances in South Asian Studies) by Sylvie Guichard (Jul 30, 2010)

Nationalism and Post-Colonial Identity: Culture and Ideology in India and Egypt (Routledge Advances in Middle East and Islamic Studies) by Anshuman A. Mondal(Oct 20, 2003)

Party System Change in South India: Political Entrepreneurs, Patterns and Processes (Routledge Advances in South Asian Studies) by Andrew Wyatt (Jan 28, 2010)

In So Many Words: Womens Life Experiences from Western and Eastern India by Aparna Basu (Apr 29, 2008)

Maoism in India: Reincarnation of Ultra-Left Wing Extremism in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series) by Bidyut Chakrabarty and Rajat Kumar Kujur (Nov 30, 2008)

Performers and Their Arts: Folk, Popular and Classical Genres in a Changing Indiaby Simon Charsley and Laxmi N. Kadekar (Jun 18, 2007)

Settlers, Saints and Sovereigns: An Ethnography of State Formation in Western India by Farhana Ibrahim (Jun 2, 2009)

Dance Matters: Performing India on Local and Global Stages by Pallabi Chakravorty and Nilanjana Gupta (Feb 3, 2010)

Retro-modern India: Forging the Low-caste Self (Exploring the Political in South Asia) by Manuela Ciotti (Apr 14, 2010)

Chaste Wives and Prostitute Sisters: Patriarchy and Prostitution among the Bedias of India by Anuja Agrawal (Oct 1, 2007)

Indias Middle Class: New Forms of Urban Leisure, Consumption and Prosperity (Cities and the Urban Imperative) by Christiane Brosius (Apr 14, 2010)

Religion and Commodification: 'Merchandizing' Diasporic Hinduism (Routledge Research in Religion, Media and Culture) by Vineeta Sinha (Sep 30, 2010)

Satyagraha: The Gandhian Faith in Non-Violence (Routledge South Asian Religion Series) by Jesse Van Der Valk (Jul 1, 2004)

Spirals of Contention: Why India was Partitioned in 1947 by Satish Saberwal (Feb 28, 2009)

Motherhood in India: Glorification without Empowerment? by Maithreyi Krishnaraj(Nov 3, 2009)

Of the five major sociologists whose views on Indian society are assessed in this work, originally published in 1979, Marx and Weber made a special study of the subject and had something definite to say about the future of Indian society. Herbert Spencer was primarily concerned with the effects of colonial rule on India's progress, while Durkheim and Pareto tended to observe Indian society from a comparative point of view. However, as this study shows, all five sociologists touched on two special aspects of Indian society -- Indian religion and the caste system. The other features of Indian society which they discussed in their various writings range widely from marriage and family structure, through village communities and the social structure of cities, to political organization, the educational system, economic conditions, and the future progress of Indian society. Dr Madan demonstrates the correctness of Marx's contention that the political subordination of India was the one great hindrance to the future progress of Indian Society. He points out, though, that Marx failed to see clearly the effects of the caste system on economic development, and shows that this aspect was more correctly assessed by Max Weber. On the other hand, in Dr Madan's view, Weber's observation that Indian religion was 'other-worldly' and therefore a great obstacle to progress in Indian society lacked incisiveness. By focusing on a neglected aspect of the writings of five of the great figures in sociology, the book gives a new insight into their work, and at the same time highlights many hitherto unrecognized facets of India's complex social structure.