ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Modern Challenges to the Dravidian Movement: The Question of Access and Quality of Higher Education in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu has one the highest g ross e nrolment r at io in h igher e ducation among major states in India at 51.4%. These impressive numbers can be traced to multiple schemes of successive Dravidian g overnments that placed a firm emphasis on caste-based social justice, while also focusing on economic development and mobility. However, the abject quality of h igher e ducation i nstitutions in Tamil Nadu casts a serious shadow on the legacy of the Dravidian Movement. Increased privati s ation, low employability of graduates , and poor quality of h igher e ducation i nstitutions (HEIs) further exacerbate wage disparities and income inequalities, taking away the benefits of caste-based reservations, among other legacies of the Dravidian m ovement. This article analyses the shortcomings of the h igher e ducation model in Tamil Nadu and shows how increased access to higher education does little to acknowledge the socio-economic processes of caste in Tamil Nadu.

The Perils of Neo-liberal Environmentalism in India

Reframing the Environment: Resources, Risk and Resistance in Neoliberal India edited by Manisha Rao, London and New York: Routledge, 2021; pp xix + 220, `995 (hardcover

Of Feminist Selves and Politics

Changing the Subject: Feminist and Queer Politics in Neoliberal India by Srila Roy, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2022; pp 273, $26.95.

Has the Judiciary Abandoned Environment for Neoliberalism?

This paper explains how India's deregulation, decontrolling, and delicensing policies post-1990 have altered the environmental philosophy of the Indian judiciary. We discuss a series of environmental judgments, especially of the Supreme Court, to substantiate our argument that there is a shift in its approach of the Indian Supreme Court from the right to a healthy environment to an exclusionary sustainable development idea that undermines the basic principles of environmental justice. We summarise that neoliberalism has profoundly influenced the nature and pattern of environmental judgments in India. In doing so, we begin our argument on how neoliberal principles are antithetical to the principle of environmental justice, followed by a detailed discussion on the role of the Indian judiciary in environmental litigations challenging infrastructure and massive investment projects driven by neoliberal policies. In this context, one caveat is in order. This article has not covered the environmental judgments of green tribunals in India.

The Unravelling of the Global Political Economy and Sri Lanka’s IMF Solution

Sri Lanka faces an uncertain path to obtaining bailout funding from the International Monetary Fund, while the existing terms of the agreement itself will exacerbate the ongoing economic crisis. Moreover, Sri Lanka’s difficulty in securing the consent of bilateral and private creditors amid great power rivalry reflects the unravelling of the global order. Is there an alternative to austerity in this conjuncture, including possibilities for self-sufficiency?

Political Aspects of ‘Freebies’

The attempts to disparate the state governments’ expenditure on subsidies by the votaries of the neo-liberal fiscal regime, do not stand the scrutiny of facts and reason. The use of terms like “freebies” and “revadi culture” is an assault by the state-capital nexus on the lives of millions of working people, by keeping them vulnerable in order to discipline them, as an integral part of the neo-liberal agenda.

Understanding Metabolic Rift through Assemblage of Land and Intersectional Inequalities in India

Climate change has become one of the most burning concerns of our living times. Using the Marxian concept of ‘metabolic rift’, we illuminate the complex nature-society relationship in India. We do so by understanding the rift advanced by neo-liberal capitalism through the assemblage of land and intersectional inequalities. We argue that the intersecting inequalities based on social (power) relations are exacerbated during climate change ; in particular, the neo-liberal capitalist interventions have created disproportionate impacts of climate change among rural communities shaped by the unequal land relations in India. In the light of the IPCC AR6 report, we indicate few potential mechanisms of healing/repairing the metabolic rift; however, we caution the ineffectiveness of healing efforts without addressing the socio-spatial injustices. We highlight that the equitable redistributional justice challenging the existing socio-spatial power relations remains a critical concern, without which, even in the efforts of repairing the rift, the structural inequalities may still be reproduced in the new landscapes .

Noir Urbanisms in Post-globalisation Hindi Cinema

Dark Fear, Eerie Cities: New Hindi Cinema in Neoliberal India by Sarunas Paunksnis, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019; pp xx + 172, 895.

 

India’s Far from Neo-liberal Economic Order in the Modi Era

India’s economic order is far from neo-liberal. The state, and thus politicians, have retained very substantial powers over market forces. Expectations that the Modi government would liberalise audaciously have been disappointed. Especially since mid-2019, it has used its remaining powers to intimidate corporate interests, in pursuit of its main objective: top-down control over all power centres. Thus, in crucial ways, the economic order has become less liberal (or neo-liberal) than before.

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