Humanism & After

Calcutta: A remarkable breed of teachers have been mentoring students in the Department of English, Jadavpur University, on that much maligned way of life: humanism. The dual challenge to humanism on the grounds that (i) it inculcates the worst kind of conservative essentialism [a radical left slogan]and (ii) that it is a Western imperialistic import, ill-suited for the Indian mind [a rightist outcry] is critically and routinely being scruitinised by such teachers as Sukanta Chaudhuri, Supriya Chaudhuri, Amlan Dasgupta and Swapan Chakrabarty. The verdict: a belief in the dignity of the human beings is still the most reliable yardstick. http://www.jadavpur.edu/

Centre for Studies in Social Sciences http://www.socialsciencecal.org. Still a refuge for some brilliant social scientists. Now working--Andre Bettaile, Partha Chatterjee, Gautam Bhadra and Tapati Guha-Thakurta.

Delhi: Among  a fast diminishing breed stands Mushirul Hassan,Andre Bettaile and Amrik Singh, all three members of the Advisory Panel on Enlargement of Fundamental Rights. What binds these three are not their individual academic brilliance, which are outstanding anyway,but the rare quality to stand for individual merit and combine that with whatever is positive in traditional practices.  All three write, speak and act routinely against narrow divisiveness in public life. 

Moderate Secularists: In JNU, now working--Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Rajiv Bhargava, Madhavan Palat and  Neerja Gopal Jayal , to name the most vocal. In  Delhi University, Neera Chandhoke, Valson Thampu and Rohit Wanchoo. In Jamia, Mukul Kesavan.

Bangalore: The name of  young liberal sociologist Ramachandra Guha must come as one of foremost of India's public intellectuals. A Gandhian, ecologist, biographer and an expert on  the game of cricket,Guha is a centrist par excellence in public utterances and has made it his business to extol the unsung.Madhav Gadgil http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/cesmg/ from the Indian Institute of Science has been active in ecodevelopment-oriented participatory research with numerou organizations and he writes and broadcasts extensively in Indian languages and environmental issues.  Supriya RoyChowdhury at Institute For Social and Economic Change, Nagarabhavi, writes on the political culture in India, from a broad based liberal middle ground: For a sample, take a look at <http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003011500241000.htm>

Chennai:Ashok Jhunjhunwala http://www.tenet.res.in/ashok.html leads the Telecommunications and Computer Networks group (TeNeT) at IIT Madras. This group is closely working with industry in the development number of Telecommunications and Computer Network Systems. TeNeT group has incubated a number of R&D companies which work in partnership with TeNeT group to develop world class technologies. The products include corDECT Wireless in Local Loop system, Fibre Access Network, DSL Systems and several other systems. The group has recently incubated a company, which aims to install and operate telephone and Internet in every village in India. The rediff interview: http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/27inter.htm

Conservatism & After