DOCSLIB.ORG

Some Issues in Higher Education D Emand for It

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Some Issues in Higher Education D Emand for It COMMENTARY in the supply of higher education and Some Issues in Higher Education d emand for it. The number of seats available in government-run institutions is much smaller than the number of peo- Shobhit Mahajan ple wanting them. In this environment of scarcity, other players enter the arena A huge gap in the supply of higher igher education is the fl avour of and there is a rush to start institutions to education and demand for it the season; there is scarcely a fi ll the gap, leading inevitably to an has encouraged private sector Hday when it does not feature on oversupply, as is becoming evident with the front pages of newspapers – the private engineering colleges not being participation, but a rigorous I ndian Institute of Technology (IIT) ad- able to fi ll their seats. Like any other eco- regulatory mechanism has mission fracas, the stratospheric cut-offs nomic good that is scarce, market forces to ensure high standards and announced for admission to the Univer- rush in to fi ll the gap. affordability. More alarming is sity of Delhi, the foreign education pro- Except that there is a slight hitch – it viders’ bill, and so forth. turns out that education is not a market the serious shortage of faculty in While these issues are obviously good in our country. And this is true not institutions of higher learning, important, there are some aspects of just in an ethical or moral sense, but unequal access to the institutions, the higher education scenario in India even legally. One cannot run a for-profi t the non-availability of textbooks that have not caught the imagination of educational institution in India. Educa- the mass media in ways that others tional institutions can only be estab- in Indian languages and students have. Maybe these issues have never lished either by a charitable trust or as a who are ill-equipped to handle been highlighted because of the English- Section 25 company that is formed “for the rigours of college education. speaking elite bias of newspaper and the sole purpose of promoting com- television r eporting. merce, art, science, religion, charity or One issue that has been in the news any other useful object”. Crucially, “it though is the commercialisation of higher should intend to apply its profi ts or other education – the mushrooming of private incomes only in promoting its objects”. institutes, universities, colleges and even Thus legally profi ts cannot be taken out the growth of the coaching classes in- of the company but have to be ploughed dustry, like in Kota. The numbers are back into the institution. This means no a stonishing – there were 100 private dividends or other monetary rewards to universities and 129 deemed universities the promoters of the institution. (mostly private) in India as of December Of course, that is not how the real 2011. This is a massive 36% of the total world works. Or else there would not be number of university-level institutions this proliferation of private degree-giving in the country. The number of private shops. What is done is fairly well known professional institutes is equally star- – huge under-the-table capitation fees, tling – there are more than 4,000 private over-invoicing of salaries of genuine em- institutions imparting professional edu- ployees, fake, non-existent employees cation. And the private coaching i ndustry on the rolls, over-invoicing of capital ex- has been estimated to have a turnover of penditure mostly to associated compa- more than Rs 50,000 crore, though this nies of the promoters, consultancy and number must be an underestimate given perks to the promoters, and so on. the nature of the industry. This is then broadly the scenario in Shobhit Mahajan (shobhit.mahajan@gmail. Clearly, the higher education space in the private education space. One should com) is at the department of physics and India is becoming more and more priva- hasten to add that there are some excellent astrophysics, University of Delhi. tised. The reason is obvious – a huge gap private institutions of higher learning 20 august 4, 2012 vol xlviI no 31 EPW Economic & Political Weekly COMMENTARY that maintain standards and provide high- argument is that the state should not be get enormous benefi ts from the state – quality education, especially in the pro- providing any kind of subsidy in terms of subsidised land, power, tax and duty fessional sphere. The following obser- land, power, and infrastructure. As long concessions for importing equipment, vations are not about these exceptions, as this is the case and as long as reason- and so on. In lieu of these, they are which anyway prove the rule. able regulatory requirements are en- obliged to provide cheap healthcare to The question one needs to ask is forced, and enforced well, on these insti- the poor to the extent of a certain per- whether this proliferation is necessarily tutions, there is no reason why their centage of their capacity. This, of course, bad. Interestingly, there are several growth should be curtailed. almost never happens. In the education reasons why it need not necessarily be so. An interesting parallel can be drawn sector, no direct subsidies or concessions with the healthcare sector where the are provided. However, this seems set to Compulsion, Not Choice huge growth in private institutions in change if the recommendations of the First, these institutions are not where r ecent years has almost mirrored the Narayana Murthy panel on higher edu- students go out of choice, in general. growth of private institutions of higher cation are accepted and implemented. Only when a student cannot make it to education. The correspondence can be The recommendations include provid- a government-run institute, say Delhi worked out in a pretty accurate way – ing free land on long leases, freedom U niversity, would she consider going to the mushrooming of nursing homes in from regulation of salaries and huge tax A mity or Sharda University. And this is small moffusil towns is like the huge concessions for funding. If these are im- not just because they are, on an average, number of small degree colleges that plemented, the whole argument needs of poorer quality. It is also because these one sees, for instance, in Uttar Pradesh, to be rethought. institutions are exorbitantly expensive – the medium-rung hospitals are like private Another phenomenon increasingly typically a few lakh rupees per year. professional colleges and the fi ve-star, being noticed in the health sector is lo- After years of dithering, the govern- super-speciality hospitals are like private cal brain drain – some of the best talent ment has started to regulate the fees universities. And this growth has been from prestigious government-run hospitals charged by professional institutions. because of the massive mismatch bet- is moving to private, fi ve-star medical Thus, for instance, business schools can ween demand and supply of quality hospitals. This is not going to happen only charge an amount that the state healthcare services. in any signifi cant way in the education government fi xes, based on their ex- Of course, this is not to argue that the sector in the near future. Unless foreign penditure per student. But like what hap- state should wash its hands off these universities set up shop here. That will pened when capitation fees were banned fundamental necessities. It is a fact be a total game changer – the prestige, by the Supreme Court, promoters fi nd that the government hospitals are not the money and the facilities offered by ways around regulatory constraints. capable, either in quality or quantity, these would obviously persuade the best There is a positive side to these insti- to handle the healthcare needs of a faculty to leave. tutions. Many of them run courses which large majority of the population. The Thus private institutions of higher are non-existent or rarely found in state- solution is obviously increasing the learning are not necessarily bad and run universities. A diploma in apparel reach of state-run, cheap and good- apart from a rigorous regulatory mecha- design or export management is not quality healthcare. But that is not hap- nism, not much needs to be done on this something that would necessarily be pening at a satisfactory pace. Hence the front. It is important to repeat that this is available to a student in Delhi University. huge private participation in this sector, not an argument for the state to step This in itself is not something a priori which may be one of the fastest growing back from the sector. If anything, it is an bad – an economy as varied as ours does in our economy. argument to massively increase the state need a variety of skills and if these are There is, however, a difference. presence in the higher education land- taught professionally (a big if, of course), Whereas, on an average, government- scape to bring some balance to the this is a positive aspect. After all, instead run educational institutions are of higher d emand-supply equation. of thousands of students doing a plain quality compared to private ones, this is This leads us to other related issues. vanilla undergraduate degree in human- not true of healthcare. The quality of Even assuming that the resources can be ities or commerce, if a few hundred or care provided by the state sector com- garnered for a massive increase in state- thousand end up with diplomas in leather pares poorly, across equivalent levels, funded higher education, there remain technology, apparel design and the like, when compared with that offered by the issues of human resources.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Complete List of Books in Library Acc No Author Title of Book Subject Publisher Year R.No
    Complete List of Books in Library Acc No Author Title of book Subject Publisher Year R.No. 1 Satkari Mookerjee The Jaina Philosophy of PHIL Bharat Jaina Parisat 8/A1 Non-Absolutism 3 Swami Nikilananda Ramakrishna PER/BIO Rider & Co. 17/B2 4 Selwyn Gurney Champion Readings From World ECO `Watts & Co., London 14/B2 & Dorothy Short Religion 6 Bhupendra Datta Swami Vivekananda PER/BIO Nababharat Pub., 17/A3 Calcutta 7 H.D. Lewis The Principal Upanisads PHIL George Allen & Unwin 8/A1 14 Jawaherlal Nehru Buddhist Texts PHIL Bruno Cassirer 8/A1 15 Bhagwat Saran Women In Rgveda PHIL Nada Kishore & Bros., 8/A1 Benares. 15 Bhagwat Saran Upadhya Women in Rgveda LIT 9/B1 16 A.P. Karmarkar The Religions of India PHIL Mira Publishing Lonavla 8/A1 House 17 Shri Krishna Menon Atma-Darshan PHIL Sri Vidya Samiti 8/A1 Atmananda 20 Henri de Lubac S.J. Aspects of Budhism PHIL sheed & ward 8/A1 21 J.M. Sanyal The Shrimad Bhagabatam PHIL Dhirendra Nath Bose 8/A2 22 J.M. Sanyal The Shrimad PHIL Oriental Pub. 8/A2 Bhagabatam VolI 23 J.M. Sanyal The Shrimad PHIL Oriental Pub. 8/A2 Bhagabatam Vo.l III 24 J.M. Sanyal The Shrimad Bhagabatam PHIL Oriental Pub. 8/A2 25 J.M. Sanyal The Shrimad PHIL Oriental Pub. 8/A2 Bhagabatam Vol.V 26 Mahadev Desai The Gospel of Selfless G/REL Navijvan Press 14/B2 Action 28 Shankar Shankar's Children Art FIC/NOV Yamuna Shankar 2/A2 Number Volume 28 29 Nil The Adyar Library Bulletin LIT The Adyar Library and 9/B2 Research Centre 30 Fraser & Edwards Life And Teaching of PER/BIO Christian Literature 17/A3 Tukaram Society for India 40 Monier Williams Hinduism PHIL Susil Gupta (India) Ltd.
    [Show full text]
  • The Origins of Non-Violence
    The Origins of Non-violence Tolstoy and Gandhi in Their Historical Settings Martin Green The Origins of Non-violence This book describes the world-historical forces, acting on the periphery of the modern world—in Russia in the nineteenth century—which developed the idea of nonviolence in Tolstoy and then in Gandhi. It was from Tolstoy that Gandhi first learned of this idea, but those world-historical forces acted upon and through both men. The shape of the book is a convergence, the coming together of two widely separate lives, under the stress of history. The lives of Tolstoy and Gandhi begin at widely separate points— of time, of place, of social origin, of talent and of conviction; in the course of their lives, they become, respectively, military officer and novelist, and lawyer and political organizer. They win fame in those roles; but in the last two decades of their lives, they occupy the same special space—ascetic/saint/prophet. Tolstoy and Gandhi were at first agents of modern reform, in Russia and India. But then they became rebels against it and led a profound resistance—a resistance spiritually rooted in the traditionalism of myriad peasant villages. The book’s scope and sweep are enormous. Green has made history into an absorbing myth—a compelling and moving story of importance to all scholars and readers concerned with the history of ideas. www.mkgandhi.org Page 1 The Origins of Non-violence Preface This book tells how the modern version of nonviolence—and Satyagraha, and war-resistance, and one kind of anti-imperialism, even— were in effect invented by Tolstoy and Gandhi.
    [Show full text]
  • Nuclear Information and Resource Service
    NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912 301-270-NIRS (301-270-6477); Fax: 301-270-4291 [email protected]; www.nirs.org "We do not support construction of new nuclear reactors as a means of addressing the climate crisis. Available renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies are faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner strategies for reducing greenhouse emissions than nuclear power." International Organizational Signers (165, as of 12 pm, July 22, 2009) Africa Groupe Martin Luther King, Democratic Republic of Congo Earthlife Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia Community Research and Development Centre, Benin City, Nigeria Earthlife Africa, Cape Town, South Africa Sustainable Energy Africa, Cape Town, South Africa The GreenHouse Project, Durban, South Africa Watercourse, Cape Town, South Africa South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, South Durban, South Africa Pelindaba Working Group/ South African Coalition Against Nuclear Energy, Broederstroom, South Africa Coalition for Peace in Africa, Johannesburg, OR, South Africa Groundwork, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa Environmental Monitoring Group, Cape Town, SK, South Africa Gender and Energy, Cape Town, South Africa Namaqualand Actiongroup for Environmental Justice, Komaggas, South Africa Uganda Environmental Education Foundation, Kampala, Uganda Asia Journalists Against Nuclear Weapons, Thanjavur Chapter, Thanjavur, TN, India All-India Minority Forum, Mumbai, India Indian Doctors for Peace and Development, Luchiana, India Indian Board of
    [Show full text]
  • Knowledge and Belief According to Lanza Del Vasto
    Knowledge and Belief according to Lanza del Vasto Antonino Drago, Naples 1. Religious belief and scientific knowledge communitarian interconnection of several minds this original sin grows up to became two cpecific social In past millennia religious traditions suggested a kind of institutions for exploiting Nature, that is Science and its wisdom from which science divorced since its beginning, application, Technology. By means of such two actors LdV belief being then considered as a backwards attitude with vividly illustrates the advanced life of modern times as respect to the triumphant scientific reason. Apparently, no already represented by the biblical story. In fact, in modern sacred text suggested an adequate analysis on both the times they gained, more than any cultural force of modern admirable intellectual construction built by scientific reason society, an unprecedent authority on all peoples; till to lead and modern way of life, essentially advantaging progress them to entry in a society subjugated by the spirit of with respect to all traditions. possession. Since one century a new attitude on scientific knowledge According to this interpretation LdV holds, in a parallel was proposed by a particular renewal of religious belief, way to Induist tradition and some other religious traditions the non-violent philosophy of life suggested by Tolstoy too, that present Western civilisation represents the great- (Tolstoy 1880), Gandhi (Gandhi 1908) and Lanza del est renewal of the original sin, since for the first time it was Vasto (Lanza del Vasto 1959). All they criticized Western institutionalized in Science and Technology and then it science inasmuch as it is severed from both ethics and was applied world-wide.
    [Show full text]
  • Statement from the Workshop “Path of Nonviolence: Towards a Culture Of
    Pax Christi International/Catholic Nonviolence Initiative Reflections gathered during the workshop on Path of Nonviolence:s Toward s a Culture of Peace 4-5 April 2019, Rome As Christians committed to faithfully following in the footsteps of Jesus, we are called to take a clear stand for active nonviolence and against all forms of violence. In this spirit, people from many nations gathered for Path of Nonviolence: Towards a Culture of Peace, a consultation held at the Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development on April 4-5, 2019 in Rome. This was an important follow-up to the Nonviolence and Just Peace conference held in Rome in April 2016 co-sponsored by the then-Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International. Our recent gathering of people of God from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas included lay people, theologians, members of religious congregations, priests, bishops, and cardinals. Many of us live in communities experiencing violence and oppression. All of us are practitioners of justice and peace. We are grateful for the special focus that Pope Francis has placed on the spiritual and practical power of active nonviolence to promote integral human development and cultures of peace, including through the 2017 World Day of Peace message on “Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace,” where he proclaimed: “To be true followers of Jesus today…includes embracing his teaching about nonviolence.” We know that Jesus consistently practiced nonviolence in a context that was extremely violent, but “nonviolence was not just a response to particular situations in the life of Jesus – it was the whole life of Jesus” (Cardinal Peter Turkson, University of San Diego, October 7, 2017).
    [Show full text]
  • A Messenger of Peace
    Louis CAMPANA, préface du livre de Joseph SIBY LANZA DEL VASTO: A MESSENGER OF PEACE Tout fleuve a sa source, ses confluences, son delta qu'il partage parfois avec d'autres fleuves qui ont leurs propres sources et confluences. Tous se retrouvent dans l'océan, lequel par l'évaporation reconstitue et distribue les eaux indispensables aux sources... Tout ouragan a ses causes, celui des océans en fièvre tout comme ceux d'une civilisation assaillie par l'esprit de conquête, de profit, de puissance... Conscient du danger que représente cet esprit destructeur, en 1933, Lanza del Vasto part en solitaire et en mendiant de Rome à Bari. Il va à la recherche de la source. Il écrit alors durant ce périple le début des Principes et préceptes du retour à l'évidence, et décide d'un voyage sans retour en Inde auprès de celui qu'il pressent comme « une oasis de verdure et de paix ». J'ai nommé Gandhi. Sur les pentes de l'Himalaya, il termine ce recueil de poésie parfumé de renoncement sacré et volontaire. Entre-temps, en voyageant, il étudie la Guita, les Vedas, les Upanishads tout autant que les religions annexes de l'Inde tel le Jaïnisme. Il se penche aussi sur le Sanscrit, ancêtre des langues indo-européennes, et s'ouvre aux interprétations diversifiées des sources de la non-violence... Le Pèlerinage aux Sources est le livre publié en 1943, en pleine guerre mondiale qui relate les dix-huit mois en Inde. Il connaît un succès inattendu. Approches de la vie intérieure, paru en 1962, sont le reflet de ses expériences avec des maîtres hindous et jaïns auxquels il se confronte avec ses propres racines judéo-chrétiennes.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Non-Violence?
    What is and who uses non-violent resistance? (note: This workshop is ideally done in partnership with a guest speaker from an International Peace organization in your area. Every community has one, they may be working unobtrusively, but they do exist! Ask at your local Amnesty International group, or through places of worship, grassroots action groups, Rotary Club, Mission Outreach, etc) Introductory Activity ~ Workshop Activity A: Discuss : Ask the children what types of violence exist in the world. (ie. psychological abuse, economic abuse, intimidation, physical violence, racial violence, religious) What is the difference between discrimination and violence? What does non-violence means to them? Ask the children to give examples from their own experiences of non-violence, ie situations where they were either players or spectators of non-violence. Show the short film that can be found on YouTube : “Be the change you want to see in this world! Mahatma Gandhi” 2:06 A must watch video that teaches us that we should not always have to wait for others or things to happen of their own. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGyutkBvN2s. Relaxation / Experience Peace: Use quiet music from another ethnic experience. Guide them through imagining another “peaceful situation” ie. Remembering a scene where you either did not respond using nonviolent resistance or that you turned away in order to not respond at all. Now this time, put yourself back into that memory. What was the situation? Location? What was the day like? Weather/ What preceded what you were about to see? What did you witness? Now instead of responding as you did at the time, IMAGINE what sort of nonviolent response you could do.
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliografia Gandhiana
    BIBLIOGRAFIA GANDHIANA Testi posseduti dalla Biblioteca Multimediale Internazionale Pace-Ambiente-Sviluppo del Centro Studi Sereno Regis A cura di Diomira Fortunato INDICE Caratteristiche biblioteconomiche del catalogo Pag. 3 Catalogo alfabetico per titoli Pag. 4 Filmografia e risorse multimediali Pag. 52 Indice per autori Pag. 55 Argomenti della bibliografia Pag. 85 2 Caratteristiche biblioteconomiche del catalogo Il catalogo che qui presentiamo è relativo alla sezione gandhiana della Biblioteca Multimediale Internazionale Pace-Ambiente-Sviluppo del Centro Studi Domenico Sereno Regis e riporta la descrizione bibliografica completa, secondo gli standard previsti dal Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale (SBN). La prima parte del catalogo riporta l'elenco alfabetico delle opere con l'indicazione del numero di inventario e della collocazione. Segue l'elenco degli autori con l'indicazione del titolo delle opere a cui si riferiscono e l'indice degli argomenti in riferimento alla collocazione utilizzata. Le norme di descrizione bibliografica adottate sono quelle utilizzate da SBN e fanno riferimento alle Regole Italiane di Catalogazione per Autori e all'International Standard Bibliographic Description ISBD(M). La descrizione bibliografica secondo l'ISBD è così articolata: Area del titolo e dell'indicazione di responsabilità: : complemento del titolo / prima indicazione di responsabilità ; altre indicazioni di responsabilità Area della pubblicazione luogo di pubblicazione ; altro luogo : nome dell'editore , data di pubblicazione Area della descrizione fisica designazione specifica ed estensione del materiale : indicazione delle illustrazioni ; dimensioni Area delle note ((Note 3 CATALOGO ALFABETICO PER TITOLI 4 Aforismi e pensieri / M. K. Gandhi ; a cura di Massimo Baldini ; traduzione di Lucio Angelini. - Roma : TEN, 1995. - 97 p. ; 21 cm. Inventario: 8767 Collocazione: 1 1.0.7.GAN.59.A Nessun vincolo al prestito Inventario: 13246 Collocazione: 1 1.0.7.GAN.59.B Nessun vincolo al prestito Aforismi e pensieri di Gandhi / a cura di Sara Poledrelli.
    [Show full text]
  • 00 Copertina DEP N.37 2018
    Numero 37 – Luglio 2018 Numero monografico Issue 37 – July 2018 Monographic Issue Stronger than Men. Women who worked with Gandhi and struggled for women’s rights Editor: Chiara Corazza ISSN: 1824-4483 DEP 37 Numero monografico Indice Introduzione , Chiara Corazza p. 1 Introduction p. 5 Ricerche Geraldine Forbes, Gandhi’s Debt to Women and Women’s Debt to Gandhi p. 8 Julie Laut, "The Woman Who Swayed America": Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 1945 p. 26 Chiara Corazza, Dreams of a Poetess. A Subaltern Study of Sarojini Naidu’s Poetry and Political Thought p. 48 Thomas Weber, Gandhi e le donne occidentali, traduzione di Serena Tiepolato p. 70 Bidisha Mallik, Sarala Behn: The Silent Crusader p. 83 Sharon MacDonald, “The Other West”: Gandhian Quaker, Marjorie Sykes (1905–1995) p. 117 Holger Terp, Ellen Hørup and Other Gandhian Women in Denmark. p. 135 Documenti Sarala Behn, In the Mountains p. 151 Sujata Patel, Costruzione e ricostruzione della donna in Gandhi, traduzione di Sara De Vido e Lorenzo Canonico p. 161 Testimonianze Arun Gandhi, Kastur, Wife of Mahatma Gandhi p. 173 Radha Behn Bhatt, Personal Reflections p. 177 Strumenti di ricerca Suggerimenti bibliografici , a cura di Chiara Corazza p. 180 Recensioni, interventi, resoconti Thomas Weber, Going Native. Gandhi’s Relationship with Western Women (Chiara Corazza) p. 183 Sital Kalantry , Women’s human rights and migration. Sex-selective abortion laws in the US and India (Sara De Vido) p. 185 George A. James, Ecology is Permanent Economy: The Activism and Environmental Philosophy of Sunderlal Bahuguna (Bidisha Mallik) p. 189 Anita Anand, Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary (Sharon MacDonald) p.
    [Show full text]
  • Lanza Del Vasto's Structural Ethics on War and Peace
    1 PATIENTS’ DIRECT ACCESS TO THEIR ELECTRONIC MEDICAL 4 RECORD USING THE INTERNET: A LANZA DEL VASTO’S LITERATURE REVIEW STRUCTURAL ETHICS ON Marie C. Leroy a & Michel Dupuis b WAR AND PEACE Antonino Drago Abstract: Patient-accessible medical record is an important element of evolution in the patient-physician relationship: patients want to become more active in their health care pro- cess. We want to highlight the results of studies that analyse the impact of patients having access to their electronic medical record using the Internet on patients, on physicians and on Abstract: Motivated by the alarming recurrence of wars, Lanza del their relationship. The studies were identified using “Pub Med” and “Web of Knowledge”. Vasto became Gandhi’s disciple. From a social interpretation of biblical The search was limited to articles published between 2000 and October 2012. We focused texts (Genesis 3 and 4, Apocalypse 8 and 13, Mt 5) he derived a charac- on articles about patients accessing, through Internet, their electronic medical record that are terization of non-violence as the conversion from not only personal created and filled in by physicians. 26 studies were selected and analysed. Quantitative data negative drives, but also from the influences of negative social institutions were obtained through questionnaires, analysis of the log-ins and analysis of the records, while and the entire civilization. His intellectual categories comprise an ethical qualitative data were obtained through interviews and focus groups. The specificity of our conception of four essentially different models of development. This review refers to the electronic means through which patients access their electronic medical pluralism subsists inasmuch as the representatives of each model do not (and particularly Internet).
    [Show full text]
  • Gandhi: 'Hind Swaraj' and Other Writings
    Hind Swaraj is Mahatma Gandhi's fundamental work. It is a key to understanding not only his life and thought but also the politics of South Asia in the first half of the twentieth century. For the first time this volume presents the 1910 text of Hind Swaraj and includes Gandhi's own Preface and Foreword (not found in other editions) and anno- tations by the editor. In his Introduction, Anthony Parel sets the work in its historical and political contexts. He analyses the significance of Gandhi's experiences in England and South Africa, and examines the intellectual cross-currents from East and West that affected the formation of the mind and character of one of the twentieth century's truly outstanding figures. The second part of the volume contains some of Gandhi's other writings, including his correspondence with Tolstoy, Nehru and others. Short bibliographical synopses of prominent figures mentioned in the text and a chronology of important events are also included as aids to the reader. CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN MODERN POLITICS EDITORS John Dunn King's College, Cambridge Geoffrey Hawthorn Faculty of Social and Political Science, University of Cambridge Political aspirations in the twentieth century are usually expressed in the political languages of Western Europe and North America. In Latin America, Africa and Asia, however, in the movements of 'national liberation' from colonial rule, in the justification of new states, and in the opposition to such states, these aspirations have also drawn on other traditions, and invented new ones. Outside the West, the languages of modern politics and the ideas these languages embody are nowhere simple, and almost nowhere deriva- tively Western.
    [Show full text]
  • LANZA DEL VASTO Return to the Obvious
    CATHOLIC Subscription: Vol. XL No. 7 SEPTEMBER, 1974 I 25c Per Yoor Price It! Return to the Obvious { By LANZA DEL VASTO '(This article is composed of excerpts from Lanza del Vasto's book PRINCIPLES AND PRECEPTS OF THE RETURN TO THE OBVIOUS, recently published by Schocken--Books of New York, $4.95. English translation copyrirht © 1974, Scl;tocken Books Inc., reprinted by permission. The parentheses refer to the source in the text. The Editors.) _ Economy and Work If you close your hand, the world will remain closed to you like a fist. If you want the world to open up to you, open your hand first. (17) Savi.J)g is shameful. It is contrary to the law of nature. See the abundance of wate~, of leaves and grass, of precious flowers spent by one fine day; the silver of morn.mg and the gold of evening thrown to· the wind. Give as fong as you have. When you have nothing left, ask. Give others the chance to do you some good. It will be secret and most subtle charity. (15) Where have you taken the right to give, you who have nothing you have not 0 received, you who ~ve given nothing in return for what you have been given? Do .not give: share. (19) · --. Don't waste your time earning your living. Earn your time; save your life. (30) Here and there give a helping hand with the liarvest. Redeem yourself by deeds. lf you want to lead a holy life, !first try rto be honest.
    [Show full text]