Suchergebnisse

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Modernisation, Modernity, Liberalism and Religion -- Chapter 3: Marxian Critique of Religion -- Chapter 4: Early Habermas's Critique of Gadamer and His Later Approach to Religion -- Chapter 5: The Gadamer-Habermas Debate and its Implication for Religion -- Chapter 6: Post-Secularism, Liberalism and Their Discontents -- Chapter 7: Conclusion.

This book examines the issues of urban governance and local democracy in South India. It is the first comprehensive volume that offers comparative frameworks on urban governance across all states in the region: Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The book focuses on governance in small district-level cities and raises crucial questions such as the nature of urban planning, major outstanding issues for urban local governance, conditions of civic amenities such as drinking water and sanitation and problems of social capital in making urban governance work in these states. It emphasizes on both efficient urban governance and effective local democracy to meet the challenges of fast-paced urbanization in these states while presenting policy lessons from their urbanization processes. Rich in empirical data, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of political studies, public administration, governance, public policy, development studies and urban studies, as well as practitioners and non-governmental organizations.

In large parts of the developing world, peasant to industrial worker and rural to urban transition is a huge question mark on the face of the political economies of these societies. In India alone, nearly seventy percent of its 1.2 billion population lives in rural areas dependent on agriculture and allied activities. Though the context is different, the magnitude of the transition is similar in present day China. In many parts of Latin America and Africa, this transition is incomplete. Rural populations continue to persist, even in the times of globalisation - a so called shrinking world - an

A. Ravindra, Governing an Indian State: Karnataka in Focus. New Delhi: Siya Publishing House, 2018, xiv + 177 pp., ₹795.00.

E. Venkatesu (Ed.), Democratic Decentralization in India: Experiences, Issues and Challenges. New Delhi: Routledge, 2016, 269 + xxiv pp., ₹895.

In this commentary, we examine the gender dimension in Indian agrarian history. For doing so, we review the scholarship of three economic historians, Surendra J. Patel, Dharma Kumar and Utsa Patnaik, who have looked at the evolution of the agrarian classes in modern India. We argue for the importance of giving a rightful place to female labour, outlining the persistence of the multifold oppression they face and the general conditions of their existence. Historically, they have suffered, and continue to do so, under the dominance of patriarchy, class and caste. Lastly, we conclude that including a gender perspective will help in ameliorating the status of female labour through state action.

It is often assumed that civil society's influence on governance can only be complementary to the state and that it must be exercised through conciliatory approaches. But contrary to that assumption, a study of civil society organizations in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh shows that the civil society may attempt to influence governance process through multiple strategies. These include conciliatory approaches, adversarial approaches and a combination of both, depending on the issue or policy on which the influence is sought to be exercised. This article illustrates this by taking the examples of two intermediary NGOs: one from Karnataka and the other from Andhra Pradesh. The question this article raises is: in the context of globalization and the supposedly prominent role of civil society, how effective are they? This article argues that they still happen to be subsidiary partners in the paradigm of 'governance-through-networks'. By and large, public policy still happens to be influenced by, first the state, and second, multilateral donor organizations as well as multinational companies, although civil society activism itself should be welcome and need not be viewed with scepticism.

This article is based on two village studies and a primary survey conducted in the irrigated part of South Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, India. It shows that, in the period 1960–96, canal irrigation and the rapid commercialisation of agriculture reinforced the dominant castes/classes, but also that the small and middle peasantry survived. State intervention strengthened the dominant landowners, particularly through irrigation, which increased the value of land, as well as through subsidies for tractors and mechanisation. These interventions increased caste/class inequalities, but did not lead to the disappearance of the peasantry. The article points to the consequences of irrigation for agrarian change and concludes that irrigation without meaningful land reform can only strengthen the pre-existing inequalities, in terms of both caste and class.

The technological changes of the 20th and 21st centuries, the growth of computer technologies, digital technologies and telecommunications have changed the way the state conducts its functions and delivers governance. Whether or not they have improved the welfare function of the state, the way governance is delivered has been altered. In this article, we discuss the application of electronic governance (e-governance) in Karnataka with the help of three case studies. We discuss the cases of land records management in rural and urban areas and initiatives in Bengaluru traffic management. The case studies indicate that e-governance improves service delivery and that there are points to be gleaned from the successful implementation of the same in Karnataka. Finally, we argue that while there is necessity for optimism regarding the application of technology in service-delivery functions, the overall digitisation of economy may be something qualitatively different.

This book deals with varied aspects of urban governance in the Indian state of Karnataka in general and its capital, Bengaluru, in particular. Given the growing significance of urbanisation for the economy, polity and society of Karnataka, and India as a whole, the volume's contribution towards understanding various aspects of the phenomenon can hardly be overemphasised. This collection of articles, regarding basic urban services and governance, illuminates the diverse governance questions and policy issues that interest all those who are passionate about changing the urban landscape of Bengaluru, Karnataka, and India, for the better