From the Ramparts

Contents: I: 1. To be as free as the Caribbeans 8--14 January 2000. 2. Books: the great alibi 2 March 2002. 3. Re-writing history 25 May 2002. 4. Enrich thyselves 14 September 2002. 5. The miracle-maker 18 January 2003. 6. Facets of civilization 12 April 2003. 7. The colonial bug for ever 13 September 2003. 8. The conundrum of Nepal 8 November 2003. II: 9. Staying away from the nitty-gritty 22 January 2000. 10. An imperial NGO? 5--11 February 2000. 11. Re-dreaming futile dreams 29 April 2000. 12. Calculations, calculations... 13--19 May 2000. 13. The left-behind parents 26 August-2 September 2000. 14. Cricket, the spitting image 16 September 2000. 15. The mourning reformers 4--10 November 2000. 16. Sovereignty and the WTO 16 December 2000. 17. The raison d\'etre 30 December 2000. 18. Trade and hypocrisy 12 May 2001. 19. Dump food in the sea 23 June 2001. 20. What the love-lorns talk these days 4 August 2001. 21. The level of awareness 16 February 2002. 22. The hand of the super-bosses 16 March 2002. 23. A layman asks 22 June 2002. 24. The political transiting 12 October 2002. 25. The hokum of economics 2-9 November 2002. 26. No right to live 23 November 2002. 27. Aha, securitization 4 January 2003. 28. Cross-subsidies, out, out 15 February 2003. 29. The great Harlotland 5 July 2003. 30. The excuse-mongers 2 August 2003. 31. Once more, the third market 27 December 2003. III: 32. A single category 20--26 November 1999. 33. Their own agenda 25--31 March 2000. 34. Hindu Kingdom gone away 13 January 2001. 35. A dress rehearsal? 26 May 2001. 36. Into an impossible corner 5 January 2002. 37. The boss does the choosing 20 July 2002. 38. The greater fundamentalist 1 February 2003. 39. The new lexicographers 7 June 2003. IV: 40. A friend remembers 4--10 March 2000. 41. A homage to Sweezy 22--28 July 2000. 42. A forgotten visionary 30 September 2000. 43. One who tried to de-class himself 10 March 2001. 44. The forgotten don 28 April 2001. 45. In defence of Bihar 21 July 2001. 46. Death of a gentleman 1 September 2001. 47. Suicide bombs, early Indian edition 13 October 2001. 48. Sarvajaya is dead 8 December 2001. 49. The rebel with too many causes 26 October 2002. 50. The survival kit 26 April 2003. 51. Somebodies and nobodies 6 December 2003. V: 52. They flock together 18 September 1999. 53. Stability? Forget about it 16--23 October 1999. 54. The taciturn functionary 27 May--2 June 2000. 55. Uncles of brilliant nephews 24--30 June 2000. 56. The notion of inalienability 19--25 August 2000. 57. The old soldier retires 18--24 November 2000. 58. Calamities and classes 24 February 2001. 59. Crooks\' opera 14--20 April 2001. 60. A decimating thought 18 August 2001. 61. The new activists 29 September 2001. 62. The revolutionary departure 24 November 2001. 63. Dance of the marionettes 2 February 2002. 64. A disunited nation 13 April 2002. 65. We hate, therefore we are 8 June 2002. 66. A paradigm? 6 July 2002. 67. ISI in every bush 7 December 2002. 68. Crime and punishment 21 December 2002. 69. Borderline cases 1 March 2003. 70. The police uber alles 21 June 2003. 71. The carpetbaggers are a-coming 30 August 2003. 72. Remember Zohra and Uzra? 27 September 2003.

"A selection from Ashok Mitra\'s famed \'Calcutta Diary\' in the Economic and Political Weekly, these short essays chronicle the troubled times on the subcontinent from 1999 to 2003. Ashok Mitra\'s column in the weekly had run from the early 1970s, with important gaps during which Mitra held political office, and each single piece had taken up one or more of the burning issues of the day and subjected them to a remorseless and incisive dissection. Ranging from politics to sports, commoners to corporations, poetry to processions, global to local--these taut, tense, disturbing meditations bring out what has always been the uppermost concern in Mitra\'s chequered career: an overriding sympathy for the underdog and a corrosive contempt for the forces poisoning the existence of man. Many of the earlier essays had been anthologized; the present collection brings the latest--and some of the best--pieces together in a series of linked reflections on our life and times. Their main concern is with the subcontinent--and India of course gets the most attention--but Mitra makes it clear in nearly all the pieces that contemporary reality weaves intriguing narrative patterns involving lives all over the globe, and that encountering the imperialism of the day should be the first concern of all who have claims to be citizens of the world." (jacket)