-The Tribune Political psychologist ashis nandy, a pioneer of Indian critical thought, has over the years delved into areas other than routine academic concerns. Honorary Fellow at Centre for Studies of Developing Societies, New Delhi, Nandy is currently working on genocide. In an interview to The Tribune, he speaks of the psychology of rioters, the anatomy of violence and challenges of identity politics. Excerpts: * Delhi just witnessed a riot. What makes...

-The Hindu What makes public policy exciting and potentially inventive is the contested nature of the public sphere. It is anchored in a diversity of perspectives which challenges the dominance of one subject. India is a country full of paradoxes. The elite in the country are forward-looking; they emphasise the need for reskilling but they conduct all this with backward-looking institutions. An acute observer once said: "we want to be [a] knowledge...

-The Business Standard The response by Indian industry and civil society to Satyarthi's honour has been conspicuously absent When an Indian citizen had last won a Nobel Prize - Amartya Sen for Economics in 1998 - the prize was much celebrated in the country, and the winner was awarded a Bharat Ratna the next year. But that was 16 years ago. Today, even as another Indian, Kailash Satyarthi, is set to jointly...

Lokniti - Programme for Comparative Democracy was established in 1997 as a research programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi. The CSDS is an autonomous social science research institution. Since the inception of the CSDS in 1963, the writings of scholars like Rajni Kothari, D.L. Sheth and ashis nandy have become a point of reference for various attempts from the South to question the...

-The Hindu   The Dalit-Bahujan theory or Ambedkarism cannot negotiate with funny theories of sociologists like ashis nandy. The best way to counter them is to write a better theory Utsa Patnaik, a noted economist said in a small note that she circulated "ashis nandy had earlier made approving remarks on the 1988 Deorala burning to death of a young widow in the name of sati (terming it a courageous act in a...