Elements of an ideal India

Although drawn from different disciplines, the authors share the conviction that democracy and development must go hand in hand

This is a collection of 10 essays that have originated from the lectures delivered annually at the Institute of Social Sciences (ISS), New Delhi, under an endowment instituted in commemoration of the well-known economist D.T. Lakdawala, the ISS's first chairman.

A multi-faceted personality, Lakdawala had an illustrious teaching career at the Bombay School of Economics and made a mark as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. In the words of Ashis Nandy, who has written the foreword, the lectures are “a collective effort to project ... elements of a plural [and] futuristic vision of a desirable society.”

The lectures cover a diverse range of topics, and they include: primary education; poverty alleviation; virtues of self-employment; human development paradigm; Apartheid regime; multiculturalism vis-à-vis solidarity of a nation; Hindutva and its ideological implications; and globalisation versus nationalism. Yet, they have a common thread running through it, namely a profound concern for humanity.

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