Khoj : Januray - February, 2007

Summary

This is the inaugural issue (Year 1, Number 1) of Khoj, a Gujarati-language bimonthly magazine edited by Ambrish Mehta and published from Fatehgunj, Vadodara by the ‘Pahel’ Centre (Initiative for Open Society) for January-February 2007. The masthead tagline ‘Jivan ek avirat khoj-aavishkar’ (Life is a continuous search and discovery) is paired on the opening page with verses from the Rig Veda and Xenophanes, signalling a humanist-rationalist orientation. The editorial board includes Trupti Parekh, Anil Patel and Rajesh Mishra, with an advisory committee that includes Kirit Panwala, Dasha Patel, Mahendra Chotalia and others — figures associated with the ARCH (Action Research in Community Health and Development) network in Gujarat.

The issue’s main editorial and lead article, both by Trupti Parekh, celebrate the passage of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 — framed as a historic victory for adivasis and forest-dwelling communities after decades of struggle, while warning that proper implementation will determine whether it actually halts the dispossession that has run since Independence. A companion editorial by Ambrish Mehta, ‘Sez vivad ange thodu…’, argues at length that the Special Economic Zones policy is incompatible with free markets and liberalisation, treating SEZs as state-engineered land grabs rather than genuine development. Ashwin Karia contributes a sharp piece on the Sabarimala temple controversy in Kerala, attacking the Travancore Devaswom Board’s ban on women aged 10-50 entering the shrine as a constitutional and rationalist failure.

Other features include readers’ letters responding to the previous issue’s Milton Friedman tribute and its urban-poverty coverage; Suresh Parikh and Kardam Modi on the philosophy of teaching (‘the teacher’s work is that of a midwife, not a potter’); K.V. Patel on poverty; and Kirit Panwala’s continuing series on reforming the Indian judicial system. The economics section (‘Free your mind - 4’) runs Sauvik Chakraverti on why free trade matters for India, a Gujarati translation of Frederic Bastiat’s ‘Candlemakers’ Petition’, selections from Munshi Premchand on swadeshi and protectionism (in Hindi), and Matt Ridley’s ‘The Gains from Trade’ on the Yir Yoront aboriginals — a classical-liberal economics primer aimed at Gujarati readers.

Key points

• Inaugural issue (Year 1, No. 1) of the Gujarati bimonthly Khoj, edited by Ambrish Mehta and published by the ‘Pahel’ Centre (Initiative for Open Society) from Vadodara in January-February 2007.
• Lead editorial by Trupti Parekh hails the 2006 Forest Rights Act as a historic win for adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers, while cautioning that implementation will decide whether decades of dispossession finally reverse.
• Editor Ambrish Mehta’s lead essay on Special Economic Zones argues SEZs are incompatible with free markets and liberalisation, treating them as state-driven land transfers rather than genuine development.
• Ashwin Karia attacks the Travancore Devaswom Board’s ban on women aged 10-50 at the Sabarimala temple as a violation of constitutional rights and rationalist principles, calling out Kerala’s progressive self-image.
• The reader-letters section debates urban poverty, NURM, zoning policy, the 1958 Armed Forces Special Powers Act, and the Mumbai bomb-blast TADA verdicts, with correspondents from Bhavnagar, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kachchh.
• An economics primer ‘Tamara manne mukta karo’ (‘Free your mind’) by Sauvik Chakraverti argues that 50 years of import substitution stunted Indian industry and that real industrialisation requires open trade.
• The issue translates Frederic Bastiat’s 1845 ‘Candlemakers’ Petition’ into Gujarati alongside Hindi selections from Munshi Premchand attacking colonial-era protectionism and Matt Ridley’s ‘The Gains from Trade’ on the Yir Yoront aboriginals.
• Suresh Parikh’s essay frames the teacher’s role through a Gandhi-Vinoba-Krishnamurti-Tagore-Aurobindo lineage as that of a midwife (‘dayan’) rather than a potter shaping clay.