Khoj : July - October, 2008

Summary

This is the July–October 2008 issue (Year 2, Numbers 4–5) of Khoj (“Search” — tagline ‘Jivan ek avirat khoj’, life is an unbroken search), a Gujarati-language periodical edited by Ambrish Mehta and published from Fatehgunj, Vadodara, with an editorial board that includes Trupti Parekh, Anil Patel, and Rajesh Mishra. The cover features Charles Darwin and the masthead promises a long science-and-spirituality essay on The Origin of Species; this issue mixes liberal political commentary, reader correspondence, and a long-running science-cum-philosophy serial.

The editorial by Ambrish Mehta, ‘Ochha kayda ane asarkarak amal’ (Fewer laws and effective implementation), responds to the serial blasts in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Delhi. It argues that the demand to revive POTA (or to bring back ‘Gujcoc’) is misplaced: the real Indian liberal answer to terrorism is not suspension of due process but stricter rule of law, fewer but better-enforced statutes, an honest and accountable police, and insistence on courtroom proof. Mehta uses the Sohrabuddin fake-encounter case and the Jamia Nagar episode to show how diluting evidentiary standards corrupts police incentives, lets real terrorists escape, and converts innocents into convenient ‘terrorists’. The piece is a characteristic civil-liberties argument from within the Indian liberal tradition.

Other contents listed in the index include Bhikhu Parekh on secularism and communalism, Meghnad Desai on terrorism, Shekhar Gupta on Kashmir, Mukul Sinha on the Nanavati Commission, Chakravarti Ashok Priyadarshi on the man-made Kosi flood in Bihar, and Poonam on the bitter-tasting khichdi. The science-and-spirituality serial part 7(A), ‘Charles Darwin — Jivoni utkranti’ (The evolution of life) by Anil Patel, occupies pages 34–50. A long letters section debates rationalism (a running thread from the May–June issue), with Mukesh Adenwala’s English essay ‘On Rationality’ citing Bertrand Russell, Joseph Campbell, and Foucault to argue that rationality cannot exhaust human knowledge or motivation. Dankesh Ojha’s ‘Asahishnutanu aa akdavatu avran’ criticises the intolerance shown to the journalist Kumar Ketkar after his column on the Shivaji statue. Together the issue is a snapshot of small-circulation Gujarati liberal opinion in 2008 — civil-libertarian on terror law, sceptical of Hindutva mobilisation, committed to rationalism but willing to debate its limits.

Key points

• Edited by Ambrish Mehta and published from Fatehgunj, Vadodara; annual subscription Rs. 150, this is the combined July–October 2008 number (Year 2, Issues 4–5).
• The lead editorial argues against reviving POTA/‘Gujcoc’ after the 2008 Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Delhi serial blasts, insisting that effective rule of law — not weaker evidentiary standards — is the liberal answer to terrorism.
• Mehta uses the November 2005 Sohrabuddin fake encounter and the Jamia Nagar shootout to show how diluting due process distorts police incentives and lets real terrorists escape.
• Index contributors include Bhikhu Parekh (secularism vs. communalism), Meghnad Desai (no softness on terror), Shekhar Gupta (Kashmir), Mukul Sinha (Nanavati Commission), and Chakravarti Ashok Priyadarshi on the 2008 Kosi flood as a man-made disaster.
• A long-running serial ‘Vigyan-Adhyatma’ (Science and Spirituality) reaches Part 7(A) with Anil Patel’s essay on Charles Darwin and the evolution of life, occupying pages 34–50.
• Mukesh Adenwala’s English essay ‘On Rationality’ draws on Bertrand Russell’s Principles of Social Reconstruction, Joseph Campbell, and Foucault to argue that subjectivity, impulse, and aesthetic preference are ineliminable parts of human cognition.
• Reader letters from Ashwin N. Karia (Palanpur), Rasiklal S. Vyas and Harshadbhai Vyas (Bhavnagar), Rasik R. Shah (Ahmedabad), Kunjan Mehta (Bhuj), Y.H. Shershia (Mundra), Suryakant Parikh (Ahmedabad) and Raman Pathak debate rationalism, Karl Popper, the Mundra SEZ environmental clearance, and Gujarat’s development model.
• Dankesh Ojha’s column ‘Asahishnutanu aa akdavatu avran’ defends the journalist Kumar Ketkar after his Lokasatta column questioning the Rs. 200-crore Shivaji statue triggered Shiv Sena vandalism, arguing the response betrays a wider intolerance in Maharashtra public life.