Khoj : May - August, 2010

Summary

This is an issue of Khoj (खோखं / ખોજ), a Gujarati-language bimonthly periodical published from Fategunj, Vadodara by Ambrish Mehta on behalf of the Arch ‘Pahel’ Initiative for Open Society. The rendered front matter and masthead identify the issue at hand as Year 2, Issue 3 (Consecutive No. 9), dated July–August 2006 (જુલાઈ-ઓગસ્ટ ૨દ૦બ), edited by Ambrish Mehta with an editorial board including Trupti Parekh, Anil Patel and Rajesh Mishra. The cover frames the lead theme — “Anamat: Navesarthi Vichari Shu?” (“Reservations: Should we rethink them from scratch?”) — around three pointed quotations from Jawaharlal Nehru (1961) warning that caste- and community-based reservations and promotions are folly and disaster, and that the only real way to help backward groups is opportunity through good and technical education rather than “crutches.” (Note: the dispatch inventory tags this file as the May–August 2010 issue, but the printed front matter is unambiguously July–August 2006; needs_review is set accordingly.)

The table of contents and opening articles position Khoj firmly in the classical-liberal stream of Indian periodical writing. The lead serialised essay by Anil Patel — “Swatantrata, Gnan ane Bajar – 7” (“Liberty, Knowledge and the Market–Part 7”), subtitled “From Hot Socialism to Soft Socialism: the Welfare State” — traces a century of socialist thought from 1848 to 1948, the Stalinist totalitarian state, the tragedy of the commons, Hayek and Popper on dispersed knowledge, and the rise of “unlimited democracy” and majoritarian welfare-statism. It opens with an epigraph from F. A. Hayek (1961) defining economic freedom as the indispensable condition of all other freedoms.

Other pieces include Trupti Parekh’s “Ye Hai Bombay, Meri Jaan” on the July 11 Mumbai train bombings and the civic response, and “Kisso Kevadiyano” on tribal dispossession at Kevadia for Narmada-headquarters tourism and SEZ-style leasing of acquired land to private hotel chains; Shankar Gopalakrishnan on the Forest Rights Bill and the JPC report; Barun Mitra on China’s tiger-conservation experiments; Arun Shourie on reservations and the Constitution; an editorial critique of the Mandal Commission; and essays on value-education, judicial reform and freedom of conscience. Letters columns engage earlier Khoj coverage of the Narmada project, drought management and Saurashtra’s water-harvesting movement. Across the issue, Khoj reads as a sober, evidence-driven Gujarati voice for individual liberty, market-based development, decentralisation, and scepticism of state paternalism — whether in caste-based quotas, forced land acquisition, or central planning.

Key points

• Masthead identifies this as Khoj, Year 2 Issue 3 (Consecutive No. 9), July–August 2006, edited by Ambrish Mehta and published from Fategunj, Vadodara by the Arch ‘Pahel’ Initiative for Open Society.
• Cover quotes Jawaharlal Nehru (1961) attacking caste- and community-based reservations and promotions as “folly” and “disaster” and arguing that good education, not “crutches,” is the only real way to help backward groups.
• Anil Patel’s serialised essay “Swatantrata, Gnan ane Bajar – 7” traces the arc from hot socialism (1848–1948) to the modern welfare state, citing Hayek’s 1961 definition of economic freedom and Popper-Hayek-Bartley on dispersed knowledge.
• The essay invokes the “tragedy of the commons,” the failure of Soviet/East European central planning, and the rise of “unlimited democracy” (અમર્યાદિત લોકશાહી) where parliamentary majorities override rule-of-law constraints.
• Trupti Parekh’s “Ye Hai Bombay, Meri Jaan” reports on the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings, civic Hindu–Muslim solidarity, and warns against panic-driven misuse of laws like POTA in response.
• “Kisso Kevadiyano” documents Adivasi dispossession at Kevadia village in Narmada district, where land acquired for the Sardar Sarovar headquarters is now being leased to a private Mumbai hotel company at Rs 1.5 crore for tourism — a use that, the author argues, fails the “public purpose” test for eminent domain.
• Shankar Gopalakrishnan’s “Janglma Dav” critiques both the 2005 Forest Rights Bill and its opponents, framing the issue as one of recognising existing rights of adivasis and forest-dwellers rather than charity, and citing the failure to conduct settlement surveys in 82% of MP forests and 40% of Orissa forests.
• Other contents include Arun Shourie on reservations and the Constitution, Ambrish Mehta on the Mandal Commission, Dr Mahendra Chotaliya on value-education, Kirit Panwala on judicial reform, and a substantial letters section debating Khoj’s earlier Narmada coverage.