This volume collects writings by authors across disciplines on issues that have engaged eminent economic historian Amiya Kumar Bagchi. The eleven essays define and develop the concepts of tradition, modernity, post modernism, liberty and humanism in the Indian context. They include critiques fo theWestern model of monolingualism in development, and of the 'self-absorbed' Indian middle class in the wake of Mandalisation and globalisation, as well as Amiya Bagchi's own writings in Bangla; the place of women in early hindi films, and in Utopias and fiction, past and present; the culture of hindustani classical music in the colonial context of the late 19th century; the language of contemporary Indian art; and ideological and bussiness aspects of the cinema of Mumbai. The subjects of this compelling collection include Wajid Ali Shah, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Dadasaheb Phalke, Mahasweta Devi, F.N. Souza and the cult film Jai Santoshi Ma

This book offers glimpses of the many shades of the cultural life of a nation forever swinging between inertia and change.

It will interest students of art, language and literature, music, gender studies and films. The informed general reader too will find much to treasure here.

Manoj Kumar Sanyal is an economist and former Senior (ICSSR) Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Arunabha Ghosh is a connoisseur of films and literature, based in Kolkata