Bengali is the richest of the 18 officially recognised Indian languages but if you had any doubts, Kalpana Bardhan&rsquo;s two-volume The (Oxford India) Anthology of Bengali Literature, I861-1941and 1941-1991 (Rs 695 each) should close the debate about how it compares with the rest, including Malayalam and Hindi, its two closest competitors. All literary anthologies are, by definition, exercises in unravelling the basic landmarks of a literary culture by providing a &ldquo;historical depth&rdquo; in categories of poetry, fiction and non-fiction that would attract the intelligent common reader.

V V: Bengali literary jewels - rendering and beyond

Business Standard

&ldquo;Study the historian before you begin to study the facts&hellip; History means interpretation.

V V: The rise and decline of the West

Not surprisingly, for all writers under totalitarian regimes like in Eastern and Central Europe before the War, the relation between art and power was a constant preoccupation. Unable to speak truth to power, the anger grew underground and emerged only in disguise, transformed into irony, sarcasm or an icy calm from which it was hard to deduce the fury that lay concealed beneath it. All writing became a political act, a token of independence, an attempt to switch not merely the interest, but the whole focus of attention away from the ruling elite towards the mundane affairs of daily living. Like Stephen Dedalus in Jamres Joyce&rsquo;s A Portrait of a Young Artist, the writer used his only defence, the only weapon he was allowed to use, &ldquo;silence, exile and cunning.

V V: Gyorgy Faludy's Seasons in Hell

What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal&hellip; confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is rotten to the core.

V V: Political hypocrisy - The masks of power

&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no art to find the mind&rsquo;s construction in the face.

V V: Who and where are the jihadis?

David Harvey, who teaches at the Graduate Centre at the City University of New York, has become the leading exponent of classical Marxist political economy today. In two recent books, A Companion to Marx&rsquo;s Capital (Verso, &pound;10.99) and The Enigma of Capital and the Crisis of Capitalism (Profile Books, &pound;13.49), he tries to explain the recent crisis of capitalism from 2007 to the present &mdash; as well as the example of past crises &mdash; to make his argument against capitalism.

V V: The crisis of late capitalism

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.

V V: How to understand the disaster

V V: What makes the West rule?

Infosys Technologies has been talking of acquisitions since 1999, when it made its first ADR issue and was flush with funds. The cash situation improved significantly every year, but there was no sign

The perfect match?

The Securities and Exchange Board of Indias (Sebis) order barring Ketan Parekh and his firms from trading in the stock market for 14 years will make no difference to market sentiment. 


Insuring against repetition

Marutis voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), which closed earlier this month, got a rather decent response. By the end of it, 1251 employees, or 27 per cent of Marutis workforce, opted for the VRS.

Soft handshake

The turnover of the Indian financial markets topped $1 trillion yesterday - a week before the close of the current calendar year. 


Markets turnover tops $1 trillion

Two big policy decisions came through this week. One was the PSU-crossholding selloff. The other was the relief package to GSM cellular operators. 


Two for the bulls

On August 26, 2003, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) revised Clause 49 of the listing agreement for improving the standards of corporate governance. 


Clause and effect

The country has an extremely low SHE quotient. By this I am not referring to the lack of respect the country has for women but to the low levels of safety, health and education in the country. These three elements are the cornerstone for the development of a healthy and vibrant society. And a healthy and vibrant society is the bedrock for a prosperous nation. If the population of a country is safe, educated and healthy the productivity is much higher and automatically the growth of a nation is comparatively higher. This is what is essentially meant by reaping the benefits of a healthy population  technically termed as "demographic dividends".

India's low 'SHE' quotient.

Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's eighth Budget did not disappoint those who wanted the government to send out a strong and unequivocal message on fiscal consolidation. He achieved that primary goal by cutting expenditure in the current year and proposing a lower fiscal deficit of 4.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013-14, compared to 5.2 per cent in 2012-13.You may quarrel with the numbers that he has presented by arguing that many of them are not easily achievable, or express your disappointment over the absence of concrete measures in the Budget to address the Indian economy's other key concern  the widening current account deficit. But you have to admit that this Budget, of all the Budgets presented a year before a general election in recent times, is the least damaging for the economy. Were you to think of the 2008-09 Budget and the farm debt waiver scheme announced at that time, then you would know the difference.Yet the markets' lukewarm response and the g

Why people are cool to the Budget

Why is Tamil Nadu, with a large lower caste population, among the toppers in the growth rankings, and Uttar Pradesh, with its strong Dalit mobilisation movement, at the bottom?

The demand side of inclusive growth

The Budget makes no effort to address the neglect of the legal system

The Cinderella syndrome

Commodities transaction tax may not achieve its ends

Undermining the market?

Quantitative easing, sequestration and the Indian economy

Ripple effects

Three Boeing 777-300 Extended Range (ER) aircraft with Jet Airways colours are parked side by side in their respective bays, the bright morning sun sparkling off their freshly painted fuselages.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Race between opportunity & cost

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

Page 588 - Opinion Specials