Vol. 53
Numbers 11-12 (November–December 2025)

This issue of Social Scientist leads with two pieces on the violent intervention, abduction of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and attempt at regime change by the US in Venezuela in flagrant violation of international law.

The military intervention in Venezuela on the night of 3 January 2026 was a demonstration of America’s new intent in Latin America and a strong message to the international community. The United States’ National Security Strategy (NSS) document released in…

The United States’ military assault on Venezuelan territory and the abduction of President Maduro mark a decisive turning point in Washington’s hemispheric strategy – with likely global repercussions, of course. While the operation signals a return to direct interventions in…

Every nation has an anthem which it accords a unique place in all observances deemed to be of ‘national’ significance. India is unique in having enshrined a song that competes for place and prestige with its national anthem.

The notion that India endured several centuries of ‘foreign’ rule during the medieval period was firmly planted by colonial administrators and ideologues in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Colonial ideologues sought to conceal the intrinsic foreignness of British…

The Nizamuddin Basti region of Delhi constitutes one of the most significant necropolises of the Mughal and post-Mughal world, encapsulating a continuum of architectural, cultural and spiritual expressions from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Anchored by the sacred presence…

Over the last forty years, scholarly debates regarding the Mughal empire have centred primarily on the nature of its mansabdari system, a foundational element introduced under Akbar. These interpretations fall into two principal categories. The first, represented by historians such…

Professor Kishore K. Theckedath passed away on 20 December 2025, at age 89. He lived his life as a full-spectrum Marxist. He often described himself as an orthodox Marxist-Leninist, which for him meant no more nor less than a scientific…

Praveen Jha and Sudhanshu Bhushan, eds, Critical Explorations in Social Sciences: Essays presented to Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik, New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2025, 384 pages, Rs 1200 In the intellectual history of the Global South, few scholars have commanded…

Aparna Vaidik, Revolutionary on Trial: Sedition, Betrayal, and Martyrdom, Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2024, 480 pages, Rs 999. For over half a century post Indian independence, revolutionaries were relegated to the margins of the histories of modern India. That is…