| ashu |
Posted
on 20-Feb-04 06:06 PM
BRB"s PhD dissertation, completed (between 1980-85) at Center for Study of Regional Development at JNU at Delhi, was called: "The Nature of Underdevelopment & Regional Structure of Nepal: A Marxist Analysis."
As far as I can figure out, it has nothing to do with architecture and urban planning as we understand those disciplines. The closest discipline I can think of is political economy.
Last year, India-based Adroit Publishers published the dissertation as a hardcover,
540-page book, worth Indian Rupees 600.
KTM bookstores were/are selling the book.
All the bibliographic references are from the late '70s and early '80s. [The world has moved on, but BRB appears stuck in some kind of time warp.]
BRB's boss Prachanda wrote the Foreword (dated March 2003), in which he
says that he "got the opportunity to read this research work about a decade ago". Prachanda, being Prachanda, praises BRB's "intellectual brilliance", of course.
As someone who, as a matter of serious hobby, reads a lot of stuff related to
economics and development (from Marx to Hayek and everyone else in between),
I bought this book with great expectations.
Dutifully, I have tried to read this book on at least three long week-ends over the last one year, but, everytime I tried to read it, nothing would get into my thick skull, and
the book would just put me to sleep.
I have asked around, and have sensed that many others too have bought the book
but no one seems to have finished reading it. Maybe we are all stupid.
Needless to say, NO review of this 'magnum opus', to my knowledge, has appeared in any 'mainstream'newspapers/magazines in Nepal.
Meantime, BRB's deep-thought book sits majestically on my shelf, right next to, perhaps fittingly, Sylvia Nassar's "A beautiful mind."
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| Arnico |
Posted
on 20-Feb-04 06:52 PM
Add me to the list of people who bought the book with high expectations, but has not managed to get the act together to finish reading it (though to be honest about it, that's simply been due to lack of time). At the moment it sits in a box among other books, since I am between apartments... but I will have to think of some good neighbors for it.
I recall seeing that the book has some interesting historical (1980s data) tables... but like Ashu said, its hard to find anything up-to-date in it (with the exception of the foreword)... and one just wonders what happened between when it was written and when it was published...
Baburam, if you are reading sajha please let us know. In that case I will make sure to finish reading the book, and encourage others to do the same, and then let's engage in some polite but open discussion about the ideas expressed in the book or inspired by the book. After all, a dissertation is an academic document... something to be peer-reviewed, challenged, shredded, debated, reconstructed, partially accepted, re-challenged, and re-debated while providing an ongoing learning and humbling experience to the author and to all the participants.
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