Articles by Gautam Pingle

In "Communal Riots in Gujarat: Examining State Power and Production of Marginality in the Attempt to Constitute the Past" (EPW, 19 December 2015) Pooja Bakshi seems to have had access to the raw data and has reclassified the responses to draw some conclusions about perceptions of Hindu versus Muslim respondents as a proxy for general Gujarati Hindu and Muslim views. Her treatment of the data raises serious analytical issues. Keeping the methodological infirmities in view, this response examines the strong conclusions derived by Bakshi and suggests that the same data can have alternate explanations, albeit of a more modest and tentative nature as befits the data itself.

One of the most contentious issues in the formation of Telangana has been the question of Hyderabad's revenues and how much of Andhra Pradesh's total they represent. Some reports claim that Hyderabad contributes a mind-boggling 74% of the state's total revenues. This has been central to the demand for a special status to Hyderabad and allowing a share of its revenues to the residual state. This article sets the record straight and identifi es the source of the confusion.

G Gangadhara Rao’s “Hyderabad and the Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh” (EPW, 19 October 2013) presents interesting data on the implications of the creation of Telangana for the revenues of the new Andhra Pradesh (AP). The problem is that the data is published district-wise.

Agriculture currently produces only 30% of total income in the Telangana region, but it remains the basis for survival of nearly 78% of the population. During the 53-year period, 1956-2009, Telangana lost 2.92 lakh hectares of tank irrigation. Meanwhile, despite the high cost of irrigation - both in capital and operating costs - over the same period the area irrigated by tube wells has grown up. The latter is entirely dependent on the recharge of groundwater and the availability and cost of power. Whatever the future irrigation policy and its implementation, it will need a close ground level, local district and regional governmental efforts in Telangana.