Tamil Nadu

A review of the book, Rule of the Commoner: DMK and the Formations of the Political in Tamil Nadu, 1949–67 (2022), by Rupa Viswanath was published in EPW (1 April 2023). The authors wish to respond to the review by presenting some of the core issues that this book is concerned with, to enable a larger discussion of electoral democracy in India.

The sustainability and the threshold level of public debt in Tamil Nadu is examined using the modern time series methods and threshold regression method. The results suggest that the current level of debt in the state is unsustainable, and the debt sustainability threshold is about 18.5%, which is slightly lower than the 20% norm set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management review committee for states. The state should control its debt as it is currently not growth-inducing. The simulation exercise based on the debt dynamics of the state suggests that the state economy should grow at 14% and fiscal deficit target should be 2% from 2023–24 onwards to attain the debt sustainability target in 2035–36 and with 16% growth the state could reach the target in 2030–31. The relevant policy strategy for the state is to increase its own revenue–GSDP ratio by 0.75% and contain its revenue expenditures by 0.75% from 2023–24.

Rethinking Social Justice edited by S Anandhi, Karthick Ram Manoharan, M Vijayabaskar and A Kalaiyarasan, with a foreword by Partha Chatterjee, Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2020, pp 368, `795 (paperback).

Tracing the life and works of Balamani Ammal, who lived in the late 19th and early 20th century, flags off the aspects of gendered history of theatre. It is a rich history of someone who ventured into many forms—Sadhir, stage dramas, “novels,” Sanskrit plays, and Harikatha. It also reveals her exceptional interest in introducing new technical devices like petromax lighting and creating silhouette through the use of lights. She, along with her sister Rajambal, formed the first ever all-female theatre company in Tamil Nadu. Using Balamani Ammal’s sketchy life available through scant resources, the paper would like to raise issues with the historiographic practices existing in theatre history from a gendered point of view.