19 Jul 2006

Taking the State to Court - Public Interest Litigation and the Public Sphere in Metropolitan India [an EBook]
Asia House, Essen, Germany
Supplied note: "Online Publication: Taking the State to Court - Public Interest Litigation and the Public Sphere in Metropolitan India. By Hans Dembowski This is the online-documentation of a book first published [by Oxford University Press] in 2001. Rather, we believe that a sociological study, which was initially published by a leading academic publisher, should be available for public debate. Unfortunately, distribution of the original book was discontinued after the Calcutta High Court started contempt proceedings against the author, the publisher and several other parties. Five years on, however, the author has still not been officially notified by the court. The case is still pending, without having been heard in a long time. This, in turn, raises some poignantly recurring issues concerning the global potential of judicial censorship as well as the freedom of speech and expression. According to the fundamental principles of academic freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of the press, we believe that this book should be available to any interested public. Public discourse, after all, is essential for democracy as it serves to challenge and complement officially constituted publics. For this and no other reason do we present the study in this online edition. - kf."
Site contents: Acknowledgements / Glossary; Chapter 1: Introductive Overview; Chapter 2: Democracy, Development and Functional Differentiation; Chapter 3: The Changing Role of the Indian Judiciary; Chapter 4: Environment and Politics in India; Chapter 5: The Conflict over the East Calcutta Wetlands; Chapter 6:The Howrah Matter; Chapter 7: Enthnographic Observations: An Overarching Lack of Trust; Chapter 8: Conclusion: Rudimentary Public Sphere and an Unresponsive State; Annexures and References.
[A freely downloadable electronic book (1.7 MB) reissued in PDF format by Asienstiftung/Asienhaus, Essen, Germany - ed.]
URL http://www.asienhaus.de/taking-state-to-court
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
Link reported by: Klaus Fritsche (k.fritsche--at--asienhaus.de)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30