Deccan Dialogues: Recent Episodes
Parakala Prabhakar
Deccan Dialogues is an attempt to offer a platform and a space to public intellectuals from across the country and the globe to critically examine the issues confronting our nation and to discuss alternative roadmaps. It is important that a calm, informed public dialogue on issues concerning our Republic takes place regularly. The current state of public discourse in the country is unsatisfactory and is largely being conducted on TV screens. Most of our academic institutions and think tanks are presently unprepared to seriously participate in contribute to the discourse. By its very nature, television tends to make the discourse loud, contentious, polemical and confrontational to grab eyeballs and stay ahead in ratings. It generates more heat than light on issues. There is also widespread opinion that most of our media houses are unable and unwilling to call out the powers that be on vital issues concerning growing insults to the fundamental values of our Republic. Deccan Dialogues is hosted by Mohan Guruswamy and Parakala Prabhakar, two prominent public intellectuals based in Hyderabad. They speak on various subjects in front of live audience at the Guruswamy Centre, Secunderabad. Sometimes they’re also joined by other experts in person whenever possible as well as online from across India and the globe.
Was Hyderabad integrated with India, or was it liberated? Was the inclusion of princely states into India one man's work? Is the integration of India complete? Could it have been more effective? Has it delivered the sought for results? If our founding values are changed, will we survive as a nation? What more needs to be done?
Parakala Prabhakar and Mohan Guruswamy discuss these questions about The Unification of India in this episode of Deccan Dialogues.
It is a truism that organisations are effective only if they are organised effectively and efficiently. How does the way India's government is organised measure up to this requirement? Is India's development suffering because of the way in which its government is organised? Would India develop faster and in a more balanced manner if its government was organised differently? What are the organisational flaws at present, and how should they be rectified? What are the hurdles to reorganising India's government?
In this episode of Deccan Dialogues Mohan Guruswamy and Parakala Prabhakar discuss these important issues in detail.
What do you think about the way India's government is organised? How would you organise the government so that it is more effective? Do let us have your feedback by commenting below.
The farmers' agitation a few months ago highlighted the fact that though India's agriculture output has increased more than ten fold since the 1960s, farmers' incomes have not kept pace.
In this episode of Deccan Dialogues, Mohan Guruswamy and Parakala Prabhakar discuss the state of India agriculture. They identify the structural problems responsible for stagnating farmer income, and identify areas which need work if farming is to remain sustainable in India.
In the narration of India's history South India's rich past is largely neglected. The story of India in our text books and treatises is by and large a story of the Aryavarta or the Indo-Gangetic plain. The story of the East, particularly the Northeast, meets the same fate at the hands of both Indian and Foreign, Western historians. Parakala Prabhakar and Mohan Guruswamy discuss various issues related to this sorry state of the Indian history research agenda.
In this episode of Deccan Dialogues Parakala Prabhakar and Mohan Guruswamy discuss the fall in the value of the rupee, and the election of Droupadi Murmu as President of India.
As we mark 75 years of India's Independence and celebrate Azadi Ka Amritmahotsav, Parakala Prabhakar and Mohan Guruswamy discuss the progressive enfeeblement of the states of Indian Union. They look at the less than fair treatment of the states by the union government, especially of the southern states. There is feeling among a growing number of people in the south that the high performing southern states are penalised for their better economic management and population control. It augurs ill for the spirit of federalism that our Republic is based on.