Of Money-in-the-Blood and Blood-Money

-Ravi Sinha
 

Recently, the Indian Prime Minister had occasion to report to the Japanese on his genealogy and haematic chemistry. Addressing a house-full of corporate honchos in Tokyo he declared, “I am a Gujarati, money is in my blood”. One does not know what percentage of Gujaratis would feel insulted by such a description. It can be asked, perhaps more meaningfully, if great civilizations are created by money-in-the-blood types and one may wonder if Gujarati greats such as Narsi Mehta, Narmad, Govardhan Ram or Gandhi, too, had money flowing in their blood.

Law and Patriarchy

-Stree Mukti Magazine

Law in any patriarchal society is also patriarchal by its very nature.  This ideological character of law is revealed in many ways – in the basic ideas of formal equality under law given the grossly unequal nature of society, in the language of law, in its institutions, in its implementation, and in its effects.  On the one had, a range of laws try to enforce formal equality in a substantially unequal society and on the other, there are laws that reinforce patriarchal notions of “weaker sex”, or gender roles such as motherhood and innocence.