Outlook Magazine - August 21, 2017

In this issue

Into The Void We’ve reached a point where our idealism sits in a waiting room, watching the mischief of politics, waiting to be released. Ashis Nandy analyses our ‘post-normal’ condition.

Mahatma and The Modernist Irfan Habib on the differences between two schools of thought that raised a republic— Gandhi and Nehru Power Can Do Good Entrepreneurs have agency, says N.R.

Narayana Murthy, to be virtuous and caring of the society. The Tireless Banks of Justice Medha Patkar, the indefatigable crusader of the decades old Narmada Bachao Andolan, talks to Outlook about her unshaken belief in people’s movements The Fate of All Structures Dilip Simeon writes on the absence of instinctive functions of compassion and empathy that make the Left more like its counter ideologies, far from any utopia Bramhacharis vs Breadwinners Puranas and shastras hint at a constant tension between hermits and householders.

Does spiritual quest ideally warrant celibacy? Devdutt Pattanaik explores the terrain—from monks to political leaders. And Then, ‘Us’ Turned to ‘Me’ From imagining an ideal modern India
to disillusionment. Indian cinema’s journey is tied to the journey of its ambitious project— socialism.

C.S. Venkiteswaran writes. The Heart Is Still Ideal It’s perhaps the exhaustion of our imagination in the face of an overwhelming world that says ‘idealism is dead’. Natasha Badhwar narrates true stories of hope.