Changing the Terms of the Discourse

Introduction to the Series

Women, Equality and the Republic

Landmarks in the Indian Story

Vina Mazumdar

I

The 20^th Century will be remembered for many negative contributions—demonstrating humanity’s capacity to utilise its intellectual, organisational and innovative resources for purely destructive ends—resulting in colossal human tragedies. Amongst its few positive contributions, the two which acquired virtually universal acceptance for a major part of the century were (a) the emergence of the Welfare State¹; and (b) the process referred to as “decolonisation” or “the end of Empires”—depending on the location and origin of the writers. The Gender revolution was another major transformation of the twentieth century. Contributory factors were ...