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Independent and transparent research is vital for good governance, says Dr Bhaskara Rao. It is a barometer for the sustainability of development, harmony, prosperity and prospects of the people. The current book, he says, attempts to track the turns that social and policy research has taken over the last 75 years — slipping from a position of rare professional integrity and credibility to a worrying low in both role and status. The reasons, he lists, are polarisation and populism, majoritarian trends in society and politics, immoderate pursuit of profit and corporate agendas, etc. If this trend is not reversed, research could become irrelevant and even dangerously misleading, thus undermining our well-being as a nation, he warns.

Haroon Khalid’s ‘From Waris to Heer’ is an ode to the tradition of qissa writing, the story of Heer and the creative genius of Waris Shah… Written at a time when seismic changes were taking place in the political landscape of Punjab — disintegration of Mughal empire, invasions of Ahmad Shah Abdali and rise of the Sikh misls, the work is an eyewitness account of sorts, says the author. Its pages are a repository of a thousand years of literary tradition, folk legends, religiosity, geography and its people and their sensibilities. Written in a unique novel form, this book tells the story of Punjab and Punjab’s much-loved ‘Heer’ through the voice of Waris, while also reflecting the syncretic cultural of the land of five rivers.