As a tribute to Javeed Alam and his exemplary life, some of his close friends and admirers have cometogether in this volume with reflections on the range of themes that he pursued in his work withsuch intelligence and relish for some four decades: the nature of capitalism and the various angles ofa Marxist response to it, the nature of secularism and liberalism and the forms of modernity whichthey usher in, and Gandhi’s political ideas in the context of Indian society and India’s own unfoldingmodernity.