Indian Journal of Social Enquiry

This editorial examines the expanding influence of artificial intelligence on contemporary social, professional, cultural, and environmental life. It considers both the opportunities and risks associated with the rapid development and normalization of AI, with particular attention to human connection, critical thinking, artistic expression, employment, algorithmic bias, discrimination, and environmental sustainability. The discussion highlights concerns surrounding dependence on personalized AI systems, the reproduction of biases through data driven algorithms, the growing resource demands of data centres, and the changing nature of employment in an increasingly technology driven economy. Alongside these contemporary concerns, the issue of the Indian Journal of Social Enquiry presents a diverse collection of scholarly contributions addressing education, history, democracy, gender, environmental movements, public finance, literature, ecology, and community based conservation. The featured studies examine theatre based education, the historical contribution of Zorawar Singh, democratic legitimacy among youth in Nepal and Sri Lanka, ecofeminist interpretations of Indian environmental movements, the fiscal impact of GST in Gujarat, poetry and ecological conflict in Northeast India, and community conserved areas. Collectively, the issue encourages critical social enquiry by connecting contemporary challenges with historical experiences and emerging perspectives on progress, development, citizenship, culture, and sustainability.

Peter Nicholls’s essay ‘Wars I have Seen’ explores the mediation of war through the medium of poetry, visuals and technology, comments on its ramification and the alteration in the perception of war in the popular imagination. By extrapolating salient themes from the essay, specifically, the interrelation of visuality and violence and the adoption of poetry as the mode of creative expression and representation in a conflict-ridden landscape, this paper will reread poetry from the Northeast of India. Studies have undertaken an eco-critical reading of the poetry from the Northeast of India given the immersiveness of the poets in the ecosphere, while others have critiqued the representation of armed conflict in the region. Keeping this in mind, the current study would extend the ecocritical approach to include the effects, if any, of the militant clashes in the region on the biosphere and investigate its presence and representation in the poetry from the Northast.

This paper examines the examines the fiscal impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Gujarat which is a strong base of manufacturing activities. The paper covers the time period from 2008–09 to 2024–25 and uses an Interrupted Time Series model with Newey-West HAC standard errors. The paper finds evidence of persistent but moderate fiscal deceleration post-GST. During the study period, revenue growth decelerated by 4.0 percentage points annually and expenditure by 3.2 points. Chow test confirms structural breaks for both revenue and expenditure. Though the revenue CAGR had declined from 13.94% preGST to 9.29% post-GST, SGST achieved remarkable 18.05% CAGR compared to pre-GST Sales Tax at 13.51%. A decline in fiscal Autonomy Index was also registered during the study period from 66.1% to 60.3%, which can be attributed to increased transfer dependence from the centre. Developmental expenditure share had remained stable, while the interest burden declined from 17.9% to 15.5%. Revenue buoyancy improved from 1.01 to 1.22, the highest among major states. Findings reveal a manufacturing state paradox: destination-based GST created initial revenue losses requiring large compensation, yet improved buoyancy. It suggests long-term SGST potential exceeds pre-GST Sales Tax/ VAT performance.