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Today, the Republic of India faces its gravest...
Environment
Our Lungs Are Under Attack—We Must Protect Them to Stay Alive
Stuart Basden | July 31, 2020
EIA 2020: Why is it so perilous?
Bishaldeep Kakati | July 31, 2020
Chardham Highway project and the environmental destruction of the Himalayas
Sandeep Pandey | July 30, 2020
Featured Stories
World
Regimes Without Reason and Conscience
The world is silently witnessing the erosion of democratic, progressive, secular and liberal cultures of governance. The contemporary governments are becoming more authoritarian and threaten the multicultural mosaic of societies around the world. The governing and non-governing elites falsely argue that democracy breeds inefficiency and creates functional barrier to the animal spirit of profit making and entrepreneurial activities. The majority[Read More…]
India
Legal Education under NEP 2020: Big Promises with Little Substance
The legal education in India, particularly after the rise of National Law Universities (NLUs) has often been criticized for nurturing privilege and remaining inaccessible to most. Even a cursory examination of the system is enough to demonstrate that the criticism is not devoid of merit. One, the medium of instruction in these Universities is compulsorily English, which prevents a large[Read More…]
Globalisation
Globalisation of Capitalist Crises
The post pandemic economic recovery looks uncertain and the economic growth projections look gloomy in every stretch of policy paradigm within capitalist imaginations. The strong and existing multilateral cooperation within the Westphalian international system is falling apart and facing its existential threats due to its entrenched Eurocentric bias, democratic deficits and institutional dominance by the erstwhile colonial powers. The world[Read More…]
Human Rights
Statement by students in solidarity with Prof Hany Babu
We, the undersigned former and current students of Prof Hany Babu M.T., condemn his arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday and stand in firm solidarity with him. Prof. Babu is a noted academic, a well known anti-caste activist, and a member of the committee formed for the defence of G.N. Saibaba, a former Delhi University professor who[Read More…]
Imperialism
How Americans Remember (and Forget) Their Wars
Some years ago, a newspaper article credited a European visitor with the wry observation that Americans are charming because they have such short memories. When it comes to the nation’s wars, however, he was not entirely on target. Americans embrace military histories of the heroic “band of [American] brothers” sort, especially involving World War II. They possess a seemingly boundless[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
If India is Secular!
In practice, India has been neither secular nor socialist. It has always functioned as an upper-caste Hindu state. Arundhati Roy The Constitution of India is based on the premise of secularism and unbiased principles. But the question is: Are these secular principles practiced in true sense of the term in our country at present? The obvious answer that echoes from[Read More…]
Climate Change
Thawing Arctic Permafrost
It’s no surprise that first prize, or the blue ribbon, for exceeding 2°C above baseline goes to the Arctic with permafrost that covers 25% of the Northern Hemisphere. Recognition is long overdue, as it’s been totally neglected far too long by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This crucial nugget of knowledge comes by way of a recent virtual[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Our Lungs Are Under Attack—We Must Protect Them to Stay Alive
Since I was a child in the 1980’s I have heard calls to protect the Amazon. I remember watching videos of massive trees being cut down, soil washed away, and areas of lush forest burnt and cleared. I was told McDonalds was the villain, as the land was being destroyed for cattle farming, soy monoculture and fast-food burgers. As a[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
System Change: A Basic Primer to the Solidarity Economy
Co-Written by Emily Kawano and Julie Matthaei The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our world. It has laid bare the inequity, the limits, and the failures of capitalism. The door to a better future beyond capitalism, already cracked open by the Great Recession, has been pushed open a little wider. Things that seemed impossible a few months ago now seem both[Read More…]
Resource Crisis
Business-as-usual porn – or, We need to talk about collapse
I think we need to talk openly and calmly about the possibility of societal or civilizational collapse arising from humanity’s present predicaments. And that’s mostly what I want to pursue in this post – not so much what the likelihood or the underlying mechanisms of collapse might be, but the idea that it would be useful if, as a society,[Read More…]
Alternative Energy
SMART? – Solar In Massachusetts
Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (“DOER”) will finalize by July 15 regulations doubling the size of MA SMART solar photovoltaic program from 1,600 to 3,200 megawatts (MW). On the surface this is a reasonable, if limited, step forward. But like most things, the devil and long-term consequences are in the details. Unless changed by DOER, or the legislature, the latest[Read More…]
Patriarchy
What is really radical in sex/gender politics?
The political left, and much of mainstream feminism, is characterized by an analysis of how systems and institutions shape our choices, a critique of capitalist media, and a commitment to a scientific/materialist worldview. But when faced with radical feminism’s compelling critiques of patriarchy, leftists and many feminists routinely abandon those principles. Radical feminist critiques of prostitution, pornography, and transgender ideology[Read More…]
Palestine
Human Rights Defenders: Palestinian Eyewitness Testimony of the Execution of Abdul Fattah al-Sharif by Israeli Soldier, Elor Azaria
As illegal Jewish settlers increase their attacks on Palestinian civilians in the occupied city of Al Khalil (Hebron), the people of the Palestinian city continue to mount a campaign of popular resistance. One of the channels of resistance is Human Rights Defenders, “a grass-roots, non-partisan Palestinian organization, working to support nonviolent popular resistance through popular direct action and documentation of[Read More…]
South Asia
COVID-19 And President Gotabaya’s Military Rule In North And East Of Sri Lanka
Tamils in Sri Lanka especially in the North and East are now living between the devil and deep sea. Heavy presence of the military [to the ratio of one soldier to every four civilians 1: 4] and on the other side they are scared of the Covid-19. The President is determined to hold the election on August 05, 2020 without taking[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
India’s Illegitimate Daughter
“Because of the ascendancy of lawlessness, Krishna, The family women are corrupted; When women are corrupted, O Krishna, The intermixture of caste is born. Intermixture brings to hell The family destroyers and the family, too; The ancestors of these indeed fall, Deprived of offerings of rice and water. By these wrongs of the family destroyers, Producing intermixture of caste, Caste[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
Remembering Kamlabai
Not everyone with a family is destined to enjoy all the fruits that the family has to offer. Let us take the case of Kamlabai Raghunath Gokhale, or simply Kamlabai, who was a Marathi actress in the early decades of the twentieth century and the first woman to act in films in India. Reena Mohan, who trained in editing at[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
How the national movement influenced our art, culture and cinema
Today is the 30th death anniversary of legendary playback singer Mohammad Rafi. Rafi Saheb passed away on 31st July, 1980. We also remember Munshi Prem Chand doyen of Hindi writing on his 140th birthday. But there is another important day today which is the martyrdom day of Shaheed Udham Singh who was executed by the British for killing General Micheal[Read More…]
Book Review
How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs
How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs. Elizabeth F. Thomson. Atlantic Monthly Press, NewYork, 2020. Having just read The War That Ended Peace [https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-war-that-ended-peace-book-review/] the title How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs appeared as an intriguing and fortuitous follow up. Its subtitle describes its more narrow focus: The Syrian-Arab Congress of 1920 and the Destruction of[Read More…]
