Farewell to Sasi etta, brother K.P....
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist,...
Environment
Featured Stories
India
Budget is a golden age for corporates but a mirage for farmers, Dalit, tribals
In the budget presented on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that this budget has ushered in an amrit kal period , but for Dalits, tribals and farmers, this budgetary amrit period is a mirage and there is no way to face the challenges like inflation and unemployment in the budget. This budget has once again confirmed that the[Read More…]
COVID Response Watch
Shadow of Covid lingers over the erstwhile Kingdom of Cooch Behar
The princely state of Cooch Behar merged with the Dominion of India on August 8, 1949 and became a part of the State of West Bengal on January 1, 1950. To go to Cooch Behar, one has to cross Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts, which were also once part of other neighbouring hill kingdoms and annexed by the British. During my[Read More…]
World
Crisis Prolongs In Peru, State Of Emergency Extended
Since the ouster and imprisonment of democratically elected President Pedro Castillo in Peru political crisis is prolonging in the country as people’s revolt against the rightist government is spreading across the country, and the government is increasing repressive measures instead of taking measure for a democratic approach. Daily protesters around Peru have blocked highways with trees, boulders and tires, taken[Read More…]
Globalisation
Corporatizing the World One Small Company at a Time
I remember when my small town lost its last family owned and run pharmacy — a beautiful, old, turn of the century store and a high quality company that the family had managed over four generations of pharmacists. In fact, the pharmacist-owners had loved their jobs and helped each other in work while simultaneously knowing most of their long-standing customers and[Read More…]
Human Rights
Aerial Bombings in Chhattisgarh: CDRO Fact Finding Team Stopped
Condemn the State’s undemocratic action of denying passage to CDRO Fact Finding Team for inquiry into Aerial Bombings in Chhattisgarh! Resist the attempt to create a war without witnesses in Chhattisgarh! Resist the attack on exercise of Democratic rights! A fact finding team of the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) comprising of 25 members from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West[Read More…]
Imperialism
No Peaceful Multipolar World Anytime Soon: Underestimating US Power is Dangerous
“If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.” Sun Tzu “But it turns out there isn’t really any military threat by the United states. Not only [has the U.S] and NATO run out of normal military arms, but America really can’t mount a land war anymore. There will never be another Vietnam.[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
History, Communal Narratives and Sectarian Politics
Last few decades have seen the rise of communal politics in India. Similar politics has been dominating Pakistan from a much longer time. This politics draws heavily from history; rather it uses History as the major tool for spreading hate against the ‘other’ community. The target community in Pakistan is Hindus and in India it is Muslims. In these narratives[Read More…]
Climate Change
Rain and Heat, Fire and Snow – Life in a Destabilized California
It was January 1983 and raining in San Francisco. The summer before, I’d moved here from Portland, Oregon, a city known for its perpetual gray drizzles and, on the 60-odd days a year when the sun deigns to shine, dazzling displays of greenery. My girlfriend had spent a year convincing me that San Francisco had much more to offer me[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Forever Chemicals, Everywhere
Forever Chemicals are found everywhere from the depths of the Mariana Trench to the mountaintop of Mt. Everest. Following 80 years of manufacturing various PFAS chemicals, the world is swimming in chemical permanence. And yes, it is a toxic price society pays for modern-day conveniences — made easy! But maybe it would be better if “products made easy by PFASs”[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
Why Understanding Limits Is the Key to Humanity’s Future
Recent news articles about a breakthrough in nuclear fusion research heralded the potential for “limitless” energy. Whenever I read that word limitless I wince, because I’ve learned to view it as a subtle instruction to readers to “please stop thinking now.” After decades of false promises to deliver limitless energy, we need to start thinking instead, and search for limits both obvious and hidden. Doing so[Read More…]
Resource Crisis
The Project of Capital and the Project of the Proletariat in a time of World Crisis
ABSTRACT This is a response to the two sets of articles written by Sajai Jose on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and on the world’s and India’s hunger crisis. It is in two parts. In the first part it lays the historical background of the response of capital in the face of periodic crises it faces and people’s response to it.[Read More…]
Patriarchy
Demand for Same-sex Marriage Pending Since 1991 – Indian Parliament Continues to Stonewall the Debate
“Amend the Special Marriages Act to allow for marriages between people of the same sex (or between people who may be inter-sexed, or have undergone sex-change surgery, and any others). All consequential legal benefits of marriage should extend to gay marriages as well, including the right to adopt children, to execute a partner’s will, to inherit, etc. Same-sex couples should[Read More…]
Palestine
Palestine: Platitudes Don’t Bring Peace
After the blood bath in occupied Palestine in 2022, more than 230 Palestinians were killed. The Israeli Occupation Forces and the heavily armed Jewish illegal settlers in the West Bank continued their feral killing spree into 2023 unabated. In the first month of this year, Israel murdered 36 Palestinians. Ten of those murders took place in Jenin, my birthplace. This[Read More…]
South Asia
Pakistan Is Facing Major Economic Crisis
Pakistan is facing a major economic crisis. News agency AFP headlined one of it reports as “Pakistan’s economy in ‘collapse’ as IMF visits” A report — Pakistan facing worst economic crisis; Pakistani rupee at Rs 250 against dollar: Report — said: Pakistan is facing the worst economic crisis since the nation formed with its currency falling to Rs 250 against[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
Persistence of Caste as the axial principle of stratification
Based on his twenty-one-year fieldwork, Jonathan P Parry authored ‘Classes of Labour: Work and Life in a Central Indian Steel Town’, in which he argued the weakening of the caste system as a principle of stratification. According to Parry, with a few exceptions, class system is key for social divisions and in determining social behaviour of individuals. Though his arguments[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
Why did Tulsidas ask his God Rama to punish Shudras and women not Mughal rulers?
The anti-Shudra, Dalit and women language of Tulsidas in his Ramcharitamanas engendered a major controversy in North India. Its impact could also be seen in the South, which already had a strong Shudra mobilization history. He equated them with animals and drums and wanted to keep punishing them forever. The new consciousness of the Shudras, Dalits and women is not going to accept[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
The incredible story of how East African culture shaped the music of a state in India
The term Siddi refers to Afro-Indians – Africans who mixed with Indians through marriage and relationships. Africans crossed the Indian Ocean and arrived in India during the 1200s, 1300s and 1400s. They were transported by Islamic invaders and Portuguese colonisers as enslaved people, palace guards, army chiefs, harem keepers, spiritual leaders, Sufi singers, dancers and treasurers. Today, the majority of Siddis are found in the west[Read More…]
Book Review
Lives In Acting
A new, freely downloadable, book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, entitled “Lives in Acting”. The pdf file of the book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2023/01/Lives-in-Acting-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf It is part of my series of books on cultural history. Human history as cultural history We need to reform our[Read More…]
