‘Toofan Aur Deeya’ (Storm and L...
Binu Mathew, the editor of Countercurrents.org...
Environment
Earth Day: Enemies and Opportunities
Wes Jackson | 21/04/2022
From Rachel Carson to Monsanto: The Silence of Spring
Colin Todhunter | 18/04/2022
Sham of Public Hearing in Mali Parbat
Devendra and Arjun | 16/04/2022
Featured Stories
India
Greening the Red: Towards sustainable menstruation in India
Gone are the days when menstruation, one of our country’s major taboos, was spoken with a ‘hush’ or a ‘shh’ in our society. With films like ‘Padman’, ‘Phullu’, ‘Period. End of Sentence’, the sanitary pads have suddenly gone mainstream. But let’s not forget the fact the country still has limited acceptance with menstrual cups and the discussion around sustainable menstrual[Read More…]
COVID Response Watch
Covid-19: When will the profiteering of private hospitals be curbed?
The first and second waves of the Covid pandemic in India saw health personnel in both government and private hospitals risking their lives to save patients, often working late hours day after day. For this, the Indian public will always remain indebted to them for their selfless service. However, the stories of Covid patients being fleeced by private hospitals that[Read More…]
World
The Economic Consequences of the War
Why the Conflict in Ukraine Is a Disaster for the Poor of This Planet In 1919, the renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace, a book that would prove controversial indeed. In it, he warned that the draconian terms imposed on defeated Germany after what was then known as the Great War — which we[Read More…]
Globalisation
Western-Led Globalization Might End, but the New Globalization Might Have an Eastern Face
by E Ahmet Tonak and Vijay Prashad An article written by authors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge for Bloomberg on March 24 sounded the alarm to announce the end of “the second great age of globalization.” The Western trade war and sanctions against China that predated the pandemic have now been joined by the stiff Western sanctions imposed against Russia after it[Read More…]
Human Rights
10 day Ordeal of Jignesh Mewani Exposes Wider Trend to Crush Democratic Dissent
All those committed to protecting democracy, and more specifically to stopping the recent trend of highly undemocratic assaults on political opponents, will feel greatly relieved by the happy ending of the 10 day ordeal of Jignesh Mewani on April 29 by the acceptance of his bail by the Barpeta district and sessions court. As a bonus gain for the democracy[Read More…]
Imperialism
The Civilian Deaths You Haven’t Heard About
Casualties of America’s Never-Ending Global War on Terror Madogaz Musa Abdullah still remembers the phone call. But what came next was a blur. He drove for hours, deep into the Libyan desert, speeding toward the border with Algeria. His mind buckled, his thoughts reeled, and more than three years later, he’s still not certain how he made that six-hour journey.[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
Aligarh (Muslim University) – Legacy of Hindu-Muslim Amity
Aligarh city in Uttar Pradesh is known for two things – the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and the lock manufacturing industries. Aligarh is a university town, notable as the seat of AMU, which was founded here as Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College in 1975, initiating the Aligarh Movement. Sir Hamilton Gibb, who was an eminent Scottish Orientalist from England who taught[Read More…]
Climate Change
Drastic Water Rationing Restrictions In Chile As Drought Enters 13th Year
Chile authority has imposed new water restrictions for the capital city of Santiago, a city with six million population, as the country enters its 13th year of drought. Claudio Orrego, the governor of the Santiago metropolitan region said: “And we are in an unprecedented situation in Santiago’s 491-year history where we have to prepare for there to not be enough water[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Earth Day: Enemies and Opportunities
by Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen In a 1970 poster for the first Earth Day and a cartoon the following year, Walt Kelly’s Pogo offered a hard truth about ecological crises: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” That doesn’t mean there are no differences in individuals’ contribution to those crises. Landowners, not agricultural workers who harvest crops,[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
How People Can Change the World—JEPESD Path of Social Movements
Many thoughtful people of world are now concerned deeply about aggravation of several serious problems led by life-threatening environmental problems and accumulation of weapons of mass destruction. At the same time they realize that the earlier problems of inequalities and injustice are also worsening in many contexts. As life-nurturing conditions of our planet are also threatened there is greater urgency[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
Living room as a space of feminist solidarity
Didi kabhi shadi mat karna (Didi, never get married). Durga’s voice reverberated in the house during our morning ritual of chatting over a cup of piping hot tea. Durga, one of the thousands or probably lakhs of immigrants from Bihar, helps me with household chores. Mine is the first house she comes to in the morning, primarily because I have[Read More…]
Palestine
During the Zionist arrest campaigns
I received several reactions to the memoirs that I published successively on the pages of the countercurrents. Some blame me for waiting a long time to write about that period, and they are right. But let us remember the proverb that says it is better to be late than Never. However, I must admit that I tried to write about[Read More…]
South Asia
Remembering the 13th anniversary of Mullivakkal massacre
Genocide of 147,000 Tamils – Tamils demand justice from UN, UNHRC, UN Security Council and the International Community. May 18, 2021, marks the 13-year anniversary of the end of the 26-year armed conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE); Tamils all over the world [more than 82 million] will remember the Mullivakkal[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
Incineration of Nathapur Dalits’ Hutment a barbaric act
Barhampur or Mahisha-Barhampur is an island-village nestled into Chilika lake, located in Krishnaprasad Tehsil of Puri District of Odisha. A news concerning some Dalit families leaving this village under compulsion due to the incidents of ethnic harassment and social ostracise buzzed around in various media. After leaving their village Barhampur, these migrated Dalit families took shelter in a temporary hutment,[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
In memory of Rajni Patel on 40th Death anniversary
Exactly 40 years ago on May 3rd Rajni Patel left us. Whatever his flaws his human touch to offer selfless service and ability to galvanise or influence human beings from all walks of life, was remarkable. Few people would ever go out of the way to help someone or serve as selflessly without aim of personal gain.Rajni championed Nehruvian secular[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
The Return
The fervour of coming back, and the inbuilt resilience of the exiles, to mould from the debris, that was whatever, that forced us back ahead the end of war. Even the coming back to a defeated homeland was enthralling, we built tall dreams en route, clinging to mirages, as though, nothing came about, and sought ways to wipe out[Read More…]
Book Review
The Chidananda Dasgupta Best Book Award to Vidyarthy Chatterjee’s book on Calcutta and the Joshy Joseph Trilogy
The Chidananda Dasgupta Best Book Award to Vidyarthy Chatterjee’s book on Calcutta and the Joshy Joseph Trilogy- A critical review Published by Cerebrum Books, India, 2022 Stuart Hall identifies three ways of reading media messages.[1] According to Stuart Hall, Dominant Reading takes what the film says for granted. The Negotiated Reading questions the minor premises but accepts the major ones.[Read More…]
