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Environment
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India
Scheduled Tribes: Adivasi or Vanvasi
Rahul Gandhi’s in one of his recent statements about Adivasis said “The people of BJP don’t call you Adivasi. What do they call you? Vanvasi. They don’t tell you that you are the first owners of Hindostan. They tell you live in jungles…” The word used for these aborigines is Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution. It is interesting to recall[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
Cuba Goes on a Diplomatic Tour in an Increasingly Multipolar World
On November 27 morning, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, walked into a voting station in the Playa neighborhood to vote in Cuba’s municipal elections. He had landed in Havana an hour earlier from an intense tour of Algeria, Russia, Turkey, and China. The tour, which started on November 16, was both a journey into the past of the nonaligned world that Cuba played an integral role in building and[Read More…]
Globalisation
How the policies of globalization exploited the resources and economy of the developing countries
In last five decade of twentieth century has been perhaps the most remarkable in period of human history in terms of scientific development as we have unlocked countless secrets. In this same period saw the creation of institution of global governance: the United Nations, the International monetary fund, the world bank, and the GATT which turned into World trade organization.[Read More…]
Human Rights
Supreme Court’s Widely- Praised Bail for Anand Teltumbde should be Followed by Wider Justice in Elgar Case
Supreme Court’s firmness in upholding the Bombay High Court’s order granting bail to Anand Teltumbde has been widely appreciated. However, we must also listen to what this 73 year old distinguished scholar activist, coming out after spending 31 months in prison, had to stay regarding the case in which several other distinguished activists have also been implicated—“the sad thing is[Read More…]
Imperialism
A Hall of Shame of U.S. Weapons Sales
Here’s a seldom commented-upon reality of this century and this moment: the United States remains the number-one arms-exporting nation on the planet. Between 2017 and 2021, it grabbed 39% of the total global weapons market and there’s nothing new about that. It has, in fact, been the top arms dealer in every year but one for the past three decades. And it’s a remarkably[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
Life Beyond 1.5C
Headlines describing the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties (COP) of UNFCCC more commonly referred to as COP27 at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt sent troubling messages: “The Greenwashing Scam Behind COP27’s Flop” (In These Times) “COP27 Climate Summit Missed Chance for Ambition on Fossil Fuels” (Reuters) “COP27 Is Full of Politicians and Policymakers” (The Guardian). None of[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Clearance for Nicobar Mega Infra Project must be revoked
Nicobar Mega Infra Project – destructive of the local ecology and detrimental to the interests of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal communities- Revoke clearance for the project To Shri Bhupender Yadav Union Minister for Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Dear Shri Yadav, I have enclosed here a copy of my letter dated 15-11-2-022 addressed to you on a mega infra[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
Sustainable Consumption, Sustainability in Value Chain
This is a small article addressed to beginners Sustainable Consumption Life on earth can be divided in two parts – plant life and animal life. The difference between the two is that plants produce their own food whereas animals, humans included, live directly or indirectly on food produced by plants. To sustain themselves, humans consume goods and services not only[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
International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls—25 November
Efforts to prevent violence against women and girls should be based on careful identification of causes When the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his message for the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women and Children ( November 25) that “every 11 minutes , a woman or girl is killed by an intimate partner or family[Read More…]
Palestine
In the World Cup arena and in Israel, might makes right
Caption–Left: Gheith Najjar (white t-shirt) at Qatar 2022 World Cup. Right: A screen shot of an Israeli’s mobile captured as he was sharing Najjar’s image at Qatar 2022 World Cup Marco Balich, the creative director of the opening ceremony of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, probably has no idea that “bridging distances” when it comes to Palestinians and Israelis is a[Read More…]
South Asia
The Pakistani Left’s Bizarre Obsession with the Western Left
by Azhar Imran and Zerrish Khan During the days after former Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted from office, there was jubilation by the Pakistani liberal-left. But they figured out quickly that they had to go into overdrive to produce and police a narrative of what happened. But bizarrely, that narrative wasn’t being constructed for Pakistanis, but for some mysterious[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
Hindutva, 22 oaths and Ambedkar’s legacy
Dr. Ambedkar is considered as a symbol of resistance of Dalits against caste system and who stood for annihilation of caste. On 14th October 1956, he along with 6 lakhs of his followers converted to Buddhism at Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur. As chairperson of the drafting committee of the Indian constitution, his contributions to emergence of a liberal democracy and[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
Remembering Eric Hobsbawm
Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012) was one of the world’s most famous and perceptive communist historians. He pioneered a distinctive shape to method of historical research. exploring areas untouched. Around two months ago we commemorated his 10th death anniversary. Hobsbawm contributed major concepts, from the general crisis of the 17th century to the Dual Revolution, and terms like “the invention of tradition”[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
HE STANDS on the ROCK
He stands on the Rock the beautiful rock beside the flourishing Tree of Life. He stands on the Rock on the beautiful rock beside the flowing river of light. He raises his arms like wings of lightning two beacon-flames of luminous fire. His voice goes out with the strength of a ringing bell with softness of a[Read More…]
Book Review
Khalid Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns: Giving Voice to the Voiceless
The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini poignantly writes the story of brave and courageous Afghan women who have lived under the debilitating shadows of patriarchal oppression, endless violence and war. As the extremist Taliban regime in Kabul enforces its full obscurantist and repressive rule on Afghan society, the brave Afghan women are again facing the brunt of[Read More…]
