Back in the time before the time before the time before now, we used to have a chant. It would name some courageous, creative, fighter for justice and then urge that we Live Like Her, Live Like Him. In that time, in the next time, in the next time, up until now, would any serious committed activist for racial, gender,[Read More…]
Here I am stranded on this island called Dumarika. Being a baby boomer this writer can recall the days when this place was never as dumb as it is now. Don’t get me wrong, this was always home to many fitting the description of Dumb, but never such a preponderance. I mean, how dumb can the majority of us be[Read More…]
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must —at that moment—become the[Read More…]
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States’ “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela continues to intensify. Washington is planning to impose sanctions on “bad actors” that do business with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, singling out countries such as Russia, China, Cuba and Iran. James Story, the top US diplomat accredited for Venezuela, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: “Certainly[Read More…]
How Mumbai’s new coastal road poses a threat not only to the environment and fishing communities but also to sites of historical, religious and cultural importance. The Haji Ali dargah as work proceeds on the Coastal Road project. | Photo credit: Aaran Patel. Every city, every place on earth is defined by characteristics, landmarks, or certain quirks of nature which[Read More…]
It would be good if our politicians and bureaucrats did a little introspection like Bangalore’s traffic police commissioner Ravikanthe Gowda. He said he had not travelled by a bus for the last twenty years and we make decisions about public transport without using public transport ourselves and without involving people who are real users. This situation has to change, he[Read More…]
Shahran oil depot in north west Tehran has been likened to a “hydrogen bomb” The subterfuge and sabotage, particularly after the August 4, 2020 Beirut, Lebanon blasts 1 , in which around 181 people died, more than 3,00,000 rendered homeless and property worth billions of USD gutted, has become the new normal. There are many theories about who[Read More…]
Gupkar as the name behind a recent political declaration is catching headlines these days. On 4 August 2019, a group of politicians in Srinagar issued a statement, now known as the Gupkar Declaration, to defend the “identity, autonomy and special status of Jammu & Kashmir against all attacks and onslaughts whatsoever”. Within 24 hours, the Government of India responded by[Read More…]
It was a Friday morning when American president John F. Kennedy (JFK) sat in his Lincoln convertible to attend a feast at the Dallas Trade Mart. Infamous for harbouring enmity for JFK, journalist Ted Dealey had just called him a “traitor” in a series of advertisements that he published in Dallas Morning News. While the whirlpool of hatred and propaganda[Read More…]
Despite China being Australia’s biggest trading partner, US lackey Australia has joined Trump America in its anti-China trade war and military posturing policies. China has been offended by this increasing hostility from US lackey Australia and coincidentally for asserted anti-dumping reasons has applied tariffs to Australian beef and barley with threats of extending this to Australian wine. In actuality there[Read More…]
Ignorance can be the best escapism, but if we are cognizant about the history of agriculture and the morphology of earth, we will know that a spectre haunts the living today. The spectre of science in proliferating scientificity and genealogy of knowledge on food production haunt us today. Food for self is transformed into food for others under the realm[Read More…]
The other day an important BJP leader remarked that Jawaharlal Nehru and other Congress leaders managed to advance the date of independence and accepted country’s partition because they were in a hurry to enjoy fruits of power. This statement of the BJP leader is totally untrue and is not backed by facts and indicates that they lack knowledge of history.[Read More…]
Brenton Tarrant was sentenced last week. The Australian national who butchered, with relish, 51 individuals in Christchurch at Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre, found himself facing something unique in New Zealand: jail for life without parole. He pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one of terrorism. He also faced[Read More…]
It baffles the mind whether it’s willful blindness or anterograde amnesia but while drawing parallels with coronavirus outbreak, mainstream media appears to vividly recall Spanish flu of 1918 from a century ago and doesn’t seem to have an inkling about a much more pertinent example of H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009-10, even though it shared a lot of[Read More…]
Gridlocked into the global jurisprudence of the war on terror, some judges of the Supreme Court of India have internalized a war justified by the ‘state of exception’. War has been transformed by the judiciary from military campaigns at the border, to the “containment of internal dissent and uprising” within the boundaries of India. Prashant Bushan’s tweets of the past[Read More…]
In India Engineering as a career has attracted alot of students in a big way & large number of aspirants who burn the midnight oil in order to crack the exam. These aspirant’s dream themselves as an engineer earning a decent package. Every year lakhs of students appear in the entrance examination for institution’s like “IIT” but only few of[Read More…]
Yes, we, both me and my daughter became COVID 19 positive on August 19th after an Antigen test done. We had no major symptoms as such. I just had a chill and was feverish for a day and I became normal after that. My daughter had fever and body pain for a day or two. After that she developed total[Read More…]
Injustice against Indian Muslim by the BJP government is a quite talk in many quarters in India, but never among those sitting in judgment and delivering justice. This silence is broken by a division bench of Justice Tanaji V Nalawade and Justice Mukund G Sewlikar of Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court who on August 21, 2020 made some[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. Parul Malik and Dr. Arathi P Rao The year 2020, has not only been the year of the “pandemic”, but also the year of “infodemic”- a term that was coined in 2003 in relation to the SARS outbreak. This term “infodemic”, referring to an excessive amount of available information, which may be biased and harmful, is becoming[Read More…]
Journalists in Jashore, a bordering district in Bangladesh, have observed the death anniversary of slain journalist RM Saiful Alam Mukul, editor of local daily Runner on August 30. It was his 22nd anniversary of death. On July 16, they observed the death anniversary of another journalist Shamsur Rahman, former special correspondent of Bangla daily Janakantho and also stringer of BBC[Read More…]
Desmond Morris’s pithy observations in The Naked Ape may be considered obsolete in our times, when we are busy talking about posthumans and homo-roboticus; but I think, it still contains many nuggets of wisdom. Being a zoologist, he sees quite a lot of parallelisms, between, us naked apes, who at some point in our history, unilaterally proclaimed the shattering of[Read More…]
Some time ago, another edition of International Women’s Day was observed with the right amount of feistiness. Among other things, women-related films were screened and discussed in some places in this or that city. Two early documentaries by Mira Nair could perhaps have been profitably included in such programmes. Unfortunately, her documentary films have been little seen and less discussed.[Read More…]
Women, children, transgender persons, people with disability and senior citizens is the most invisible population of the country. Though the harshest and extremely unplanned lockdown to prevent the spread of Coronavirus failed miserably, it brought 19million workers working and living away from home, the backbone of Indian economy, in public gaze. With the abrupt announcement of Lockdown and shutting of[Read More…]
The mainstream media has diluted the concerns of seven chief ministers about an assault on federal structure, misuse of central agencies, financial injustice, etc. Instead, the entire media coverage has reduced the whole issue to party politics and differences over holding medical and engineering entrance exams (JEE-NEET). Congress president Sonia Gandhi held a virtual meeting of these seven chief ministers[Read More…]
In some ways, the U.S.-brokered plan for mutual recognition between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is big news. For more than a quarter of a century, only two Middle Eastern countries—Egypt and Jordan—had officially recognized Israel. None of the Gulf monarchies did. So, it was a pretty big deal when the announcement was made. Except, actually, not so much.[Read More…]
How many of us have had any clue about Socotra Island which had recently been in news ( on June 21, 2020) when it was reported 1 that Houthi rebels had taken over Socotra Island from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) backed Yemeni government. ‘Yemeni separatists have seized control of the island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea,[Read More…]
Kente cloth adorns his body, Complete with a youthful grin. His soul is at its peak of joy, with Pride in his ebony skin. The sudden boom of an approaching gun Startles him in his wake. Whisked away by pale ghostly spirits He must obey, for his life is at stake. He is taken at gunpoint to a colossal ship[Read More…]
(I am a 1972 batch IPS officer of U.P.Cadre. After retirement as IG (Police) in 2003, I have been active on issues of Human Rights, Dalit Rights, RTI, Forest Rights Act, Right to Food and Education etc. I am the Vice-President of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Uttar Pradesh. I am also ex- Advisor to National Commission for Scheduled Castes.[Read More…]
Peaceful protests were held in cities across Canada on Saturday as protesters urged governments to slash police funding and do more to tackle deep-rooted racism in this country. Rallies to defund the police were held in Calgary, Halifax, Fredericton, Toronto, Montreal and London, Ont., many of which were organized by the Coalition for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC)[Read More…]
A friend of mine requested that I must contribute my suggestions sought by the government for the preparation of the New Education Policy (NEP). He reminded me about my elaborate critique of the report of Ambani-Birla Committee, constituted by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He added that in continuance of the argument presented in that critique I should suggest to the[Read More…]
On Thursday night (August 27, 2020) President Donald Trump of the United States delivered his acceptance speech as the presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that was held in the White House. It was the first of its kind when the White House was used as a podium for campaign by a seating president. As noted by presidential[Read More…]
US is itching for a war. In fact it is inching towards a war, a war which probably will have the full potential to change into a ‘third-world-war’, solely, for the reason that this time US is modelling itself against China, which by every standard is also a super-power. US strategy is to station its aircraft carriers near the[Read More…]
Social media becomes an essential tool for youth today. Undoubtedly it helps people in connecting with the people around the globe and also reduces the distance, but on the other hand, it created a detachment from the people who are around. Social media is mostly famous among youngsters; they spend most of their time on social platforms for different purposes.[Read More…]
The draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification 2020 proposed by the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change dilutes further the current EIA Notification 2006. Proposed changes in the name of “ Ease of doing business” relax further and totally overhaul the environmental clearance system to benefit large corporations and mining MNCs. Many of the proposed clauses in the[Read More…]
A recent study done by a market research firm Rakuten Intelligence found that since the pandemic started there has been a sudden rise in online shopping. Ecommerce spending in the U.S. is up more than 30 percent since the beginning of March. Ecommerce is booming, and Silicon Valley’s’ richest such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are getting even[Read More…]
A Church at a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was completely demolished by religious fanatics at midnight on the 25th of August 2020. The tin roof and fortifications made of bamboo cane were broken down and ruined during the incident. *Pr. Purohit who leads the Church in this village told Persecution Relief that he received the startling[Read More…]
The Finance Minister of India, Ms Nirmala Sitharaman in Mr Narendra Modi led BJP government has attributed the pandemic led economic downturn as an act of god. She is not alone in this ‘act of god’ bandwagon. The theological reasoning gives temporary relief to the ruling classes but failed to provide long term hiding ground in history. The extra ordinary[Read More…]
Thousands of protestors seeking criminal justice reform gathered at the National Mall in Washington D.C., the capital city of the U.S., on Friday under the rallying cry “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” a reference to the manner in which George Floyd was killed while in police custody in May and reminiscent of the 1963 March on Washington. Capping a[Read More…]
Over the last three months in Portland, mass protests against police violence and racism gradually gave way to nightly often violent standoffs between a core of pro-Black Lives Matter (BLM) and anti-fascist protesters and law enforcement. The incidents are now part of a fact of life in the United States. In the past week the city has fallen back into[Read More…]
Children cannot come to school. But schools can go home. CSOs working on education have urged the Odisha government to clarify mechanisms and modus-operandi of recently announced Shiksha Samparka scheme and to initiate remedial classes to bridge the learning gap among children. As per the government report, there are only 2.2 million school children out of around 6 million, who[Read More…]
These are proving testy times for Australian-Chinese relations. Last week, Chinese authorities announced that an investigation would be conducted into claims that Australia has been using unfair dumping practices for its wine on the Chinese market. This was not what Australian wine makers wanted to hear, given that exports of Australian wine to China grew from AU$268 million in 2015/16[Read More…]
Insecticidal Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton is the first and only GM (genetically modified) crop that has been approved in India. It has been cultivated in the country for more than 20 years. In a formal statement to the Supreme Court of India, the Indian government has asserted that hybrid Bt cotton is an outstanding success. It therefore argues that Bt[Read More…]
The spread of Corona Virus in India has been on the upswing despite the measures undertaken by the state. In most parts of India the suffering has been immense. The central Government took up the issue of Covid 19, with great amount of delay. From early February WHO started warning the Governments all around about the impending dangers of the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Atul and Sandeep Pandey Rona Wilson is a prison rights activist who has been in jail since April 2018 and denied bail several times. The Pune Police raided his home in Delhi on April 17, 2018, and arrested him subsequently for his alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence in January that year. A few months later, the[Read More…]
The online teaching due to the lockdown is a new experience for many students in the country. It has gone through many glitches due to lack of facilities, lack of expertise among teachers, and lack of exposure to the new medium devoid of collegiality, lack of interpersonal exchanges that people are used to in class room teaching. This has resulted[Read More…]
How should one deal with COVID-19 pandemic? Certainly not with social distancing, which in South Asian context, has inbuilt casteist connotations of discrimination and exclusion. Introduction India has more than 3 million cases of coronavirus now. The situation is far from normal. It is time not only to talk about ways and means for ending the pandemic which so far[Read More…]
When you’re 20, full of piss and vinegar, you can open up to so much. That was the year, 1970, when dreams seemed so real. This writer had just returned from a brief summer in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This was but the second time I ever was away from my parents’ apartment, and for that matter, Brooklyn, NY, lauded as[Read More…]
In India’s dark history of human rights violations, 28th August 2018 has become a very important day. On this day, Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested by Pune police from her home in Faridabad. On the same day, Gautam Navlakha from Delhi, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves from Mumbai and Varavara Rao from Hyderabad were also arrested. Although Gautam Navlakha was granted[Read More…]
Fabricated Charges leading to the imprisonment of innocent Christians has become increasingly common and is on a steep upsurge. Since 2018, Persecution Relief recorded 194 cases of false charges and arrests made against Christians of which 57 cases were documented in the first half of 2020 alone. Arrests based on ‘forced conversion’ is the most widely used allegation by religious[Read More…]
Dr Hemangi Kadlak in Conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat Dr. Hemangi Kadlak is a native of Maharashtra, India. She did her Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The Ph.D. topic was “Interface of Caste and Occupation: Case Studies of Children of Safai Karmacharis in Higher Education in Mumbai.” She also holds an MPhil degree in Social Work from[Read More…]
Without doubt late Comrade Harbhajan Sohi or HBS was one of the finest theoreticians in the history of the Communist Movement and amongst the greatest leaders and protagonists of the massline.No Comrade contributed so much to shape the massline of Tarimela Nagi Reddy as Harbhajan Sohi or HBS.With the meticulous skill of an architect he shimmered its flame as a[Read More…]
On September 7, Julian Assange will be facing another round of gruelling extradition proceedings, in the Old Bailey, part of a process that has become a form of gradual state-sanctioned torture. The US Department of Justice hungers for their man. The UK prison authorities are doing little to protect his health. The end result, should it result in his death,[Read More…]
The overwhelming triumph of the film is its portrayal of same-sex love. It is arguably India’s first serious film about bisexuality. Muhammad Razi’s Velutha Rathrikal (White Nights) is one of the most exciting debuts in recent times among independent film-makers in South India. From the looks of it, the film seems unpromising. Yet another adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s story ‘White Nights’ (there have[Read More…]
A hundred years ago, a silent film called Bilet Pherat (England-Returned) was made. That pioneering work placed its maker by the side of such greats of early Indian cinema as Dadasaheb Phalke and Hiralal Sen. The example and exploits of Dhirendranath Gangopadhyay, or DG, as he was popularly known, were been recalled on many occasions by Mrinal Sen or Dinen[Read More…]
Here are three questions I would propose to the people who read this article: Other than being a Red Diaper Baby, what is the process by which people came to socialism and how did they handle the disapproval of their families and long-term friends? How does having a framework for capitalism make it easier to understand what’s going on? In[Read More…]
Cats came into Preeti’s life long before camels, around the time cows found a way out of her heart but into her life. She had seen cows ever since she could remember…while riding horse driven tongas in Haridwar in 1970s, creating traffic jams in Delhi, Haridwar, Kolkata, Dehradun, Lucknow and wherever she happened to visit in India. From long before[Read More…]
As Indians are sinking amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, the makeup dependent, camera addicted, and selfie-savvy Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi is busy with sharing his multitasking photos, his photography skills and his love for animals, birds and wildlife. The utter economic and social crisis does not disturb his focus on camera. The positive vibe photos of Modi feeding peacocks at[Read More…]
As a protagonist of Telangana state, it was a kind of a dream movie for me. There are many reasons for it. One of the first reasons was the “local accent” of the movie. I was never comfortable with the Andhra accent that smacked of “internal colonialism” in the Telugu movies both in accent and content. It reflects the urge[Read More…]
The air is more polluted than what used to happen during the worst period of a natural disaster or December winter when Delhi would be choked in heavy toxic smog. This time the contamination is not natural as because of Covid 19, the birds have acquired their spaces and the sky is looking absolutely stunning while we can breathe now[Read More…]
The Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) on 29th July 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic across the nation. This policy would replace the education policy in operation since 1986. According to NPE 1986, the aim of education was threefold, namely, the overall development of the human resource, international co-operation, and peaceful co-existence, development of socialism, secularism,[Read More…]
Over 70 organizations and several individuals from around the country endorsed the call initiated by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties to conduct protest actions from August 28 to September 5, considering the deterioration in Civil Liberties in the recent past. This call was given marking August 28 as the day when two years ago, 5 human rights activists –[Read More…]
In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic threat a raging debate is going on at present regarding the holding of the Joint Entrance Examination Mains, the preliminary examination required to be cleared for admission to prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology and other engineering and technology institutions, during 1-6 September, 2020, by the National Testing Agency, in which 8,58,273 candidates are to[Read More…]
The members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) presented a medal of courage to a North Delta MLA at his constituency office on Thursday, August 27 for raising the issue of Kashmir with the United Nations and speaking out for justice to the victims of Sikh Genocide. Ravi Kahlon, who is known for his strong advocacy for human rights[Read More…]
Farooque Chowdhury interviews Michael D. Yates In its desperate race to survive its series of crises, capitalism keeps clinging onto its old tool of dividing the working class. But, since commencing its political fight, the working class has uplifted a different call: Workers of the world unite! More than one hundred years ago, the proletariat in Russia trampled over all[Read More…]
The recently released circulars by NTA (national testing agency) and other institutions to conduct the entrance examinations is highly exclusionary in general and for the students with disabilities in particular. As we are aware that in the current crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic, the students with disabilities have been particularly neglected by most of the universities as well as other[Read More…]
War and conflicts always comes in a severe human cost. Apart from the death and injuries it brings to the body, it has always brought a similar degree of injury to the mind, which sometimes goes un-noticed. Through the years of modern warfare, it has shown to affect the human mind to worse degree than it was imagined. During the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Bibhubanta Barad. Parijat Ghosh and Dibyendu Chaudhuri Introduction It was a sunny summer morning in 2017. Self Help Group (SHG) members of Jana[1] congregated beneath the tamarind tree, their usual meeting place. Some men also were sitting there and the SHG members were taking loan to purchase inorganic fertilizers and hybrid seeds. They were discussing whether they would[Read More…]
Only recently, the Palestinian group, Hamas, and Israel seemed close to reaching a prisoner exchange agreement, where Hamas would release several Israeli soldiers held in Gaza while Israel would set free an unspecified number of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons. Instead of the much-anticipated announcement of some kind of a deal, on August 10, Israeli bombs began falling on[Read More…]
This is not a commercial. But if you happen to find yourself in Abu Dhabi at this moment, and are planning to take a flight back home to Delhi, you might be advised to try Etihad Airways, especially in these pandemic times. To check in via their ‘Fit to Fly’ application, just stand in front of the monitor, remove your[Read More…]
Religious discrimination is on the rise across the world and must be contained before it harms businesses and our social progress. A religiously or politically prejudiced employee can affect others’ morale, cause a lot of headaches, bring lawsuits, and affect the organization’s ability to function cohesively. He or she can waste the CEO’s time and the precious resources defending and[Read More…]
Shoma Sen was arrested on June 6, 2018, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for charges which include inciting violence, being involved in raising funds for the banned CPI (Maoist) party and harbouring its fugitive members. Prof Sen is a highly vocal and committed women’s rights activist who has been involved with a wide range of social and political causes.[Read More…]
Review of “A Poet, a City and a Footballer” “Men, music, light, landscape, color and motion brought into one integral whole by a single piercing emotion, by a single theme and idea – this is the aim of modern cinematography.” Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (1898-1948)[1] Introduction A/ Musical foreword The movie begins with a song of Rabindranath Tagore, a song interpreted[Read More…]
Sanjeet and Siddharth of PEACE 1 Zone were brutally beaten by Bajrang Dal members near Chatra, when they were invited by a believer to pray for his unwell relative. Mr. Lakhan is a believer of GEMS Church at Garhwa and he took Bro. Sanjeet and Bro. Siddharth on 22nd August 2020, to a village Kharik (which is 7 kms away[Read More…]
Co-Written by Aseem Hasnain, Abhilasha Srivastava and Avinav Kumar Sudharak Olwe’s photographs of conservancy workers in Mumbai are heartbreaking. They depict the lives and work of sanitation workers, as much as they reflect the fundamental nature of our society. In this haunting image a young adult is standing neck deep in an open bubbling drain, underground, both literally and metaphorically.[Read More…]
If you think that democracy is about ‘government of the people by the people and for the people’, you are dead wrong, not these days. The way democracy has evolved in recent years in both developed as well as in developing countries, it has become more of a system that may be, just may be ‘of the people’ and to[Read More…]
When US made UAE and Israel to normalise their bi-lateral relations, on August 14, 2020, within ten days when the flames of Beirut, Lebanon had not even got doused, the under-cut deal which was made was that US would sell its F-35 stealth fighter jets to UAE, and which, obviously, sent alarm bells in Tel Aviv and Israel PM Benjamin[Read More…]
Like the wandering and rascally Odysseus upon whom he models his life, Oliver Stone is “double-minded” in the most profound and illuminating ways. The title of his fantastic new memoir is a case in point. “One of the first basic lessons in filming,” he writes, “is chasing the light. Without it, you have nothing – no exposure that can be[Read More…]
India, the largest parliamentary democracy in the world, celebrated its 73rd Independence Day on Saturday, August 15. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as per the protocol, addressed the 1.3 billion people of the country from the Red Fort in Delhi. In his speech, he promised to bring universal health cards, provide internet access, through optical fibre lines, to all villages across[Read More…]
In what is a turn-up for the books, a senior voice of the Catholic Church made something of an impression this month that did not incite scandal, hot rage, or the commencement of an investigation. It did, however, agitate a few editors. Archbishop John C. Wester of San Fe, in speaking at the online Hiroshima Day vigil, had put up[Read More…]
On August 6, 1945, at 8.15 am, an atom bomb was dropped at Hiroshima to end World War II. Archana Mohan takes us on a journey through a novel which gives the story of before and after the bombing & currently lauded and promoted by the United Nations for peacekeeping. Title: The Last Cherry Blossom Author: Kathleen Burkinshaw When a book opens with[Read More…]
How did factory schools develop? Why did factory school develop? What does factory schools do? What is the relevance of factory schools today? The answers to these questions come from the history of factory schools, which reveals its immense impact not only on our educational system but also on our society, culture, economy, politics and individual lives. The historical perspectives[Read More…]
Understanding the War Industry. Christian Sorensen. Clarity Press, Atlanta, Georgia. 2020. For reader’s wondering about the state of the U.S. economy this work by Christian Sorensen provides a small encyclopedic compendium of information relating the war industry to the overall U.S. economy and U.S. foreign and domestic policies in many spheres. He states his main ideas clearly and plainly and[Read More…]
Ideology: Mobilizing the Popular Base under Neoliberalism In his acceptance speech for president, Joe Biden framed the election in moral terms, stating: “I will be an ally of the light, not the darkness.” He then went on to ask voters to judge him and Trump not by rhetorical promises, but their deeds. Both Trump and Biden have a public record[Read More…]
With Covid-19 incapacitating startling numbers of U.S. service members and modern weapons proving increasingly lethal, the American military is relying ever more frequently on intelligent robots to conduct hazardous combat operations. Such devices, known in the military as “autonomous weapons systems,” include robotic sentries, battlefield-surveillance drones, and autonomous submarines. So far, in other words, robotic devices are merely replacing standard weaponry on conventional battlefields.[Read More…]
The political developments in Gulf-region are leaving no scope to imagination that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is now working as an extended-arm of US, which is what is an extension of Israel. Israel is the new super-power of the Gulf-region and has successfully raised a false-hoax of ‘rising-Iran’, to squeeze Arab-states into submission to Israel, after the[Read More…]
Keeping under trials in prison for two years deliberately stalling bail opportunities, with no effort for beginning the trial instead exposing them to serious health condition is a gross violation of rights of prisoners. This is further heightened in times of a global pandemic given the crowded situation in prisons. Sudha Bharadwaj has been incarcerated along with eleven others falsely[Read More…]
The best introduction to Kathleen Burkinshaw is that she a humanitarian. She wrote a novel that has been taken up by The United Nations as a part of its peacekeeping effort. She has been actively participating in efforts to ban nuclear weapons, including presenting with Nobel Laureates. Kathleen Burkinshaw, the author of The Last Cherry Blossom, a book that is in[Read More…]
Close to the 25th martyrdom day of a prominent human rights activist of India, one of the municipalities in Greater Vancouver has made a proclamation to recognize the circumstances that led to his murder. Jaswant Singh Khalra was investigating the extra judicial killings of Sikh political activists in Punjab, when he was kidnapped by the police on September 6, 1995,[Read More…]
This is with reference to the article,“Can Brahmins Bring Revolution: An Assessment Through The Prism Of Tarimela Nagi Reddy” by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd — CC, August 18, 2020. I am not a writer. Not a leader or political activist. I am above my sixties, an ordinary citizen who earnestly wants that my country and society should be more democratic and[Read More…]
It has been more than one month since Sharjeel Usmani, National secretary of Fraternity Movement and Anti-CAA Activist imprisoned in Aligarh Jail. He was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police from his house in Azamgarh on 8th July 2020. On that day, 5 people claimed to be from the Crime Branch detained him without an arrest warrant or memo and[Read More…]
There are basically two different policy-approaches to the coronavirus problem: One is the passive approach, waiting for ‘herd immunity’ to develop naturally. And the other is the active approach, in which the Government does take action — not just wait while the most-vulnerable individuals die off from the disease. The “herd immunity” approach is libertarian; it assumes that “let nature[Read More…]
DIFFERENTIATE. Why ‘Differentiate’? Because differentiation creates Brand Brand inspires Loyalty Loyalty enables Influence Success is directly proportionate to influence. Five things to keep in mind: 1. Always be thankful. It is true that we succeed by our own efforts but it is good to remember that some of them were made standing on someone else’s shoulders. And they helped us when they didn’t need us[Read More…]
Maj. Gen. Andrew Croft, the commander of 12th Air Force, wrote on 22 August: “I have seen an increasingly contested strategic space where Beijing and Moscow are aggressively investing time and resources in Latin America to support their authoritarian models of governance. The Air Force must reinforce the strength of our longstanding commitment to the Western Hemisphere. We lose ground when we[Read More…]
In the world of ideology free zone of politics, the question ‘of morality and immorality in popular and mainstream political traditions’ is becoming irrelevant. The incompetent governments, helpless states, visionless leadership, directionless politics, weak judiciaries and compliant media organisations are the net output of amoral and illiberal politics. The moral critique of political system does not yield any electoral dividends[Read More…]
The debate about the prison system is nothing new. There are thousands of articles, studies and papers related to this particular subject. The central aim of this article is to continue the discussion on the questions like social basis of crime, failure of current system in place to deal with crime, and the long standing demand of a reformative prison[Read More…]
Just a little pinprick There’ll be no more, ah But you may feel a little sick Can you stand up? I do believe it’s working, good That’ll keep you going through the show Come on it’s time to go There is no pain you are receding A distant ship, smoke on the horizon You are only coming through in waves[Read More…]
This is important for developing immunity to Covid and other infections and build resistance. Researchers are now pointing out the manifold benefits of rewilding of Nature for human health and well-being. This means we need to expose ourselves to more bio diversity, be in touch with a wide variety of plant life, not just manicured, artificial lawns. According to Jacob[Read More…]
With Chaitanya Tamhane’s second film, The Disciple, headed to the Venice International Film Festival in September, it may be worthwhile recalling, Court, his first film that bagged the National Award for Best Feature Film in 2015. As we live through the COVID moment witnessing the targetting of students, teachers, and poets, Court’s damning testimony of caste oppression and its tribute[Read More…]
Rare polling of public opinion in Saudi Arabia suggests that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may be more sensitive to domestic public opinion on foreign policy issues such as Palestine than he lets on. The polling also indicates that a substantial number of Saudis is empathetic to protest as a vehicle for political change. The poll conducted on behalf of[Read More…]
Every time I returned to Mumbai, I looked forward to reading the pocket-cartoons of RK Laxman. Though everything changes around him, the common man, with his studied silence witnessing twists and turns, had looked the same for decades, in the pocket cartoon of THE TIMES OF INDIA front page. It gave me a sense of permanence. Every time I made[Read More…]
I venture to make this statement not in any way in extenuation of the penalty to be awarded against me, but to show that I have disregarded the order served upon me not for want of respect or lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Champaran Satyagraha[Read More…]
NEP(2020) sets out high ideals for quality learning indicators for ensuring inclusive and equitable education keeping in view 2030 sustainable development goals. On the basis of robust consultation with different stakeholders it aspires for a great equalizer for economically and socially diverse set of groups. While the document recognizes the underrepresented concerns of Socially and Economically Disadvantaged groups (SEDGs), economists[Read More…]
Among the many challenges that have gained urgency in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, housing requires a highly creative response. The huge exodus from cities to villages was necessitated on account of lack of proper housing in cities. Expanding access to affordable housing is essential not just for equitable development but also social stability. When residents don’t have proper[Read More…]
The letter writers in the Congress party are nothing but all those who benefited by the Darbari politics of the party. They are comfortable in the current situation and dont want any radical ideological shift of the party. Most of them would be happy with their Rajya Sabha seats or party leaders without taking Modi and RSS head on. This[Read More…]
Historiography of the Partition of India and historical narratives generally focuses on violence among religious groups, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. In these narratives, Dalits, more often than not, find themselves being silenced, where they are treated as a subset of Hindus or Sikhs. It is a general notion that Dalits were not targeted for their caste identity but only for[Read More…]
Title: Dara Shukoh: The Man who would be King Author: Avik Chanda Publisher: Harper Collins, 2019 Scanning the list of books already written on Dara Shukoh, I wondered why the author had chosen to write yet another book about Dara Shukoh, but that was before I came across Avik Chanda’s impressive work. A magnificent tome, it is richly palimpsestic and[Read More…]
If fodder is needed for the argument that a Deep State is running wild and determined to depose President Donald J. Trump, this will surely help. In a statement by self-titled “former Republican National Security Officials”, a hand-on-heart allegiance is made to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The authors are intent on moving the incumbent out of office, “profoundly concerned[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Voter suppression in the 2020 election has become a topic of great concern. In reality, voter suppression has been part of US politics since the founding of the country. The oligarchs who wrote the US Constitution enabled voter suppression by not including the right to vote in it and only allowing white male property owners[Read More…]
Palestinians are not going anywhere. This is the gist of seven decades of Palestinian struggle against Zionist colonialism. The proof? The story of Ahmed Amarneh. Amarneh, a 30-year-old civil engineer from the northern West Bank village of Farasin, lives with his family in a cave. For many years, the Amarneh family has attempted to build a proper home, but their[Read More…]
On August 26, 2020, Alice in Wonderland will get some company. She will be joined in New York City’s Central Park by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth, the first statues there of women who, unlike Alice, actually existed. The monument is a gift to the park from Monumental Women, a non-profit organization formed in 2014. The group has[Read More…]
Yogendra Yadav recently wrote about how secularism gave up the language of religion. He blamed secular English-speaking elites for not talking in terms of the cultural metaphors that common Indian could relate with. I understand where he is coming from. But I object to both to the diagnosis of the problem that English-speaking elites are secular while masses are communal. [Read More…]
The global Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented change in all walks of life. It has clutched different sectors and overthrown people around the world to a new social and economic crisis. Education is one of them, due to the pandemic around 1.52 billion students stranded at home and over 60.2 million teachers remain out of schools (UN Secretary-General, 2020,[Read More…]
What do we expect from an author who is a story teller, an international development strategist and a gender policy specialist? A lot to be sure. A Master’s degree holder in Public Administration from Harvard University, an equal grade in International Relations from the University of Warwick, a policymaker Health, Nutrition and Gender portfolios with the Government of India[Read More…]
A joint American-Israeli program [1], involving a series of short-of-war clandestine strikes, aimed at taking out the most prominent generals of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and targeting Iran’s power stations, industrial infrastructure, and missile and nuclear facilities has been going on since early this year when commander of IRGC’s Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in a[Read More…]
The mainstream media — particularly Hindi newspapers — has again concealed, underreported and suppressed the Bombay High Court ruling. In its Friday judgment, the High Court has said that Tablighi Jamaat was made “scapegoat” during the corona pandemic. It has also quashed the FIR against 29 foreigners and 7 Indian nationals who are associated with the twentieth century Muslim reformist[Read More…]
Jammu and Kashmir, downgraded to UT status a year before, is battling on two fronts; one Corona virus and second restoration of democracy. The virus cases are rising day by day with more and more deaths reported .In this fight warriors are fighting, even some consumed by the death. Restoration of democracy has hit roadblocks at various levels. Kashmir has[Read More…]
The bias that social media platforms such as Facebook display reflect their own world-view as much as it does the regimes they support. A few gave the appearance of being truly psychopathic individuals. The mass of others were ragged and illiterate peasants easily roused to hatred of the Tutsi. Perhaps the most sinister people I met were the educated political[Read More…]
Constant attacks by some US elites on China will, according to some observers, diminish and disappear once the US presidential election is over in November 2020. This is unlikely to happen for at least two reasons. One, the issues that underscore the targeting of China are fundamental in nature and go beyond elections and personalities. Two, at the root of[Read More…]
In the days of my early manhood, a south Calcutta theatre called Menoka used to show Malayalam or Tamil films on Sunday mornings. Since the early years of the 20th century, Tamils have been in residence in south Calcutta, usually as office-workers, thereby giving to this area a second name – Chhota Madras (Madras in miniature). Malayalees are more recent[Read More…]
Don’t watch Ertugrul. Yawn. Another list of do’s and don’ts, we did what we do best. We paid no heed. But this time there was a difference. The decree to ‘unwatch’ Ertugrul came from the two camps that are normally rabidly opposed to each other, the fundamentalists and the liberals. The two and two really made four, this time. Parvez[Read More…]
It is high time and urgent need for the United Nations, UNHRC, ICC and the International Community to find remedial justice to the oppressed Tamils in Sri Lanka. The following facts prove beyond doubt that there was an institutionalized and systematic genocide of Tamils from independence in 1948. Disfranchisement of plantation workers of Indian origin .Within a year of independence, in[Read More…]
An unwarranted attack on a 72-year-old Christian man influenced by a hate speech made on Facebook was reported to Persecution Relief by a source who wishes to stay anonymous. The following is the information we received. *Anand is a faithful leader at our church and conducts weekly cell group meetings at different homes. He is 72 years old and also[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ashok Danavath and Sanjeev Gumpenapalli State governments and the Centre have been advancing scholarships to students from marginalised social groups so that they can pursue higher education abroad. There is tremendous enthusiasm among Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, minority and backward students for overseas education. These scholarships are meant to promote diversity and ensure equal opportunities for them. However, of late,[Read More…]
On Aug 14, 2020, a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra found two tweets by lawyer and social activist Prashant Bhushan amounting to “serious contempt of court”. One of his tweets was about the role of the last four Chief Justices of India, and the other about the current CJI riding an expensive motorcycle while the court was in[Read More…]
There are so many diverse memories to a mind that has traveled through the decades like an endless wind. Being a ‘baby boomer’ who just cannot accept the utter surreal bad aftertaste of our current comic book empire, one desires to retreat into the distant past. This past of course had its own times of despair, but for a youth[Read More…]
Feminism arose as a counterpose to patriarchy. Dalit feminism can presuppose both Dalit patriarchy and ‘Brahmin’ feminism. Before we venture into defining Dalit patriarchy we must be clear about what patriarchy is and how does it sustain. Sans theoretical sophistication, patriarchy is a social institution benefiting men and harmful to women. Counterposing this, feminism is an ideology/movement that stands for[Read More…]
We hope you remember the diabolic attacks on christians in Kandhamal/Odisha in two consecutive years 2007 & 2008. Barely after eight days after celebration of Independence Day, India witnessed the organized communal attacks on Christians, the biggest in the history of India during the last three centuries, that spread to different parts of Odisha and other states. Over 395 churches[Read More…]
A year since reading down of Article 370, J-K’s economy is in crisis. In August last year a complete communication blackout and lockdown was enforced after BJP-led Central government scrapped Article 370 and suspended J-K’s constitution. The state was put under complete lockdown, thousands of more troops were flown in and tourists were asked to leave the state with immediate[Read More…]
The developments in world polity took to a storm when on August 14, 2020, United Arab Emirates(UAE) and Israel decided to normalise their relations 1 , with Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) forcing Pakistan to repay its 1 billion USD loan and stopping oil supplies on deferred loan to it, which Pakistan repaid after China provided with 1 billion USD[Read More…]
Countries in the Asia Pacific region are in the forefront of bearing the onslaught of climate change. During the last three decades 45% of the world’s natural disasters have occurred in this region, which is vulnerable to floods, cyclones, earthquakes, droughts, storms and tsunamis. While climate change affects everyone but impacts of climate change related events are not gender neutral.[Read More…]
Veteran journalist and author Jaspal Singh Sidhu has argued that the Punjab crisis of the 19070s and 1980s is the result of “the unfinished agenda of Partition”. Explaining his argument, Sidhu says that the Sikh community in India supported the Congress at the time of Partition, believing the “pledges” of the grand old party. The promises were made that[Read More…]
3 engineering experts from the University of Alaska Fairbanks have produced a detailed report entitled “A structural reevaluation of the collapse of World Trade Center 7” that concludes that “the collapse of WTC 7 was a global failure involving the near-simultaneous failure of all columns in the building” i.e. by explosive demolition and not by fire as asserted by the[Read More…]
The capacity of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to provide mail services that generations of Americans have relied on has been severely weakened by the Trump administration. The assault on the Postal Service has only grown stronger and more brazen in recent weeks. We know by Trump’s own admission that his targeting of the agency is by design and[Read More…]
Villagers influenced by fanatics have ganged up against a local Church opposing the construction of a Church building at a village in the Indian state of Odisha. They are threatening to demolish the Church building, claiming that it has angered the gods of their village. “The Sarpanch and the villagers were completely aware of the construction work ever since it[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo The notion that ‘Canada is better’, especially when compared with US foreign policy, has persisted for many years. Recent events at the United Nations have, however, exposed the true nature of Canada’s global position, particularly in the matter of its blind and unconditional support for Israel. On June 17, Canada lost its second[Read More…]
” … Is not in our stars but in ourselves”. Paraphrased right out of Shakespeare ( Julius Caesar) you have it in a nutshell, for all of you, like myself, who actually vote. It seems that during each and every major election cycle the masters of empire make sure to give you choices as if right out of those old[Read More…]
The bastardization of liberty and freedom is nothing new in the United States. It extends far beyond the recent “Liberate” protests in response to pandemic lockdowns, the result of which have borne fruit in an earlier than predicted second wave of Covid-19. It is not confined to just the 21st century, during which all three presidents have directed acts of[Read More…]
One of the few rays of hopeful sunshine in the UK’s currently bleak political landscape is the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill. In fact, I feel like it is such a vitally important development that I want to use this article to urge you to get behind it, while also offering a rather different perspective on why I feel it matters[Read More…]
The Indian war of independence was motivated by a few ideologies. Accordingly, there were different and distinct dreams of the future India, like Secular India, Hindu India, Muslim India, Dalit India and Socialist India. These dreams remain objectives of different kinds of political and social mobilizations in the country even today, though to different extent. The outcome of this vertical[Read More…]
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has stepped up efforts to reassert his control after 10 days of street protests and strikes triggered by disputed elections. Lukashenko says he has given orders to end the unrest in the capital Minsk. The move signaled an escalation just as European Union (EU) leaders agreed to impose sanctions at a virtual summit. The President of[Read More…]
Don’t bother, they’re here, already performing in the center ring under the big top owned and operated by The Umbrella People. Trump, Biden, Pence, Harris, and their clownish sidekicks, Pompeo, Michelle Obama, et al., are performing daily under the umbrella’s shadowy protection. For The Umbrella People run a three-ring circus, and although their clowns pop out of separate tiny cars[Read More…]
Nazareth: When the Palestinian actor Mohammed Bakri made a documentary about Jenin in 2002 – filming immediately after the Israeli army had completed rampaging through the West Bank city, leaving death and destruction in its wake – he chose an unusual narrator for the opening scene: a mute Palestinian youth. Jenin had been sealed off from the world for nearly[Read More…]
In the early years of 1990s, India saw a political turmoil as V P Singh government unleashed Mandal Commission report and a social and political unity among the Dalit backward community started building up at different levels. The protests against Mandal commission reports in the cities of North India were actually not against the OBCs but against the Dalits. The[Read More…]
Melghat is a forest tract nestled in the Satpura range in eastern Maharashtra. It is inhabited by indigenous people like the Korkus, Gond and Bhilalas, who are bravely defending their verdant world against the ravages of modern commerce. Melghat has been in the news for several years for its lethal malnourishment, which had been claiming lives of hundreds of children[Read More…]
I started photographing rickshaw pullers in Manipur, who veil their faces so as not to disclose their identity as a rickshaw puller, even to their fiancé. Because they consider plying rickshaw is a low profile job. Now it has become a routine practice in Manipur, veiling the faces. My documentation of the rickshaw pullers in Imphal, the capital city of[Read More…]
Seventeen years ago, against the advice of my parents, I decided to become a public school teacher. Once I did, both my mother and father, educators themselves, warned me that choosing to teach was to invite attacks from those who viewed the profession with derision and contempt. They advised me to stay strong and push through when budgets were cut,[Read More…]
ABSTRACT The recent incidents of Dalit oppression in Gujarat has got the attention of the entire country. Gujarat though known for its development and progress is still ruled by feudal laws, where sporting a moustache, wearing goggles, watching Garba, or even riding a bike offends the upper caste pride in this day and age. In nearly 50% of villages in[Read More…]
A masquerade of ugly traits Chasing citizens of ordinary values, A parade of dirty linens Messing up the environment, Heaps of confusion Troubling the land. Politics, the pillar of karma Canonizing, canalizing, cabalistic too Beams of fetish columns Streams of radiation Rays of fraudulent hopes. Politics, dirty, stinking, inhumane Bearing stamps of hardship Bits and bits of flesh Pounding bones[Read More…]
Kuwait has not enough cash to cover state salaries beyond October. And, Dubai again has loosened laws governing alcohol sales and possession of liquor. These developments are due to the coronavirus pandemic and the fall in oil price. A Bloomberg report – “Kuwait Can’t Pay Salaries Beyond October, Minister Tells Parliament” – on August 19, 2020 said: Kuwait has 2[Read More…]
HM has been reportedly readmitted to the hospital for post-COVID care (and continues to work from there). Even as the whole country is praying for his speedy recovery, Sarkari facts and statements issued ad infinitum should give him a reason to cheer viz: The recovery rate for COVID-19 has improved and reached 73.64 % because of ‘active intervention treatment strategies’.[Read More…]
I have gone through the judgment of this Hon’ble Court. I am pained that I have been held guilty of committing contempt of the Court whose majesty I have tried to uphold — not as a courtier or cheerleader but as a humble guard – for over three decades, at some personal and professional cost. I am pained, not because[Read More…]
Nationalism is like a jellyfish that can take on new forms, but of late in India it has become more like an octopus, spreading its menacing tentacles, arbitrarily declaring some as ‘anti national’ others more intimidating, for being a threat to ‘national security’ which invariably ends up in slapping of law of sedition against the person whose only offence might[Read More…]
The event of Bhoomi Poojanof of Ram-Mandir in Ayodhya on 5 August 2020 marks the beginning of the politico-social endorsement of majority communalism in the country. In the articles/news stories/editorials/party releases/comments etc. written with reference to the Constitution and the Republic of India on this subject, one common thing could be discerned. That is, no intellectual or leader has accepted[Read More…]
A report released by Oxfam in July 2020 states, “COVID-19 is deepening the hunger crisis in the world’s hunger hotspots and creating new epicentres of hunger across the globe. By the end of the year 12,000 people per day could die from hunger linked to COVID-19, potentially more than will die from the disease itself.” Like other regions in the world,[Read More…]
Even when the flames of the blasts of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon 1 on August 4, 2020, had not doused, where death and destruction, misfortune and misery has become the fate of Lebanese , that Arab states should have run to share the grief and started to investigate ‘who is responsible’ for the blasts, as Michel Aoun, the Lebanon[Read More…]
It is difficult not to miss the irony in the timing of Mrinal Sen’s passing on, roughly coinciding as it did with the fiftieth anniversary of perhaps his best-known film, BhuvanShome. It is generally agreed that it is with this film that the seminal movement called ‘New Indian Cinema’ began. The movement was an ideological/political body of work that questioned[Read More…]
Reports on the Adani group’s projects worldwide show massive illegalities, ecological and environmental destruction, human rights violation, tax evasion, money laundering and corruption. An ongoing coal based thermal power project in India which will supply its entire power to Bangladesh and import coal from Adani’s Carmichael mines in Australia, points to crony capitalism, exploitation, corruption and violation of laws. Who[Read More…]
Kancha Ilaiah Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd wrote an article titled “Can Brahmins Bring Revolution: An Assessment Through The Prism Of Tarimela Nagi Reddy”. (countercurrents.org, August 18, 2020). https://countercurrents.org/2020/08/can-brahmins-bring-revolution-an-assessment-through-the-prism-of-tarimela-nagi-reddy/ It is not based on facts, and is prejudiced by his theories. He is free to have his theories, but truth should not be a casualty in the process. As a mediaperson[Read More…]
Since the turn of the new century, every aspect of climate change has gone ballistic, up, up, and away, not looking back, leaving the 20th century fairly harmless, but only on a relative basis, especially as compared to the rip-snorting 21st century. It’s a whole new ballgame, starting with this new century. Society is witnessing a great acceleration of climate[Read More…]
The feudal character of Indian society and Brahmanical Hindu religious order based on caste has become a fertile ground for the growth of Hindutva fascism in India. The seed of Hindutva fascism was germinated with the establishment of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the “National Volunteers Organisation” in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. Mr Hedgewar’s mentor Dr B.S. Moonje was fascinated and[Read More…]
One would wonder why after such a show of triumphalism at the foundation laying ceremony of grand Ram temple on 5th August in Ayodhya the Uttar Pradesh government would stoop so low to put a lock outside the Aam Admi Party office in Lucknow. What makes it feel insecure? After all, AAP is an outsider in UP politics. The[Read More…]
Momentum for factory strikes is winding down. Only a few days ago Belarus was boiling with opposition led protests and strike while the Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s claims the opposition’s program has failed. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned against foreign interference in Belarus while the European Union has expressed concern with the situation in the[Read More…]
The Chief Chaddis smirked, stroking his little beard menacingly. This was the moment he and his fellow Chaddis had waited for and chewed so much cud over. They had finally got their prey – the Black Sheep, now trapped in a corner from where he could not escape. The Black Sheep, popularly known as Beep Beep to his friends, had[Read More…]
Like communalism, Brahmanism (casteism) and the gender, the Race, is also not an attribute of biology but an ideology that is constructed, reconstructed, nurtured and perpetuated in the day-to-day life experiences and intellectual discourses. A sense of superiority or supremacy is one of the key elements of the hegemony. In the colonial era, the European colonizers harbored the illusory sense[Read More…]
A report said: “Siberia, the proverbial coldest place, […] is experiencing record warm temperatures, melting sea ice, and massive wildfires — changes to the environment that even the scientists most urgently tracking the climate crisis didn’t expect to see for another several decades.” (Bridget Read, “The Arctic is on fire, and we should all be terrified”, The Cut, July 6,[Read More…]
Given the inability or unwillingness of the government to convene a monsoon session of parliament in time, people’s movements and groups are organizing an online Janta Parliament with 11 thematic sessions various public interest issues from 16-21st August. Today, in the Environment session of the Janta Parliament, about 30 speakers from various parts of India presented their views on the[Read More…]
On August 19th the Indian Communist revolutionary camp commemorates the 20th death anniversary of legendary Comrade Darshan Singh Dusang who was one of the greatest torchbearers of the Indian Communist Movement. Few comrades shimmered the spark of Naxalbari with as much unflinching determination as Comrade Darshan Dusang. In the gravest circumstances, he never looked dead and buried and resurrected Mao’s[Read More…]
I have had the privilege to learn from a diverse group of active individuals and communities from marginalized locations. These interactions have pushed me to think further and critically. My reflections are a product of years of discomfort and dilemmas I have grappled with, as a Dalit woman with a multifaceted identity that inherent disadvantages but also newly acquired privileges.[Read More…]
Aam Admi Party, rather Arvind Kejriwal’s party on 17th August accused the BJP of sponsoring the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh, “The BJP won some seats from the North-East in Assembly polls because of Shaheen Bagh, creating a gap between Hindus and Muslims. In Delhi, the BJP rose from 18% to 38% due to Shaheen Bagh.” As a proof they[Read More…]
Germans witnessed their radio and newspapers hail the Nazi invasion and occupation of most of Europe while praising fallen German soldiers for their service to the fatherland; a fatherland representing the world’s most wondrously superior people. Sounds similar to the indiscriminate praise monolithic US corporate media heaps upon exceptionally marvelous and righteous USA and her many proud invasions and occupations.[Read More…]
“We are on the threshold of a mighty revolution…it is a revolution that will bring democracy to the doorsteps of crores of Indians”, Rajiv Gandhi once said. To empower India’s people, especially the long-neglected masses in the rural villages, Rajiv Gandhi championed the cause of Panchayati Raj. It is one of the many reforms that would radically change the nation’s[Read More…]
A 72-year-old woman, her son and daughter-in-law were mercilessly beaten to a state of unconsciousness by religious fanatics in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The elderly mother was left with a broken hand while the head injuries that her son sustained required stitches. “Early in the morning, on the 14th of August, my mother and wife were busy with[Read More…]
For the Trump administration’s senior officials, it’s been open season on bashing China. If you need an example, think of the president’s blame game about “the invisible Chinese virus” as it spreads wildly across the U.S. When it comes to China, in fact, the ever more virulent criticism never seems to stop. Between the end of June and the end[Read More…]
In Mexico, the intensity of the Covid-19 pandemic is increasing. With more than 480,000 cases and 50,000 deaths (third largest number of Covid-19 deaths), the country is staggering under the Coronavirus pandemic. While the entire country is experiencing the impact of the pandemic, indigenous communities represent the demographic section hardest hit by health catastrophe. Data from Coneval, the national government’s[Read More…]
French President, Emmanuel Macron, is in no position to pontificate to Lebanon about the need for political and economic reforms. Just as thousands of Lebanese took to the streets of Beirut demanding “revenge” against the ruling classes, the French people have relentlessly been doing the same; both peoples have been met with police violence and arrests. Following the August 4[Read More…]
What is known as Devulapally Venkateswar Rao (DVR) defenders team, attacked my recent article on Usaa Barber. One of their objects was to assert that DVR, a vegetarian conservative Brahmin, who pretended to be a revolutionary is intellectually superior to the Shudra communist intellectual Tarimela Nagi (TN) Reddy. I take this attack as the appropriate occasion to compare and contrast[Read More…]
On the ten year anniversary of the United Nations historic vote to recognize water as a basic human right, Barlow reflects on where we go from here. A demonstrator holds a sign during a Detroit water shutoffs rally in 2014. (Photo: uusc4all/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Ten years ago today, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution affirming that water and sanitation[Read More…]
Greenland’s ice sheet, — the world’s second-largest ice body, would continue to lose ice even if global temperatures stop rising, and it may have passed a point of no return, setting it on an irreversible path to complete disappearance, according to scientists at Ohio State University. Snowfall that normally replenishes Greenland’s glaciers each year can no longer keep up with[Read More…]
Jared Kushner, the U.S. president Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, once again gave a bullish assessment of the U.S.s’ coronavirus response on television, despite the nation leading the world in cases and deaths. The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser doubled down on comments from April, where he called the U.S. administration’s efforts a “great success story” and that the[Read More…]
The revival of vibrant Indian economy depends on rebuilding public trust in economic systems and institutions based on inclusive politics and peaceful social coexistence in India. The prolong geopolitical disputes with neighbours and self-inflicted communal conflicts are pushing Indian economy and society to uncertainties, which breed distrust and undermines economic growth and development. The pervasive inequalities help to accelerate the[Read More…]
One more state government is about to collapse due to the tactical activities of Aaya Ram- Gaya Ram’s. In Rajasthan, the 18-month-old Congress government could be ousted any day. Exactly four months ago, the state government led by Kamal Nath, a veteran Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, had collapsed in the same way. In Rajasthan, another experienced Congress leader, Ashok[Read More…]
Empowering women has long been viewed as the solution to many global problems. Societies that prioritize women’s empowerment show better development indices, and are better governed, more stable and less prone to violence. In contrast, societies that constrain women’s educational and employment opportunities, and that deny women an equal political voice, are poorer and more prone to corruption. This year[Read More…]
Tech giants tend to cast thin veils over threats regarding government regulations. They are also particularly concerned by those more public spirited ones, the sort supposedly made for the broader interest. Google has given us an example of this in an open letter published on August 17 to all Australians – the generosity that comes with transparency – that does[Read More…]
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, with Saudi King Salman during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 16, 2017. (Lintao Zhang Pool Photo via AP) Unfettered Chinese support for Saudi Arabia’s so far peaceful nuclear energy program risks fueling a burgeoning Middle East arms race amid concerns that the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement[Read More…]
Cruelty or Humanity by Em.Prof. Stuart Rees, is essential reading in our present tumult and bedlam of human cruelty. Rees is a stalwart man of peace; he is the founder of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney and of the prestigious Sydney Peace Foundation and Cruelty or Humanity is his unflinching Summa Pax propelled[Read More…]
“About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. This can be defined as the general neurosis of our times.” -Carl Jung I thought I knew what depression looked like. It looked like locked rooms and phone calls which were never answered back. An incapacity to socialize,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Alan Johnstone and Stephen Shenfield Dramatic news spreads among the slaves. Their masters are at war! They are told that their masters’ enemies are also theirs. But some doubt whether that is true. Might not their masters’ enemies be their friends? Soon it is rumored that any slave who crosses the lines into enemy-held territory goes free. A scene from the[Read More…]
Coming from Brooklyn, NYC, and having a dad who was both a longshoreman and bookmaker, this writer knows a ‘ thing or two about a thing or two’ concerning the mob. In colloquial terms when someone knows something about an illegal act and keeps his or her mouth shut, they call that D & D or ‘ Deaf and Dumb’.[Read More…]
On the eve of the 73rd year of independence of our nation, the highest constitutional court of the country, The Supreme Court of India felt offended by couple of words tweeted by Sri Prashant Bhusan a responsible citizen of the country while exercising his fundamental rights guaranteed by the same Constitution which the Hon’ble Court has been entrusted to uphold.[Read More…]
More than 60 Christians including women and children were locked up inside their Church building by a mob of over 50 religious fanatics in Davangere, Karnataka. 2 policemen dressed in civil dress were also present during this mob attack that took place on the 16th of August 2020 at 10:30 am. “Our Church gathered together for the Sunday Worship service[Read More…]
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park. Temperatures in Death Valley in the U.S. skyrocketed to a blistering 130°F (54.4-degree Celsius) on Sunday. Possibly, it is the highest mercury reading on Earth since 1913. If the National Weather Service’s recording is correct, it would also be among the top-three highest temperatures to have ever been measured in Death[Read More…]
Far-right demonstrators, counter-protesters and police clashed in a number of states in the U.S. The series of clashes between far-right militia, pro-Confederacy groups, and anti-fascist (Antifa) counter-protesters erupted across the U.S. on Saturday. Mostly peaceful protests against racial injustice have been ongoing for weeks following the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day. Clashes between opposing groups have also occurred.[Read More…]
There are conflict zones or rather war-zones fast developing in the world right now. India is facing Pakistan in Kashmir, China in Ladakh and China is facing US, Japan, Australia, Indonesia and Taiwan in its South China sea, Middle-East is on the boil since a long time, precisely after Iraq was torn to pieces, thereafter Syria became the target where[Read More…]
Masked at the face of evil Turning blind eye to reality, Clapping for killers And feeding murderers, Everyone is politically correct. Political leaders appoint touts and thugs Religious leaders ordain Judas, Cultural leaders erase history Social leaders act nude and promiscuous, Traditional leaders title vagabonds Educational leaders burn certificates, Because they want to be politically correct. Judas kissed Jesus Jesus[Read More…]
How does a poet respond to the situation of a city under siege? For a poet, a crisis can trigger a tenacious journey even in the midst of a siege. The Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s Memory for Forgetfulness tracks the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon in which Beirut, where he lived, was bombed. “Beirut, [is] surrounded by Israeli tanks and official Arab paralysis,” he wrote. Beirut is holding on to its nerves as it strives to “protect the radiance of its meaning as the capital[Read More…]
A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves -Lao Tzu This pandemic has inflicted the greatest pain on those who had already been rendered most vulnerable, spurring great hardship and growing unease among low income families and micro businesses. It has uncovered existing[Read More…]
The BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, Swapan Dasgupta, in an opinion piece titled The rise of the proud, global Hindu which appeared after the Aug 5 Bhoomi Pujan at Ayodhya, mentioned “the new Hindutva” that seems to have emerged in recent times. He contrasted it with the older Hindutva, identified with V. D. Savarker, describing that as “too ideological for popular[Read More…]
There are no official policing authorities as such when it comes to international relations. Realists imagine a jungle of states, the preyed upon and the predators, a grim state of affairs moderated by alliances, agreements and understandings. But there is one body whose resolutions are recognised as having binding force: the Security Council, that most powerful of creatures in that[Read More…]
British imperialism was not accidental but a planned scheme of things to perpetuate its cultural and political dominance over the weak and most vulnerable people of the globe. Its aims were no different in the Sub-Continent of India-Pakistan. The immediate focal aim was to destroy the existing culture of the established Mughal Empire and divide and rule the whole of[Read More…]
For Suda J., who lives in M’rira (Tunisia) I dare not ask a kiss; I dare not beg a smile; [. . . ] No, no, the utmost share Of my desire, shall be Only to kiss that air, That lately kissed thee. Robert Herrick, To Electra, 23. What is it that we just love about an embrace and why[Read More…]
A “state”, according to Max Weber, is “a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory” (WEBER, M.: “Politics as a Vocation” in GERTH, H.H.; WRIGHT, Mills, C. (eds.): From Marx Weber: essays in sociology, London, Routledge, 1991 [1948], p. 78). A “nation”, on the other hand, according to Montserrat[Read More…]
They’ve done it via the ‘news’-media — their propaganda-operations. So, this is about how billionaires do that; how they’ve done it. Ever since at least the time of Thucydides in the 5th century BC, the wealthiest have ruled, and did it by conquest and plunder. The acquisition of exceptional wealth was by theft: it was coercion, which could be either[Read More…]
“Cancel all … agreements that compromise the fundamental interests of the Indian people, particularly those imposed on behalf of global corporations …” A People’s Manifesto for Ecological Democracy by Countercurrents Collective Oxford University, England backed by the British Government in collaboration with multinational drug corporation AstraZeneca (British, Swedish origin) is reported to have completed Phase-1, II trials of its newly-discovered[Read More…]
Ground breaking ceremony of Ram temple in Ayodhya at the very site where Babri Masjid once stood was regrettable for more than one reason. This event was made possible by a dubious verdict of the Supreme Court of India, a verdict that went against many of its own findings. Supreme Court ruled that the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992[Read More…]
The improbable and unprecedented has happened. United Arab Emirates (UAE) has declared to normalise relations with the state of Israel on August 14, 2020 1 , after a phone-call between the trio- US president Donald Trump, Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu and UAE crown prince Zayed Al Nahyan sealed it through, sending shock waves throughout the world, apart from the general[Read More…]
Two million Californians experienced rolling blackouts Friday night after officials declared a Stage 3 energy emergency due to a statewide heat wave. The last time California was in a Stage 3 emergency was in 2001. At that time, the state was in the middle of a very different type of energy crisis – and the governor lost his job over[Read More…]
Several newspapers have struck a hyper-nationalist tone while covering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day. The highlights of his speech, in the media’s coverage, were his “fitting” reply to “trickster” (chalbaaz) China and warning to Pakistan. Hindi Daily Dainik Jagran (National, August 16, p. 1) sensationally reports the PM’s address. “On 74th[Read More…]
17 August: On the 75th anniversary of a classic work Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903–21 January 1950), known to all of us by his pen name George Orwell, described the source of the idea of setting the book on a farm: “I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping[Read More…]
Dyed-in-the-wool patriots know that the United States of America is God’s gift to the world. Policymakers have risen the story to doctrinal status. It’s referred to as American Exceptionalism, and it basically means if we say it or do it, it’s ok. It’s a nice thing to be backed up with this doctrine when you have ambitious plans for the[Read More…]
In view of the prevalent political deadlock, growth-oriented economic development, or growth-without-development – which is simultaneously stagnating and misleading due to inflated GDP growth estimate by the Government – and the absence of the rule of law and accountability of the government, especially since 2007, Bangladesh finds itself in a political cul-de-sac. Why so? The prevalent stalemate under a one-party[Read More…]
In the words of JL Nehru, “Kashmir is not commodity for sale or to be bartered. It has an individual existence and its people must be the final arbiters of their future”. As on this week Pakistan and India are celebrating 73 years of their Independence. The partition of Indian subcontinent in 1947 witnessed the end of the British Colonial[Read More…]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not just in his personal capacity, but in his capacity as the Prime Minister of 130 crore Indians quite unexpectedly re-defined Rama totally in a different way than how the RSS/BJP have shown him to us for the last thirty years since 1989. He did that at Ayodhya and at the Ramajanma Bhoomi temple Bhoomi poojan[Read More…]
A 40 kg silver brick overrides the threat of the grim Saffron coronal rim that explodes in the stomach of a fever-ravaged populace Hunger floods the Green challenging it to celebrate internecine borders crimsoned by the wheel, the sickle, the crescent Hatred bubbles under hooded jobless seekers of truth. Jails clang with differences between Left and Right. [Read More…]
As the Covid-19 lockdown kicked in March, Bangalore and most other cities in India witnessed an exodus of migrant workers returning to their homes in northern and eastern India, by every conceivable means including by cycle and by walking, with women carrying their small children. But there were some people who could not even leave, because they were not migrant[Read More…]
Text and photos: Andre Vltchek (Reportage from Minneapolis) The city of Minneapolis is where it all began. It is where the last drop fell on the surface of a proverbial overflowing lake, causing the dam to burst, consequently starting to destroy the foundations of the empire. A death of just one single man can, under certain dreadful circumstances, put into[Read More…]
The Nazi regime in Germany has established the Sondergericht (summary courts or special courts) and Volksgerichtshof (special people’s court) outside the constitutional framework. The objectives of these totalitarian courts were to destroy internal opposition to Adolf Hitler’s mission in dominating and establishing absolute control over German state, government, culture and society. The legal systems were destroyed and reconstructed to support[Read More…]
“Usaa, The Greatest Revolutionary Barber After Upali, Died of COVID-19”, is the title of an obituary by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, (countercurrents.org, August 4,2020, “a long-time associate of Usaa Barber, Political Theorist and Author”. It begins thus : “Usaa Barber (Uppumavuluri Sambashivarao) (1951-2020)- a well-known social reformer, anti-caste ideologue and anti-brahminism fighter succumbed to COVID-19 on 25th July 2020.” Then it[Read More…]
Sivakasi is a curse, a blight, an abomination that India could do without. Here, workers, especially children, are routinely killed or scarred for life in fires and explosions while making crackers and bombs to feed the fireworks industry. A devastation in Sivakasi, 700 kilometres from Chennai, on September 5, 2012, claimed 54 lives. Between January 2011 and September 2012, there[Read More…]
Stop the witch-hunt of academics and activists in the name of Bhima Koregaon! Immediately release all political prisoners! The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) condemns the summons by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to Dr. PK Vijayan and Rakesh Ranjan, faculty members in Delhi University, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case yesterday. Following the recent arrest of Delhi[Read More…]
When the complaint was lodged in May 2019, there was a sense of the audacious about it. Eight Torres Strait Islanders had taken the trouble to petition the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Committee, citing climate change and Australian violations as their main concern. Australia, they claimed, had violated their fundamental rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[Read More…]
Wherever on this distressed and yet magnificent Earth you live, this is for you. Right here, right now: Let’s be open and honest before one another. Please. Look at the world without illusions, without hiding, without trying to escape. Don’t be crippled by confusion or disgust. Don’t allow yourself to lose your natural born goodness and become infected with internal[Read More…]
On 14 August 2020 the Australian ABC radio and TV news announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had agreed to recognize Israel and exchange ambassadors with what the ABC described as “the Jewish State”. Not only was this descriptive false and anti-Arab anti-Semitic (Arabs are 50.3% of the Subjects of Apartheid Israel) it was also grossly anti-Jewish anti-Semitic (all[Read More…]
The ordeals of the migrants and other working classes are not going to end if they survive from the COVID-19. The central and state governments are making sweeping changes to the labour laws to lure capital investments. There is no ideological difference between the BJP and Congress party when it comes to assault on rights of labourers. Both these national[Read More…]
The secular and democratic India has now completed 74 years of its political journey. It is now important to deliberate and reflects on what went wrong in the experiment of Indian’s secular democratic polity. The fact cannot be denied that India had got political freedom in 1947 after the long-drawn anti-colonial struggle launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. However,[Read More…]
The Punjabi Press Club of British Columbia (PPCBC) has come out with a strong statement against assaults on three reporters by the supporters of ruling Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. The August 11 incident happened in New Delhi, the national capital of the world’s so-called largest democracy. Three journalists, including one Sikh, one Muslim and an unidentified[Read More…]
Our planet is not a lump of inanimate matter circling the sun every year, providing humans free lodging, boarding and endless resources to exploit recklessly. She is a living, breathing, sentient Being, to be treated with love, care and deep respect. Revered in all ancient cultures around the world as Pachamama, Gaia, Bhumi or Mother Earth – She gives us generously but her respect needs to be earned too.
Close to the first anniversary of the scrapping of special constitutional rights given to Indian-occupied Kashmir, a North Delta legislator is seeking global intervention into the matter. Ravi Kahlon, who is known for his strong advocacy for human rights and social justice, has written to the United Nations on behalf of his constituents, who had raised concerns about the plight[Read More…]
The People’s Union For Civil Liberties (PUCL) is dismayed and disappointed over a Full Bench decision of the Supreme Court holding Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Advocate, guilty of criminal contempt of court for a set of tweets which the court felt “undermines the dignity and authority of the institution of the Supreme Court of India and the Chief Justice of India[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold “HUGE breakthrough today,” crowed Donald Trump on twitter as he announced the new peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The deal makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state and the third Arab nation, after Egypt and Jordan, to have diplomatic ties with Israel. But the new Israel-UAE partnership[Read More…]
Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, has released a foreword to his new book in which he calls the president “a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man,” and accuses him of cheating in the 2016 presidential election. Cohen also makes reference to “golden showers in a sex club in Vegas,” without specifically stating[Read More…]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened reprisals if anyone attacks the ship surveying disputed waters in the Mediterranean for oil and gas, after two French jets flew nearby during an exercise with the Greek fleet. “We said that if you attack our Oruc Reis you will pay a high price, and they got their first answer today,” Erdogan said[Read More…]
The China-Pakistan ‘hand in hand’ against India has now come all out in the open after the USNews.com 1 on August 6, 2020, published an elaborate report as to how China and Pakistan have started an unprecedented intelligence sharing in an attempt to secure Beijing influence in Afghanistan at the expense of US government which is now to withdraw from[Read More…]
“The Caucasus is Ground Zero in the New Cold War between the U.S. and Russia.” I wrote that several years ago, and it’s still true, particularly after Christian Armenia decisively repulsed a mid-July attack by Muslim Azerbaijan. Perhaps dozens of Azeris died in the battles, including a major-general, colonel, and two majors. Armenia reported far fewer deaths and captured[Read More…]
The current pandemic continues to have a large negative impact on most aspects of our lives. Over 20.6 million have been infected and almost 750,000 have died worldwide (about 5.3 million infections and over 168,000 deaths in the US) due to this pandemic. Besides these horrific impacts, this pandemic has also made clearer the failure of the bipartisan neoliberal economic[Read More…]
Kazi Nazrul Islam Translation © 2020 Monish Chatterjee [A YouTube recitation by the poet’s son, Kazi Sabyasachi: I am the poet of now, not of the Nuevo future Call me poetic, call me prosaic, I accept with nary a word. Some tell me, “Your place is with the earth-bound, The mortal – why do we not witness emerging From your[Read More…]
India is one of the first nations on the earth to practice Pluralism, i.e., respecting others’ otherness. While the Hindu ethos considers the world as one family, also known as Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum, the Islamic, Christian, and other traditions also subscribe to the idea that we originated from a single couple. Together, these values ‘had’ contributed to India’s post-independence political stability.[Read More…]
15th August is the most cherished date in the Indian calendar. it was on this momentous day that we were born an independent and free country. Mahatma Gandhi’s luminous leadership finally made the British Quit India in 1947. It is certainly an occasion for celebration. More than that, it is a point in a nation’s journey when we need to[Read More…]
Four Christian women including a minor girl were dragged out on the street and mercilessly beaten up by religious fanatics in the Indian state of Haryana. The severity of the attack was such that it left one woman with a broken leg, one with stitches to her forehead and two others unconscious with severe head and body injuries. “I was[Read More…]
I was born a bania, a savarna or upper-caste, and that is why I was born a bad person. Let me explain. I am part of that minority for whom the benefits of the caste system far outweigh the costs (if there are any costs at all except for making me lazy, stupid, selfish, and arrogant by making everything in[Read More…]
On 1 August, 2020, a group of civilians, in complicity with the Chilean national police force or the carabineros and right-wing hoodlums, violently attacked Mapuche community members who were on a hunger strike in front of the Municipality of Victoria, in Araucania. The attack was strategic, organized and preplanned with the occupied town halls of Ercilla and Traiguén also being attacked, Mapuche women and children being[Read More…]
Ethical media practices have constantly engaged with creating more space for under-privileged, and under-represented voices. With the advent of the pandemic, social distancing, and the necessary isolation of quarantines and containment zones, representing and communicating the common man’s woes and perspective has become a daunting, but doubly urgent,task. This is especially exacerbated when those in power take advantage of the[Read More…]
Rahat Quraishi was so enamoured of painting that he was able to turn it into a profession. He was also solicitous about Urdu poetry. “Poetry and painting are like twin-sisters,” he says in his biographical short film A Glimpse of Jashn-e-Rahat, “and I believe we all carry different people inside us.” Born to Rafatullah Qureshi, a cloth mill worker, in[Read More…]
Undoubtedly, sports and physical activities are essential for our mental and physical wellbeing. But how can a sport help in addressing sexual and reproductive health issues of the youth, and social ills like sexual and other forms of gender-based violence? It looks somewhat incredible. Well Grassroot Soccer, an adolescent health organization, seems to be doing exactly that. It has leveraged[Read More…]
In the 1970 film Patton, we see a scene where two battle worn soldiers marching along the road are passed by a jeep carrying General Patton. One guy looks and then says ” There goes old ‘ Blood and guts.’ ” The other soldier smirks and answers ” Yeah, OUR blood and HIS guts!” So it is for the Super[Read More…]
National Campaign to Educate the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs! Post them the Preamble to the Indian Constitution! Campaign Starts on 15th August 2020! For the last two months the national capital New Delhi has witnessed a very curious phenomenon. Of a steady stream of professors, students, filmmakers, feminists, Gandhians and human rights activists called by the Delhi Police’s Special[Read More…]
Assume Joe Biden wins the presidency. Assume as well that he genuinely intends to repair the damage our country has sustained since we declared ourselves history’s “Indispensable Nation,” compounded by the traumatic events of 2020 that demolished whatever remnants of that claim survived. Assume, that is, that this aging career politician and creature of the Washington establishment really intends to salvage something[Read More…]
PUCL appeals that the Government of India urgently listen to the people of J&K, initiate dialogue and restore peace Withdraw the police state: Restore freedom and democracy in the region Part A: Overview It has been over a year since 5th August, 2019, when Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister abruptly introduced a Constitutional Amendment in the Indian[Read More…]
Record numbers of U.S. citizens are renouncing their citizenship according to numbers reported by a New York accountancy firm. Bambridge Accountants reports that 5,816 people gave up U.S. citizenship in the first half of 2020 — a 1,210 per cent increase on the previous six months in which only 444 cases were recorded. The first two quarters of 2020 also rank as having[Read More…]
“Aryabhata rejected the story of a daanava (demon) named Rahu swallowing the sun or his tail Ketu covering the moon during eclipses. Eclipses occurred due to shadows, he said, and he did not see any shadow of a tail! Brahmagupta, who came more than a century later, was a great mathematician himself but did not agree with Aryabhata about rejecting[Read More…]
The RSS-BJP government of India led by a seasoned RSS whole-timer, Narendra Modi has miserably failed in providing basic amenities, employment, education, security and peace to 138 crores of Indians (out of which approximately 80% are Hindus ) but on last August 5, he had a joyous news to share with the people of the country. While laying the foundation[Read More…]
On August 4, hours before a massive explosion rocked the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued an ominous warning to Lebanon. “We hit a cell and now we hit the dispatchers. I suggest to all of them, including Hezbollah, to consider this,” Netanyahu said during an official tour of a military facility in central Israel. Netanyahu’s warning[Read More…]
The application of scientific knowledge has been embraced by industry as a means of enriching owners for over two hundred years. Science is knowledge of the natural and social world gained through observation and experimentation based on evidence. The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century had a profound impact on workers’ diseases. Rapid technological progress and industrial growth led to crowded,[Read More…]
A drama series telecast on the Saudi-controlled MBC during the holy month of Ramadan is being seen as a clear signal from Saudi Arabia about its growing ties with Israel, the Brussels Times said Tuesday. The TV series, ‘Umm Haroun’ (mother of Aaron), begins with a long monologue in Hebrew, in which a Jewish character says “we are the Gulf[Read More…]
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) is one of the greatest French thinkers. A polemical and witty essayist, a metaphysician of subjectivity, a political activist, a revolutionary political theorist, a humanistic novelist, a didactic playwright, his genius lies in his powers of philosophical synthesis and the genre breaching breadth of his imagination. The last philosopher to be discussed at some length, Jean-Paul Sartre,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey, Shreekumar, Shiva Shankar, R. Ramachandran, Lubna Sarwath, Mansee Bal Bhargava and Rajeev Yadav Equality, Liberty and Justice lay the foundation of Indian Constitution for the citizens of India. Beyond the Indian Constitution document’s explicit mention of it, a real picture on the ground is different and that a large section of the communities are implicitly treated[Read More…]
NASA satellite images of fires in eastern Siberia depict an inferno of monstrous proportions, nothing in modern history compares. And, as of July, it’s intensifying. Should people be concerned? Answer: Yes, and double yes. According to Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts: “What has been surprising[Read More…]
Lebanon’s government stepped down on Monday night, less than a week after a massive explosion in Beirut killed more than 170 people and wounded more than 6000, sparking days of violent protests. Prime Minister Hassan Diab addressed the nation, announcing his resignation and that of his government in the wake of the blast, which he called a “disaster beyond measure.”[Read More…]
It is simply astonishing that the first attempt by the Guardian – the only major British newspaper styling itself as on the liberal-left – to properly examine the contents of a devastating internal Labour party report leaked in April is taking place nearly four months after the 860-page report first came to light. If you are a Labour party member,[Read More…]
Did the caveman laugh? Did he have a toothache? The cheering thing for him would have been, he would not have to visit a dentist. Or, is that a cheering thought for me? And he would continue in pain while his tooth rotted and fell! And mine gets pulled out or repaired by a dentist peering into my numb anaesthetised[Read More…]
The farmer’s job is to cultivate and harvest. Not to construct grain silos. Prime Minister Modi on Aug 09, 2020 launched a new financing scheme under the Rs. 1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund meant for setting up storage and processing facilities, which will help farmers get higher prices for their crops, according to the government statement. “The scheme will[Read More…]
What would George Orwell have made of the Kashmir situation in 2020? Mr. Orwell’s prophetic work on extensive government over-reach, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of all persons and behaviours has resonance to life in Kashmir today. In Kashmir, Indian state exists in a kind of sadomasochistic relationship that pins down an entire population to perpetuate its power. Since August[Read More…]
The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreaks a global pandemic. In India, during the last six months had a tough time for everyone as government had announced the lockdown in the month of March because of day by day increasing in the number of cases of coronavirus. Pregnant women have more stress about the effects[Read More…]
The document is exclusionary, reactionary and promotes conformism aimed at serving the interests of capitalism. In a document like the New Education Policy, one must distinguish platitudes from new provisions, including the dropping of old platitudes. Thus, phrases like “education is a public good”, “6 per cent of GDP should be earmarked for education” are just platitudes, unless some concrete[Read More…]
The day when Lebanon blasts occurred i.e. August 4, 2020, the same day a news was floated that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is clandestinely pursuing a nuclear-agenda with the help of China 1, only three days later on August 7, 2020, another headline donned the world media that the KSA Crown Prince MbS on October 15, 2018, had sent[Read More…]
During my professional engagement with rural India, I found that one of the most useful resources at the grassroots level was an Anganwadi worker. I would always begin my village exploration with a visit to an Anganwadi and would be rewarded with a finer introduction to the local community. I have always regarded Anganwadi workers as the most efficient last-mile[Read More…]
The explosion in a Beirut portside warehouse containing over 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate on August 4 has done its bit to light more fires under Lebanon’s ruling powers. With the blast still bloodily fresh and traumatic – the destruction of the city’s port with over two hundred deaths and thousands injured – promises of assistance and messages of solidarity[Read More…]
Latin America has surpassed more than 5 million Covid-19 cases to overtake North America, with 4.8 million Covid-19 cases, as the region worst-hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. This astronomic increase in Covid-19 cases has been accompanied by a corresponding economic catastrophe of great magnitude. According to a United Nations Policy Brief entitled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Latin America and the Caribbean”, “Parts of Latin America and[Read More…]
I wrote this article over four years ago in 2016 for the purpose of challenging left liberals to face the fact that they have no party. In re-reading it today, everything I said in the original article remains true. In fact, the Democratic Party has leaned even further to the right over the last four years. In the face of uprisings of[Read More…]
A 1969 song written and sung by John ‘ Speedy ‘ Keen of the group Thunderclap Newman fits too well today… much too well: Call out the instigators Because there’s something in the air We’ve got to get together sooner or later Because the revolution’s here and you know it’s right And you know that it’s right We’ve got to[Read More…]
In a haunting memoir, Piera Sonnino has narrated her devastating experience as a twenty-two-year Italian Jewish woman. She lost her parents and three brothers in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. She is the only holocaust survivor in her family. Her memoir, ‘This has happened: An Italian Family in Auschwitz’ provides a moving account of unspeakable evils of Nazism. The[Read More…]
W.H. Auden, the British poet, once wrote that many lives have been lived without love, but none without water – or words to that effect. Auden couldn’t possibly have written about the utter necessity of water without thinking of the billions and trillions of farming families who contributed since time immemorial to the making of human cultures and civilizations. If[Read More…]
To the world India is known as the largest democracy in the world. If you considered holding elections at regular interval as the only criteria of being a democracy you can give this tag. But, the dismal condition of freedom of speech and the right to dissent in the country is a real cause of concern for the activists and[Read More…]
Was Donald Trump’s January 3rd drone assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani the first step in turning the simmering Cold War between the United States and Iran into a hot war in the weeks before an American presidential election? Of course, there’s no way to know, but behind by double digits in most national polls and flanked by ultra-hawkish Secretary of State[Read More…]
Here is an opportunity to stress the demand for democratisation of road space. The government dare not accuse the activists of being urban Naxals because its own guidelines in the wake of Covid suggest creating more space on roads for bicycles and pedestrians. Various studies conducted by the ministry of housing and urban affairs MoHUA show that about 16-57% of[Read More…]
It was 5th August, last year, when Narendra Modi led Bhartiya Janta party (BJP) government stripped off special status of erstwhile state. It was done in the pretext of development, good governance, and peace. It was argued that abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A will open the floodgates for development and prosperity. The former princely state was bifurcated into two[Read More…]
‘Freedom of press’ means the right to print and publish without any interference from the state or any other public authority. But this, Freedom, like other freedoms, cannot be absolute but is subject to well-known exceptions acknowledge in the public interests, Which in India are enumerated in Article 19 of the constitution. Press freedom in Jammu and Kashmir is under[Read More…]
Hell is not God’s idea, I believe. I also believe that John Abraham and God had an erratic relationship with each other. But then, why the hell didn’t John invest in full the coins that God had entrusted him so dearly ? I first met John when I was a fresh graduate and a culture -vulture apprentice at Kochi. One[Read More…]
We would like to think that we can eliminate COVID-19, but doing so is far from certain. The medical system has not been successful in eliminating HIV/AIDS or influenza; the situation with COVID-19 may be similar. We are discovering that people with COVID-19 are extremely hard to identify because a significant share of infections are very mild or completely without[Read More…]
It would seem a logical step, at least from an existential perspective: to ban something so utterly horrendous to life; to forbid its use in any circumstances, whatever rationale employed to justify its use. But the nuclear weapon has its admirers. There are those who continue to worship its sovereign properties, and those who leave gifts at the shrine of[Read More…]
Readers of progressive Alternative Media such as Countercurrents are regularly made aware of major realities that are either totally or largely ignored by One Percenter-, UK- and US-dominated Anglosphere Mainstream media. This mendacious perversion represents a major threat to the citizens of the prosperous Anglosphere countries and to Humanity as a whole. Set out here are scores of huge realities[Read More…]
Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) deeply mourns the passing away of Ilina Sen on August 9 in Kolkata. Ilina, 69, was a feminist activist, teacher, researcher and writer passionately involved with the women’s movement in India. Be it through activist work or classroom pedagogy, conferences or rallies, Ilina’s deep engagement with women’s struggles in Madhya Pradesh and[Read More…]
“Life is everywhere, life is in ourselves, not outside.” (Dostoevsky, just after his death sentence was commuted) Vision from the metal cubicle circling over the shores of southeastern Sicily seems to encompass the entire Mediterranean world, the spatial unity of which world atlases confirm: Sicily, now just beneath us and to the West, Africa fixed to the South, Greece and[Read More…]
This morning when I opened Facebook, my newsfeed was swarmed with people sharing the same monosyllabic status update. They were writing Binod, a male given name popular in Asia, and people in the comment section were leaving Binod in the comments. When I switched to Twitter, Binod was trending at number 3. My curiosity was picking up speed. To my[Read More…]
Why do good people have to suffer? This is a question mankind has been facing for thousands of years. Our Hindu religion has the answer, ‘because of sins committed in the previous birth’. Obviously people like us can not accept this. While the news of Ilina’s death last night brought a host of memories and sadness in me, this question[Read More…]
The Bhima Koregaon battle took place on 1 January 1818 between a contingent of the East India Company army mainly consisting of soldiers belonging to the Mahar caste (one of the many “untouchable” castes in India whose members are today known as Dalits) and the army of the Peshwas, who were the rulers of the Maratha confederacy. The Peshwa army[Read More…]
While ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured people that the time had now come when gold would grow instead of grass, milk canals would flow in exchange for water in the rivers and springs and the skies would sight flight of Kashmiris not the birds. Article 370 of the[Read More…]
The pandemic driven lockdowns have triggered worldwide growth of unemployment, hunger, homelessness and poverty. The speed of economic descent in world economy is extraordinary. The world is sleep walking into greater economic depression of the century and its impacts will reverberate for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic led economic crisis has been used by ruling and non-ruling classes to reconfigured the[Read More…]
The purported Arab Spring 2.0 which I would say as Arab Autumn 2.0 has begun, and the bad omens are writ large, as not even a week has passed, that Lebanon is seething against its government, after the mushroom cloud of blast had enveloped it on August 4, 2020, which was foretold by Simpson Cartoon 1 in advance, and all[Read More…]
There is no chance for welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. Liberty is the first condition of growth. It should encompass all aspects whether political or economic. The inner structure of liberty is a double helix: One strand – political freedom – spirally in tandem with other strand – economic freedom. Any disruption then makes[Read More…]
This Eid, as India’s latest known lynching target Lukman Khan fought for his life, India’s most famous film star Amitabh Bachchan promised mob violence against a Twitter heckler. In Gurgaon, the shining IT satellite of India’s capital, Lukman Khan was pulled from his vehicle, abused, and bludgeoned with a hammer for allegedly transporting beef. While being assaulted, he’s heard on video explaining that he was transporting buffalo meat, not cow[Read More…]
Let me be blunt. This wasn’t the world I imagined for my denouement. Not faintly. Of course, I can’t claim I ever really imagined such a place. Who, in their youth, considers their death and the world that might accompany it, the one you might leave behind for younger generations? I’m 76 now. True, if I were lucky (or perhaps[Read More…]
US leadership of India’s fascist movement backs Texas Democrat In August 2019, Congressman Khanna charted a new course for the Indian-American diaspora when he commented on reportage about Tulsi Gabbard’s RSS links, stating: “It’s the duty of every American politician of Hindu faith to stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist, and Christians.”[Read More…]
Last week, Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, dressed like a priest-king in a saffron scarf and a silver crown performed a sacred ritual in the Ayodhya to found a new Hindu temple on a site where, for hundreds of years, the historic Babri Masjid (mosque) once stood. The state-sponsored ceremony was meant to show the transformation of India from[Read More…]
While listening to PM Modi at Ayodhya, over TV the other day, dilating confidently on the theme of “unity in diversity” ( including a BIG LIE) with regard to the existence of many Ramayanas, I was thinking where has this non-scholar ( mildly put ) plagiarised his material from? Later , I was reminded of the great scholar, poet, folklorist,[Read More…]
“Commission for Minority Religion and Linguistic Minority” known as “Misra Commission” was setup by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government in 2005 to study and report on socio-economic condition of Christians and Muslims converted from Scheduled Caste origins. The Justice Misra Commission report was submitted on May 22, 2007. Since then UPA Government has delayed to give its consent that Supreme[Read More…]
Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims observe August 10th across the country as a day to highlight and protest the denial of the fundamental constitutional rights to them for the last seventy years! When India became a Republic, we resolved as a nation to secure Justice, Equality, Liberty and Dignity for all our citizens. Members of castes worst affected from centuries[Read More…]
On 5 August, 2020, the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to institute measures aimed at protecting indigenous people from the Covid-19 pandemic. This ruling is the legal recognition of the totally disastrous anti-indigenous policies of the Bolsonaro government. Like other indigenous people living in the Peruvian jungles, eastern Bolivia, the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Colombian Amazon, Brazilian collectivities[Read More…]
In recent times, the term ‘fascism’ has become so widely used that it has become difficult to define it precisely. It is often used as a metaphor by the fiercest critics of any politics. Historically, however, fascism refers to extreme right-wing, anti-democratic, ultranationalism that spread rapidly through Europe between the two world wars. Though it is commonly associated with Adolf[Read More…]
The mainstream media — particularly Hindi newspapers — instead of critiquing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for performing Bhoomi pooja (groundbreaking) of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, is chanting Jai Shri Ram. It has again failed to uphold the constitutional principle of secularism. On August 6, a day after Bhoomi pooja ceremony, almost all Hindi newspapers carried pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi[Read More…]
On 6 July 2020, an article extolling the benefits of genetically modified (GM) crops appeared on the BloombergQuint website based on an interview with Dr Ramesh Chand, a member of the key Indian Government think tank Niti Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) . On 17 July, another piece that placed a positive spin on GM crops and gene editing[Read More…]
Co-Written by Abass Rather & Aqib Yousuf Ever since the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic, the fear of getting infected was always there. No matter how courageous one pretends to be. Everyone utilised all resources to save themselves from it in the first stage of it and in the first lockdown period. As the days progressed, different stories among the[Read More…]
Adolescence or teenage is that critical phase when one transitions from childhood to adulthood. It is marked by important biological changes and the onset of puberty. This ‘growing up’ is also about experiencing the joys and challenges of youth. However, for many girls especially those living in rural India, growing up in patriarchal socio-cultural set ups also signifies the[Read More…]
Sixth December, 1992 – The day India lost its secular character and opted for majoritarionism as its ruling philosophy. The quilt of India made from its myriad beliefs, religions, languages, customs and traditions was torn to shreds by an insane crowd of zealous fanatics egged on by a short-sighted selfish leadership of Bhartiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh.[Read More…]
There are few more righteous sights than the paunchy US Secretary of State savaging the People’s Republic of China with his next volley on Chinese territorial aspirations. In July, Mike Pompeo released a statement putting any uncertain minds at ease on where Washington stood on the matter. “We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the[Read More…]
Four days after the Beirut Blast of 4th August 2020, the Lebanese president, Michel Aoun, has attempted to explain what caused the largest explosion since the end of the Second World War. He attributes it to either the accidental ignition of 2750 tons of Ammonium Nitrate ( AN) stored in a warehouse at Beirut port or a planned attack by[Read More…]
An attempted coup d’etat is underway in Lebanon. Another orchestrated colour revolution being attempted, as rioters turn violent, takeover government buildings, burn documents & properties. The target is regime change, or worse an outright religio-sectarian Civil War, which for long has been a US-Israeli-Saudi plan to destroy Lebanon. Interference by US & France in the immediate aftermath of the terror[Read More…]
Food is the basic need and fundamental right of every human being. The United Nations (1948) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25,1948) used an ecological perspective rooted in social justice to define “right to food”. It emphasizes ” quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumers belong, and[Read More…]
Indian Christians for Democracy, Solidarity Statement As Indian Christians we have always and continue to uphold the Constitutional Values of our country, as a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic and Republic. We believe in, and practice, the Principles of Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, enshrined in the Constitution. Christians as individuals and their institutions have been in the forefront in times[Read More…]
The nationwide uprising against police brutality has completely changed the conversation around policing and safety. The demand to defund police which would have been deemed unthinkable in the mainstream not long ago, but are now being taken up as official policy in towns and cities across the country. At this moment, it is crucial to expand the conversation to include[Read More…]
Fifty two years ago, on 20th August, Russian tanks moved into Prague to suppress what has passed into history as the ‘Spring of 1968’ when artists, intellectuals, public personalities and reforms-minded politicians joined hands in an attempt to secure freedom of expression. Among the sufferers was the great long-distance runner, Emil Zatopek, who was dismissed from his senior position[Read More…]
There seems to be a different wind blowing from US as President Donald Trump is gearing to meet to his November 2020 elections, and has dropped a signal, that its greatest and oldest ally in Middle-East, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) , has been accused of pursuing a nuclear-dream which can never be accepted by Israel-which unofficially has more[Read More…]
Anyone who was raised in Brooklyn, NYC, like this writer, knows how humongous and diverse this ‘ The Garden Spot of the World ‘ has always been. Each section of our over 3 million populated borough ( a joke in itself to not have Brooklyn as its own city) was filled with a unique myriad of ethnicities . Many times,[Read More…]
National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements (NAPM) expresses its concern at the initiation of contempt proceedings against human rights activist and advocate Mr. Prashant Bhushan, by the Supreme Court of India (SC), in respect of two of his tweets. The tweets are worth restating, if only to remind ourselves about the absurdity and unfairness of the criminal proceedings against Mr. Bhushan.[Read More…]
The 78th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, famously known as the August Revolution in the history of India’s freedom movement, falls on August 9, 2020. The movement was inspired by the intense desire of freedom of the Indian people. According to a letter written by Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia to the Viceroy Linlithgow, the British government had killed fifty[Read More…]
Co-Written by Arundhati Dhuru and Sandeep Pandey Ram has been described as Maryada Purushottam, the most virtuous among men. He left his kingdom merely because he didn’t want to hurt the sentiments of his step mother and went on a 14 years exile. It was not in his character to enter into a dispute. He had to enter into a[Read More…]
It has been one year now since Article 370 abrogation done undemocratically and immorally by Government of India where thousands of persons including prominent political leaders were pushed behind walls over the night because the largest democracy of world feared that these political leaders have a base in population which was required to be cut to avoid any dissent ,[Read More…]
Massive uncontrolled unprecedented wild fires are consuming portions of the Amazon rainforest and several regions of the Arctic. Somebody somewhere must be asking why all of a sudden in unison, all over creation, two of the planets largest ecosystems are going up in smoke. It’s eerily spine chilling. “Major fires have hit the Amazon and the Arctic for the second[Read More…]
Protests against Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have raged on for weeks, turning violent sometimes. Israelis are furious at their government’s mediocre response to the coronavirus pandemic, especially as COVID-19 disease is experiencing a massive surge throughout the country. Netanyahu warned protesters, thousands of whom have been rallying outside his residence in Jerusalem, against “anarchy (and) violence”. Scenes of utter[Read More…]
Silencing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul was a feat of primeval brutality that sent a shudder through even the most hardened officials. The House of Saud, and in particular certain members of it, had gotten a taste for blood. Soon after Khashoggi’s slicing and dicing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul at the hands of a specially assembled hit[Read More…]
In India recently, there is all the hype in mainstream media about a probable 30 second rapid COVID-19 detection system by collaboration of DRDO with the Israeli military R&D. Reportedly, there are four developments that are planned to be tested: Online voice test along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Breath analyser based on Terahertz waves along with AI Isothermal test using[Read More…]
Fidelity could not just be about sex. I picture to myself as an activist young woman, bright, ambitious. Because, your womb has taken a precious stead in the universe. Sometimes, I think not to come out from this place. But, your love doesn’t let me stay inside your womb. Because, you want to show something that you have already been[Read More…]
Language policy in NEP is not suitable to present context. The overemphasis of Hindi and Sanskrit in proposed three-language policy, and withdrawal of English from primary level, in National Education policy 2020 will be impacting over non-Hindi speaking states. If executed, the language burden will be more on students of these states and additional burden on students of linguistic and[Read More…]
The Galwan valley violent clash on June 15th in the eastern Ladakh borders of India and China, has triggered an emotionally charged situation in the country. With the hike in military activity and occasional clashes occurring between two militaries in Pangong Tso (lake) area from May 5th this year, the peace and tranquillity at borders of India and China was[Read More…]
Co-Written by Anjali Roy, Ankit Kumar, Anurag Ratan, KS Lakshmi Naraayan, Kaustubh Jain and Sartaj Singh “Most people are completely, blissfully ignorant about the situation, and those of us who believe in sustainable development are not able to do anything”, this is how Dr SP Udayakumar describes the current situation relating to nuclear power and its uses throughout the world.[Read More…]
On the eve of 78th anniversary of the glorious Quit India Movement [QIM] we must evaluate the role of the Hindutva gang in India’s anti-colonial freedom struggle. QIM also known as ‘August Kranti’ (August Revolution) was a nation-wide Civil Disobedience Movement for which a call was given on August 7, 1942 by the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee.[Read More…]
One of the memorable productions of Ebrahim Alkazi was Dharmavir Bharati’s Hindi play Andha Yug whose title and theme are so relevant to the dark times we live in. It was directed by the doyen of Indian theatre in 1963 against the backdrop of Purana Quila, the fort, and was witnessed by Jawaharlal Nehru. The story hints at the perils[Read More…]
Lebanon, the Switzerland of Middle-East and its capital Beirut-the Paris of Middle-East, a house to 2.4 million people 1 , out of 6.8 2 million in whole of Lebanon , are smothered by blasts on August 4, 2020, by 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate kept in a waterfront warehouse at a port in Beirut, killing 135 people, leaving more than[Read More…]
(1) “Members of the police shall exercise their functions, powers and duties as impartial servants of the general public and the Government of the day. … No member of the police may be ordered or forced to exercise his other functions or powers or deploy police resources to promote or undermine any political party or interest group, or any member[Read More…]
PUCL Welcomes the NHRC directions to the Chhattisgarh Government, Ordering one lakh rupees compensation to those wrongly booked and illegally arrested. The PUCL welcomes the decision of the NHRC against the State of Chhattisgarh on its complaint number 667/33/20/2016 filed in 2016, which directs the Government of Chhattisgarh to pay compensation of Rs. one lakh each, to 13 members of[Read More…]
When US President Harry S. Truman made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by another on Nagasaki a few days later, he was not acting as an agent untethered from history. In the wheels of his wearied mind lay the battered Marines who, despite being victorious, had received sanguinary lashings at Iwo[Read More…]
The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street Dear Prime Minister Trudeau: As a Hiroshima survivor, I was honoured to jointly accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. With the approaching 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki[Read More…]
Co-Written by Shamsher Alam and Mohammad Niyaz Ahmad In common-sense perspective, students of university and college are being considered as monolithic category. The advocators of students’ politics also credence to the same thought. However, they overlook that students are not a macro unit. They are very much divided on the line of castes, class, region, ideology and most importantly religion.[Read More…]
After Prof. G. N. Saibaba’s arrest a 17-person Committee for the Defence and Release of Saibaba was constituted to expedite his bail and also that all his legal and constitutional rights stay protected. With the arrest of Prof. Hany Babu, member of this Committee on 28 July, 2020 and the subsequent raid on 2 August, 2020 at his house by[Read More…]
Will we ever know the category-wise distribution of vice chancellors of the forty central universities located across the country? Thanks to the rules governing these universities, and those of the University Grants Commission, there is no such record. This form of “castelessness” at the top is coupled with marginal representation of teachers from socially and physically marginalised sections. Be it[Read More…]
To see Beirut and its port area with a huge mushroom cloud hanging above is a truly surreal sight. But what is not surreal in battered Lebanese capital? A big part of the downtown looks flattened, thoroughly ruined. One of my Japanese friends based in Beirut exclaimed: “It looks like Hiroshima!” It does. Who is behind the carnage? What really[Read More…]
With survival at stake, can weapon makers change course? Today, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the atomic attack on Hiroshima, should be a day for quiet introspection. I recall a summer morning following the U.S. 2003 “Shock and Awe” invasion of Iraq when the segment of the Chicago River flowing past the headquarters of the world’s second largest defense contractor, Boeing,[Read More…]
The struggle against Covid-19 has often been compared to fighting a war. Much of this rhetoric is bombast, but the similarities between the struggle against the virus and against human enemies are real enough. War reporting and pandemic reporting likewise have much in common because, in both cases, journalists are dealing with and describing matters of life and death.[Read More…]
Assertion of Dalits and consciousness that began flowering in the second half of twentieth century was not to create submissive Dalits to any force of oppression. Its intention was very clear. Dalits said out loud that they had enough. They declared out loud that from then on, they would fight for their rights, dignity, history, culture, power and property. The[Read More…]
Contrary to present impression that Muslims are separatists due to whom the partition of India took place, the truth is that majority of Muslims contributed to freedom movement and upheld India’s composite culture in equal measure. The partition process, mainly due to British policy of ‘divide and rule’ well assisted by Hindu and Muslim communalists is being hidden from the[Read More…]
As on 6th August 2020, the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has affected 213 countries and territories around the world infecting over 19 million people of whom 0.7 million died. The US is on top with 5 million cases and 163,000 death. Brazil and India holds the second and third slots with 2.9 and 2 million cases. In terms of infection rates, Qatar,[Read More…]
It is time to stop irresponsible finger-pointing. All over the world, as this essay is being written, well over 17 million COVID-19 cases have been reported, and 676,000 people died. And instead of concentrating on serious research, trying to save human lives and attempting to stop the global calamity, ‘residents’ of the White House are spending all the energy on[Read More…]
The on-going Black Lives Matter protests are beyond incredible. Pandemic rages. And yet week after week people courageously persist. Duration unprecedented. Intensity amazing. The protests are inspiring. But what is the underlying logic? Where are the protests headed? Indeed, stepping back just a bit, what is the purpose of any activist protest? Set aside that tiny numbers engage for fun[Read More…]
Co-Written by Supriya Joshi, Vishal Kumar and Sandeep Pandey India is one the most religiously and ethnically diverse nations of the world. It has a syncretic culture and people have learned to live together respecting each other’s beliefs. However, in the recent past, communal politics has been used extensively for mobilizing voters. This has led to extreme communal polarisation and[Read More…]
Silicon Valley continues to sprawl in influence, and its modern robber barons bestride the globe with a confidence verging on contempt. The technology giants that mark that region of California are praised as “virtuosos of ingenuity,” to use Steve Forbes’ words, “creating and supplying products and services that were once unimaginable and that have been enabling us to survive the[Read More…]
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults worldwide. Close to 800 000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds. Suicide is a global phenomenon and occurs throughout the lifespan. Studies from India consistently document the highest suicide rates in the world, and the majority of completed suicides had been[Read More…]
The ongoing peace process provided an opportunity for Afghan factions to unite and undo all the wrongs committed against them in the past 20 years. Unfortunately, the internal strife of Afghanis has again prevailed over this opportunity. Explicitly, compelled by the upcoming election promise, the US wishes to withdraw forces from Afghanistan. China and Pakistan are earnestly pushing the peace[Read More…]
August 5, 2020 marks a year since the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir, and the loss of its statehood. In effect, it is the first anniversary of the violation of our Constitutional commitment to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. How is this anniversary being marked officially? According to news reports, through an imposition of[Read More…]
Those who expect political class to be a ‘revolutionary’ and ‘radically’ ‘secular’ live in great illusion and should form their ‘own’ outfits which their own families will not support. Intellectualism and politics, frankly do not go together. Politics is sentiments, emotions and all the Saas-Bahu masala that we love to watch on TV screens. The reason why I am writing[Read More…]
It boggles my mind, astonished to observe as to how those Indian Muslims who support Erdogan on the Hagia Sophia, oppose Modi on Ram Mandir? How do you oppose a Hindu Rashtra here, whilst welcoming Islamic states abroad, where Muslims are in a majority? Thus it is often said that, where Muslims are in a minority they demand & support[Read More…]
E Urbanization and industrialization has taken over the world in the name of development , which lead to a rapid decline in our environmental treasure. In order to curtail this environmental depletion, the Government has introduced an assessment that controls the utilization, acquisition, and usage of natural resources by employing the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). This assessment is mandatory for[Read More…]
Currently, the impression that things can be made to happen even without the participation of the working class is being sought to be furthered by employers and managements. What to speak of marginalization, it is the evaporization of the worker from public consciousness that is being attempted. Just visualize the surrealistic pilgrim’s progress that we have covered in the[Read More…]
Solidarity of poets, writers, advocates and of different political and human rights organisation to the struggle of people of Kashmir for autonomy Since the abrogation of Article 370 and subsequent declaration of Kashmir as the union territory of India on 5th August 2019, the lives of the people of Kashmir have gone from bad to worse. Around 34000 Kashmiris, including[Read More…]
Religious Radicals prevented a bereaved Christian family from burying their dead at a village in Jharkhand. They told the family that they could perform the last rites of 52-year-old *Vilas Singh, if it was done recognizing the religious beliefs of the village. Persecution Relief spoke to the nephew of the deceased, *Ramu Singh. He explained that his late uncle was[Read More…]
Thiruvananthapuram: In a joint statement prominent individuals from sociopolitical , cultural and religious spheres of Kerala called on those adorning constitutional positions to stay away from the groundbreaking ceremony of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya . The occasion should not be misused for narrow political gains. Prime Minister of India, a secular country, Governor and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh should[Read More…]
All India People’s Front’s Political Resolution When the Hon’ble Supreme Court gave a verdict on the Ram Mandir / Babri Masjid dispute, the democratic civil society, despite agreeing / disagreeing with it, had expressed the desire that a dispute be resolved and now the political establishment will not try to mix religion and politics. It will try to solve the[Read More…]
Nepotism as a culture is being seasoned in forms of cronyism, favouritism, as it knocks backs calibre and worth and leaves behind a collegium apparatus. We discern nepotism in Bollywood as it is exhibited in the spotlight for one and all to catch sight of. But the existent and the historical process of nepotism that has engendered exceptional levels of[Read More…]
Chandigarh, 5 August (2020) With Hindutva forces pursuing of the upper-caste Brahmanic ideology for over a century aiming to reshape India into a Hindu Nation, the Democratic-Secular Indian Republic today stands formally transformed into a Hindu Rashtra as Prime Minister Modi laid down a 40-kg silver brick at the foundation, marking the beginning of Ram Temple at Ayodhya. The Sikh[Read More…]
Grand foundation laying ceremony at Ayodhya is a blow to the secular credentials of India. The fact that 3 constitutional dignitaries PM, UP CM and UP Governor, tasked with duty to protect and preserve the constitution, attended a religious ceremony is attack on constitutional values. This is in clear disregard with the oath which they take, “ to bear true[Read More…]
NAPM Stands with the Resistance of the People of Jammu & Kashmir: Struggle to End Oppression, Militarization & Corporate Loot must continue 5th August, 2020 marks the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which took away the political autonomy of the only Muslim majority state in the country, severely jeopardized the future of the[Read More…]
If one is to turn back the clock to September 1964, the inevitability of memory regarding a discussion over a bill introduced by Prakash Vir Shastri, an independent member in Lok Sabha comes to mind. The bill proposed the abrogation of article 370 and Vir Shastri, then the Bijnor MP, had introduced the bill a few months after Sheikh Abdullah,[Read More…]
While I’m writing this, Rana Ayyub might be distributing relief packages and serving the poor, helpless and needy somewhere in India. She is not just a journalist but a humanitarian and an activist par human rights defender. She is fearless, brave and staunch democratic advocate. Since covid lockdown, rana ayub has travelled thousands of miles, visited thousands of homes and[Read More…]
Modi is a shrewd, calculating and ambitious man. He was not in politics till he was 51 when he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Prior to that he was a nobody in the BJP. But he outmanouverd his mentor Advani and became Prime Minister and sent the old guards to oblivion. He has the ability to outsmart his opponents[Read More…]
Education is the most powerful weapon to produce desirable changes in our society, and in order to drive the nation towards greater accomplishments, it is important to furnish quality education to all of its citizens. The education system in India is one of the world’s largest sectors and after Independence, the country has passed through many reforms right from 10+2+3[Read More…]
A mother and child, dressed in traditional clothing, sit on the ground amid rubble and burnt trees, Hiroshima, Japan, December 1945; some four months after the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on the city. (Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) On August 6th, in Hiroshima, Japan, people will gather at the Peace Memorial, or A-Bomb Dome[Read More…]
‘Hey Ram’ were the last words of Mahatma Gandhi; the father of the nation. He uttered these words on 30th of January 1948 while taking bullets from his assassin; a Hindutva terrorist called Nathuram Godse. The Hindutva politics of hate filled bullets from the Beretta automatic pistol that killed Mahatma Gandhi. This was the first onslaught on the secular and[Read More…]
What will it take for the idea of a two-state solution, which was hardly practical to begin with, to be completely abandoned? Every realistic assessment of the situation on the ground indicates, with palpable clarity, that there can never be a viable Palestinian state in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Politically, the idea is also untenable. Those who[Read More…]
If the insensitivity being shown by the Indian state towards a physically challenged former Delhi University Professor is any indication, the government of the world’s so called largest democracy lacks compassion. Wheelchair bound G.N. Saibaba, who is ninety percent disabled below the waist, is incarcerated after being convicted for life after being branded as Maoist sympathizer. He is among several[Read More…]
In yet another horrific case of Christian persecution, a Christian family was mercilessly beaten up by a mob of raging religious fanatics in the Indian state of Jharkhand. The mob of over 40 fanatics led by the village headman not only assaulted the family but savagely vandalized their home and belongings, falsely accusing the family of converting villagers to Christianity.[Read More…]
A Navy Spouse’s Take on Why We’re Not Getting Better American military personnel are getting sick in significant numbers in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. As The New York Times reported in a piece buried in the back pages of its July 21st edition, “The infection rate in the services has tripled over the past six weeks as the United States military has[Read More…]
This article arose from disbelief at South Carolina Congressman James E. Clyburn’s awkward response to one of President Trump’s ridiculous and mendacious tweets. The Democratic Party is engaged in “déjà vu,” committed to getting Trump elected again. Vice-president selection. What are the qualifications for this vice-president? Should be able to replace the president. Contrary to accepted notion that the vice-president[Read More…]
It was to be only for naives, not to have expected US to throw a spanner into the Iran-China 400 billion USD ‘trade and military’ deal , for 25 years on July 13, 2020 1 , as US would do everything to scuttle the deal , and as expected, the sanctions came, rather more sanctions came, thick and fast on[Read More…]
On Aug 5, 2019, the abrogation of Art 370 and Art 35A of the Indian Constitution struck a body blow to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, dismembering the state into two union territories and dissolving the meagre protection the people of the state had over their land. In the midst of the most massive military presence, the complete shutdown[Read More…]
Citing the Israeli military media reports from Jerusalem said: Israeli fighter jets and attack helicopters struck military targets in southern Syria belonging to the Syrian army Monday night, hours after thwarting an infiltration attempt from Syria by suspected militants trying to plant explosives. In a rare statement acknowledging strikes in neighboring Syria, the Israeli army said the targets included “observation[Read More…]
The sovereign-democratic Indian Republic came into existence on January 26, 1950 coinciding with the promulgation of a historic constitution which in its Preamble declared its firm commitment to “JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual[Read More…]
C.L.R. James, a prominent Trinidadian Historian, and Socialist, is well known for his contribution to the historiography of the study of events. He once said, “An artistic, a social event does not reflect the age. It is the age”. These words reflect the influential role that certain events can have on the course of a nation’s history and its people.[Read More…]
Early on Monday morning Telegraph brought us a story that Mahatma Gandhi is all set to become the first non-white to feature on the UK money. The Royal Mint Advisory Committee has taken this decision following a campaign in the UK. The campaign advocates giving space to black, Asian, and ethnic minorities (BAME) on the British money in recognition of their “profound[Read More…]
Delhi University professor Apoorvanand was questioned on Monday by Delhi police in connection with Delhi riots. Apoorvanand said his phone was seized for investigation and he spent five hours with the police. Apoorvanand, who teaches Hindi at Delhi University, urged the police to conduct a thorough, just and fair investigation into the violence. This is the full text of Apoorvanand’s[Read More…]
Some years ago, a local bakery chain in Kerala started making traditional snacks. The one that caught my attention was the Neyyappam, the ghee-fried cake that later made the news during the Android N naming campaign. My first response was that of joy- at being able to revive childhood memories that were getting lost due to busier lifestyles. But while[Read More…]
On March 13, 2019, Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Limited and the third richest man in India (according to the Hurun India Rich List1) made an unusual announcement. The announcement was that he would set aside Rs 53,000 crore of his wealth for philanthropy. As a signatory to “Giving Pledge,” the philanthropic project started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet,[Read More…]
Press Statement by Committee for the Defence and Release of Dr G N Saibaba The Committee for the Defence and Release of G N Saibaba strongly condemns the unwarranted raid on 2nd August 2020 by officers of the National Intelligence Agency, on the house of Dr Hany Babu, a member of the Committee. Dr Babu was arrested on the 28th[Read More…]
Sociologist C. Wright Mills wrote a book in 1956 that (sadly) still resonates today. In his book ‘ The Power Elite’ Mills focused on groups and individuals who help to control this Republic for countless generations: the “Metropolitan 400”: members of historically notable local families in the principal American cities, generally represented on the Social Register “Celebrities”: prominent entertainers and[Read More…]
Life has meaning when there is happiness. Everything that happens brings something new. The more the mind is tuned to see and appreciate this truth, happiness lasts, whatever the situation may be. The one who is constantly happy is able to creatively use all the resources in the right way and also makes others happy. When we are able to[Read More…]
Usaa Barber (Uppumavuluri Sambashivarao) (1951-2020)- a well-known social reformer, anti-caste ideologue and anti-brahminism fighter succumbed to COVID-19 on 25th July 2020. He died because of the Indian medical system that could not reach to a stage where it could meet the challenge posed by the new coronavirus. After Savitribai Phule and her son Dr.Yashwantharao died of Bubonic Plague in 1898,[Read More…]
One year has passed since the right wing Hindutva forces in power at the centre – which thrives on ruling by shock and awe – betrayed the people of Kashmir. In the aftermath of the events on 5 August, 2019 and with the entire valley locked up and all the leaders arrested (many are still under detention) the only hope[Read More…]
The human race stands on the verge of nuclear self-extinction as a species, and with it will die most, if not all, forms of intelligent life on the planet earth. Any attempt to dispel the ideology of nuclearism and its attendant myth propounding the legality of nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence must directly come to grips with the fact that[Read More…]
“…how beset we were with what…we had been taught….” –Kenneth Patchen. A poem for voices, with shakuhachi and koto…. (Sound of shakuhachi, a wooden flute–as though the instrument itself is breathing…and crying….) The Pilgrim Under the flush of cherry, in air as mild as breath, by the Ota’s tributary– five crooked fingers reaching into the Inland Sea–[Read More…]
Demonstrations have yet to draw a connection between Netanyahu’s personal abuses of office and the systemic corruption of Israeli politics, with the occupation its beating heart Nazareth: Israel is roiling with angry street protests that local observers have warned could erupt into open civil strife – a development Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be encouraging. For weeks, Jerusalem and[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies Credit: CODEPINK Tensions between the United States and China are rising as the U.S. election nears, with tit-for-tat consulate closures, new U.S. sanctions and no less than three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups prowling the seas around China. But it is the United States that has initiated each new escalation in[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr Karen Gabriel and P K Vijayan Gokarakonda Suryavathi died of grief on the afternoon of 01 August 2020, at 1.40 pm. Of course the medical cause of her death – high-grade Non-Hodgkinson’s Lymphoma – will be cited incontrovertibly in all official documents. But those of us who have known the tale from the teller, and from those[Read More…]
Indian Matchmaking, Netflix’s recent show on arranged marriages in elite families, has spawned countless memes and conspiracy theories. It has also put the spotlight on reality shows and how they spin a particular narrative at the cost of others. The show seems to be tailor-made for a western audience and portrays arranged marriages in a positive way while underplaying issues[Read More…]
(This essay is in commemoration of the birth centenary this year of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s Father of the Nation; and the fiftieth anniversary of the making of Zahir Raihan’s Stop Genocide, with which the history of short filmmaking in Bangladesh begins.) A road accident on August 19, 2011, robbed Bangladesh of its most exceptional filmmaker, and this writer[Read More…]