Articles by: Satya Sagar

Is India still a Republic or a Monarchy?

Is India still a Republic or a Monarchy?

On the 74th anniversary of its formation a specter haunts the Indian Republic – the specter of Monarchy. For those who want to see or hear or feel it, the message has been proclaimed loudly from every RSS shakha in the country for decades. The coronation is all but done and only formalities remain. To be completed, perhaps in a[Read More…]

by 26/01/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Sasi’s Dream: Defeat the BJP in 2024!

Sasi’s Dream: Defeat the BJP in 2024!

Towards the last phase of his life K.P.Sasi, the filmmaker, cartoonist and activist, obsessed about a one-point agenda he wanted all his friends, colleagues, contacts to work towards. To ‘Defeat the BJP in 2024’. A few months before he passed away Sasi sent a passionate note to his wide network of friends appealing for a joint effort to ensure the[Read More…]

by 12/01/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Farewell to Sasi etta, brother K.P. Sasi

Farewell to Sasi etta, brother K.P. Sasi

Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day –  after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]

by 27/12/2022 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy, Editor's Picks
It’s as if the French Revolution never happened…

It’s as if the French Revolution never happened…

According to legend, Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People’s Republic of China, when asked what he thought was the impact of the French Revolution of 1789, is supposed to have quipped, “It’s too early to tell”. For quite a while, I took it as just another witty repartee from Comrade Zhou, with no special significance. Nowadays, I can see[Read More…]

by 16/09/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Mikhail Gorbachev’s lessons for the Indian Left

Mikhail Gorbachev’s lessons for the Indian Left

The recent passing of Mikhail Gorbachev triggered memories from the mid-eighties, when as a young communist party activist, I would be constantly confronted with the question, ‘Why are you still fighting for communism? The Soviet Union is being reformed by Gorbachev.’ My retort would be, “In India or elsewhere, we first need to carry out the Russian Revolution. We will[Read More…]

by 06/09/2022 Comments are Disabled World
And here’s to you Mrs Draupadi Murmu!

And here’s to you Mrs Draupadi Murmu!

Dear Mrs Murmu Your nomination by the ruling party of Hindutva to be the next President of India fills the hearts of all Adivasis around India with great joy. At last the country will have one person from its most underprivileged and oppressed community as the President of India. Never mind the fact that all other Adivasis will still remain[Read More…]

by 29/06/2022 Comments are Disabled India
Let us convert and get converted

Let us convert and get converted

I have a confession to make. That I have been converted many times. From one faith to another to yet another, endlessly. And I simply love it. Sometimes I got converted through the power of a compelling idea, just by reading a wonderful book. Or watching a well-made movie or listening to a song (especially sung by Mohammad Rafi saheb).[Read More…]

by 09/01/2022 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Image Courtesy Live Law - http://www.livelaw.in/cms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Beef-Ban-Cartoon-min.jpg

Wishing You All a Very Nutritious New Year!

It has taken my slow brain a long time to figure it out but finally, as 2021 comes to an end, I have found a sure shot way of bringing about a social and political revolution in India. A transformation that will sweep away Indian society’s deep caste and class inequalities, deepen democracy and end the venal politics of hatred[Read More…]

by 31/12/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Hindutva resurrects India’s thuggee tradition

Hindutva resurrects India’s thuggee tradition

There has been some heated discussion in recent weeks in India about whether the term Hindutva is the same as Hinduism or not. For those supporting the ruling BJP regime and the Sangh Parivar– the network of organizations spawned by the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh – there is no doubt that these two are identical.  For opponents of the Sangh Parivar[Read More…]

by 27/12/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Omicron: Much sound with little light

Omicron: Much sound with little light

Origin: Unknown Crime record: Unknown Armed or unarmed: Unknown Capabilities: Unknown Motive: Unknown Category: Extremely dangerous! If that were a profile of a criminal suspect, the cop writing it would have been laughed out of his job long ago for coming to such a drastic conclusion based on zero evidence. That however is not a  police report, but the current[Read More…]

by 21/12/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
The human body as a synonym for Planet Earth

The human body as a synonym for Planet Earth

Note: This article is based on a presentation made on 25 October 2021 at the Congreso de Salud Socioambiental organised by the Instituto de Salud Socioambiental, Rosario, Argentina It is a very fundamental truth that many seem have forgotten in the times we live in. That, most ordinary mortals have no choice except to live with the bodies they are[Read More…]

by 08/11/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Between Vaccine and the Ventilator

Between Vaccine and the Ventilator

“I am planning to get my Covid vaccine shot this week” I told a very dear German friend of mine the other day over the phone. “No! Don’t do that!” came the immediate response. “Why?” I asked. “They will inject nanobots into your bloodstream!” he said, with all sincerity and genuine concern for my well-being. I immediately realized I was[Read More…]

by 28/08/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Of Father Stan Swamy, humans and other species

Of Father Stan Swamy, humans and other species

A few years ago, on a visit to La Paz, the Bolivian capital set high in the Andean mountains, I spotted a board inside a restaurant that said ‘All Humans are Equal’ in Spanish. During the week I spent in the city, I saw the same sign at a few more eateries, enough to prompt me to ask a Bolivian[Read More…]

by 20/07/2021 Comments are Disabled India
From Rumsfeld, the ‘ruthless little bastard’, to Remdesivir

From Rumsfeld, the ‘ruthless little bastard’, to Remdesivir

What connects the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 to Remdesivir, the blockbuster medicine widely used during the ongoing Covid pandemic? First is the fact that both are based on dubious claims. The US invasion was carried out on the false pretext of Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction, while Remdesivir has been aggressively marketed as a drug the[Read More…]

by 07/07/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
The Rumsfeld Rules

The Rumsfeld Rules

Editors note: The death of former US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld on 29 June marks the end of a man who was one of the main architects and executors of the infamous US invasion of Iraq in 2003. A War of Aggression made on the bogus pretext of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq harbouring weapons of mass destruction. Weapons that were[Read More…]

by 02/07/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Courtesy: Dominic Xavier of Rediff.com.

A Second Wave of India’s Emergency

Why should a country in the grip of a deadly wave of Covid-19, with people dying all around, remember the Emergency, a nationwide suspension of democracy, that happened almost half a century ago? One simple but somewhat trite answer is, those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. A follow up is ‘Oops! We learned nothing from[Read More…]

by 27/06/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
When Cow Dung Meets Coronavirus

When Cow Dung Meets Coronavirus

 “Cow dung, cow urine didn’t work. Groundless argument. Tomorrow I will eat fish”. In mid-May this year, this simple Facebook post about the futility of bovine waste as a cure for Covid-19, was enough to get Kishorechandra Wangkhem, a journalist from Imphal, Manipur arrested for ‘sedition’ . The post upset members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it came[Read More…]

Caste, Class and India’s Covid Catastrophe

Caste, Class and India’s Covid Catastrophe

Covid-19 patients dying on the streets gasping for oxygen. Hundreds of wailing, desperate folks searching for hospital beds to access treatment. Even the dead denied dignified funerals, their bodies dumped unceremoniously in the rivers of India. Much has been written about the reasons for the Indian government’s abysmal failure to prepare for the devastating surge in Covid-19 cases in India[Read More…]

by 21/05/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch, Editor's Picks
India’s Rihanna and Ganesha Syndrome

India’s Rihanna and Ganesha Syndrome

You can call it the ‘Rihanna and Ganesha Syndrome’ – the inability of some folks to focus upon the truly divine and get easily distracted by imaginary demonesses. In India this translates into the country’s ruling elite frothing at the mouth about completely trivial issues, while ignoring life and death questions that threaten the very existence of the Indian Republic.[Read More…]

by 24/02/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Not just Rihanna or Greta, Indian farmers are inspiring the world

Not just Rihanna or Greta, Indian farmers are inspiring the world

Rihanna, Susan Sarandon, Greta Thunberg, John Cusack – the list of well-known celebrities endorsing the struggle of Indian farmers against the country’s new corporate-authored farm laws is growing by the day. What started out as a domestic fight by thousands of Indian farmers to preserve their livelihood and way of life is rapidly morphing into a global cause. And the[Read More…]

by 06/02/2021 Comments are Disabled India
It’s Facebook versus India’s Farmers

It’s Facebook versus India’s Farmers

The tug-of-war between Indian farmers and government over new laws facilitating corporate takeover of the country’s agriculture is getting uglier by the hour and likely to get quite bloody too. And when the blood does flow, it will not only be the hands of Indian corporates that will be drenched in red but also those of global investors backing them.[Read More…]

by 29/01/2021 Comments are Disabled India, Editor's Picks
Why India’s farm laws will never be rolled back

Why India’s farm laws will never be rolled back

In the murky netherworld of the mafia the Godfather is the one who speaks softly, but whose words carry the deadliest intent. On 15 January as yet another round of talks between agitating farmers and the Indian government failed the International Monetary Fund, an institution that heads the Mafiosi of global finance, put out a bland and very measured statement.[Read More…]

by 17/01/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Vandalizing democracy, the American way

Vandalizing democracy, the American way

A popular joke among leftists in the eighties was to ask why there had never been a military coup in Washington D.C. The answer: Because it doesn’t have a US embassy. This was an allusion to the nefarious US role in toppling legitimate governments around the globe, many of them violently. The storming of the US Capitol Hill on 6[Read More…]

by 08/01/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Happy New French Revolution!

Happy New French Revolution!

As 2021 arrives I am not planning to wish anyone a ‘Happy New Year’ while everything wrong with the world remains deeply entrenched. And anyway, nothing really changes with the mere flip of a calendar page. Instead my wish will be for a ‘Happy New French Revolution’. This time on a planetary scale, against the corporate monarchs, the political aristocracy[Read More…]

by 25/12/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Keep Countercurrents Alive ! An Appeal From Satya Sagar

Keep Countercurrents Alive ! An Appeal From Satya Sagar

For nearly two decades now Countercurrents has provided millions of readers around the world with deep insights and analysis of news, events, trends that are usually ignored by mainstream media. A key quality of this unique information platform has been its eclectic and open minded choice of themes, ranging from caste, gender and communalism to issues related to ecology, rapidly[Read More…]

by 14/12/2020 Comments are Disabled Editor's Picks
The Corporate Cannibals

The Corporate Cannibals

First they came for the corner shops And I did not speak out Because I was not a shopkeeper Then they came for the taxis And I did not speak out Because I was not a taxi driver Next they came for travel agencies And I did not speak out Because I was not a travel agent Then they came[Read More…]

by 13/12/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Indian farmers challenge return of ‘Company Raj’

Indian farmers challenge return of ‘Company Raj’

The ongoing siege of the national capital New Delhi by hundreds of thousands of farmers represents, perhaps, the biggest revolt against ‘Company Raj’ since India’s First War of Independence way back in 1857. While a century and half ago it was the rapacious British East India Company that was the target of the Indian masses this time their ire today[Read More…]

by 04/12/2020 Comments are Disabled India, Editor's Picks
Can the world be changed?

Can the world be changed?

Can the world be changed in any fundamental way or not? Will the methods one uses to change it end up doing more harm than good? Should one mind one’s own business or make the problems of the world one’s own too? These were some of the questions at the core of a debate I had over four decades ago[Read More…]

by 10/11/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
A dystopian template for India’s future

A dystopian template for India’s future

Murders, kidnapping, rape, police atrocities, sectarian violence, lynch mobs on the prowl. Welcome to a typical day in the life of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous, lawless and politically important province, control over which holds the key to power nationally. India’s Uttar Pradesh (UP) province was in the headlines recently for yet another heinous crime – the gang rape and[Read More…]

by 22/10/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Reimagining National Liberation

Reimagining National Liberation

The dismantling of European colonialism in Asia and Africa seven decades ago and then the  collapse of the Soviet Union in the late eighties led to the formation of many new independent nation states.  From a mere 51 countries in 1945 the membership of the United Nations has grown to 195 currently. The path to independence for many of these[Read More…]

by 22/10/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Why India needs a rural uprising

Why India needs a rural uprising

“Today, the villages are dung heaps. Tomorrow they will be like tiny gardens of Eden where dwell highly intelligent folk whom no one can deceive or exploit”. Mahatma Gandhi, writing in the Harijan in November 1946   Of all the dreams that Mahatma Gandhi projected for India’s future, none was shattered as cruelly as his wish to make it a[Read More…]

by 29/09/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Body, Nation and Resistance in the times of COVID-19

Body, Nation and Resistance in the times of COVID-19

This article is based on the 25th Chandrashekar Memorial Lecture delivered on 20 September 2020. The original lecture was delivered in Hindi and the event was organized by Punashcha, the Indian People’s Theater Association (IPTA) and Koshish. Friends, comrades gathered here; I am very honoured to be invited to deliver the Chandrashekhar Memorial Lecture this year but I cannot say[Read More…]

by 21/09/2020 Comments are Disabled India, Editor's Picks
The day justice got cooked

The day justice got cooked

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…]

by 19/08/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
India with Chinese Characteristics

India with Chinese Characteristics

As India and China squabble over a tiny but strategic strip of land along their long border, some may be tempted to classify this as a clash between a democracy and a communist dictatorship. And yet, a closer look reveals that India is not much of a democracy anymore – with rampant state repression, subversion of institutions, mass surveillance and[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 4 comments World
India’s Deadly Cytokine Storm

India’s Deadly Cytokine Storm

Two months after imposition of the most stringent and large-scale lockdown in the world, with the pandemic still undefeated, it is the Indian Republic that is looking more and more like a struggling COVID-19 patient. It is running low on oxygen in its blood, several organs are already failing, costs of treatment shooting up and the country’s leadership looks utterly[Read More…]

by 24/05/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Coolies of Kishkindha

The Coolies of Kishkindha

It was early summer, but the sun was hardly very hot for the time of the year. There was even a pleasant breeze blowing and the path ahead was a stunningly scenic one. And yet, every passing day, the comrades were dropping dead by the wayside, some succumbing to disease or injury, some just too tired to continue. Nila stopped[Read More…]

by 13/05/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Corona Chicken Farm

The Corona Chicken Farm

“They have decided to extend the lockdown by another three weeks!” said Chicken Number One, who was always the first with the news. The information set off a wave of outrage among the five thousand plus birds at the Corona Chicken Farm, the cacophony almost blowing the tin shed above their heads. “Our food supplies are dwindling, we can’t go[Read More…]

by 26/04/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
King Covid Rules

King Covid Rules

It is a capricious little virus with a funny crown and a flimsy protein coat, zipping across the planet, leaving behind a trail of utter confusion, death and destruction. And as nations rush to prevent exposure to COVID-19’s deadly effects, the virus is in turn exposing each one of them for whatever they are – good, bad or ugly. Depending[Read More…]

by 11/04/2020 Comments are Disabled World
One Pandemic, Many Possibilities

One Pandemic, Many Possibilities

A month ago, if someone had said ‘social distancing’, I would have really thought they were talking about the Indian caste system with its perverse idea of untouchability. ‘Lockdown’ till recently would have evoked images of a very entertaining style of wrestling where all matches take place inside a steel cage. And ‘flattening the curve’ would obviously be an attempt to trim[Read More…]

by 18/03/2020 1 comment World
SARS, Wars And The Farce

SARS, Wars And The Farce

Note: The global hype and scare around the coronavirus outbreak is reminiscent of similar panic over SARS, avian flu and swine flu in the last decade and half. Driven by half-truths, poor quality data, sensational media coverage these are pandemics of idiocy at best and geopolitical conspiracies at their worst. In this context we are reproducing an article on SARS,[Read More…]

by 01/02/2020 1 comment World
Why India needs Periyar today

Why India needs Periyar today

In the ongoing movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act the images of Gandhi, Ambedkar and even Bhagat Singh have been put forward as symbols of religious tolerance, non-violence, Dalit empowerment and even socialist revolution. However, outside Tamil Nadu,  few seem to have remembered E.V.Ramaswamy ‘Periyar’, the founder of the Dravidian movement– who perhaps offers the most potent challenge to the[Read More…]

by 21/01/2020 6 comments India
Dismantling the Indian Republic

Dismantling the Indian Republic

On 26 January 2020, as India marks 70 years of becoming a modern Republic, it also faces its biggest crisis as a democratic federation of religious, linguistic, ethnic and regional groups. Not only is the soul of India – its traditions of secularism, tolerance and respect for diversity – under threat, even the very flesh and bones of the nation[Read More…]

by 18/01/2020 5 comments India
No Nazis this New Year

No Nazis this New Year

If the record of December 2019 is anything to go by 2020 promises to be one of great hope for all Indians interested in preserving their country’s traditions of secularism, democracy and tolerance of diversity. The New Year may well be a turning point in the dismal record of hate and hubris that has prevailed over the last several years[Read More…]

by 30/12/2019 Comments are Disabled India
Winning The Land, Losing The Country

Winning The Land, Losing The Country

There are many  dreadful things we all know about human societies and institutions, which are absolutely true and yet we like to think otherwise, lest we come across as being too cynical. Even more so we live in the hope that, some of our wishful thinking about how things really are, will rub off on reality and magically produce a[Read More…]

by 14/11/2019 Comments are Disabled India
A Brief History of Politeness

A Brief History of Politeness

From political speech to social media tirades, for half a decade or more now, the use of rude language, gestures and threats has become ubiquitous around the globe. The complete absence of politeness – along with (or because of) growing economic woes, political turmoil and ecological destruction –  seems to be the chief characteristic of our times. Politeness emerged in[Read More…]

by 09/10/2019 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Wisdom of Ganesh Gaitonde – Part I

The Wisdom of Ganesh Gaitonde – Part I

Note: Ganesh Gaitonde is a fictional character from the Netflix series Sacred Games, but that does not make him any less real than anyone else on the planet. Warning: Profanity ahead. Get parental advice before proceeding. Somewhere on a yacht in choppy waters off the western Indian coast I met Ganesh Gaitonde, noted[1]political analyst, role model for the youth and[Read More…]

by 06/09/2019 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Kashmir: Modi’s  ‘Bangladesh Moment’?

Kashmir: Modi’s  ‘Bangladesh Moment’?

If any confirmation was needed Narendra Modi is determined to cast himself as a carbon copy of Indira Gandhi-  albeit one with a venomous, communal edge – you need not look further than his latest Kashmir gamble. There is true ‘Indira-style’ audacity written all over his regime’s decision to scrap the special status given to the Himalayan state under the[Read More…]

by 06/08/2019 4 comments India
The Age of Anything Goes

The Age of Anything Goes

A blond-haired US President openly hinting only white immigrants can be true American citizens, blue-eyed Nazis marching boldly on the streets of Europe, brattish Brexiteers in Britain harking back to days of the Raj and ‘twice-born’ Hindu supremacists in India fulminating against religious minorities. Many have called the times we live in the Age of Anger but more accurately it[Read More…]

by 26/07/2019 1 comment World
An Indian child arrives in a hospital due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) as family members react in Muzaffarpur on June 10, 2019. - At least 14 children have died due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) while over a dozen are admitted in hospitals. (Photo by STR / AFP)

Killing Fields of Indian Healthcare

“Medicine is a social science and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale”. Rudolf Virchow, 1821-1902 In recent days India’s health system – never the world’s best – has been getting really bad press. First it was negative publicity was over a week of agitation by thousands of doctors in Bengal after violence against them by families[Read More…]

by 27/06/2019 1 comment India
‘Global Warming meets ‘Gobar Rashtra’

‘Global Warming meets ‘Gobar Rashtra’

As I glanced through the doom and gloom of the daily news one morning I came upon a dire new report on climate change, which predicts the human species may disappear by the year 2050, as the planet becomes much hotter and unlivable. Very bad news indeed, but something about that year ‘2050’ rang a bell in my head –[Read More…]

by 18/06/2019 1 comment India
Axis Of The Apocalyptic

Axis Of The Apocalyptic

Note: On 6 June 2019 India voted with Israel in the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to prevent a Palestinian “human rights” organisation called Shahed, which Jerusalem insists is linked to Hamas, from getting observer status in UN institutions.This is the first time India has voted with Israel on a resolution initiated by Jerusalem at the UN. On[Read More…]

by 13/06/2019 1 comment World
The Bacteria as Guru

The Bacteria as Guru

Ever since the ‘germ theory of disease’ was propounded by Louis Pasteur two hundred years ago, the world has understood bacteria as the cause of numerous infections, many of them deadly. The insight led to the advent of antibiotics, hailed as ‘magic bullets’ for their ability to treat infectious diseases effectively, and it was believed pathogenic bacteria had been conquered[Read More…]

by 05/06/2019 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Phantom of the Vedic Opera Returns

Phantom of the Vedic Opera Returns

In an era where national elections have become a strange cross between an episode of Big Boss and twenty-twenty cricket, it has become quite difficult to take the end results very seriously. This is even more so when, there is widespread suspicion of the poll itself being rigged through massive deletion of names from voter lists and possible tampering with[Read More…]

by 30/05/2019 Comments are Disabled India
Sri Lanka’s Sacred Games | Satya Sagar

Sri Lanka’s Sacred Games | Satya Sagar

In the times we live in, where smoke and mirrors are the world’s two chief weapons of war, fiction is a better guide to contemporary events than ‘facts’ presented by governments and media. A case in point are the horrific Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, that killed over 250 and maimed scores of people, and has sparked fears of[Read More…]

by 30/04/2019 2 comments World, Editor's Picks
Two Curries And A War

Two Curries And A War

All of Tamatarland was in great turmoil. There had been a vile attack on its security forces by a suicide-bomber, who had sneaked past dozens of heavily guarded checkpoints and murdered over two dozen Tamatarland soldiers. It was later claimed the culprit was a local Muli, trained and sent by Mataristan, the neighbouring and enemy nation. Not surprisingly, Tamatars across[Read More…]

by 26/02/2019 Comments are Disabled South Asia
The Republic of Thain! Thain!

The Republic of Thain! Thain!

It was a symbolically brilliant moment in October last year, when a policeman in Uttar Pradesh hid behind a tree and shouted ‘thain! thain!’ during a live encounter with criminals, after his gun jammed. The policeman’s attempt to replace real bullets with mimicked sound was considered by many as another laughable case of a poorly prepared Indian police force. In[Read More…]

by 23/01/2019 1 comment India
A vendor selling idols of Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, rests as he waits for customers at a roadside workshop in Ahmedabad, India, August 29, 2016. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

India’s Season of Unreason

Barely a week into 2019 I am still trying to figure out what exactly is so ‘new’ about this New Year that is upon us. The balance in my bank account has not changed for the better, nor has my weight, nor the cost of living, while the future all around looks depressingly same as a smog-struck Delhi winter day.[Read More…]

by 07/01/2019 3 comments India
Of Cows, Bacteria and ‘Human’ Rights

Of Cows, Bacteria and ‘Human’ Rights

  This article is based on a talk delivered in Hyderabad on 7th October 2018 as part of the 9th memorial meeting of ‘Remembering Balagopal’, an annual event commemorating the late social activist K Balagopal It is a truly a great privilege for me to be here today to speak to all of you at this meeting to remember Prof.[Read More…]

Republic Of Rape

Republic Of Rape

  Republishing a letter written to a friend abroad enquiring about the horrific gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in the Indian capital New Delhi five years ago. Nothing has really changed in India since then it seems, going by the continuing spree of rape – including by self-styled religious ‘Godmen’. Dear Joanna, Thanks for your letter. Yes,[Read More…]

by 26/04/2018 4 comments Patriarchy
No Selfies This New Year

No Selfies This New Year

  It has been a deeply ingrained habit to wish everyone ‘Happy New Year’ and I confess to enthusiastic participation in this annual ritual for a long time. Increasingly though, I am beginning to suspect I really don’t understand the phrase or the words it is made up of at all. I get the point that,this greeting,is basically a nice[Read More…]

by 31/12/2017 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Pray, But Do Not Prey

Pray, But Do Not Prey

   “But who really knows? Who can tell where all arose? For the Gods themselves came after Creation. Who then shall proclaim how Creation happened?” Nasadiya Sukta, Rig Veda Since Independence from colonial rule, India has emerged as a successful modern democracy,holding regular elections, with a functioning judiciary, smooth transitions of power and a very fine Constitution. It is even[Read More…]

by 14/10/2017 1 comment Book Review
A Wild Flower in the Indian Wasteland, Gauri Lankesh: 1962-2017

A Wild Flower in the Indian Wasteland, Gauri Lankesh: 1962-2017

  On that dreadful evening of 5th September, if Gauri Lankesh had seen her own corpse lying in a pool of blood outside her house she would have -I am very sure- simply smiled For even in her death she had done what was closest to her heart – expose India’s saffron supremacists for what they really were.  A sorry[Read More…]

by 09/09/2017 1 comment India
Ten Avatars of Indian Corruption

Ten Avatars of Indian Corruption

  It is an emotionally loaded term like ‘faith’, ‘nationalism’ and ‘family’, that is often used by the middle-classes to provoke strong feelings of anger and disgust against politicians. And yet on closer scrutiny the phrase ‘corruption’ turns out to be a fuzzy concept, that  fails to capture how power and injustice really operate in human societies. In its popular[Read More…]

by 29/07/2017 2 comments India
Musings On The Eve Of Hindu Rashtra

Musings On The Eve Of Hindu Rashtra

  You can smell it at a distance, in the burnt out, blackened frames of torched homes and vehicles from yet another communal pogrom. You can see it in the blood stained corner of a railway platform, still fresh from a recent lynching. And you can hear it in the guttural cries of the frenzied, saffron swathed mobs, pledging murder[Read More…]

by 18/07/2017 8 comments Uncategorized
Cow, Caste, Che Guevara

Cow, Caste, Che Guevara

Cows, cows and more chocolate brown cows. Driving on the highway that cuts through the vast Argentinian pampas, south of Buenos Aires, that’s all one sees everywhere around for miles and miles on end. Thousands of cows, peacefully grazing on grass or eating non-stop at the feedlots – huge dumps of artificial feed where they grow fatter and fatter- till[Read More…]

by 30/06/2017 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Photo by gideon_wright

What On Earth Is A Human Being?

  This article is based on a presentation made at a conference on 13 June, 2017 in Rosario, Argentinatitled ‘Madre Tierra: Una Sola Salud” or  “Mother Earth: Only One Health” Many years ago when my daughter was just eight years old she sprung a surprise question on me. ‘Papa’, she asked, ‘who are we and where does everything in the[Read More…]

by 15/06/2017 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Slumdog Republic

Slumdog Republic

It was always the worst kept secret in India, but has now finally become official – those who run the Republic of India do not need the Public of India at all. What is worse, they in fact see the latter as a grave threat to their very existence. All this was amply evident on Republic Day this year, as[Read More…]

by 29/01/2017 4 comments Editor's Picks, India
Modis Operandi: When India Went ‘Keshless’

Modis Operandi: When India Went ‘Keshless’

Much later, historians in the 22nd Century would call it a ‘close shave’ for Indian democracy and a ‘hair razing’ experience for millions of citizens. And yet, when it happened real-time -everyone was simply lost for words. The year was 2018 and in an emotional address on primetime TV, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had exhorted his countrymen to[Read More…]

by 18/01/2017 9 comments Editor's Picks, India
Cashless Is Not Casteless

Cashless Is Not Casteless

A Cashless, Corruption-free, Cow-friendly India that also Cares for the Poor. As the Narendra Modi regime shoots forth silken promises like buttered popcorn from a hot oven – it is time to remember India’s long history of using colourful fiction to rip-off the public and carry out caste oppression. Let me explain. For over a millennium one of the recurring[Read More…]

by 09/01/2017 2 comments Editor's Picks, India
Demonetisation: The Sultan Of Sophistry

Demonetisation: The Sultan Of Sophistry

It is early winter and a thick, grimy fog, black and white tinged with grey, hangs over Delhi much of the day. Morning visibility is bad, clears up a bit with a dull sun in the afternoon, before darkness descends again on the city. A month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his demonetisation policy, the gloomy weather in the[Read More…]

by 07/12/2016 4 comments India
Restore The Old 500 Rupee Notes Now To Avoid Chaos

Restore The Old 500 Rupee Notes Now To Avoid Chaos

The currency shortage in the country following the demonetisation of 500 and 100 rupee notes on 8 November has become so bad, there is real danger today of all law and order breaking down very soon. The patience of the Indian public is running out, after three weeks of standing in queues and denied their own cash for making basic[Read More…]

by 02/12/2016 1 comment India
Death By Demonetisation

Death By Demonetisation

The abrupt demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes by the Narendra Modi regime is a drastic move that is staggering in its scale, ambition and repurcussions. The only other figures in modern history one can think of, devious or stupid enough to attempt something similar, are the likes of Marcos, Suharto, Idi Amin and Pol Pot. For all its[Read More…]

by 17/11/2016 7 comments Editor's Picks, India
"Web of Life" By Max D. Standley http://www.maxdstandley.com/paintings/web_of_life.html

Microbes Of The World, Unite!

Note: This article is based on a lecture delivered at a conference of the People’s Health Movement in Cochabamba, Bolivia on 24 September 2016. Dear Friends, I am privileged to be here to talk to all of you from the health and environmental movements from all over Latin America. First of all, as someone coming from India I would like[Read More…]

by 18/10/2016 2 comments Counter Solutions