“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…]

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…]

The triumph of capitalist chimeras based on false propaganda and its criminal follies at the millennium, raises several questions on the rise of celebrity culture of fame and fortune. The celebrity cultures use popular culture and establish its grip over public imagination on different issues in the society, politics, economy, culture and religion. The celebrity culture shapes people’s ideas, interests,[Read More…]

They may be differently abled, but they do not lack in ability. Yes, I am talking about the more than one billion people in the world who live with some form of disability. They could be persons with impaired functions of the senses, mobility, cognition or with psychosocial difficulties. Out of these, an estimated 690 million live in the Asia[Read More…]

When life hasn’t got a swing anymore, people may give in to obsessive oniomanic compulsions, in as much as they are going out of their way to construct a flamboyant life style and change their identity from “don’t- need” to “must-have” consumers, so as to satisfy their gripping buying desire. Erike Pevernagie Man is a creature of instincts, desires, feelings,[Read More…]

Do you feel you’re passing through hard times? We may be facing a new health, financial, or relational problems, but more frequently, our hard times arise from our mind. Mental hard time is mostly a wounded ego. In such times, all we need is a shift in our thinking, the way we see and that life. Here are five tips[Read More…]

The World changed in March of 2020. We’ll be able to to tell coming generations of this season we’re living through. We will speak of the pain and the harm. And we will talk of the wisdom and honour that this time has delivered to us and also reflecting on the good that we may find as we stay inside,shelter-in-place[Read More…]

For the past some days, whatsapp is abuzz with a news  of a Buzarg ( senior citizen) from Pakistan who has won a court case after 13 years’ long legal battle in a Pakistani court.  The poor man is seen standing in a photo alongside a BBC Urdu News logo & a 5000 rupee Pakistani currency note, conspicuously displayed in[Read More…]

Cedric J. Robinson’s passing this summer at the age of seventy-five went virtually unnoticed. Professor emeritus of political science and black studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and arguably one of the most original political theorists of his generation, no major U.S. newspaper determined that Robinson’s passing merited even a single paragraph. Although he deliberately avoided the pitfalls[Read More…]

In 1922, Sir John Maffrey, head of the British Empire’s North West Frontier Province, put this nonchalant query to his superiors about civilian deaths during bombings: “What are the rules for this kind of cricket?” The equally callous response was: “International law does not apply against savage tribes who do not conform to codes of ‘civilized’ warfare. It is the[Read More…]

This pandemic has put a question mark on our plans, sureties, certainties and securities. I distinctly remember hurriedly booking my tickets and packing for the next day to rush home (I was certain just for a week or 10 days) as the panic over Covid-19 started to increase, it was 19th March, 2020. After I reached home leaving most of[Read More…]

One of the most fascinating writers about morality is Lawrence Kohlberg.  I have read lots of his writings. He initially divided up morality into six stages. Some people are stuck on the lower levels or mid levels of his scale. What can be very interesting Is to look at yourself and others who you fairly well know and find out[Read More…]

As social, economic and political Darwinism dominates the intellectual debates and discourses to naturalise and normalise capitalist exploitation and inequalities, survival of the fittest is becoming the new normal. The best human qualities based on love, peace, sympathies, empathies and coexistence are becoming the signs of human weakness in the rat race success and survival.  In this process, human beings[Read More…]

To hell with tyranny! Thou shalt not muzzle me!! I was born to be free!!! Now, here’s the thing… I am not a lizard. I am not a fish. I am a great ape. Since our creation every human being was born to not be completely free and independent. Anyone who raised an infant without regulations and prevention would not have that[Read More…]

  To unpack the personality of Professor Mohi-ud-Din Hajini, the multifarious man, is intractable for a mediocre like me. What to call the man who was larger-than- life and was made of sterner stuff? He was many in one. A genuine Philosopher, a genius Islamic scholar, a real revivalist, an honest translator, an appealing educationist, a great teacher, a staunch[Read More…]

  Father’s Day is a great tradition to celebrate and honor the father. However, it is also a stressful day for many people. I feel the joy and the pain of both groups, here are some thoughts about each group. First of all, my heart goes out to those who did not have a good relationship between father and children.[Read More…]

He was the apple of the eye for whom ever met him. It was only after we lost him that every one realised what that usage meant “apple of the eye”. To his mother, K was the baby boy who never ever grew up though he was 6 feet tall and had a striding gait. To his sister, he was[Read More…]

To what standpoint have you raised the happiness of man? Has there ever been an age which has counted so many victims to humanity as the present? Has there ever been an age in which immorality and egotism have been greater or more dominant than in this one? The tree is known by its fruits. Mad men! With your imaginary[Read More…]

” I am what time, circumstance, history have made of me, certainly; but I am also much more than that, So are we all” – James Baldwin. With the sad news, which broke on a Sunday afternoon, the pictures of Sushant Singh Rajput were trending all across the media outlets and social media platforms. People from different walks of life[Read More…]

Freedom, one of the most mischievous concepts, covers much and many: individual, society, country, class, philosophy, political science, jurisprudence, teacher, student, education-boss, artist, author, singer, worker, capitalist, economic, political, ecological, cultural, ideological, conscience, thought, expression, association, press, plunder, exploit, appropriate, expropriate, dominate, protest, resist, revolt, overthrow domination. In cases, opposing positions arise. The positions clash regularly, and invariably. With varied[Read More…]

“…history is potent enough to deliver, on time, in the medium to long run, most of the possible scenarios, and to eventually bury the bad guy.” Nassim Nicolas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness This essay assumes a personal and historical tone during time of global unrest. It is my response to the murder of George Floyd and seeks to re-imagine what could[Read More…]

             Winter is the cruelest season of all the season. Cruel like a tyrant or an oppressor.  It kills what is green, deforms what is beautiful and dethrones the pleasurable seasons. No mercy it shows to the old, kids, women and men-all are tortured by its harshness, barbarianism and its ruthlessness. Tyranny knows no gender,[Read More…]

Co-Written by Bikash Sarma & Shruti Sharma Rousseau in Solitude. National Endowment for the Humanities.  neh.gov. Catherine Malabou’s recent reflections on the ‘psychic space’ under the lockdown makes one wonder about the socio-spatio-temporal nature of the very quarantined state as well as of quarantining oneself within it. The quarantine – that we have been dwelling in now for sometime –[Read More…]

Death! It has always been around. Ever since we began understanding the world a bit, we knew death was a phenomenon; something, which happened only to others, mostly to the old. Of course, occasionally it happened to a few young also, in tragic accidents or illnesses, or in wars. Sadly, very often to the poor though, who had neither food[Read More…]

On May 12, 2020 the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi in his address to the nation announced the ‘Aatmnirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan’— ‘Self-reliant India Mission’. He mentioned this pandemic can be changed into an opportunity to develop the nation and help the world.  Addressing to the nation he said that today there is a ‘will and way’ both, to become[Read More…]

Keith Lyons writes of Tendol Gyalzur, a COVID 19 victim, a refugee and an orphan who found new lives for many other orphans with love and an ability to connect. This story is about how one person found joy and happiness, not in accumulating material possessions or going viral on social media, but in finding her purpose through doing service, and[Read More…]

I never met the great basketball player, Bob Cousy, the man known as “the Houdini of the Hardwood,” yet he somehow influenced my life in ways I never knew, or to be more accurate, in ways I didn’t reflect upon except in superficial ways.  He was the guy who brought professional basketball into the modern era with his bag of[Read More…]

Recently, I came across an article in The Indian Express by writer, teacher and social activist Apoorvanand. It was rejoinder to some article. Initially, it appeared to me to suggest that there is no need to imitate Lenin’s model of revolution in India. But when I went through the whole piece, I was astonished and highly disappointed. He not only[Read More…]

Last Bloom, April 2017 Early 1998, I visited Bhopal for some work. Bhopal has a lot of plant nurseries and supplies them to many places in India. I also decided to buy some plants. I knew little about exotic plants then. A friend of mine helped me select some nice plants and one of them was a small sapling of[Read More…]

Words Jihad and Jihadi have been in abundant use for the negative purposes from last two decades in particular. They have been closleyl linked to the word terrorism and violence, done by section of Muslims here and there. This global use of word is particularly a post 9/11 phenomenon. Just to recapitulate after the WTC was hit by two aeroplanes;[Read More…]

  The soul shall rise from the deep depths of darkness. The darkness that has layers after layers, hence exists in many forms. The manyness of this darkness, its different shades, blurs the realities and forces the soul to leave the search for the truth and negotiate with the environment- dark indeed. The force of darkness is so mighty that[Read More…]

Co-Written by Dr. Rahul Kumar & Anshu Kumar The world has witnessed another pandemic covid-19 and triggered the churning of a plethora of ideas concerning the rescue plan. The curve of Corona affected people is ever rising followed by the deaths in thousands. In India the spread of Coronavirus and subsequently constant lockdown has put the people under tremendous stress[Read More…]

It is rare to come across a person like Ronald Vivian Smith these days. The message of his ill timed demise during a state of widespread anxiety and impoverishment has come like a jolt of thunder. It feels as if a close family member has passed away into oblivion with all the precious stories still buried deep inside his youthful[Read More…]

Farkhre Alam of Bangladesh was not just a journalist, but also a poet and writer. He never speaks, but tells stories. In fact, when he speaks he talks as if he is telling stories. He was a contemporary journalist. He wrote smoothly with colloquial Bangla language, for which he have had his own style. I met him at his Chansra[Read More…]

Little Chinchu was in the much loved space of her grandparents home in a city far away from where she and her parents lived. She had come here two months back for the birth of her baby brother born a month ago. By the time words like COVID, Corona and Lockdown were household names. Chinchu was intrigued by the anxiety[Read More…]

Mother’s Day will be celebrated on May 10 this year. On this day, people celebrate motherhood and mothers in their families. We mothers are remembered and pampered and we simply love it. Mothers are thanked profusely for their efforts, sacrifices and children make this a special day for the mothers. Our children send us handmade or store bought gifts, flower[Read More…]

Since my childhood I wanted to be a journalist. I began my journey with an Urdu newspaper. Some of my first articles were about cricket. I wrote on cricket after watching it on TV and playing it with friends. Soon, I started working as a correspondent from my home town Raxaul. After coming to the field of journalism, I realised[Read More…]

For Muslims this is the month Ramadhan, the dawn-to-dusk fasting month, a month which is not merely about fasting but also a reminder to all Muslims of a key obligation of Islam – ‘giving’! For that matter, ‘giving’ as a religious duty is an integral component of every religion. In some religion ‘giving’ is compulsory and in others it is[Read More…]

Since death is one idea that has no history except as an idea and not a reality any of us have experienced, it is the most frightening idea there is and also quite simple. It is the ultimate unknown. It has always haunted human beings, whether consciously or unconsciously. It lies at the root of war, violence, religion, art, love,[Read More…]

Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea. Dylan Thomas “Fern Hill” Fate show thy force, ourselves we do not owe What is decree’d must be, and be this so Shakespeare from “Twelfth Night”   I often catch myself doing semi-conscious automatic things (such as needlessly refreshing my email web page, repeatedly touching[Read More…]

May 7th 1924 was the day Alluri Sitarama Raju (1897 July 4– 7 May 1924), a unique revolutionary involved in the Indian independence movement, was killed by the British armed forces. He was one of the few Indian revolutionaries, who had developed a mass base and a mass movement, that culminated in a sustained armed struggle (1922-24), and adopted guerilla methods and[Read More…]

Lockdown Series 3 Little Aadi is always  most happy when his father and grandmother stayed home not going to the “office”,  which is where they both vanish early morning long before he wakes up. He has tried many tricks in his books to stop them from going which includes hiding his father’s bag, his granny’s footwear and purse and so[Read More…]

Let me, please, remind you that I am legally a white, blue eyed, blond Kenyan.  And the Masai, my clan, are now dying off from the virus. I’ll remind: Humans have always fought the natural world to bring it into conformity with their wishes whether by slaughtering wolves that would eat them, killing off poison ivy or other means. I[Read More…]

To dream of uniting mankind, pieced and classified into multiple nations, religions, sects and sub sects is a mammoth, impractical and ideologically impossible task — but this time a little virus has taken it on and united us with its virulence. It was interesting to come across an imagined interview with the virus, in which the interviewer questioned the virus[Read More…]

All humans are subjected to political life and no one courageous to live without political behaviour. Because as rational actors of the society people involved with political activities in everyday life with or without their comprehension. As a result of the reciprocal connection of humans and politics, many scholars, philosophers did their research on politics and provided many theories on[Read More…]

There are times when a darkness sets in your mind that is associated with lack of contact with your loved ones, with sharing of ideas and dreams, a poem or experience not just virtual but actual. As I write this that these 2 apparently similar sounding words are so far apart in their meaning and impact. The small invisible microorganism[Read More…]

I was raised in a Quaker household. Quakers are considered Christians, although that is a stretch as far as I am concerned since there are atheist Quakers and other permutations. In addition, they can be subversive in exemplary ways. For example: All of my closest Quaker friends of CO (conscientious objectors to killing in wars) status worked in an insane[Read More…]

Co-Written by Pratisha Borborah & Cihnnita Baruah Media plays a multidimensional role- it acts as a source of information, entertainment, news and public opinion, influencing perceptions, choices, attitudes and behaviors of individuals among others.  Among this multifaceted role played by media one such role is that of articulation of identity. An important part of identity construction is how one identify[Read More…]

This is a reminiscence on EMS Namboothirippad who served as the first Chief Minister of Kerala state in 1957–59 and then again in 1967–69 by the veteran journalist Neelan. EMS was a towering Communist leader and intellectual  I joined Asianet , the first cable and later satellite channel in the country , at Trivandrum in 1993 , after working as[Read More…]

There was no escape from acting as it was in his blood; he did not struggle for fame and fortune as it came with his family lineages, Rishi Kapoor wrote in his memoir. Acting was not a profession for him. His passion for life was embedded within acting. He was undoubtedly one of India’s finest actor. He inherited not only[Read More…]

‘The workers’ and peasants’ government… calls upon all the belligerent peoples and their government to start immediate negotiations for a just, democratic peace. By a just or democratic peace, for which the overwhelming majority of the working class and other working people of all the belligerent countries, exhausted, tormented and racked by the war are craving [we mean] an immediate[Read More…]

As the sun sets in the gloomy sky, I sit down to write my scattered thoughts and shattered feelings after reading the death of one of my favourite actors in contemporary times. Mr Irrfan Khan’s death justifies the poetic prediction of T. S Eliot; April is truly the cruellest month in memories and desires of life. It is death that[Read More…]

Although it is somewhat banal to say, it should never be forgotten how the First World War traumatized the political and cultural life of Europe, especially in the German speaking world. Heidegger’s, Jasper’s, Freud’s, Junger’s, Hesse’s (not to mention Hitler’s) inter-war works are unthinkable without this bloody caesura in European history. In a profound sense, the inter-war period in Germany[Read More…]

At no stage in modern Indian history have Muslims been put to such a hard test. Every action of theirs is being viewed with a suspicious lens and even their positive contributions are being viewed in negative light or are being deftly airbrushed as insignificant. The mainstream narrative is being so orchestrated as to pigeon hole the entire community into[Read More…]

I know all about these days. And, no, I am not self-pitying over them. Instead I see them as part and parcel of being alive. We all have to endure them and go through rather than around them. After all, all that we have is effort and can’t guarantee outcomes. We can’t change outcomes in general, although can do so[Read More…]

Ramadhan comes as the 9th month of Islamic Calendar and brings with it infinite mercy of Almighty on humanity. Mercy in the form of divine guidance, spiritual nourishment, compassion, and moral training. The Islamic calendar is purely a lunar calendar. Ramadan starts when the new crescent moon is first visible in the night sky. Month-long fasting ends with the celebration of Eid[Read More…]

Lockdown Musings Series 1 As the reality about Corona related Lockdown and Stay indoors deepens and intensifies, the social and political atmosphere around one acquires a rarefied feel with each and every moment bearing subtle and powerful insights and realisations. The experiences and real life stories that one comes across throws light into the fragility of human existence in a[Read More…]

Remembering Great Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan ( 22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) on his hundredth death anniversary –Team Umang Library It was the year 1913 when Srinivasa Ramanujan, then an ordinary clerk in Madras Port Trust, drafted letters to Prof G H Hardy, then a leading mathematician at Cambridge University, containing his mathematical theorems. The rest as we know[Read More…]

In the last two decades, the gender landscape in rural India has been greening, and women are now on the cusp of a powerful social and political revolution. The harbinger of this change is a unique policy experiment in village-level governance, the Panchayat Raj Act, which has brought transformative results for the weakest of the weak: the village women. In[Read More…]

The self-help group movement has been one of the most powerful incubators of female entrepreneurship in rural India. While there were several young semi-literate women who had homegrown skillsets, absence of capital and regressive social norms prevented them from taking a full plunge and setting up their own independent business. A membership of a self-help group, however, enabled these women[Read More…]

Someone sent me a nasty email that put a vituperative comment about Planned Parenthood selling blood or something related to abortions. A right-winger religiously and otherwise, he seemed irate about it. However, I deleted his message without reading it. It didn’t shock me as it had, apparently, done to him. Besides, he hates all abortions, it seems, even when women[Read More…]

I have to admit I suffer from acute katsaridaphobia — My Kastaridaphobia is stronger than my fear of COVID19 or cows. While COVID is being kept at bay with isolation, masks, lockdowns and quarantines and cows can be kept at bay by gates in India and can only be seen in restricted areas in Singapore, creatures that cause Katsaridaphobia cannot[Read More…]

It has so come to pass that we only impart religion to our little bundles of joy while abandoning them almost exclusively to the not-so-innocent hands of schools for their ‘secular’ education. While there has always been a debate about how much state propaganda is really thrust down the throat of malleable minds at an early age to destroy their[Read More…]

What about my family…my daughter…their future… These are the very first thoughts that pierced through my slowly fading consciousness as I tried to keep my eyes open, worrying that closing them would mean closing them forever. It was that fateful night of October 10, 2014, an unforgettable experience. The accident It was just an ordinary day.  My job, as a[Read More…]

The beloved Dr Ismail Hussain of Kurnool of AP is no more but he leaves behind a rich legacy of philanthropy Thousands of people regretted having had no occasion to grieve their beloved doctor. Had it been an ordinary day, a lakh of people might have thronged the funeral. Dr Ismail is a household name among the poor of the[Read More…]

Lenin, today, April 22, on his 150th birth anniversary, teaches lessons crucial in this capitalism-ravaged world, a world that witnesses murder at mass scale with the cloak of a pandemic. And, this pandemic is one of the direct consequences of capitalism, the system that slashed public healthcare for decades in countries, sold out public healthcare to private capital, enslaved science[Read More…]

Rory Fanning, following two deployments to Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion, became one of the first U.S. Army Rangers to resist the Iraq war and the Global War on Terror. In 2008–2009 he walked across the United States for the Pat Tillman Foundation. Rory is the author of Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger’s Journey Out of the[Read More…]

Co-Written by Badre Alam Khan & Dastagir Khan   It is to be noted that South Asia  is the  land  of  several  Sufis and Saints (like, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Amir Khusro, Dara Sikoh and Kabir, etc,) who taught us human and universal values like love, devotions, compassion, brotherhood, social equality and of course spread out the message of communal harmony among religious[Read More…]

Marx was the first to criticize capitalism in a concerted way, but Lenin was the first to topple it. In the Tsarist snow, he planted the seed of socialism, and it grew into the enormous Eastern bloc; a canopy over a third of humanity that plunged some into eternal darkness, but many into the light of a new dawn. Now[Read More…]

It was the summer of 2018 when I was vacationing in Moscow with my family. One of the most memorable parts of our trip was a tour of Red Square, especially the tomb where the towering leader of the communist revolution rests permanently. Lenin, who led the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 that changed the course of world history, was never[Read More…]

From being accused of separatism, unresponsiveness to change, and even of corona spread, Muslims find themselves in impossible situations in one part or the other of the world. History is witness that from the 7th century till 17th century Muslims had some stake in worldly affairs. After that, they have been sidelined and gradually eclipsed. There are economical and socio-political reasons[Read More…]

Pakistan, like many parts of the world, has announced a lockdown in most of the country. In some of the cities, however, there is a partial lockdown. The district Kech in Balochistan is partially locked down (from morning till five in the evenings with essential services still open like groceries, vegetables, banks, medical stores etc). However, all of the educational[Read More…]

Tolerance and dissent are two indispensable characteristics of stable state and societies. From the past State and empires have flourished while, developing the character of dissent and tolerance within their spaces. The present State of affairs throughout the world are a worrisome concern for everyone keeping the approach these states depict towards different communities. History as a discipline has much[Read More…]

The corona virus pandemic has spread in more than 210 countries and disrupted social and economic life across the globe. It has changed our working, playing and learning style: schools are closed, online homework is given and parents are asked to supervise their kids, offices are shutdown, sports leagues have been cancelled, and many people have been asked to work from home. Lockdown[Read More…]

Here’s a quotation from “Trump Rex” by John Feffer at https://countercurrents.org/2020/04/trump-rex: “Athens survived the plague, though its democracy was compromised by war and disease. America, too, will live on. But it will have lost some further measure of its greatness thanks in no small part to the man who, however cynically, wanted to make it great again.” Well, in relation, I’m[Read More…]

My God the Almighty! I tender my sincere praises and thanks at your feet for having created a beautiful space of communication between you and me, through the crisis of Corona pandemic! Many believe that it is you who have allowed this pandemic. Some others think that it is your wrath. The common perception is that you are punishing the[Read More…]

“When I described the tumor in my esophagus as a “blind, emotionless, alien,” I suppose that even I couldn’t help awarding it some of the qualities of a living thing. That at least I know to be a mistake: an instance of the pathetic fallacy by which we ascribe animate qualities to inanimate phenomena.” – Christopher Hitchens, Mortality The world,[Read More…]

The Indians are witnessing a psychological split like never before, forming the trails of episodes of communal aggression. In the meantime, every gathering of peers or relatives has formed into mushrooms of public spheres wherein the two binary categories are engrossed advocating leftist or rightist ideology. This might have installed a robust miniature democracy in every household but nevertheless, it[Read More…]

Am I a Christian? Well, the answer all depends on one’s loose or rigid definitions about what it means to be Christian. I know some people who would say that I am not so since I don’t follow their own particular Christian religion. They also express views that they dislike people of color living in slums in the US, as[Read More…]

The underlying human horror and destruction from the nearly worldwide coved-19 disease is truly daunting. Not to undercut the seriousness of the devastation, but this type of happening is hardly new. For example, consider the Black Plague that wiped out half of Europe and the fact that many British people are immune to Smallpox unlike many Native Americans whose ancestors[Read More…]

The night was still… so very silent… ominous for that matter. It seemed at first, or rather smelled, the similar essence of any evening in Spring. The air had about it that perfumed scent of the garden, the trees and the flowers, now so awake and alive by the sun’s departure hours earlier. Night ruled the sky, with only freckles[Read More…]

I have been fascinated by the word and concept of ‘the Passion’ for more than 50 years. I first came across it in the early sixties, in Beyond Desire (1956), a biographical novel of the German musician Mendelssohn by Pierre La Mure. The central theme of the novel is the discovery of the scores of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1727)[Read More…]

               After the demise of C.Sarathchandran, Satish has reached almost all People’s struggle fronts in Kerala with a small handycam for the past 10 years. He has documented all of these. Though he was unable to systematically convert them into documentaries,  this was a huge parallel documentation. But the floods of 2018 ravaged and destroyed all these valuable documents from[Read More…]

                       Reading Hannah Arendt’s Introduction to Benjamin’s Illuminations German-Jewish intellectuals, the alienated hommes de lettres of early twentieth century German-speaking Central Europe, constituted a class within that complex and multi-layered Jewish society against which a few of them rebelled, a rebellion which however could not prevent the dark disaster awaiting[Read More…]

In his scathing critique of Gandhi in “What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables”, Ambedkar takes on Gandhi´s views on technology, arguing that Gandhism is suited to a society which does not believe in democracy, and hence will lead to a situation where human beings “must keep on toiling ceaselessly for a pittance and remain a brute”. For[Read More…]

                                                Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.  Carl Sagan Survival in the trying times becomes a matter of concern and ponderation both for the rich and the poor. The Corona pandemic has nudged the mind of the whole world about the[Read More…]

The coronavirus threat has forced governments to impose a disruptive change in our life styles, which may seem very inconvenient and irritating to us in the present circumstances, but it may be worth considering to continue with some of these changes in the interest of society, economy and environment. The modern economy involved unnecessary travel, both long term long distance[Read More…]

Aside from Tony Cliff (and the ‘old man’ himself) few can claim intellectual leadership of the Trotskyist movement like Ernest Mandel can. He was not only the pillar of the Fourth Internationale but also the most widely published Belgian author since Georges Simenon. He gave the prestigious Alfred Marshall lectures at Cambridge in 1967, and produced books, articles, and pamphlets[Read More…]

If the warfare against each other and Planet earth continues, the Cosmic experiment with human life, which in principle could support its  harmonious and joyous flourishing existence far into the future, could soon come to a premature end. This would be one of the supreme tragedies of the universe. Our Biological Vulnerability The Pandemic Covid-19 as it builds in intensity[Read More…]

Co-Written by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms Even since investment billionaire Warren Buffet told us, There’s class warfare, all right…but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning, we have known three things: firstly, there is a class system under capitalism; secondly, there is also class war between the two classes – the working class and[Read More…]

Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and many other religions groups could be considered tribes; a social division within a society consisting of groupings of individuals having commonality, in this case, their religious views. These tribes share very similar high moral values; love of family, looking out for the poor and downtrodden and obedience of their religion’s dictates. Yet there seems to[Read More…]

The word “Leadership” has been diluted to the point of being water-logged; so I hesitated to write this article lest anyone compare what is needed now to the scenarios that usually impel the term to be used. Business-speak is the culprit here, the cause of the dilution. We use the term to describe any decision-making that leads to profit or[Read More…]

Is it funny that every time Man thinks that he has it all figured out, Nature (or fate if you like to call it) just jolts him back to reality? Like Will E Coyote and his spanking new latest invention from ACME Corporation, it just falls flat and blows right on his face again and again, and Roadrunner always goes[Read More…]

One of the most stupid platitudes, an old adage, that I have ever heard is “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” With a sarcastic tone of voice in my head, I think, “Yeah, right.” My friend Jatin lost both of his children through separate ways. The saying is certainly not applicable to him and what about me? Well, I[Read More…]

Why do we Balk at Paying for Digital Content? Some years ago, I wrote a piece called Paying for nothing is Paying for Something in Countercurrents.org. The premise of the article was simple: The aversion for paying for digital content is short-sighted and ultimately very damaging to the overall quality of content produced, to journalism (especially investigative journalism), and to[Read More…]

23 Mar 2020 – A civilization or culture is defined as a set of customs, traditions, ethics, values, language, music, dance, gastronomy, clothing, religion, and social and political organization of a people, ethnic group, tribe, or nation. British scholars of the 19th century classified the peoples and races as Civilized, Barbarians and Savages, based on their respective “evolutions.” Such classification[Read More…]

Ever since the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced national lock down on March 24, 2020 to fight Covid–19 and declared that “Social Distancing” is the only solution to save India from the Corona Pandemic, all Chief Ministers are also using the same coinage in  India. We must use ‘Disease Distancing’ not Social Distancing because India is a country of social[Read More…]

My favorite parts of being in a a rehabilitation place were fivefold: First, I loved helping hurt others. What a blast it was after learning to walk again at the facility. One of my acts included helping a man, Robert, whose short term memory was deficient. So I wrote instructions and phone numbers for him to find his car, his[Read More…]

We are all house arrested now because of Coronavirus for our own safety. We do not know how to live like this. In India and in many countries during lock down period people do not know how to spend time at home and use it for personal and community benefit. The famous American astronaut Scott Kelly who spent one year[Read More…]

Being a 90s kid was way different than being a kid of today; I mean when I see my 4-year old niece, I feel like how the definition of fun and games have evolved and changed over the years for kids – we used to be the ones playing in the mud, climbing trees, fighting for our turns on the[Read More…]

It’s a fair question: could a culinary offering be seen as “mystic”? I did consider the question utilizing all dimensions then active in my mind when naming the within recipe “Mystic Mash”. So here’s why, as an adjective “mystic” connotes “feeling”, something inherently born in consciousness. As a sceptic person, I am loathe to accept “food” is devoid of consciousness.[Read More…]

Some people meet their maker after receiving a worldly commendation for every good they do. However, some meet their end without coming into public notice although they also contribute to society considerably. Truth be told, popularity is meaningless to great men. From a spiritual point of view, neither popularity elevates anyone’s status nor does concealment diminish it. But when a[Read More…]

Religions are part of human lives with people having affiliations to different and particular religions. They are an integral part of human lives and preach the same message of peace and brotherhood. Islam is also one of the monotheistic and major religion in the world having an enormous following of 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is[Read More…]

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts..!!! Today I’m writing about my struggle and challenges which I have faced in my life. This scholar turned executive[Read More…]

I live in a stable neighborhood. It has single family homes, one multiple family home and two homes for two families as far as I know. Many of the homes date to the 1800’s. One neighbor loaned his second family space to a financially poor mother and her child who had fled an abusive man in anther town, the child’s[Read More…]

Last time when I was travelling for a seminar, I was surprised at the kind of crowd in Bangalore airport. It was usual for people to stand waiting in at least 5 queues before you reach your seat. At the security, as usual I also had to place my hand bag, mobile phone, laptop and other things. These days they[Read More…]

Clara Zetkin, one of the daughters of the working classes, is as bright as ever in the annals of working people’s struggles for rights – rights to life and dignity. Clara, an epitome of proletarian struggle, steadfastness and courage, always stood for the proletarian people, and never confused the women question with a bourgeois worldview. Clara (July 5, 1857-June 20,[Read More…]

Zhou En Lai was a man like any other; with hopes and dreams; failures and successes. In his heart beat the throb of humanity for a better world; under strain it tilted to temptation; in death-bed it mourned mistakes and milestones alike. On this, 122nd anniversary of his birth; it might behoove us to look into a little known side[Read More…]

You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. The saying resembles a logical syllogism in structure, but it isn’t. Taking it apart in thirds, it’s doesn’t follow that “you can fool all the people some of the time” because it’s[Read More…]

Katie Hill, then a Democratic Party candidate from California’s 25th Congressional district, in 2018. Former congresswoman,Katie Hill, a Democrat from California may have been down but not gone. In the eyes of the world, her political career had ended as a first-time junior congresswoman in the fall of 2019, just after ten months of taking oath of office. A promising[Read More…]

The Asia Pacific region is home to more than half of the global population and many low-income countries. While the region is witnessing rapid economic growth, gender inequalities persist and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services are far from being available to all. In the lead up to this year’s International Women’s Day and the forthcoming 10th Asia Pacific Conference[Read More…]

I have tried to provide a warning to others about their staying away from psychopaths. Of course, it is impossible in some circumstances, such as my sister and my knowing four of them while growing up. (Imagine a brother trying to have sex with you since you were thirteen years old. Imagine him continuing this behavior when you are old,)[Read More…]

Watch out, I recommend, for narassistic psychopaths in your life. Often they are kleptomaniacs, who do everything to destroy others and gain something for themselves. I should know since my mother’s side of the family has included males with this dreadful affliction since the 1600’s. Indeed, my sister and I, unbeknown to each other, started investigating this disease at the[Read More…]

 I know information about several neighbors. Here in a small nutshell are three of them. Neighbor one supports himself by selling and laying down pesticides. It is a subject about which he knows job-wise. He also knows that he is dispensing poisons that contaminate the air, soil and water supply. Indeed when spraying, he wears protective gear that makes him[Read More…]

Over seven billion is the current global population. Total death toll by coronavirus is roughly 3,500 over the past 2 months. For the sake of simplicity, I have reduced the world population from 7.7 billion to 7 billion; and doubled the coronavirus fatalities number to 7,000. So if we divide 7000 by 7 billion, we get this: 0.000001%. Even that[Read More…]

   Treating others with trust and happiness, and hoping for their self-realisation seems to be natural behaviour that follows natural laws. 2500 years ago the Buddha had to leave his sheltered home and venture into the alleyways and bye-ways of Greater Magadha to learn about common sense and natural laws. The habit of treating others with trust and affection is[Read More…]

If one thing drives me to write, especially these blog posts, it is the urgent need for us to start understanding power. Power is the force that shapes almost everything about our lives and our deaths. There is no more important issue. Understanding power and overcoming it through that understanding is the only path to liberation we can take as[Read More…]

I will not write much here.  Those who read me often hear enough of my words and have become familiar with my convictions and concerns.  What I am doing instead is putting together a series of quotations from African-American philosopher Cornel West, from his essay Putting on Our Democratic Armor from the book, DEMOCRACY MATTERS (1).  Dr. West committed these[Read More…]

Though unpopular in many circles, Karl Marx wrote passionately about the inherent contradictions of capitalism. While his arguments were complex, some of the pillars can be simplified to suggest that these contradictions are created by capitalism’s constant need to grow. In different economic circles- much more popular than the Marxist circle — growth is synonymous with what’s good and right.[Read More…]

Languages, connected to economy including market, trade and commodity, are in conflict and in collaboration with contending class forces. Thus, in general, and not taking into consideration stages society passes, languages are [1] inseparable question of democracy, and, in particular cases, of democratic struggle, and [2] a tool for subjection. The two contradictory positions depend on conflicting classes using it[Read More…]

Here is Jim Crow when I was a child in Florida. Blacks couldn’t go to white restaurants, motels, gas stations or bathrooms. They had something called The Green Book when traveling in the South of the USA. It showed where they could go. I wish that I were making this information up. Yet I can’t to save my life. It’s[Read More…]

Fred: OK. So you’re a pacifist. What would you do if someone were, say, attacking your grandmother? Joan: Attacking my poor old grandmother? Fred: Yeah, you’re in a room with your grandmother and there’s a guy about to attack her and you’re standing there. What would you do? Joan: I’d yell, “Three cheers for Grandma!” and leave the room.”  Fred: No,[Read More…]

  I wrote to a friend: I want to tell you about two of my fights that infect my bad dreams. One involves a heritage apple farm in my neighborhood. On the plus side Boyleston botanical hill took slips from the trees to keep the genetics going. On the negative side, the farm owner, after the old guys who’d owned[Read More…]

I was taught in teacher training classes never to label children. It can usually only cause damage. I didn’t need to learn that message. Often it is a form of bullying and abuse that I had already seen as a child. Tina Tonkel a classmate of mine was repeatedly shunned and ridiculed at school by her peers. Indeed she had[Read More…]

To find answers about how to define the idea of nature, French anthropologist Philippe Descola went to the depths of the Amazon to find the Achuars, an indigenous tribe of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian descent. He was interested in finding why they lived remote from others, isolated in their respective groups, under the domination of nature. In the process, he[Read More…]

I have nothing against any religious views unless they face off against my values. Then watch me fly at the wrong that I see. After all, how could I take away a religious view that someone believes that brings comfort and joy? How wrong would be that? So this Christian lady, who I met in a grocery store, told me[Read More…]

Humanity means *“the quality of being humane, benevolent”, it also meansbeing kind, compassionate, understanding, sympathetic, empathetic, gentle and generous. But weseem to have forgotten what humanity really means. To us, nowadays, humanity only means that we are human i.e. bipedal primate mammals. Not only that, we ridicule those do have humane character traits and consider them impractical misfits. We think they[Read More…]

Most would agree that happy, healthy, bright children are an ideal goal and a wonderful outcome, but kids also need genuinely good and sensible adult examples and inspiration and instruction. Outstanding adult mentors ought to be commonplace, prolific. Such is not the case now in the so-called ‘western world’. Integrity has been marginalized, and a mad matrix based on deception[Read More…]

Tribalism is rampant on both the micro and macro scale. Whether in contentious actions by individuals or entire nations, it kicks into play as a survival mechanism by biological evolutionary roots. This because through it, people ensure that their own group gets the power, territory and goods. So of course there is going to be racism, casteism, hatred of people[Read More…]

On 9th Feb, 2020, Dalits across India celebrated Sant Guru Ravidass birthday with pomp and show. I had the opportunity to see a huge gathering of people on the streets of Jalandhar(Punjab). People across all Dalit communities marched together happily. It was good to see a wonderful spectacle on the streets. Shops were set up alongside the main road from[Read More…]

            In one of those obscure, seemingly unlikely, yet epoch-making encounters in the grand pageant of human interactions, the paths of three trailblazers of contemporary history- the divinely graceful French actress and singer, Sarah Bernhardt, the Yugoslav inventor-genius par excellence Nikola Tesla, and the Indian cyclonic monk and firebrand Vedantist, Swami Vivekananda, came together in ostensibly mysterious ways towards the[Read More…]

We live in a fabricated reality where the visible world became nearly meaningless once the screen world became people’s “window on the world.”  An electronic nothingness replaced reality as people gleefully embraced digital wraparound apparitions.  These days people still move about in the physical world but live in the electronic one.  The result is mass hallucination. This is the fundamental[Read More…]

A friend of mine sent me this entire article. He prefaced it with: Spot on. S…. The appalling vanity of Western feminists who think Margaret Atwood writes about them | The Spectator Imagine a country where women have no jobs, no rights and are valued only for reproductive success. Imagine a country where girls aren’t taught to read in case[Read More…]

  The irony of the ruling party’s appropriation of Gandhi comes undone time and again by its antithetical practices. What else captures the irony better than the fact that the government which is celebrating Dandi March across its various cultural organs for his 150th birth centenary is also simultaneously, not only disallowing or overlooking democratic protests but unleashing brutal repression[Read More…]

As we approach the 72nd anniversary of the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi on 30 January 1948, it is worth reflecting on one simple fact that he did not realize. His efforts to teach humanity that conflict, including violent conflict, could be resolved without violence were based on one fundamentally flawed assumption: that at least some humans were interested in,[Read More…]

How much is an American green card and ultimately a naturalized citizenship worth to elderly sub-continental parents? A lot! How many more do you think would be willing to give up their independence and the comfort of their own cocoon to immigrate to America? Many parents would happily give up living their retired lives in the sub-continent in exchange for[Read More…]

   Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.  – Margaret Mead A highly welcome and discernible sign on the Indian development landscape is that many bright brains from the best of universities are foregoing high salaries to commit themselves to development issues such as[Read More…]

As we usher in 2020, there is only one resolution to avoid- silence. For many, the New Year is a time of reflection, of calm deliberation. That’s all fair enough in placid circumstances. In such times- such that they exist-everyone has a right to stop, to think, to consider, to audit the soul. To indulge. But we must do so[Read More…]

“Everyone wants the man who is still searching to have already reached his conclusions.  A thousand voices are already telling him what he has found, and yet he knows he hasn’t found anything. Should he search on and let them talk?  Of course.” – Albert Camus, “The Enigma” in Lyrical and Critical Essays Albert Camus’ search ended sixty years ago[Read More…]

  The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 was awarded “for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos” with one half to James Peebles “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology”, the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.” It recognised[Read More…]

            For many of us, a university is (was?) a critical place for the interpretation and making sense of everydayness; a place for envisaging a just society; an important site where ideas and ideologies are debated and developed. Freedom of criticality and liberty of creativity were always remained the core and central to university teaching-learning processes. The ideas on education[Read More…]

  Child prodigies have been with us since early times. But over the epochs, many of them have had their genius questioned—mostly as to whether or not a parent or a mentor was behind their amazing skills. It is only when their talents were authentically established that people around them could acknowledge them as teenage wonders. Nagpur’s Shreenabh Agrawal is[Read More…]

Co-Written by James Anderson and Katy Anderson A few years ago, one of us rode handcuffed in the back of a cop car from Bond County Jail to Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Ill., which would become a near-living hell of a home for two months (prior to a transfer to Decatur Correctional Center). Before getting to Logan, you have[Read More…]

Early this year it was learnt that after 17 years of its existence Countercurrents.org (CC) – which has performed a stellar and useful role – was on the verge of closure. There was said to be a shortfall of Rs. 4 lakhs (USD 6000/- approx.) for its minimal requirement of Rs. 10 lakhs (USD 14,000). And that, too, just for[Read More…]

HISTORICAL PARADOX Freudo- Marxism, historically has been identified as a tradition dedicated to or rigorously attempting to synthesize the works of Karl Marx and the Psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud.  The first attempts of synthesis were made during 1930 to 1945 in the wake of rise and fall of Nazi flush in History. It was also a process of retreat[Read More…]

The immediate provocation for this article is Bibek Debroy’s essay “Being Fair to Rama” that appeared in The New Sunday Express Magazine on November 24, 2019. Debroy’s central plea – to be fair to Rama, and to read the Ramayana for what it is – is, ironically, situated amid the mounting of a brazen fascist agenda by the Narendra Modi-Amit[Read More…]

When I turned 40, my friends threw a party for me. We had great food, drink, and music. Several good friends read messages about me aloud. It was touching. I remember thinking how lucky I was to have such a loving family and such caring friends. I also remember the enormous guilt I felt when I made it to 40.[Read More…]

  Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la, la la la la Tis the season to be jolly Fa, la la la la, la la la la In a collection of multiple surveys from the past decade, PEW finds that 65 percent of American adults now call themselves Christian. People of Christian faith celebrate the[Read More…]

Faction: A number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community—James Madison The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the[Read More…]

On the left, Farrukh Mirza and on the right; myself. I have known Farrukh since we were both 5 years old. We went to school together. He is now a Doctor in California. Not bad for 2; 56 year old Asian Uncles from the East. This picture was taken in South London when we met up after many years. Both[Read More…]

Colonialism and knowledge production: Colonialism is much more than establishing colonies in the non-western world to exploit raw materials for the western metropolitan centres. It is a system of hegemonic power and domination of the colonized by the colonizers, economic, physical as well as psychological. Colonialism is a product of ‘western’ civilization who is obliged for its internal reason to[Read More…]

Today, as the public phase of impeachment hearings are underway, I am watching while reading from the Life of Frederick Douglass.  Sadly, I admit to not trusting the American people as much as I might to see clearly, think honestly, and do what is right.  I would welcome being mistaken in my skepticism. However, I am certain not to trust[Read More…]

Do you have the right to screw up your children’s lives by poisoning them against fellow humans, in our case, fellow Americans?  If you are biased towards others, that is entirely up to you, but you have the choice to free yourself and enjoy the rest of your life or carry it to your grave or crematorium. A doctor kid,[Read More…]

Dear son, You must be aware of the many happenings in Kerala, including the arrest of young men in recent days. As sleep evaded me and I lie awake at midnight, I felt like sharing some thoughts with you. These are my dreams and hopes for a person like you with intense thoughts and stances in life. I am aware[Read More…]

Lately, in an Introduction to Cultural Studies class I’m teaching at the University of California, Riverside, in between oral surgery and putting in work for lecture duties at another institution, I’ve been discussing socioeconomic class on – and as satirized as well as normalized by – The Simpsons. For this multi-part lecture focused on the class dynamics of everyone’s favorite[Read More…]

“Can we change their attitude?” “No.” “Can they change their own attitude?” “Yes.” “So, what is our goal? To change their attitude, or to convince them that they need to change it themselves?” “That is challenging, difficult, will take sweat and tears……….do I really want to even try it?” “Ah! We are now at the root of the problem and[Read More…]

“You should therefore know that there are two ways to fight: one while abiding by the rules, the other by using force. The first approach is unique to Man; the second is that of beasts. But because in many cases the first method will not suffice, one must be prepared to resort to force. This is why a ruler needs[Read More…]

“Bhagat Singh”, writes Professor Chaman Lal, “was searching for the ultimate ideology of human liberation from all kinds of oppression and exploitation, he had almost become a committed Marxist through his contacts with Kirti group of Ghadrite revolutionaries of Punjab.” Professor Chaman Lal discusses the revolutionary in the “Introduction” of his The Bhagat Singh Reader (HarperCollins Publishers India, Noida, Uttar[Read More…]

Many people keep quoting Karl Marx, as “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” But he never used that exact phrase.The exact quotes from the essay on Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, published in 1844 in “Deutsch-FranzösischeJahrbücher”, during his stay in Paris, are: “Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against[Read More…]

Around a month ago, a workshop intended to address the gender gap in the sciences called Pressing for Progress 2019 was held at the University of Hyderabad (UoH). Early this October, Telangana Today reported that the UoH Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Podile addressed the attendees, sharing with them his thoughts on the conference and its aims. I read this with[Read More…]

The idea of picturising Vivekananda just as an old school master of Hindutva is where we commit the mistake. Forever it has been said that Vivekananda established the road to Hindutva just because the right wing brigade uses him to establish a monopoly over Hinduism in the name of Hindutva. The roof of Hinduism has been interpreted in a very[Read More…]

by Vidya Bhushan Rawat & Prof Kevin Brown Prof Kevin Brown is an African American, who teach law at the Indiana University, US and who is inspired by Dr Ambedkar’s struggle for the untouchables and other marginalized sections of society in India. He has been a regular visitor to India bringing the African American, Hispanic, religious minorities in United States[Read More…]

Through persistent struggles, the differently abled have achieved access to crucial jobs in society. The number might be small but they have proved that ‘disability ‘ is not hindrance to performing important productive tasks in society. Significant achievement Pranjal Patil , the young woman who battled great odds to become the country’s first visually challenged woman IAS officer took over[Read More…]

 “It is the first and foremost duty of all the well wishers of the country to strive for the welfare of all people irrespective of their caste or religion. For, just as human life and its health is not possible without the soundness all the organ of the body, the prosperity of a nation also is not possible without all[Read More…]

It was a massive gathering that had jolted many hearts but brought a new hope in the lives of millions who thronged the venue which today is called as ‘Deekshabhumi’, in Nagpur. The impact is so much that no other political or spiritual leader in the history of post-independence India has that much of following as of Dr Baba Saheb[Read More…]

Dr. RM Pal (July 17, 1927 – October 13, 2015) Dr. RM Pal was the principal of the Rajdhani College in Delhi who actively worked with the human rights organization People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), gave lectures on secularism and issue of Dalits and minorities at various government institutions including police academy and other such places. He was an[Read More…]

  Violence is pervasive throughout human society and it has a vast range of manifestations. Moreover, some of these manifestations – particularly the threat of nuclear war (which might start regionally), the climate catastrophe and the ongoing ecological devastation, as well as geoengineering and the deployment of 5G – threaten imminent human extinction if not contained. Separately from these extinction-threatening[Read More…]

Every year, India celebrates 2nd October in shape of the birth anniversary of the two great personalities – Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri – who have an irrefutable contribution to the independence of our country from colonial power. We often less remind the birth anniversary of Shri Lal Bahadur as this date is profoundly chosen to remind our beloved[Read More…]

“the wound of possibility” Soren Kierkegaard Earth is our home; Earth is our origin.  There is not now any more than there has ever been a single, sane human being who can or could have claimed otherwise. Over billions of years, Earth has been in the process of evolving into a robust, living planet—a life place, abundant with intricate interweavers[Read More…]

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…]

The little boy smiled charmingly through the evening just before the surgery.His young parents were dumb with fear about the impending operation the next day when his tiny pelvic girdle would be realigned to enable his almost atrophied limbs to move. With bright lovely eyes that focussed on your face and an ever willing capacity to smile and respond, he[Read More…]

1) Democracies often behave like little children: reluctant to take their medicine—unless irrationally coerced. 2) A democracy’s great weakness is its vanity. The people’s vanity. A mortally dangerous tendency that is constantly in need of assurances that it is the world that is at fault rather than it. 3) In a democracy, it is often the most unpopular president or[Read More…]

by John Bellamy Foster and Farooque Chowdhury [The following interview of Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster, completed on August 5, 2019, was conducted by Farooque Chowdhury for Kolkata’s famous socialist weekly Frontier and has appeared this month in their special Autumn issue. It was thus originally intended for a non-U.S. audience. Monthly Review is publishing it as well because[Read More…]

“My aim is not to be consistent with my previous statements on a given question, but to be consistent with truth as it may present itself to me at a given moment. The result has been that I have grown from truth to truth ….” — The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol. 90 Eighty kilometres to the east of Nagpur[Read More…]

 ‘No matter what views one may hold, the 21st century shall belong only to a people of ‘vision’ and those who care for future,’ wrote Satish Chandra Seth, (1932-2009) the futurist and former civil servant. A science education administrator, Satish is internationally known for inventing a method of assessing the futurist thinking, called Satish-Harva method of scenario building. He was[Read More…]

The article below is a reflection on the perfect world, on perfection and ways we perceive perfection. It also directs on how one should move towards the perfect world one desires. Today, I remembered that negative strokes create more impact than positive strokes. This thought itself made me to dwell in fathomless inquiries. People forget what good you do as[Read More…]

1.             With the announcement of results of Lok Sabha elections of 2019, deep concerns were voiced by numerous comrades expressing anguish as to what would Narendra Modi’s victory portend for the Constitution and the democracy. During the last five years we have often heard from secular and progressive friends that we are wading through dark and bad times. The[Read More…]

Co-Written by Varinder Singh & Ishfaq Majid Khalsa Aid International which is popularly known for its humanitarian relief charity and human saving efforts, is serving the common masses from 1999. Khalsa aid is a non-profit UK based organization that provides relief to the people who are facing any kind of distress. Not only this, Khalsa aid is also popularly known[Read More…]

On 2 October 2019, it will be the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mohandas K. Gandhi in Gujarat, India. I would like to reflect on the visionary leadership that Gandhi offered the world, briefly comparing it with some national leaders of today, and to invite you to emulate Gandhi’s leadership. While Gandhi is best remembered for being the mastermind[Read More…]

“The dead albatross that hangs around our neck is our legacy of arrogance, racism.  And we must struggle to atone, to reconstruct, to create a different historical system.”  So wrote the late sociologist and thinker Immanuel Wallerstein in unequivocal tones of repentance on Europe’s legacy, its “oldest disgrace.” Wallerstein was one of those refreshing types in an increasingly restrictive academy,[Read More…]

There is a fact about Hemingway that few people know, and that is that for most of his life  he was surveilled by the FBI. As people have come to realize, that surveillance, along with other factors such as injuries to his head, years of heavy drinking, and his feeling that he had “lost it” as a writer,contributed to the[Read More…]

It was my birthday and I was both sad and glad for myself. I had lived a long life, filled with difficulties of every kind one can imagine. I had spent a good portion of it struggling to survive in the face of poverty and want. I had struggled to raise three children, mostly alone, in the midst of that[Read More…]

I am taking a long Sunday walk when I come upon them handing out leaflets in front of Kentucky Fried Chicken, in Perovo, the region of Moscow in which I reside. There are four or five of them altogether: young teenagers or those in their early twenties – handing out leaflets. They try to hand me one, and I, assuming[Read More…]

Equality. Freedom. Justice. Secularity. Rights. Federalism. People’s government. That’s the general view of democracy we have in our minds. Democracy promises to incorporate all these values while administrating the institutions of society, economy and polity. To be specific, what democracy is to people is what a sickle is to a farmer- a tool to bring good days. But, despite all[Read More…]

I use a simple formula, perhaps too simple, to teach my students the different categories of philosophical thinking. It is difficult to explain without a visual, but I will try. To begin with there are the two polar opposite ways of thinking, the Metaphysical and the Materialist, or, if one prefers, the Religious and the Scientific. The Metaphysical seeks explanations[Read More…]

I have yet to find the time to sit down and write a thorough response to Dan Corjescu’s last piece “On the Metaphysics of Revolution”, which was, to my mind, a gross misinterpretation of Socrates in particular,  and on the evolution of revolutionary thought in philosophy in general.  However, on the appearance of this, his second piece, I promised myself[Read More…]

My candid association with Dr. Biswamoy Pati began somewhere around 2012 when I eventually settled down for social history of health and medicine as my research theme for MPhil/PhD which was met by an equally enthusiastic and generous response by Dr. Pati. Although he had taught us earlier the paper on Social History of Modern India during post-graduation, the deplorable[Read More…]

We feel that even if all possible sci entific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all —Ludwig Wittgenstein Tractatus Recently I received an angry note about the persistence of religion in the modern world as proof of the world’s ongoing irrationality in response to some of my comments in my lately published article[Read More…]

Socrates was the first revolutionary. He opened up with a legendary oracular search the inner space from which the individual, as we understand him today, would eventually emerge. His “daemon” was that which spoke the necessary freedom and autonomy to become what we are. His was the first lesson. His student, Plato, brought on the second movement. He postulated the[Read More…]

August 12th 2018 marks the first anniversary of the death of Samir Amin, a man who, in my view, was the first, and perhaps the most prolific, global organic intellectual in history. He quite literally traversed the seven continents, meeting with local lefts wherever he could find landfall, participating in their discussions, and building from them some of the most[Read More…]

         It is to be remembered that the late Prof. Mushirul Hasan who was born on 15th August 1949 and passed away -after four years of his serious accident- on 10th December 2018 at Delhi.  At the outset, let me admit that Prof. Hasan had cherished and epitomized the rich heritage of India’s secular and plural legacy. Prof Hasan’s academic[Read More…]

Since the major aim of capitalists is to see that maximum production can be extracted from labor, exploitation of workers becomes a key factor. Ordinary workers, thus, face constant harassment, humiliation, misery and burden of work. Disabled, in addition, face alienation and abuse both from the employers as well as society. The Merriam Webster Dictionary offers two definitions of disability.[Read More…]

This essay is in regard to a crime that too often goes unmentioned when the conversations turn towards political analysis, the contemporary journalistic scene, and broader social critique: the crime of being extremely online. What does it mean to be extremely online? It mostly is as straightforward as it sounds. Generally, activities such as spending too much time on the[Read More…]

Distortion of Com.T Nagi Reddy’s views is not the way to pay real homage to him How fragile is India’s Constitution, and how illusory are its claims of sovereignty, independence, democracy, secularism and socialism has been noticed repeatedly over the last 70 plus years after 1947 August. RTI and Article 370 were the most recent shocks to some people who[Read More…]

Many years ago, in the 1970’s I remember seeing a Russian tractor. India used to have a bilateral trade agreement with the USSR by which we bought all kinds of goods from Russia and paid for them in Indian Rupees, whereby we were able to conserve our meagre foreign exchange. You can read more about that agreement here http://www.commonlii.org/in/other/treaties/INTSer/1953/16.html Russia bought[Read More…]

One afternoon in New York City in the spring of 1964, I marched at the head of a small civil rights demonstration, one of the few white people in the group. I was carrying a watermelon. It was a Dick Gregory joke. To say the least, not everyone liked that joke, but I thought it was hilarious, a jab by[Read More…]

One may ask why we still think it important to understand the theories and practices of those who came to power in Russia in 1917 and those who have governed for some three quarters of a century with falsehood marking the entire course of the regime’s rise and demise – November 7, 1917 to December 26, 1990.  It matters vitally[Read More…]

July 28 is the death anniversary of the of veteran communist leader Tarimala Nagi Reddy, known and called by comrades as com. TN. He was a lifelong fighter for the revolutionary program he has committed and dreamed of. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, he attracted hundreds of cadres towards the Communist movement in the process of carrying out his[Read More…]

 There are stories that are unrelated to the news, but can explain much better than many combat reports, why people like meare fighting against the Empire and imperialism, with such determination and vehemence. Not all stories are ‘big’ or ‘heroic’; not all include famous people or iconic struggles. Not all take place onbattlefields. But they ‘humanize’ the struggle. Once in[Read More…]

In times when the nation treats the public universities as liabilities, we should be crystal clear in demarcating: what is a university and what it is not? A university is not a factory that processes raw materials and brings out finished products. It cannot be reduced into a laboratory that conducts experiments to come up with the desired result. It[Read More…]

Judgement by Anonymous Before God’s footstool to confess A poor soul knelt, and bowed his head; “I failed,” he cried. The Master said, “Thou didst thy best—that is success!” It was December 1980. I was sitting on the veranda of my house in Guyana. It was about 9.00 pm, dark, balmy evening in the tropics. As usual on most days in[Read More…]

Paresh Chattopadhyay once visited me at my rented residence after we launched our party, the World Socialist Party (India) here in Calcutta (now Kolkata), 1-3 March 1995. He listened to my long speech via audio cassette of Bishnupur public meeting and highly appreciated it. After a detailed discussion he agreed to send articles in the event we published a journal[Read More…]

Their lives can help us today I would like to announce the publication of a book describing the lives of some of the people who have contributed importantly to economic thought. Their lives can help us today, as the world faces a crisis that has both economic dimensions. The book can be freely downloaded from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Lives-in-economics-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf The[Read More…]

It is now more than a year since Asma Jahangir left us. As August 14-15 approaches, one cannot but recall her, for she was someone who worked tirelessly for human rights as well as better and smoother, peaceful Indo-Pakistan relations. People like her (characterised as an icon and a crusader) and the work they do retain their relevance for not[Read More…]

It was David Bohm’s thesis that the ignorance of humanity is a matter of closedmindedness. He considered closedmindedness the “darkness in the human brain,” a darkness closing access to the Universal Mind; so defined as a supreme intelligence that communicates through the mode of insight. In this essay we will describe the evolutionary origins of the darkness in the human[Read More…]

The Milgram experiment conducted by a Yale University psychologist of the same name, has perhaps gone on to become one of the most famous human behavioural experiments to have ever been conducted. It was conducted during the 1960s, when Nazi war criminals including Adolf Eichmann were being put on trial. The basic question was this: were the criminals really at[Read More…]

As I sit on the small balcony on the top floor of an old house in the working class neighborhood of Alfama in Lisbon, Portugal, it is early evening, the time for wine and voices wafting on the fragrant breeze through the twisting cobble-stoned streets.  The National Pantheon (Panteao Nacional)stares me in the face.  I stare back, and then look[Read More…]

“Good governance is about the processes for making and implementing decisions. It’s not about making ‘correct’ decisions, but about the best possible process for making those decisions.” goodgovernance.org.au Good governance is the art of looking at problems, diagnosing them and finding solutions through collective decision making. It is the process of decision making with the participation and consensus of all members of society.[Read More…]

Our struggle to survive hasbeen a relentless drive towards self-destruction.  Sigmund Freud identified two basic human impulses:  Eros, the drive to  survive and reproduce, and Thanatos, the drive towards death and destruction.  However, dialectically speaking, these are not two separate and opposing forces, but a unity of polar opposites which grow out of the same expenditure of energies, exist in[Read More…]

The difference between liberalism and progressivism is ideological. Historically, liberalism started with John Locke, whose philosophy was superbly summarized, explained, and referenced to its sources, here; but the following will instead quote directly from those sources: Locke (as the commentator said) “praises money as probably no one prior and after him,” because Locke’s 1689 Second Treatise on Government, Sections 49[Read More…]

You all know my butler Bastian who I have written about earlier. Bastian like most of his tribe spoke ‘Butler English’ and was very snobbish. My wife used to speak to him in the same way to make it easier for both to understand what was going on. So sometimes I would come in to hear, ‘Bastian, tomatoes got, not[Read More…]

Death has finally overtaken Santosh Rana, the prominent activist-cum-intellectual and one of the foremost leaders of the historic Debra- Gopiballabhpur peasant struggles that attracted attention throughout West Bengal in 1969-70. He died on 29th of June after a prolonged fight with throat cancer at a private hospital of South Kolkata. Hailing from a poor peasant family of West Medinipur, he[Read More…]

Comrade A. K. Roy, the legendary trade union leader of coal miners in Dhanbad region died on July 21, 2019. With him an era of trade union movement has come to a close. He and later Comrade Shankar Guha Niyogi of Chhatisgarh were pioneers of a new trade movement that came into being in the early 70s and became vigorous[Read More…]

Delhi is the ancient city of India. The city’s history bears testimony to settlements and also to ruins. This order of settling and deserting of the city has been going on since the Mahabharata period. In the medieval period, this city enjoyed eminence as a centre of power and this eminence endured for a long time. It is hardly surprising[Read More…]

As I turn 75, there’s no simpler way to put it than this: I’m an old man on a new planet — and, in case it isn’t instantly obvious, that’s not good news on either score. I still have a memory of being a camp counselor in upstate New York more than half a century ago. I was perhaps 20[Read More…]

  As we get closer to India’s 73rd Independence Day on 15th August this year, I realized that we have not yet achieved ‘Sampoorna Swaraj’ or complete and absolute independence. Independence for each and every citizen of the country is still a novel concept for many. Freedom to – live, laugh, speak, work and entertain is not yet a gift[Read More…]

(DV Rao’s Death (July 12, 1984)  Anniversary is observed in July every year. His views  on the Problem of Nationalities in India are relevant and useful for students of politics , more so of democrats and revolutionaries. Hence this write-up. Part-1 was published on July 11, 2019. This is Part-2  of the two-part article.) ‘Indian nation’ and nationalism have been[Read More…]

(DV Rao’s Death (July 12, 1984)  Anniversary is observed in July every year. His views  on the Problem of Nationalities in India are relevant and useful for students of politics , more so of democrats and revolutionaries. Hence this write-up.) ‘Indian nation’ and nationalism have been under intense discusssion in recent past, including in the latest elections. Those who are[Read More…]

I would like to announce the publication of a book describing the lives of some of the people who have contributed importantly to the peace movement. The book can be freely downloaded from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Lives-in-the-peace-movement-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf I hope that the lives of these women and men can inspire us as we work together to abolish the institution of war. [Read More…]

I have previously written many articles describing one or more aspects of the dysfunctional nature of the typical human mind, together with an explanation of how this came about and what we can do about it. See, for example, many of the articles republished in ‘Key Articles’and the source documents ‘Why Violence?’ and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and[Read More…]

One of the most popular Sufi orders in Kashmir is the Rishi Order. It is the indigenous Sufi order that has originated in Kashmir itself. Many saints belong to this order and all of them are held in high esteem by the people. One among them is Baba Hardi Reshi (R.a) who is adoringly known as ‘Resh Moul’, which means[Read More…]

July 4 is the day martyrs of  armed struggle  of Telangana are remembered. That was the day, in 1946,  of martyrdom of Doddi Komarayya, a young man from a poor peasant and shepherd family of Kadivendi village of the then Nalgonda district. (Now it is in Warangal district of Telangana state, TS.)  He was  the first  among  4000 communist and[Read More…]

                                                      I can never forget or fully recollect that morning when I was taken in a trolley to the Surgical Out patient section of the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College famed for its exemplary service since[Read More…]

The cultural damage of homogenising language I am, among other things, a literary translator. When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I translate from Spanish to English. From one language to another. Which is, already, only a half-truth. What I mean – what I don’t say – is that I translate from many Spanishes: from Peninsular[Read More…]

There is one way- and one way only- to read Robert Caro’s books. Of this, I am certain. For best results, gather provisions, find a nice room, lock yourself in, and turn off your cell phone. You must take all of these steps, not just a few. The reasons are: You must honor Caro’s dedication to political biography and investigative[Read More…]

The love of money is a sin…the root of all evil. Judeo-Christian biblical tradition – O believers Do not devour one another’s wealth by evil means except through trading by mutual consent. Islamic tradition – Sharing wealth is a divine duty, but wealth gained and spent for one’s behalf is evil. Hindu tradition – Is our toleration of the dominating[Read More…]

Does Nietzsche have anything important to say to us, we the current inhabitants of a global age? Nietzsche speaks of spiritual health as a result of the superabundance of the life force, of a Dionysian affirmation of ones existence of ones process of becoming what one is. The courage of laughter is called for. A profound laughter that is in[Read More…]

The international left has lost one of its most lucid intellectual, pedagogical educators and determined activists with the passing of Marta Harnecker on June 14, aged 82. Marta will forever be remembered as one of the most influential and prolific writers on the Latin American left, having written almost 90 books covering a wide array of topics and debates on[Read More…]

Ch. Kondeswara Rao  was an active leader of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation (APTF), one of the oldest and leading organizations of teachers, with a progressive outlook,  and  worked in it in several capacities  for decades. For several years, he was the AP State President, before bifurcation of the State. And he was, for several years, the Editor of Upadhyaaya Pragati[Read More…]

Comrade Marta Harnecker has passed away. Comrade Marta died on June 15, 2019, of cancer in Canada. A relentless fighter, comrade Marta Harnecker (1937 – 2019) made valuable contributions in the areas of theory related to revolution for socialism in the broader Latin American perspective. Her struggle was for a humane world. Marta Hernecker’s was not an adventurist-head and not[Read More…]

Girish Karnad did not die. Standing as a tall pipal tree kissing the sky, he was an inspiration for many. He lost his breath now. The bodily departure has taken place. But a tradition that he got involved with in Karnataka is still alive even with his absence. And playwrights of the future in Karnataka cannot avoid the smell of[Read More…]

“So, how did things get so bad?” I am sure you must have heard, asked or thought about this yourself. So have I. Many times, over the years whenever I saw a badly-behaved child being fed with the help of an iPad, a spaced-out teenager who seems lost in his electronic world where Facebook friends are more real to her[Read More…]

Here’s a thought: What if alien civilizations want to be left completely alone? Listed below are some of the unspoken presumptions underlying our nascent interstellar expansionism: We know what “universal intelligence” means. (Our most celebrated scientists usually equate this with “technical control over nature”— all “aliens” wash their hands before dinner and watch sitcoms) Closely tied to assumption number one[Read More…]

From time immemorial, Kashmir has been enjoying recognition all across the world as ‘Resh Waer’ – Abode of Sages because the sages, savants, and saints from different parts of the world have visited this place. Some of them stayed permanently here and some had a transient stay. Also, there is a significant number of native godly and spiritual personages who[Read More…]

(A response to Dr. Lubna Sarwath’s “Abhorrence for Wastefulness and Exhortation for Moderation inThe Qur’an”) As any thoughtful person understands, and as every Pagan knows, the destruction of our world is our destruction and our self-destruction, which is not just sad or wrong, but is a Mortal Sin, A Sin of the First Order committed Against the Gods who are[Read More…]

WHY AMAR SHAIKH? In today’s hubbub, the collective voice of descent of working masses appears to have melted away and ‘organizational strength’ of toiling and working masses is in retreat. Under such a chaotic situation, we are inevitably reminded of an eloquent popular voice, a poet and troubadour of the working class in India! — the Historic, mountainous and unique[Read More…]

Co- written by Meer Abass and Aarif Peer Modern education is about producing workers to perpetuate the secularized, capitalist system; it is not about producing thinkers. Thinkers change systems and shift paradigms, and so modern education is as careful as it can be to avoid producing too many people who are capable of sustained critical thinking. How a particular stuff[Read More…]

Ms. Sanjukta Basu is a writer, photographer, analyst, blogger, fervent microblogger, freelance journalist, commentator, academic, an avid traveller, a social crusader, and a feminist scholar. She’s a TED Fellow and Founder of Samyukta Media, a pioneering social media dissemination, and outreach organisation. She’s one of the first women in India to extensively write on politics, and avant-garde issues, both in[Read More…]

  Introduction Of all the famed names of ancient Greece, that of Socrates is surely the most extensively known. His reputation does not derive from his writings, for he left none. Most of our understanding of him comes from dialogues written by Plato, who was deeply influenced by him and developed his own ideas in such a way that it[Read More…]

We need food, clothing, and shelter to secure our existence. It gives us the basic pleasure of living. People are also social beings. Joined in society, they improve their lives significantly and get more pleasure. The most substantial progress comes from the cooperation between free people which may bring the greatest power to satisfy their needs. It may also bring[Read More…]

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – and its two predecessor organizations, the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM) – had their origins in the early 1970s, at the beginning of a long-term rightward shift of United States and global politics. This shift to the right – from the 1980s of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher[Read More…]

“To give up beauty and the sensual happiness that comes with it and devote one’s self exclusively to unhappiness requires a nobility I lack.  However, after all, nothing is true that compels us to make it exclusive.  Isolated beauty ends in grimaces, solitary justice in oppression.  Anyone who seeks to serve the one to the exclusion of the other serves[Read More…]

It was 1984. The second and last formal employment of my career was in the tea plantations in the Anamallai Hills in Coimbatore District of Tamilnadu. I worked there for seven years, one of the most enjoyable and instructive periods of my life. Fires and estates are companions. Not surprising given the combination of people who smoke and don’t always[Read More…]

Whenever, in ordinary circumstances, the subject of violence comes up, most people throw up their hands in horror and comment along the lines that it is ‘in our genes’, ‘nothing can be done about it’ or other words that reflect the powerlessness that most people feel around violence. It is true that violence is virtually ubiquitous, has a near-infinite variety[Read More…]

The famous physicist David Bohm wrote, “To be confused about what is different and what is not is to be confused about everything.” (Wholeness and the Implicate Order, 1980) There is confusion in the Public Mind, in which it is generally trying to make different what is not different and make what is not identical the same. The 1% who[Read More…]

If there were an adjective that would describe my personality for most of my life it would be “intense”. My old grandmother who raised me dealt with it by letting me explode out the door with the dog and cat in the morning, and then sitting or standing nearby watching me as I ran across the fields and through the[Read More…]

One of the areas of my responsibility was the Commissary. This was the company owned department store from where you got your weekly supply of food and practically everything else you needed. It had a small frozen foods section, rough wooden shelves with rice, flour, lentils and other groceries stacked on them, farming tools, alcohol and beverages, tea, sugar, condiments[Read More…]

What are the characteristics of a happy marriage? Truth, Caring, Mutual respect are what I call my three Cardinal Principles of happy marriages. Please notice that I am not using the word ‘love’. Love comes out of these three things. What is called love is usually physical desire. The shape or size of someone’s body is not the inspiration for love; it can[Read More…]

“So, Comrade Baig, you have been living here for two years. What are your impressions about our country?” The interviewer was from Guyana Chronicle, the main English newspaper. I was being interviewed because I was there. Comrade was a gender-neutral term used to address anyone because Guyana was a socialist (communist) country ruled by an iron-man with an iron fist,[Read More…]